DC: I am Bruce Wayne

Chapter 148: Adventures of Batman (2)

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"They fear what they don't understand"

- Pat Novak, (RoboCop (2014))

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"Fuck, you are crazy! This cannot be good for my mental health. You know what, I don't want any part in this. Goddamn it, I don't want to be a partner-in-crime of an obsessive arsonist. Just give me my share of the money and I'll walk away. Then you can do anything you wish including burning a bunch of hallucinating watchguards to ashes. That won't be my problem anymore." Killer Moth finally reasoned while raising his hands to show that he didn't mean any harm to Firefly at all.  

However, before Firefly could react, a third deeper, and more resonant voice suddenly spoke up from deep within the smoke, "As happy I am to see the both of you trying to reach a consensus, unfortunately, however, the only thing the two of you can share after this will be a prison cell. However, even that will heavily depend on how much of you two are left after once I am done with you two." 

"What the hell? Who is it? Show yourself, coward. I swear if you don't come out right now, then I won't care if you are a cop, a security guard, or a civilian. I will burn you alive, no matter what." Firefly threatened as he randomly sprayed fire everywhere around the room from his flame thrower.

"I'd like to see you try." A tall, armored figure with two distinct tall and pointed bat ears at the two sides of his head answered in the same deep resonant voice, before calmly walking up to the two villains from within the smoke. 

"Oh, fuck. FUCK! It's BATMAN!" Killer Moth yelped in a mixture of fear and surprise, instinctively trying to make a run for it the moment he laid his eyes on the Dark Knight appearing before him but unfortunately for the villain, a lack of visual clarity because of his bulky gas mask as well as the thick smoke blocking his vision combined in successfully making him fall headfirst onto the floor with quite a loud Thud. "AAHH My Head!" He cried out in pain.

"You idiot. I knew you didn't have it in you to become a real criminal." Firefly mocked with a snicker before shifting his focus to Batman instead. "As for you, I have heard rumors that you are a demon that comes in the night, and not even an onslaught of bullets can penetrate your body. Well, I call it bullshit. But still, I would like to see how you hold on against the purity of fire. I have never seen a burning demon before. I would like to see one today. HAHAHAHA" Firefly laughed maniacally as he aimed his flame gun at Batman, before pressing the trigger. 

Immediately, a small river of red and yellow fire flooded Batman, threatening to burn him where he stood but the Dark Knight didn't bother to even move, nor did he react. He just stood still like he didn't even care about the fire at all. Even when the heat touched his armor and tried to burn it to cinders, he just stood there without moving even the slightest, his gaze fixed on Firefly.

"2000-degree Celsius (3632-degree Fahrenheit). Impressive! You have been using that flamethrower to burn people alive for the last few days, Firefly. You have killed about 12 people till now, your most common target being the homeless... You are obsessed with fire and burning things alive, right? So, I think you should feel it yourself, how it feels to burn alive." Batman spoke after a few seconds of intense silence as the fire from Firefly's flamethrower began to weaken due to its decreasing fuel. "However, dying once from burning does not equal the pain you caused to your 12 victims. No, not at all. You should die every day for what you have done." Batman muttered the last part more to himself as he approached Firefly with steady steps amid the rampaging fire.

For the first time in his life, the fire-obsessed villain wasn't so sure about the power of fire anymore. He couldn't figure out what was happening. Why was the man in front of him able to walk unscathed through such a torrent of fire? Didn't fire treat everyone equally? Shouldn't it completely burn Batman to ashes like all other things in the world? At least this should result in some third-degree burns even if the suit is made of the best fire-resistant material in the world. The heat from the fire alone should have made the guy dizzy and weak but contrary to all of his expectations, the Dark Knight didn't look even the slightest bit bothered. For the first time in his life, Firefly's fear dwarfed his obsession with fire. He wanted to run, to escape but he couldn't. It was like he was stuck to the ground; like his legs had melted to jelly.

Stab Not even acknowledging Firefly's weak resistance against his might, Batman stabbed him in the neck with the needle of a syringe he had hidden inside his armor and injected the viscous liquid inside the criminal's body.

"What? What was that? What did you give me?" he asked in a panic as he felt a warm twitch slowly descend from his shoulders down through his spine. 

"A special neurotoxin that overstimulates every nerve receptor you have in your body, making you feel so much stinging pain that your mind gets tricked into believing that you are burning alive although it will never be fatal. It is very useful as a truth serum but an even more useful tool for torture since it is undetectable in the bloodstream with its only visible symptom being a slightly heightened temperature. Also, its effects can only be removed after you get injected with the antidote... By the way, only one person in the world has its antidote. Guess who it is." Batman calmly explained with a stoic voice before bringing his lips closer to Firefly's ears. "Welcome to Hell on Earth, Garfield Lynns. Oh, and don't forget to write what visions you see when you are the one burning alive." He mocked before walking away from the villain who began to simultaneously cry and scream in pain as he weakly fell down on the floor.

Firefly was never going to harm anyone ever again. Even if he somehow got out of jail, he would have to spend the rest of his days at some Assisted Living or Intermediate Care facilities. The intense burning feeling in his skin and flesh would never truly go away, not unless Bruce gave him the antidote which he didn't plan to do at all. It would serve as a reminder of all the sins he had committed and the more he would try to move around or try to bear through the pain, the worse it would get. He would probably never even be able to properly speak again after this. For the rest of his miserable life, the Firefly, aka, Garfield Lynns was truly going to pay for all the sadistic crimes he had committed against the innocent.

"No no, please. I surrender. I didn't do anything. I am innocent here. I was against Firefly's idea of burning and killing people from the very start. In fact, I will never even try to go back into the world of crime. I will leave all this behind. Just please, don't do it. I swear to my dead parents and my future wife and children, that I will never again break the law. I will surrender to the cops; I will plead for the maximum sentence. Even after I get released, I will destroy all my weapons and gadgets and live an ordinary life. Just please don't do to me what you did to Firefly. Please... PLEASE." Killer Moth began to cry with streams of tears and snot leaking from his eyes and nose. 

He had initially thought about taking a chance and attacking Batman with his toxins before trying his luck to escape. But the moment he had witnessed the Dark Knight surviving Firefly's flame thrower unscathed after being in its direct line of fire, all thoughts of resistance instantly left his mind. Furthermore, when he saw the fire-obsessed villain crying and screaming in pain, Killer Moth had completely given up. Right now, after hearing about the punishment that Batman had doled to Firefly, he wanted nothing more than to just somehow survive this ordeal. If he had to spend the rest of his miserable life in prison for that, he was prepared for exactly that.

"I will give you a chance, Drury Walker to right your wrongs. I expect you to wait here and surrender yourself to the cops. Tell them everything and I mean EVERYTHING but remember, I will be listening. If you try to weasel out of your deserved punishment, I will know and I will find you. I know everything there is to know about you. There is nothing you can do to fight me or ever escape me. I am vengeance itself. I will find you and I will make you suffer pain so unimaginable that you will wiggle, and you will beg, praying for the sweet release of death. But I won't allow you that release. And if somehow, you succeed in killing yourself, you won't find peace when you wake up in hell... You will find me." Batman announced in an exceptionally chilly and grim voice. "Remember Drury, I am always watching. From every shadow, every nook, every corner, every dark place that you can possibly imagine, I am ALWAYS WATCHING.... Don't let me regret sparing you or you will regret ever being born." He finished his words before turning back towards the direction of the entrance. 

Before departing, he simply lifted his left hand, commanding his nanobot armor to swiftly expand to quintuple its initial size around his arm, giving his hand a similar appearance to the Hulk's. Then channeling his chi into it, he swung with all his might.

With a swoosh, the smoke enveloping the entire area was dispelled by the airflow from the single swing of his arm, revealing the interior of the bank once more. The guards remained in their dazed and hallucinated state, but Batman could determine from their symptoms that they would recover to their normal selves once again after a few hours of rest.

wee-oo, wee-oo A couple of GCPD cars also began to finally arrive at the location which made Batman smirk inwardly in amusement before disappearing in the darkness of the night, only leaving a couple of hallucinating security guards, Firefly screaming and crying in pain and Killer Moth still sitting on the floor in the exact same position, his body shaking in fear with a thin stream of liquid visibly dripping down his pants.

It was another successful night for the Darkest Knight.

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(A/N: I've opted not to create mini-arcs for each minor Batman villain, as it would be time-consuming, and most of them are not formidable enough to challenge this version of current Bruce Wayne. Instead, these minor villains will be featured in a series of chapters called "Adventures of Batman," with each villain receiving a maximum of one to two chapters of exposure. Also, these chapters will be placed all throughout the story to make it clear that Bruce isn't just always at home inventing stuff but out cosplaying too when he is needed.)

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