ISSUE #5 (June 2018)
Written by D. Golightly Featuring: Batman
Robin
Catwoman
Doctor No-Face
Doctor Tzin-Tzin
Doctor Zodiac
Doctor Double X
Doctor Phosphorus
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"Hospital of Pain - Part One"He was running. Running through the night, with nothing by the cloak of midnight around him. He was comfortable here, alone in the dark, experiencing the city as few people could. It was eerie how silent Gotham was at night. One expected to find all sorts of creatures wondering about, but tonight it was only him and the moonlight.
He leapt across the alleyway with deft precision, tumbling forward and off into a sprint again. He enjoyed the pure serenity of the night, how the darkness was almost pure in its simplicity. But then something pierced the shroud like a knife, stabbing his ears and wrecking his concentration. It was faint at first, but then the volume increased and he was forced to cover his ears to keep from passing out. What was it? Some kind of animal? No. Human. It was laughter. Someone’s laugh was exploding throughout the city. He knew who it was, but didn’t want to admit it. He would recognize that laugh anywhere. The moonlight was swallowed up by two ruby red lips, which in turn curled into a smile like they had just eaten a gourmet morsel. The night began to lift, no not night, fog, and it pulled back to reveal a towering clown. He ground his teeth, desperate but not wanting to yield. But the shrieking laughter was overwhelming him, destroying him, killing him. “Don’t get too close, No-Face!” On the first floor of the derelict hospital, a man with smooth skin over his facial features looked over his shoulder at his temporarily partner, which was bizarre given that he had no eyes to see with. He wore a drab overcoat and reeked of booze. Had he a face to contort, he might look irritated. “I don’t take orders from you, Zodiac,” Doctor No-Face retorted with obvious contempt in his voice. “You just focus on keeping him under your control.” Doctor Zodiac curled his upper lip into a sneer, wishing that he could be rid of his juvenile accomplice who couldn’t even last an hour without a drink. And how did he actually imbibe the cocktails he adored without a mouth? The thought puzzled him, but he pushed it aside to concentrate. The fearsome Batman had been reduced to some base creature under his control, thanks to the special coins he had liberated from Atlantis years ago. Once a common peddler at the circus, he was now to be feared as Doctor Zodiac, despite what minor defeats he had suffered before. In fact, it was those very defeats that bound him with his newfound colleagues. With the Board of Directors in this macabre hospital, Zodiac had been joined with several other villains of rather deplorable fame, such as No-Face. They had been promised the man who had humiliated them and kept them from rising to top of criminal society…and that promise had been delivered on. The Dark Knight himself, strapped to a gurney in a desolate surgical suite, struggled against his bonds. The Joker had actually done it, he had led Batman on a useless parade around Gotham City, directing him to come straight to them. As impossible as it had seemed at first, the six of them had actually set aside their differences and refurbished the hospital to their own ends. Now Batman was at their mercy, held at bay by the power of Doctor Zodiac, and his meddlesome partner removed to another wing of the hospital. “He is under my complete control,” Zodiac spat back. “I’m insulted that you think he could defy my power.” The silent power pulsed from the Atlantean coin pressed into Doctor Zodiac’s red headwrap. He was now so much more than a clever con-artist. He was already a master of deception, and with the coin’s power, he could now deceive all of Batman’s senses, effectively holding him incapacitated. What good would his deductive prowess be now that Zodiac had rendered it inert? “We should use my device to remove his mask,” No-Face said. “How paranoid do you have to be to boobytrap your own mask? I bet that would finally reveal his true face…and then I could remove that as well! HA!” Zodiac sneered at his partner. He had yet to find the value in No-Face, who as far as he could tell, did not actually possess a doctorate. Despite the money he had funneled into their renovations, and the anonymous henchmen to guard them, he provided no real active value. Now that Batman was here, they would be better off without No-Face. “You told me your device was destroyed years ago,” Zodiac replied. “Can you rebuild it? The identity of the Batman would be a valuable treasure.” No-Face hesitated. “I have my top men working on its redevelopment,” he stated. He turned back to the captive Batman, saying, “And when it’s ready, Batman, I’ll wipe your smug features away for good!” “You will do no such thing,” a sharp voice said as another man entered the room. “The Batman will run through my gauntlet as promised! We will humiliate him as he has humiliated us.” Zodiac looked over his shoulder to see another of his accomplices stepped toward them. Dressed in his purple robes, the forceful Doctor Tzin-Tzin was arguably the more capable of their lot. His own organization, once widespread, was now in tatters thanks to Batman’s meddling. While Zodiac detested working directly with them all, he regrettably appreciated Tzin’s involvement, as he had been the one to break the coin’s spirit for Zodiac. Without his help, Zodiac would still be trying to manipulate the coin. “Yes, yes,” No-Face said with a wave of his hand. “But Batman’s identity is likely his most prized possession. Why else would he wear a mask? We can run him through our floors as decided, but when he is utterly broken, reveal his true face to world! It’s brilliant.” “Ah, I see,” Tzin replied. He twisted his fingers through his long whiskers. “Perhaps there is promise for you yet, No-Face. But until then, don’t get any delusions about your role here. You will not deprive the rest of us of our revenge to satiate your dark desires. Ready your precious device and bring it before the rest of the Board, but do it quickly. We are nearly ready.” “The brat is contained then?” Zodiac asked. “Yes,” Tzin answered. “I came to assist with the transfer of our…guest.” He sneered. “The boy has been placed with our other captive, to be used as bait, just as she was intended to be used. An added bonus! Now, allow me to strengthen the coin so we can move the Batman without trouble.” Zodiac nodded his approval, despite the fact that he would rather run Tzin through with his own sword than accept aid from him again. But he could not argue that Tzin’s mysticism had bent the coin already. Their alliance was useful for their mutual goals. Doctor Tzin-Tzin stood behind Doctor Zodiac, chanting something in an ancient language. He steadied his palms on either side of Zodiac’s headwrap and Zodiac felt the pulses emanating from the coin change slightly. In response, Batman’s eyes went wide and he seemed to choke back some new fear that was overwhelming him. “It is done,” Tzin stated. “He will not be able to shake free of your control while we move him to the first floor.” “Why does Phosphorus get to be the first to go?” No-Face blurted out. “By rights, I should—” “Silence!” Tzin shouted, and he ripped his claw-like nails across No-Face’s blank features. Three deep scratches were torn into the flesh, shocking Zodiac and No-Face alike. “My…my face!” No-Face shouted. He reached his gloved hands up to streak the blood across his skin. “What did you do to me?” “Your whining is only tolerable so much! You will have your chance, just as the rest of us will. Be glad that your position on the Board has not been terminated because of your childishness. Call your men to carry our foe, and if you so much as speak again I will do more than just mark you.” No-Face took a step back, as if to avoid more of Tzin’s wrath. After a pregnant moment, he stepped from the room to call in his henchmen, others that he had made look like him. As the awkward silence continued on, the men carried the struggling but weakened and confused Batman away. Finally, Doctor Zodiac said, “What is your endgame, Tzin?” “The same as yours, Zodiac,” he replied. “The same as yours.” If she had her claws this would have all been over by now. Selina Kyle, running on pure hatred alone, wanted to growl as she watched her bizarre jailers take up their posts at the entrance to the small examination room that now doubled as a prison. These men, this eclectic collection of macabre criminals, had retrofitted an old hospital to suit their purposes. She didn’t fully understand what was happening, other than she was intended to be the lure in their trap. Which had apparently worked, because her captors had just deposited one half of the dynamic duo into an adjoining cell. The thick steel bars had been welded together to form basic cages, and now two out of the three were filled. As she looked at the rousing Robin she wondered if her captors had plans for who would fill the third cage. “Where is he?” she asked once the youth had stirred enough to try and sit up. He ignored her, instead taking in his muddled surroundings. He was having trouble focusing after being gassed as soon as he and his mentor had entered this horrid place. It had been a trial just getting there, having faced down people dressed up to look like various rogues.* * [Batman #1-4] He eventually stumbled up onto his feet, using the bars for support. He had been stripped of his belt and it looked like they had tried to tear his cape away, but the fabric was too difficult for them to work off of him. The Kevlar-weave was nothing if not resilient. His mask, attached by something far more effective than spirit gum, was also still in place. “Boy!” Selina called out again. “Pull it together! Where. Is. He?” Robin half turned to face her, finally recognizing her. He blinked several times, still trying to clear away the fog. He said, “Precisely where he…wants to be, cat.” She glanced at the doorway where two of the half-faded men stood. She had seen several goons throughout her short venture toward freedom, seemingly from different masters. She had taken down several run-of-the-mill thugs, but she had also seen a few with blank skin where facial features should be, as well as the two that guarded them now. They looked exactly like one another, not just twins, but like they were actually the same person. Given some of the things Selina Kyle had seen in her life as the nefarious Catwoman, this didn’t seem too unusual. What was odd, however, was that she had seen these duplicates split off from the apparent source, their jailer, Doctor Double X. She recalled seeing the name in the papers years ago, but only because it stood out as being so old-school-ridiculous. He, and his doubles, were all dressed in garish purple tights. The only difference between them was that the doubles looked a little…fuzzy, for lack of a better word. They were solid enough, though, as evident by them manhandling her back into her cage, and now by depositing Robin nearby. The Tzin character, Double X, a few others…where the hell was she stuck this time? She knew that they were after Batman, and now his little sidekick was incarcerated with her. She hated playing the damsel in distress, but that seemed to be her role in this whole scheme. But if Robin seemed to think that Batman was where he needed to be, would be it better for her to just sit and wait to be rescued? Hardly. She slammed the bars with her bare foot, rattling the cage. “Hey!” she called out. “Quiet-“ one said, immediately followed by the other saying, “-down.” “I need to use the bathroom.” “Go in-” “-the corner,” they replied. “Oh, you’d like that, wouldn’t you? But I don’t think so. Get your boss in here. See what he thinks about that.” “He isn’t-” “-our boss. He’s-” “-part of us. You’re not-” “-getting out again.” She pursed her lips and pushed her tongue into her check, pressing her breasts against the bars. She slowly took in a deep breath to expand her ribcage. In the wild kingdom, such non-verbal behavior would surely get the attention of a mate, if not several. Her more feral side wasn’t beneath using her femininity to get what she needed. In fact, she had lost count of the times that men had allowed themselves to get into bad situations simply because they couldn’t help themselves from admiring her assets. “Then how about we pass the time. One of you come in here,” she purred. “Or both. It doesn’t much matter.” The twin Doctor Double X’s looked at each other, then back at Selina again. Their faces remained stoic and passive. “We doubt that-” “-you could handle-” “-us. We likely have-” “-more group experience than-” “-you.” A sound rippled from the bottom of her throat, something between pleasure and ecstasy. “Well, I’m willing to learn if you’re willing to teach me,” she replied. The twins looked at each other again briefly before a soft pang! caught their attention. They both turned to Robin’s cage, but it was already too late. A metal bar smashed into one’s face, and then a spinning leg caught the other’s knees, dropping them both to the floor. A flash of red and black was on top of them. Two more quick strikes followed and the doubles faded away entirely, leaving Robin by himself on the cold tile floor. The doubles were dispelled. “Any longer and I thought I was going to have to strip,” Selina blurted out as she bounced on her toes eagerly. “I’m glad to see that your mentor taught you the subtleties of distraction.” Robin stood, tossing away the two-foot bar he had sliced out of his own cage. “The acetylene torch in my glove would have cut through faster, but I was trying to be as quiet as possible.” “Be as loud as you want while you cut me free. We need to get to Batman, fast.” “Agreed on the second point, but not the first.” Robin turned to leave. “What?” Selina looked shocked. “You can’t be serious.” “If those doubles were linked to their creator as they implied,” Robin responded as he looked around the corridor beyond the now open doorway to take in his surroundings, “then he’ll be on his way with reinforcements. I need to move and you’ll just slow me down.” She slapped the bars. “You little runt! Let me out of here. Now!” Robin looked directly at her and said, “He might have a soft spot for you, cat, but I don’t. There are two warrants currently out for your arrest. I’ll be back to collect you when this is over.” The youth vanished down the hall and the doors flapped shut behind him, leaving Selina once again alone. She was about to scream in cold fury, but caught sight of something that might actually prove useful: the cut bar had rolled close enough to her cage for her to reach. She scooped it up and jammed it between two of the cars of her own cage, twisting it. With her full weight behind it and her not inconsiderable strength, one of the bars actually bent slightly. She released the bar, relaxing the strain and collecting her breath again. She was petite so the bars wouldn’t have to budge all that much, but this was going to take some work. She applied herself again, thinking about what she was going to do to that little bird when she got out of here for motivation. Batman awoke with a gasp, feeling something sharp remove from his neck. It was hard to focus on anything, but the darkness was starting to creep away. He saw something thin and gray…a needle? Had someone injected him with something? The world spun. He blinked several times, trying to push away the stinging sadness that had swept over his mind. It was like he had been stuck in a nightmare for years and was just now realizing that reality wasn’t what he thought it had been. He had felt the effects of the Scarecrow’s fear gas before, and had even built up a resistance to it, but this was different. Similarly, he had trained his mind to recognize when the Mad Hatter was playing with his brain chemistry, but again, this was something else. This was more focused. Instead of an atmosphere of anxiety being woven into his perceptions, this was more like the world around him had been altered. He had been completely incapacitated and felt ashamed for it. But now his captors had seen fit to lift the veil for him and he took in this new arena with grim awareness. “Sometimes I wonder,” a raspy voice on the far end of the rectangular room said. “I wonder what it would be like to be normal. To have a family. To go out into the world and not have to worry about people like you, Batman.” Batman’s instincts started to take over. He bent his knees slightly and kept his chest taut, ready to move when needed. He had quickly assessed that he had been brought to the burn ward of this retrofitted hospital. This particular room in the ward looked like a recovery room of some sort. He recognized the voice instantly and knew that whatever this insane challenge was, it was starting off as deadly. “I’ve told you before, Doctor Sartorius,” Batman replied. He found that his own voice was harsh; dry and scratchy from having been out of it for so long. “I can help you. There are places you could go that—” “That would treat me as the freak that I am! And don’t call me Sartorius! I left that name behind me years ago when you and the people that were jealous of me made me what I am today. Now I’m Doctor Phosphorus, and you’ll burn, Batman!” Batman had been brought in at one end of the recovery room with Phosphorus at the other, with a dozen empty bed frames between them. The curtains that had provided a modicum of privacy for the recovering burn victims were now tattered or gone altogether, leaving the ward to look like a hollow version of its former self. Much like Phosphorus, once a man with ambition to become successful and revered, who was now just another criminal with a vendetta. Batman had locked him away several times, just as a few other heroes had done. He was dangerous, not just because of his sheer power, but due to his mental instability. Phosphorus’ skin erupted in white flame that covered his entire body. Batman noticeably felt the temperature in the room increase, and it was getting hotter by the second. Phosphorus could generate radiation potent enough to melt steel, but beyond that just being close to him could be deadly. His skin emitted toxic fumes and even just short term exposure could result in serious medical complications. “You would love to have them plug me back in at Arkham, wouldn’t you, Batman?” Phosphorus shouted as he took a few steps closer. Molten footprints were left in his wake, baked into the floor. “I’m beyond help. No one can turn me back to normal, so I have to embrace who I am. And who I am is your killer, Batman.” “End this now and I’ll get you the care that you need, Sartorius.” “I told you not to call me that!” Phosphorus slapped at one of the beds, overturning it and causing it to burst into flames just from touching it. “And you have no idea what you we have planned for you, Batman! I’m just the first gatekeeper.” He was still woozy from Zodiac’s meddling and was having trouble just focusing on Phosphorus. Or maybe it was the sudden intense heat filling up the room since the villain’s eruption. He felt sluggish. Weak. Vulnerable. “Feeling the burn?” Phosphorus asked with a raspy laugh. “Look around you, Batman. Every room in this hospital has been redesigned with the sole purpose of tormenting you in very special ways.” Batman glanced around the room, making sure not to take his eyes off of Phosphorus, but sweat was just pouring down the inside of his mask. He was having trouble breathing. His costume felt like it had doubled in weight. The walls. Something about the walls wasn’t right. What was it? He couldn’t concentrate. He quickly checked his wrist-top display for a temperature read and it was already a staggering 150 degrees Fahrenheit and climbing. “We installed copper sheets all throughout the room, Batman,” Phosphorus said. “Copper is the number one conductor of heat. Did you know that? You’ll start feeling the effects of severe dehydration in the next sixty seconds. But the shot of adrenaline we gave you won’t allow you to pass out. You’re going to be awake for every torturous second.” His knees went weak and he stumbled down onto one of them. His head was pounding and dizziness had been added to his menagerie of symptoms. He had already run rampant around Gotham, chasing after what amounted to a trail of bread crumbs. He was tired, worn out, and now he could literally feel the energy being sucked from his body. “I’m going to sweat every last drop of life out of you, Batman!” Phosphorus shouted. He kicked another aged bed, causing the metal frame to twist like putty. “Then I’m going to give you third degree burns all over our body. I’ll melt that costume to your skin. And then? Hehe…then you get to move on to your next torture room. Oh, what wonders we have in store for you, Batman. When we’re done with you, there won’t be a place on the planet that you’ll feel safe!” Batman leaned forward, steadying himself with one hand on the floor, trying to open up his airway, trying to breath, but the air was just so hot it was like breathing through a volcano, and the room was spinning, sweat filled his eyes, his muscles were burning, and how could he have let himself walk into this mess, because Robin was here and was he alive and he couldn’t know but had to try but wouldn’t realize and time was out but he couldn’t stop so dig deep but notanymoreemptyitwasoverhefailedandnowtheend “You keep tabs on all of your so-called important enemies, don’t you, Batman? But not us. We weren’t worthy of your notice. You humiliated us and left us to rot. Now we’ve come back. I’ll bet you would take us a little more seriously now, wouldn’t you, Batman?” Colors blurred. The copper walls all looked the same. Except there. What was that? The entire room hadn’t been plated. Just most of it. There was one section that had plaques up on the wall. They were the same color. Who cares? He couldn’t focus. But something caught his eye. What? Why? Phosphorus was only a dozen feet away now and it felt like he was kneeling before the sun. The wall. The big plaque in the center. It said something. What? Did it matter? He had to get away. But his memory was fighting to get through the heat to tell him something important. He blinked and tried to see one last thing before his eyelids were swollen shut. The plaque. It was a dedication. The script was too small to see, but his mind’s eye had captured it and was trying to get him to look again. In the center, the script was larger. Easier to read. “Are you hallucinating yet, Batman?” It was a name. Whose? He had to get away. “Are you broken yet?” A name, yes. Someone important. “Are you giving up, Batman?” A name…WAYNE. Doctor Thomas Wayne. “Can you even hear me anymore, Batman? HAHAHAAA!” Seeing the name of his father snapped Batman out of the last traces of Zodiac’s influence. His mind focused back into a razor-sharp and calculating tool for survival. The heat was sweltering, deadly, but nothing he couldn’t handle. With his mind alert again and he knew exactly how to deal with Phosphorus. He slipped his cape over his face and tapped his wrist-top panel. The cape went rigid and emitted menthone glycerol ketal, a cooling agent, that instantly reduced the temperature in his immediate area. He heard Phosphorous take a step back, likely in surprise. His muscles were still tight from the heat exposure and stress, but the cooling agent was doing its work. He snapped two capsules off of his utility belt and flung them at Phosphorus’ feet. They exploded upon coming into contact with him, releasing extinguishing foam that hardened around his legs, immobilizing him. Phosphorus screamed and his white-hot skin erupted all over again in refreshed radiation. He smacked at the foam and managed to tear off a large chunk of it, but it was never intended to hold him indefinitely anyway. It was more of a distraction, which allowed Batman a few precious seconds to get back onto his feet. He threw a haymaker at Phosphorus’ chin, connecting, but the fire transferred onto his Kevlar glove. He smothered the flames with his cape and the cooling agent, but his knuckles were still scorched. Two more strikes and Phosphorus was down, his flames extinguished. Batman’s hands felt like they were still on fire even after he put them out for a second time. In fact, most of his body felt like it had been sunburned. His mouth and chin were the worst, having direct skin exposure to Phosphorus’ radiation. It would be weeks of ointment applications before the burns were healed. But it was over. He had barely pulled himself together. The combination of the adrenaline shot and the shock of seeing his own father’s name in a place like this had snapped him out of the mental scrambling, saving his life. He turned to look at the plaque more closely. It read: ‘In recognition of philanthropic endeavors, this ward is dedicated to DR. THOMAS WAYNE in grateful appreciation for devotion to the people of Gotham City.’ There were other plaques on the wall, too, recognizing or memorializing various donors and doctors that had made significant contributions to the hospital. Phosphorus hadn’t bothered to recover this wall with copper plating because the plaques were already copper, and there were so many that they had served just as well in conducting heat as the full sheets. A door slid open at the far end of the room. It remained open, beckoning him. This was not the last challenge. More deadly traps undoubtedly awaited him, and Robin was still unaccounted for. He took a step forward over Phosphorus’ prone body and his nerve endings erupted in pain. It felt like he had been deep fried and still left under a heating lamp. Every step was agony, but he trudged forward, determined to find his son and end this insanity. NEXT: The mental machinations of Doctor Zodiac! |