Pinkie Pie watched the battle ensue from above. Rainbow pounced onto another thug to her left. Batman rolled on the ground toward the nearest thug on his right and gave him a swift, yet strong uppercut. He flew into the air and Batman threw a bat-shaped boomerang at another thug. He grunted loudly and went down. Rainbow smacked into a thug as hard as she could and knocked him out cold. Two thugs ran up behind her. Rainbow bucked them with her back legs, and they grunted in pain. She flew into the air and looked back. They had already recovered from her kick. She wished that Applejack had been here with them. The thugs would have flown back against the wall if they attacked her.
An alarm on the other side of the room caught her attention. A thug was attempting to get a rifle from a locked box. She booked it over to him and slammed into the back of his head. It made a loud, disgusting crack as she impacted. She probably broke his skull. She felt a strange combination of shock, horror, and satisfaction as he wailed and went down.
She turned to see the two thugs from earlier charging at her. Beyond them, she saw Batman fighting three more thugs. One of them wielded a lead pipe like a sword at him, while the other two used their fists. He yanked the pipe out of his hand and kicked him back. Then he bent it in half and threw it at the thug’s head.
Rainbow was astonished at Batman’s strength. He couldn’t be just a man. There is no way someone could be that strong and be just a man. She didn’t believe it.
Her awe betrayed her as the two thugs closed in. The one on the right gave her a swift kick. She barely had time to react as the boot impacted her back leg. She screamed and tried to fly away. The other thug grabbed her front leg and threw her down on the ground. They both began to kick and punch her while she desperately tried to escape. She screamed for help.
“Dashie!” Pinkie Pie gasped from the opening in the ceiling. She had remained in the ceiling above because of her conflicting feelings toward the situation. Rainbow Dash and Batman were fighting a group of people whom she had acquired the trust of, thanks to Joker. She didn’t want to hurt anyone, because she had become friends with the clown thugs. Once she saw Rainbow being assaulted though, she decided she had to do something. No one was going to hurt her best friend like that and get away with it.
She bounced down the hole and fell to the floor below. As soon as she impacted, she got a brilliant idea. She shot into the air toward the ceiling. Thinking quickly, she bounced off the ceiling, the wall, the floor, and all over the room like a bouncy-ball full of energy. Every time she hit a surface, she made a loud “BOING!” sound.
Her bouncing grew faster and faster until she was nothing but a pink blur flying all over the room. Bounce after bounce, she quickly calculated the angle and trajectory of the surfaces of the room and the location of each thug. There were six more that were still conscious and fighting. Well, they had been fighting, but they were too distracted by the energetic pink pony that was bouncing all around the room.
She bounced on the wall, ceiling, and opposing wall in the upper corner of the room before she took off toward a thug. She bopped onto his head and bounced off toward another thug. She imagined that she was playing a huge game of connect the dots where she was the pencil and the thugs were the dots. In the matter of about five seconds, she had impacted each of the thugs a number of times to stun them and make them all loopy.
Now she would let them have it. She sped up her bouncing and hit each thug once again as hard as she could. They each fell to the ground and writhed on the floor for a moment before going silent. She saved the two thugs assaulting Rainbow for last. She hit the one who had kicked Rainbow and bounced to the other thug. She continued bouncing back and forth into each one as hard as she could. Before they both fell over. She stopped bouncing, stood on the thug’s head and began to jump up and down on his face. Like she had stomped on Cranky Doodle Donkey’s first wig when she thought it was a spider.
“Don’t! Hurt! My! Friend! You! Big! Fat! Meaniehead!” She shouted angrily with every stomp.
Eventually she stopped bouncing and looked at him angrily. She then smiled and laughed as hard as she could. His face wasn’t covered in bruises, but he did have the funniest look on this face. His eyes were pointed out in both directions and he had the dumbest, silliest buck-toothed grin she had ever seen.
She bounced off and went toward Rainbow Dash. “Are you okay, Rainbow?”
Rainbow was still lying down on the ground. A few bruises began to form all over her, but she didn’t seem to care. She looked surprised and confused when she saw Pinkie. All she did was nod slowly. Pinkie grinned and picked her up in a big hug. Rainbow squirmed slightly while she was in Pinkie’s embrace.
She released her and they walked over to Batman. “So, where to now?” She asked with a smile. Even he looked like he was at a loss for words. His mouth was slightly agape as he watched the pink pony. Neither her nor Rainbow had ever seen Batman like this. It was like he didn’t know what to do or say.
“Um…” He began. He cleared his throat and looked around. “There’s a terminal over on the wall over there. It will open the doors.”
“Okie dokie lokie!” Pinkie said. She bounced over to the terminal leaving Batman and Rainbow alone.
“What… was that?” He asked her.
“That’s…” She paused, looking for the right response. “That’s just Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie.”
Batman looked at her again. “ I don’t understand her. She’s… different.”
Rainbow walked toward the terminal. “Join the club, Batman. We’ve got jackets.”
Batman followed her over to the wall. The concrete ground was cracked and covered in dirt. There was a pair of railroads leading to a set of large green doors. On the railroad was a large subway car covered in garbage and other refuse. The whole room was a mess and was covered with miscellaneous items.
Batman pulled out his tiny computer and began to hack the terminal. “What’s that thing called?” Pinkie asked him.
“A cryptographic sequencer.” He replied.
She replied with an “Ooooo” before she produced one of his boomerangs. “What about this thing?”
He snatched it away. “A Batarang. Where did you get that?” He asked as he inspected a pocket on his belt.
“Well, I picked it up when I was bouncing around the room. I saw it so I stopped bouncing really quickly and picked it up so I could give it back to you!” She explained.
Batman’s face hardened once again. “Pinkie, you didn’t stop bouncing once! We saw you!” Rainbow exclaimed.
She giggled. “I did it so fast that it was invisible! Pretty cool, huh?”
Rainbow and Batman looked at each other again before she shrugged and Batman resumed hacking the terminal. The sequencer beeped and the doors began to open slowly.
They looked out into the next room. The railroad had another train car sitting at a station on either side. There were platforms and bridges above were destroyed and sagging down to rest on one of the trains. It was an abandoned subway terminal. Some of the lights in the room were on, but most were burned out. The railings’ designs and the room’s architecture looked really old yet, advanced. Almost like this room had been the product of a technological revolution from very long ago.
Batman turned right and walked toward an archway on the station. He took a few steps before he put his fingers to the side of his head. Rainbow’s stolen radio buzzed at the exact same time inside her black saddlebag.
“Protocol 10 will commence in 5 hours.” Strange said.
“Protocol 10.” Rainbow thought to herself. “It doesn’t sound good at all. What is Strange planning to do?”
Rainbow continued to think to herself as she flew in the air behind Batman. He walked up the stairs and went through the door. She hoped he knew where he was going. Judging by the size of this room and the maze they had been in earlier, it would be easy to get lost in here.
The door led to an old alleyway. There was a very dirty window to what looked like a shop directly in front of them. They walked left and continued down the alleyway. It was filled with widows, old boxes, garbage cans, there was even an old streetlamp at the end of it. What was this place?
They reached the streetlamp and turned right. The floor was completely gone and there was now a pool of water below them. Old support beams, pipes, wires, and other things littered the area around them. The skeletons of old, decaying buildings surrounded them. It was like there was an entire underground city below Arkham City.
Across the pool of water was a platform. Batman into his belt and produced the line-launcher. Pinkie rushed to his side. “Can I have a ride?! Pleeeeeeeeeeeeease?!” She begged.
Batman hesitated. He looked at her and saw her puppy dog eyes as she begged. He exhaled, giving a slight growl and picked her up. She smiled wide and trembled with excitement. He aimed his line launcher at the wall and shot. He zipped along toward platform. Rainbow shook her head with a smile and began to fly along with them.
In the air, Rainbow noticed something about her. Her wing felt really sore. With each flap came a slight stinging. True she had just been beaten and kicked, but it was like her wing was slowly getting worse and worse. She hoped it was nothing, and tried to keep up. She flew past Batman and Pinkie. Suddenly, she felt a really sharp pain in her wing. She yelped and fell down. She barely caught onto the edge of the platform and tried to pull herself up. Her wings flapped reflexively to help her, but it made things worse. She felt an awful pain all throughout her starting from her wing.
It shocked her and her grip on the edge loosened. She was about to fall into the water when Batman grabbed her hoof from the ledge. He pulled her up and set her down on the ground. She squirmed and writhed in pain.
“What’s going on?” Batman demanded.
“I don’t know!” Rainbow cried. “My wing! It hurts like crazy!”
Pinkie watched as Batman carefully grabbed Rainbow’s left wing. He pinched it at the base and slowly made his way toward the tip. When he reached the joint in the middle, she wailed in pain.
“What are you doing?! Don’t hurt her!” Pinkie ordered.
Batman’s eyes were pure white as he examined Rainbow. Almost like an illuminated white screen was in front of them. “Her wing is broken in that spot.”
“What?! Broken?! No way! Twilight fixed it with her magic spell in the museum!” Rainbow said with defiance. “She assured me that it was fixed!”
“Well, it looks like it’s wearing off.” Batman concluded.
Rainbow’s tear-filled eyes widened. “Wearing off?! How am I supposed to do anything now?!”
She winced as she closed her wing. Batman looked at Pinkie. “Do you think you can carry her if she needs it?”
Pinkie nodded. “What happened in the museum, Rainbow?”
Rainbow closed her eyes and breathed heavily. She tried to answer, but the pain was throbbing now. Every time her heart beat, it sent another painful feeling. “We were rescuing your friends from Penguin and he blew up the platform he was on. A piece of debris fell on her wing and broke it. Your other friend Twilight used some of her magic to heal her but apparently, it isn’t going to last forever.” Batman answered.
Pinkie gasped. “Oh no! What are we going to do now?”
“We need to keep going.” The sooner we find Ra’s, the sooner we can get back to her.”
Batman picked Rainbow up and set her on Pinkie’s back. Pinkie looked worriedly at her friend. Rainbow was breathing heavily and crying. Pinkie gave her an assuring look, but she knew that she wouldn’t be okay if they didn’t hurry.
Batman looked up to the platform above. “The signal’s coming from up there.” He pulled out his grapple gun and looked at Pinkie and Rainbow. “Rainbow, hold onto Pinkie as tight as you can. Pinkie, you grab my leg.”
They nodded and Pinkie grabbed Batman’s leg. He shot at the platform above and they all propelled into the air. It caught Pinkie by surprise. She hadn’t expected it to be that fast. Batman grabbed the edge and hoisted his leg up. Pinkie released him and jumped to the top of the platform. Batman pulled himself up as well.
In front of them was a wooden green door. They all approached it and walked through. They were now in a hallway in an abandoned building under the streets of Arkham City. The floor was destroyed in a few places, and there were holes in the walls and ceiling. At the end of it was another dirty window with a bleak light shining through it. On their right was a few bookshelves filled with many different books. Pinkie thought that Rainbow and Twilight would have a ball down here if the situation had been different.
Pinkie followed Batman as he began walking down the hallway. She eyed the different book titles on the bookshelf with wonder. Batman took a few steps before he started limping. He walked sluggishly and groaned. He leaned to one side as he reached for something to steady himself; he missed and fell to his hands and knees. He held his chest and inhaled painfully through his clenched teeth.
“Batman! What’s going on? Are you okay?” Rainbow weakly asked.
“What’s happening?” Pinkie added.
“Just… give me a minute.” He violently coughed and tried to stand up. “I’ll be alright.”
Rainbow hopped off Pinkie’s back and went to his side. She helped him up as best she could. Pinkie went to his other side and also helped. He finally got to his feet and shook off the pain.
“No you wont, Batman! We’re running out of time!” Rainbow said.
“What was that about?” Pinkie asked.
Rainbow looked at Pinkie. “Joker infected Batman with his poison and now he’s finally feeling the effects of it!”
Pinkie blinked and backed up as Rainbow walked toward her angrily. “Your ‘bestest best friend’ in Arkham City poisoned the only person here who has a chance to get the cure for him! Now he’s in serious pain and so will tons of other people just because its what he wants!” Rainbow felt really weak as she continued toward Pinkie, but she didn’t care. “Joker has brainwashed you and has told you a bunch of lies and spoon-fed you a huge helping of garbage in order to make you think that killing millions of people is okay! Joker. Is. Evil!”
Pinkie’s hair deflated as Rainbow yelled at her. She sat there, stunned as she processed all that she had said. “But… he-”
“No! No Buts!” Rainbow interrupted. “Nothing about this is justifiable! Everyone that will be affected by this poison, all the people that will die, nothing you or anyone will say will make this okay!” Rainbow paused to see Pinkie’s face. She was starting to cry. “All those people in Gotham that will die, every person out there has a family and life. Some people may be better than others, but that doesn’t make it okay to kill them. There will always be someone better than someone else.”
Pinkie cried at Rainbow’s onslaught of words. Rainbow didn’t care. Pinkie needed to hear this. Pinkie sank her face behind her hooves and cried. “I’m,” She sniffed. “I’m so confused! Everything he told me made sense and everything you’re telling me makes sense, I just don’t know what to believe!”
Rainbow breathed angrily through her nostrils. Pinkie sat on the floor and cried at Rainbow’s words. Batman wobbled slightly as he watched them for another moment. “Come on.” He said. “We need get going. We can talk about this later.”
Rainbow stood there for another moment and glared at Pinkie. Pinkie looked back at her, unsure of what to say. Batman slowly walked toward the window again. “Pinkie, what you’re thinking is wrong and you need to snap out of it. I can’t be friends with someone or somepony who thinks something like mass murder is okay.” Rainbow’s eyes softened, but they were still looking at her with the same manner of seriousness. “I don’t want to lose you as a friend, but if you keep thinking this way, you’ll leave me no choice.”
Pinkie looked up at Rainbow with shock. “W-What?”
“I refuse to be friends with Joker or anypony who sympathizes with him. I need you to see reason, Pinkie Pie. Everypony else will see my side of it, and you wont have us as friends anymore.”
Pinkie’s eyes welled up. “Y-You c-cant do that to me…”
“Believe me, we won’t want to, but we will if you don’t come over to our side.” Rainbow said. She walked after Batman. Pinkie had a lot to think about.
They exited the hallway. The window had belonged to another building that was right next to the one they were currently in. They stepped onto a wired floor that was suspended above an alleyway. Instead of a street below them was a large mass of water. Just like in the previous room. Batman and Rainbow turned left and looked across the way. Clear on the other side of the room was a section of destroyed wall. On the brick wall beyond was written “Arcadian Elixir of Life”. Rainbow had no idea what it meant.
They heard talking from a little bit away. “Man, what’s in these things?”
It was more of Joker’s thugs. “Guns, explosives, thermal trackers, everything an army needs.”
A third thug answered. “To kick Penguin’s ass!”
Pinkie had sluggishly and sadly caught up with them while Rainbow and Batman were observing the room. Batman motioned for each of them to grab onto one of his legs as he pulled out his line-launcher. They complied and he shot at the wall with the writing on it and slowly zipped past a group of thugs standing in a room. There was a massive hole in the wall between them and the thugs. If they so much as glanced out the hole, they would be spotted. There were six thugs all together. Two of them had rifles, one of them was wearing armor, another one had a glowing blue shock baton, and the last two had their fists.
“But how come we’ve got ‘em? Isn’t this place supposed to be a prison?”
They reached the other side and dropped down. Rainbow had been wondering that about this place also. If this was really a maximum-security prison, why were the inmates allowed to have guns, weapons, and other technology? It didn’t make any sense.
“You ask a lot of question’s, boy. You sure you’re on the right side?”
“What are you saying? Of course I am! Joker’s my man you know that! Been in his crew for years!”
“So stop asking questions. You know J don’t like questions.”
“Okay, sorry. Just seems weird, that’s all.”
It was weird. None of this made even a little bit of sense. How was Joker and Penguin getting all these weapons? What did it have to do with Protocol 10? What was Protocol 10? Rainbow was going to have to really pay close attention to this.
Batman looked over to the location of the thugs in the buildings. The illuminated white screens went over his eyes once again and he sat there for a few moments.
“What’s going on?” Rainbow whispered.
He didn’t answer. He stood there for a moment longer before he turned to Rainbow. “Give me that radio you have.”
Rainbow reached into her saddlebag and produced the radio. He took it and removed the back casing.
“You guys know what this place is? I never heard of no ‘Old Gotham’ before.” The thug asked.
Batman took out a small blue piece of plastic and put it inside his gauntlet. He left it there for a moment and it beeped before he removed it and placed it back in the radio.
“I guess you never went to school, did ya?” The second thug replied.
Batman gave the radio back to Rainbow. “You’ll be able to hear all my communications with Oracle or any radio I can hear. Contact me if we get separated.” He whispered.
Rainbow nodded and turned down the sound low in advance. She didn’t want to attract any attention to herself if she ever needed to be silent.
The third thug spoke. “What happened? Too busy wetting your bed to learn something?”
Rainbow grinned. They were so mean to each other, but she had to admit that it was kind of funny.
“If you’d bothered learning something, you would know that what we call Gotham is actually built on top of the old city.”
“What old city?”
Rainbow listened intently at this. It was all really interesting.
“Old Gotham. There was some kind of fair, hundred years ago, maybe more. Something happened and bits were demolished. A new city was built on top of it.”
“You learn something every day, don’t you?”
That blew her mind. There was an entire city down here that was totally hidden from the world. It made for a really cool story. One that she was sure Twilight could enjoy. She looked back at Pinkie. Her mane was still deflated and she looked zoned out. Rainbow didn’t know if she was interested in Old Gotham as well, or if she was thinking about the argument they just had. She hoped it was the latter.
Batman crouched and tiptoed over toward the thugs. They went between the far wall and a destroyed portion. They stopped at another opening to a room. This is the room the thugs were in. Batman turned around to face them both. “Don’t move from this spot. I’ll be right back.”
Rainbow and Pinkie nodded. Batman walked the other direction and used the line-launcher to zip over the pool of water. Rainbow and Pinkie shared a glance before they turned their attention back to the thugs in the next room.
“So this Old Gotham, what happened to it?”
Rainbow rolled her eyes. This guy really didn’t know when to shut up. However, she was still interested in the story.
“Don’t you listen? I told you, there was some kind of accident, and it got built over.”
“Yeah, I heard everyone died.”
“That’s your explanation? Some kind of accident?”
“Its what I heard.”
“Whatever.”
That was that. These guys didn’t know anything else about it. Rainbow hoped that Batman knew and that he would tell her if she asked.
They waited behind the wall for a moment longer before a deafening explosion caught her and Pinkie off-guard. They heard screams and other cried from inside the room followed by the sound of punching. Rainbow snuck a peek around the corner at the scene. The ceiling above had been obliterated and Batman was now taking care of all the thugs in the best way he knew how.
In the matter of a few seconds, all the thugs were unconscious. Rainbow watched it all with awe and fascination. She popped out from behind the wall and stood there with one of the happiest expressions she ever had. Batman met her eyes with his of neutrality. Rainbow saw this and quickly corrected herself. She tried her best to conceal her fangirl outbursts. It didn’t work very well.
She looked around the room. Wooden boxes were stacked on top of each other all the way to the ceiling. They all had the TYGER logo on them. Rainbow looked inside one that was already opened. It was a very dangerous-looking assault rifle. Joker was building an army.
“Where did they get all this stuff?” Rainbow asked.
“It looks like he’s stealing them from Strange’s TYGER guards.” Batman replied. He put his hand to his head and began to speak. Rainbow’s radio buzzed to life. “Oracle, it looks like Joker is sending is crew down to steal weapons off the TYGER guards.”
Oracle spoke. “That’s not good. Those guys are armed with the latest military weapons. If Joker gets his hands on that stuff,” She paused for a moment. “Well, you know.”
“He won’t. I won’t let him.” Batman replied.
Rainbow’s radio shut off. Batman began to walk toward the door. She had failed to notice it before, but the room they were in was lop-sided. The door was leaning to the left on a slight angle. These buildings had to have been about a hundred years old.
“We’re getting closer.” Batman said.
“Good. The sooner, the better.” Rainbow replied.
Batman walked through the door. Rainbow was about to follow him when she turned back to Pinkie. She was looking at the gun cases blankly and thinking to herself. Rainbow walked back to her. “Pinkie, come on.”
Pinkie didn’t take her eyes off the boxes. Her eyes were extremely sad as she glanced around the room full of unconscious clown thugs.
“Pinkie.” Rainbow repeated.
Pinkie nodded slowly. “I’m coming, Dashie.” She turned toward her and began walking. Then she stopped and looked Rainbow in the eyes. “I can still call you that, right?”
Rainbow felt a huge pang of guilt. She looked away from her for a moment before turning back to her sorrowfully. “Of course you can, Pinkie Pie.”
Pinkie nodded and continued toward the door. Rainbow stepped in her way. “I just need you to see everything for how it is. Do you really think that what Joker wants is a good thing?”
Pinkie looked at the ground for a moment. She stood there sadly before answering. “No.”
“Do you really think that Joker is someone who deserves to be felt sorry for after all he’s done?”
Pinkie paused for a moment. “Well, he thinks he does.”
“And that’s his point of view.” Rainbow said. “What about in the big picture? All the people he’s killed, all the families he’s broken, what about them? Shouldn’t you feel sorry for them more?”
“He didn’t talk about them.” Pinkie replied.
“Because he doesn’t care about them.” Rainbow confirmed. “ He only cares about himself.” She paused to try and find a way that Pinkie could understand best. “You know how you play harmless pranks on everypony from time-to-time?” Pinkie nodded. “And you know how some ponies are more sensitive than others? Like Fluttershy?” Pinkie nodded again. “Well, you need to understand that Joker is the kind of person who plays pranks on anyone. Not harmless pranks, really dangerous, really mean pranks. And the people he plays them on are like Fluttershy. They don’t like the prank, and they don’t want to be pranked like that.”
Pinkie thought for a moment. “That makes sense. I guess that’s why people have been saying he’s not a really good person, huh?”
Rainbow grinned. “That’s exactly why. Joker is basically a really big bully. He does whatever he wants to whoever he wants, and he doesn’t care about how they feel.”
Pinkie’s eyebrows furrowed and she looked up at Rainbow. “Well, that’s not good.” She said.
“No it’s not. Batman is one of those people who stand up to bullies and say that he’s had enough. That’s why Joker thinks he’s the bad guy. Batman is trying to stop Joker from doing this to anyone anymore.”
Pinkie nodded. “That’s right. I can see that now.”
Rainbow smiled. “Well then lets go help him!”
Pinkie smiled too. “Okay! Lets do it!”
They both turned and walked toward the door. They opened it slowly and looked into the next room. The interior was destroyed and the room beyond was massive. Batman was crouching by the opening and looking out into the room.
“Please don’t hurt me!” A female voice said.
Pinkie and Rainbow looked at each other worriedly and crept beside Batman.
“We ain’t gonna hurt you, sweetie. Not a pretty little thing like you.” A thug said.
As they neared the edge, they peered out. Directly below them was a large platform with three armed thugs surrounding a woman with her hands on her head. Behind them was a large structure that reached all the way to the ceiling. The structure’s walls had the same kind of intricate designs that the subway terminal railing’s had. It looked old, yet new at the same tome. The woman looked absolutely terrified. Rainbow couldn’t see any other thugs.
“How many are there?” She whispered to Batman.
“I don’t know. Someone in this room is using a signal jammer. I need to neutralize him so I can scan the room for targets.” He replied.
“Please! I’m an intern! I don’t know what’s going on here!” The woman begged.
“Can I have her?” A second thug asked.
“No, you got the last one. Get the rest of the guns and stack ‘em up over there. We’re on a schedule here.” Replied the first.
Rainbow couldn’t imagine what the thugs did with them. She didn’t want to know. Batman crept out onto a gargoyle that was positioned right in front of them. “Stay here. I’ll be back.”
“Okay.” Pinkie whispered. Batman used his grapple hook and swung into the darkness on the right.
“What are these things?”
“Military-grade interference generators. Best money can buy. These babies screw with all electronic equipment in their vicinity. Now, stop yapping and get moving.”
Pinkie identified the thug with the generator on his back. He was standing right next to the woman and facing the other two thugs right beside her. Pinkie tried to think of a way to help. Batman wasn’t feeling well and Rainbow’s wing was broken. She needed to do something.
“Man, she looks scared.”
“She’s all alone down here with us. She should be scared. We’re not nice people.”
The woman was sobbing by now. “Oh, God. Please, I can’t fix him! Please let me go!”
“Sorry doc, you’re ours now. Just do me a favor, huh? Don’t try to run. I’d hate to have to punish you. You’ve got such a pretty face.”
“Yeah, you don’t want a bullet going through it.” The other thug replied.
“Me, I favor the hammer. More personal, you know? You can feel every blow. Understand the complexity of the human body as its deconstructed into a primordial sludge.”
Pinkie almost threw up. These were Joker’s guys talking about beating a woman to death with a hammer. Not just him saying it disturbed her, but the way he said it. It was like he had done it before and he knew how good it felt to do that to another person. It made her feel sick.
“That’s deep, man. I had you all wrong, I was told you just liked hitting people with hammers.”
“Who told you that?!”
“No one.”
“Tell me. Tell me which miserable piece of worthless crap needs a talkin’ to!”
“I don’t know man, I can’t remember!”
“Ha! I’m just screwin’ with you! You okay, doc? You don’t look too good.”
Pinkie’s eyebrows furrowed angrily at the thugs. She wanted to do something to him so bad to make him pay for that. He probably scared the poor woman terribly and all he and the other thugs did was laugh at it. She was finally seeing what Rainbow meant about Joker not caring about who he hurt.
The intercom in the room came on. “Oooh! I think I just heard someone’s skull cracking against the nice hard floor! Mind the bloody puddle.”
Joker announced that someone in the room had been taken out. The thugs that Pinkie could see began to look around in confusion for a moment before they clamored toward the staircase. One thug remained behind to watch the doctor. The rest of the thugs went underneath the platform before one shouted. “Over here! I found someone!”
Pinkie looked around to see something, but she couldn’t see anything. She carefully looked left and right, but no one was there. She waited for a few moments in silence before the intercom came on again.
“Is that the sound of one of your faces hitting something hard? I hope so.” Joker taunted.
“You heard Joker!”
Two thugs ran up the staircase on the right side of the room and toward the back. The one in front waved his arms in the air frantically. “Got another one!”
He was accompanied by two more. They vanished behind the pillar. The thug that was watching the doctor approached her slowly before grabbing her arm and pointing the barrel of the gun at her head.
“Come with me!” He ordered as he wrapped his arm around her neck.
Pinkie watched as the woman was about to have her brains blown out if Batman didn’t do something soon. The thug was facing out toward Pinkie and Rainbow’s hiding spot. The woman was trembling with terror and tears were streaming down her face.
Behind them, Batman climbed up to the floor from directly underneath the large structure. He silently approached the thug and wrapped his hands around his mouth. The thug released the woman and she ducked for cover beside a few boxes of guns that were stacked up beside them. The thug screams were muffled as he flailed his arms around his head for a moment. His arms finally went limp and Batman dropped him to the floor.
He aimed the grapple gun at one of the gargoyles and grappled up. Pinkie followed him with her eyes. He climbed up and looked around at the environment below. A thug began to walk out from behind the pillar at the far end of the room. Batman dropped and hung upside-down and waited for the thug to walk directly underneath. When he did, he dropped to the thug’s level and enveloped him in his cape. He then rose up to the gargoyle again and dropped the thug off. The thug screamed and fell to the ground. A rope was wrapped around his ankles leaving him suspended upside-down a few feet above the ground.
The remaining thugs ran toward the hanging thug. “What are you doing up there?” One asked.
“Cut me down! Please!”
They returned to their patrol. They were terrified now. Any one of them could be next. Pinkie looked back up to the gargoyle, but Batman was gone. She tried to find him, but she couldn’t see him. She looked back to the thugs. One went beside the pillar on the right. Immediately, Batman reached out and incapacitated him. He was so fast that Pinkie barely saw him. The remaining thug turned around and the sound with his rifle raised and ready.
“Don’t move Batman! Don’t move!” He ordered. He stood there for a moment while Batman walked toward him. The thug began smacking his gun as hard as he could. “Come on! What’s wrong with this stupid thing?!”
He threw the gun on the ground and raised his fists. Batman was already a step ahead of him. He threw a punch and the thug flew backwards, unconscious. He grappled into the air and disappeared.
“Oh, I can’t believe you let him stop you! What is it?” Joker began coughing and wheezing on the intercom. “Not enough secret weapons from old Hugo?”
Pinkie looked around. It was dead silent. The woman got to her feet and timidly looked around. “Hello?” She called. “Hello, is anyone there?”
Batman glided down from a gargoyle somewhere on the left and landed right beside the woman. She took a startled step backwards. Batman looked up to Pinkie and nodded.
Pinkie grinned. “Okay Rainbow. The coast is clear.” She turned around to see Rainbow curled up into a ball and shivering violently on the floor.
“Rainbow! What’s wrong?!” Pinkie asked. She ran to her side and looked at Rainbow’s eyes. They were wide and her pupils were like pinpricks. Her teeth were chattering as she tried to speak to Pinkie.
“P-P-P-Penguin…. W-W-Water… F-F-F-Froz-zen… T-T-Twilight…” Was all she could get out.
Pinkie began to panic. She didn’t know what was going on. Rainbow was freezing to touch. Pinkie tried to warm her up in any way she could. She wrapped her in a tight hug and rubbed her as much as she could. It froze Pinkie, but she had to do it.
It wasn’t working. Rainbow just seemed to get colder and colder. Pinkie continued to rub her friend harder and harder to try and get her warmer but to no avail. Rainbow’s expression became totally blank. Her breathing was short and choppy.
Pinkie didn’t know what else to do. She turned around and ran toward the opening. “HELP! BATMAN! HELP US!” She screamed at the top of her lungs.
She ran back to Rainbow Dash and tried to warm her up again. About ten seconds later, Batman was right next to them. “What happened?”
“I don’t know! After you said it was okay to go, I turned back to Rainbow and she was like this! She’s freezing and I can’t warm her up! What’s going on?!” Pinkie explained shakily.
Batman examined her as she shook on the ground. He tried to warm her up as well, but he didn’t do any better of a job. “Did she say anything?” He asked.
“Yeah! Something about Penguin and frozen water and Twilight!” She said.
“Your friend’s magic is running out. Rainbow fell into a frozen lake and she cast a spell on her to give her warmth. If she hadn’t, then she would have gotten hypothermia. Its likely that spell is wearing out too.” Batman explained.
Pinkie’s eyes widened. “What are we going to do?!”
Batman picked Rainbow up in one arm. “We need to hurry and find Ra’s. Its her only hope.”
Pinkie didn’t ask questions. She grabbed Rainbows saddlebags in her mouth and followed Batman out the opening. He jumped down to the ground and began to make his way to the staircase.
“Oracle, its me. Joker’s not stealing the weapons from Strange, Strange is giving Joker the weapons.” Batman said.
The radio inside Rainbow’s bag gave Oracle’s reply. “Are you sure? Of course you’re sure. Why would he do that?”
“Maybe he’s trying to control who runs the streets. I’m going to find out why.” Batman replied.
Pinkie followed him underneath the platform. There was a large statue of a globe beneath the structure in the center. It was surrounded by many other various things that people could’ve found interesting about this place like posters and propaganda. Pinkie paid hardly any attention to any of it. Only one thing was on her mind and that was getting to Ra’s and saving Rainbow.
They approached a section of the wall that was covered in yellow caution tape. An illuminated sign above wrote the words “Wonder City.” Pinkie wondered how many cities were underneath Gotham.
Batman stepped through the door and Pinkie followed. Directly ahead of them was a bronze wall with the words “Welcome to Wonder City” written on it with white paint. As they stepped toward it, an intercom came on with a voice she did not recognize.
“This world is doomed. Cities like Gotham will grow to resemble Hell breaking through the sidewalk, continuing up into the sky.”
Batman took two wobbly steps before collapsing onto his knees. He dropped Rainbow and she grunted painfully on impact. Batman tried to catch her, but failed. He sat on his hands and knees and looked at the ground. Pinkie ran to Rainbow to help her, but looked back to Batman. She tried to help him up, but Batman couldn’t get up.
“Batman! Get up! Come on! Please, get up!” She begged.
“Structures will grow to blot out the sun, and the people who live in them will be choked by the pollution they create.”
Batman coughed up blood and it splashed on the ground. He slowly got up and coughed again. More blood spilled to the ground. He clenched his fists in anger as he finally rose to his feet.
“Eventually, when no space remains, this world will die, struggling for breath as man’s mistakes nail the coffin shut.”
He slowly stood up and focused his eyes on the wall ahead. Pinkie looked at him worriedly as he groggily stepped forward. She had never been this scared in her life. The only one who had a chance to save her best friend and all of Gotham was on the verge of death himself.
“But this doesn’t have to be your future, Gotham.”
Batman took out his electric gun and aimed it at the generator on the ground at the base of the wall. He fired and the wall parted in two ways down the middle.
Directly in front of them was a clown thug, running at them. “They’re… Everywhere!”
The thug slowed down and collapsed. A sword was sticking right through his body. He lay where he collapsed. Dead.
“There is a better way.”
Pinkie covered her mouth with her hooves and began to panic. What did he mean? Who killed him? She was so horrified that she didn’t even notice the ceiling was covered with the hanging bodies of other inmates until a few moments later. She almost collapsed where she was.
Batman slowly walked forward. “Come on. We need to hurry.”
Pinkie shook her head. “No way. No way I’m going in there! This is way too scary!” She trembled.
Rainbow wheezed at her. “Pinkie… I-It’s ok-kay. You can do it.”
Pinkie looked down to her friend. She was smiling as best she could. Pinkie gulped and nodded. She helped Rainbow onto her back and followed Batman, trying her best to not look at the grotesque scene above her.
They approached the end. There was another bronze wall right ahead.
“Behind this wall is mankind’s chance for survival. A glimpse at a future based on an amazing discovery. A discovery that will allow Gotham to ride like Lazarus, becoming a beacon of hope for this world.”
The words “Get out or die” were written on this wall. Batman aimed his electric gun at the generator at the base of the wall and fired. Like before, the wall split down the middle and opened.
“Are you intrigued? Then step closer. Witness the future of Gotham City.”
They stepped into the next section. Suddenly, three bursts of smoke appeared and three ninjas jumped out of the cloud. Batman groaned slightly before running toward them. Pinkie and Rainbow ran off to the side and stayed out of the way.
Batman engaged the three ninjas as swiftly and as skillfully as he had done previously. With all the flips, swords, and other tricks they had, these ninjas proved to be more of a challenge.
“The heart of Gotham’s future beats with Lazarus technology. They power of Lazarus is pumped into every street, every home, providing clean, safe energy.”
Batman dodged almost every swing of the ninjas’ swords. They got him a few times, but he continued fighting just as hard. He fought until one was unconscious, then he rolled to kick another one. The ninja dodged his attack. Batman paused for a second before springing into the air at the ninja and impacted her face with his fist. The remaining ninja prepared for an onslaught with her sword, but Batman swung his cape at her. She wobbled back, stunned. Batman began to punch her as quickly as he could before he head butted her against the wall. She was out.
“Mechanical Guardians will serve you, watch over you and when necessary, protect you from the worst of mankind’s sins, but more importantly, our beautiful world will survive.”
Batman breathed stood where he was for a moment to catch his breath. Pinkie made sure Rainbow was safe on her back and joined him. They stood directly in front of an old-time picture of a busy city street. Batman looked down and sprayed his explosive gel onto a section of the ground. They all stepped away and he detonated it.
The wall exploded revealing another electric power generator. He took out his electric gun and aimed it at the generator.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, allow us to present to you the future...”
He fired and the wall slowly parted revealing an abandoned city street full of old architecture, technology and other old-time scenery. The announcer read the sign directly in front of them.
“...Wonder City!”