Bruce Wayne: Agent of the SCP Foundation

by MrPerfectCell

Summary:

A story in which the Bruce Wayne of another Earth finds his way to this world and claims control over the entire SCP Foundation. But while much of the world had come to trust both Bruce Wayne and Batman, this new version of the enigmatic crimefighter may have ulterior motives. And it falls upon this reality's Bruce Wayne and other members of the Batfamily to investigate, as they try to circumvent a catastrphe that could send the entire world into total ruin.

Chapter 1: SHADOWS OF THE PAST

“What do you mean Site-19 was purchased? That shouldn’t be possible?!” A middle aged, bespectacled man shouted from behind his desk, visibly irate. On a computer screen staring back at him was a woman of similar age, albeit smaller in stature and with significantly larger glasses.

“That’s what we thought too. But they bypassed all of our security measures, paid off Foundation assets managing our shell companies. To the public, it’s just a research facility. There was nothing we could do.” The woman informed him.

“How? Who has the finances and resources to circumvent every contingency we have in place? Were Foundation agents sent to amnesticize the threat?” The man asked.

“Immediately. We lost contact with Mobile Task Force Gamma-5 at 0500. They hadn’t even had the chance to send a single update, nor to transmit their emergency beacon.” The woman uttered with a cold indifference to her voice.

“Who could have done this?!” The man cried out with fury, slamming his fist on his desk, causing the computer monitor to shake.

“Bruce Wayne.” Came the woman’s only response.

***
A man in a well dressed suit walked into a facility in Portland, Michigan, causing most of the site’s employees to stop dead in their tracks. He stood at six foot-two, with blue eyes and neatly combed, black hair. He was well built, which was plainly visible even through his three-piece suit. The man walked with confidence and bravado, his dress shoes echoing loudly off of the cold, metal floor of the facility. When he finally came to a stop, he was positioned at a front desk, located just inside the facility’s walls.

“Hello, my name’s Bruce Wayne. I’m the new boss. Could you call your Site Director, please?” Bruce asked the man behind the desk, who gulped nervously, as he picked up the landline with a shaky hand.

“Um... sir? Yes sir. Yes, he’s here, what should I... um... yes, sir.” The man said nervously, before setting the phone back on its base with a thud, obviously louder than he’d intended. It took the man several tries to successfully hang up the line. He gulped and pulled at his collar, before looking up to meet Bruce’s expectant gaze.

“J-just a minute, M-Mr. Wayne...” The man stuttered. Bruce only smiled at him, but his gaze still sent a shiver of dread up the man’s spine. The man wished he was anywhere else, as Bruce only continued to smile down at him. Relief sunk into his very being, when a security guard walked over to their location.

“Follow me, sir.” The security guard informed Mr. Wayne, who followed without so much as another word. Before long, the security guard brought Mr. Wayne to a small room and ushered him inside.

“Mr. Hackett will be with you shortly.” The security guard informed Mr. Wayne, before stepping from the room and closing the door. The room was drab, a cold silvery metallic hue covering every surface, including the table in front of Wayne. The constant clicking of the clock, counting down the seconds, might have been enough to drive most people mad. But Bruce Wayne just waited patiently, with his hands folded atop the table’s cold, steel surface. The seconds turned into minutes, as the clock counted by, the only sign of the passage of time.

Before long, Bruce Wayne rubbed his head, his eyes giving signs of ever growing fatigue. His eyes became gradually more unfocused and his head lowered more and more, until his forehead touched the cold metal of the table. Just a few seconds later, as if on cue, the door opened and two figures stepped into the room. They both sported similar uniforms to his earlier escort and bore the same organization logo: three arrows pointing inward into a perfect circle, spaced exactly to divide the area between them into thirds, with the uppermost arrow’s back portion aiming directly north, and with an outline drawn around the entirety of the symbol, approximating its shape. One of the guards moved over to Bruce and placed her fingers on his neck, checking for a pulse.

“He’s out. Let’s get this over with.” She told the man who withdrew a syringe from a pack he carried and let out a small portion of fluid to expel any excess air from the needle. The man approached the still downed Bruce Wayne and moved the syringe toward his neck. Suddenly, Bruce sprang up from the table and grabbed the man’s arm in a vice-like grip. He used the man’s own weight to redirect his arm, stabbing the needle into the woman’s neck and pushing the plunger, turning her scream into a gargled moan, before she hit the table hard. The man tried to shout, but Bruce grabbed his throat with his free hand and squeezed.

“My, my, what was in that syringe? Was that just for me?” Bruce asked with a menacing tone. In response, the guard swung a fist and struck Bruce across the cheek. He followed up with a kick, causing Bruce to stagger and allowing the man to stumble backwards, until his back collided with the door. He went for his gun, but Bruce calmly raised his arm and a green mist shot from his sleeve, covering the man’s face. When the mist dissipated, the man looked on at Bruce with shock.

Bruce Wayne just smiled back at the guard, one of his blue eyes now a deep green, one of his contacts laying on the floor at his feet. The man had begun to perspire greatly, his heart rate skyrocketing. He gripped his chest, as his world began to blur. Then, suddenly, the man began to laugh; and laugh. What might have first been mistaken for panicked laughter quickly escalated into full on psychosis, as the man gripped his chest and gut in unison.

It wasn’t more than another moment, before the door busted wide open and no less than four guards aimed their handguns at Bruce. They then turned with horror to their comrades; one laying half awake, draped over the table, and the other in a state of absolute manic laughter. The woman on the table had a vacant expression on her face, her eyes wide and unfocused, a line of drool leaking from the corner of her mouth. “What can I say? I think she might have taken a little too much of... what is it you were going to give me, now?” Bruce asked the guards, unfazed by the weapons aimed at him.

The other guard continued to step around the room in a fit of uncontrollable laughter, before dropping to his knees. In a jerking, twisting motion, the man popped his head to the side with a violent crack and snap, before dropping lifeless to the ground, at his comrades’ feet. The color had drained from the other guards’ faces, as they watched one of their own break his own neck in a fit of hysteria. Through it all, Bruce Wayne didn’t lose his wicked, mocking smile. “Well... I believe you were about to show me to my new office. Please... lead the way.” Bruce said through his vile grin, lips pulling back to expose a wicked, toothy smile.

***
Jason Todd walked into the Batcave, to find Batman already typing intensely at his computer’s keyboard. “Why did you call me? Is it past your new protege’s bedtime?” Jason asked snarkily, before looking to his side. Standing there, staring daggers at him, was a young girl in her early teens. Her hair was black, with a streak of red down the left side, and her eyes were light blue in color. She was adorned in a red and green costume reminiscent of the hero partner often seen accompanying Batman, known as ‘Robin’.

“Where’d you find this one, Bruce?” Jason spoke in the same condescending tone, eliciting a grunt of anger from the girl.

“I’M right here, asshole.” She said to Jason, who was momentarily taken aback by the girl’s sharp tongue.

“Well, pardon me then. Do you know what he’s gotten you into?” Jason asked.

“I can make my own decisions. What’s this supposed to be anyway? Some sorta leather fetish?” She asked, gesturing to Jason’s biker gear and his red full face helmet.

“The name’s Red Hood. Maybe when you’re old enough to drive, I’ll let you borrow the bike.” Came Jason’s retort.

“Enough kids, play nice.” Batman said without looking over from his computer monitor.

Both Jason and Robin walked over toward him and looked at the screen. On display was a number of financial transactions and files pertaining to several businesses and other assets. “What is all this? Jason asked in confusion.

“Nearly two billion dollars USD were appropriated from Wayne Enterprises and used in the purchase of a number of small companies, leading to the acquisition of a large research facility located in Portland, Michigan.” Batman told them.

“Someone stole from you? Who’d have the nerve?” Jason asked with incredulity in his voice.

“The purchases were authorized by Bruce Wayne.” Batman informed him, which made Jason pause for a long moment, before responding.

“YOU’RE Bruce Wayne.” Jason finally said in bewilderment.

“And yet, these aren’t purchases I’ve signed off on. But whoever did has managed to circumvent every attempt at a trace of their location. They’re good.” Batman informed them.

“As good as you?” Robin asked with equal measures of doubt and apprehension in her voice.

“It seems so. Jason, I want you and Carrie to head to Portland, Michigan to investigate. With discretion. Jason.” Bruce said.

“What? I can be discreet.” Jason said indignantly, which made Carrie smile at him teasingly.

“Don’t start, birdgirl.” Jason snapped at her, before walking back toward his bike. Without so much as another word, Carrie followed close behind Jason.

***
A woman walked into ‘Bruce Wayne’s’ office, her jacket sporting the telltale ‘SCP Foundation’ logo on the upper left shoulder. “Have you found him yet?” Bruce asked without looking up from a small handheld device he was tinkering with. On a holographic projection being emitted from the small device was the display of a city street in total ruin. Then, it flipped to a fully intact city, albeit one sporting what she could tell were identical landmarks. Only after a long moment of silence did Bruce look up from his work.

“Um... n-no, sir. Arthur Hackett has fled the facility. We’ve been unable to locate him.” She answered nervously. Bruce just shrugged with indifference, before tinkering with the device some more. After a tense few moments, Bruce held up the device and aimed it toward the woman. She flinched when he pushed the button, but the created beam landed directly beside her, opening up a rift to another place.

“W-what is that?” She asked as Bruce got up from his seat and walked toward her and the rift. He smiled at her, the disturbing grin sending a shiver of fear up her spine.

“What do you know of the multiverse?” Bruce answered her question with another question.

“You... you can't be serious?” She uttered, staring at the rift in awe.

“Rarely. But I am a man of my word. An endless sea of universes, parallel worlds. And you Foundation stooges sit on your hands and try to keep the potential bottled up. You say it’s for the greater good. But so many of your pets could be incapacitated and locked away were the light fears to dwell. No, you crave knowledge and power more than you do the safety of those insects. I’m here to bring that darkness to light.” Bruce said with a wicked grin, the eerie purple glow of the rift reflecting in the brown of his eyes.

“Wh-what did you call ME for?” She asked. In a split second, he grabbed her around the upper arm and lifted her from the ground with just his own natural strength. A man burst into the office, just as he tossed the woman into the portal. They both watched as she made it through, only for the unstable vortex to rip her apart, leaving a splatter of blood on the sidewalk at the other end, causing that world’s civilians to enter into a frenzied panic.

“Hmm... needs more work.” Bruce said matter of factly. He then turned to the horrified man still looking at the portal, as it winked out of existence.

“You, um... you know we have D-Class for, um... for tests?” He finally choked out.

“D-Class?” Bruce asked.

“Y-yeah. D-disposable. Criminals and, uh... others. Homeless people, sometimes orphans. Undesirables, people no one would miss.” The man explained. After a moment, Bruce’s curious gaze again twisted into an amused smirk.

“You’re all disposable. Did you bring me what I asked for?” Bruce uttered with indifference, making the man shudder in place.

“Y-yes, sir. I don’t know why you’ve asked for this. But here you go.” The man wheeled a large metal case in from behind him. Bruce rubbed his fingers over the cold steel, before unlatching the case and swinging its lid open. What he saw inside was a fragment of ceramic depicting three Greek muses. On a plate on the inside of the case was the designation ‘SCP-960’. He reached out and was about to touch the vase when the man stopped him.

“WAIT! If you touch that, it’ll inspire you. But it’ll drive you mad. You’ll become obsessive, insane!” The man warned. At his warning, Bruce only smiled and began to laugh maniacally.

“Hahahahahaha! That’s okay, I’m already a bit mad.” Bruce finished his hand’s journey and touched the surface of the ceramic, as his eyes widened with sudden insight.

“Hey, I’m going to need your help with something!” Bruce suddenly declared, as he reached up his hand, moving it over the man’s shoulder to push the office door closed.

***
On a barren world, ravaged by an ice age, a large mechanical device stood, counting down to its impending activation. It was one of the only two signs of civilization on the entire glacial world. The other was a man standing within feet of the device. He was clad in an advanced armor, slate gray in color. On his chest was a stylized ‘o’ and his cape was cut into metallic plates to give the impression of feathers.

The man had the chance to deactivate the Quantum Eigenstate Device, the Q.E.D., a bomb capable of drawing power from the quantum realm in order to destroy an entire universe. He stared at the blinking screen for a long moment, before smiling.

“It doesn’t matter.” The man said with indifference. The moment the bomb began its detonation, a portal appeared underneath the man and he fell into the aperture. Not a second after the portal faded away, the bomb exploded, eradicating the frozen Earth’s reality in its entirety.

When awareness of his surroundings slammed back into him, the man got to his feet and looked around. “Who are you?” He asked of his unseen rescuer.

“Don’t you recognize me? Brother.” Bruce walked out of the shadows with a wide grin.

“You... you’re not HIM.” The man declared.

“No, I am not. I am neither the Batman you knew, nor your long deceased brother. But my interests and yours align. For the most part. This world’s Batman has allowed it to be swallowed by chaos. That’s where you, Owlman, come in. I’ve seen the way forward. Together, we can finish what you started. However, your methods were misguided. The destruction of that other place, your so-called ‘Earth Prime’, would have destroyed a few worlds. But there is another world, more closely connected to EVERY universe, every multiverse, in this grand tapestry. An Omniverse. I will help you find it. And I will help you bring all of this to an end.” Bruce declared.

Owlman was silent for a long moment, before he took a more relaxed posture and smiled. “So, where should we begin?” Owlman asked coldly.

Chapter 2: A FAMILY REUNION

A nondescript black van with tinted windows rolled through the quiet streets of Elk Grove, Michigan, earning the stares of a few of its residents, who were unused to such an occurrence. A few murmurs between townsfolk about what the 'feds' are doing in their town echoed around, but the civilians quickly lost interest. The van stopped in a secluded area of the town and two suited figures emerged from their vehicle. Each of them wore a badge on their left shoulder with a symbol on it, the symbol of the SCP Foundation. The figures walked into an alley and laid a briefcase down on the ground.

With the unclasping of locks, one of the suits opened the briefcase, with a brilliant light that came from an internal lighting system that kept the contents at bay. From the briefcase crawled a number of creatures, slithering and scurrying as they touched natural ground for maybe the first time in their lives. Superficially, they resembled Scolopendra Gigantea, or the Amazonian Giant Centipede. There were six in total, each one at least a foot long; they were members of SCP-363, ominously known as 'Not Centipedes'. The pair of Foundation agents watched as the creatures crawled into the shadows, scurrying into the nooks and crevices of nearby buildings, knowing what was about to happen; after all, these creatures thrived in the darkness.

***
Ashley J. Williams was at his local tavern, downing his latest glass of cheap beer. "One more, barkeep." Ash said, pointing to his glass, which earned an eye roll from the only mildly annoyed bartender. Despite his boisterous attitude, Ash was reasonably well dressed, wearing a neat button up blue shirt tucked into a pair of khaki pants and a pair of brown dress shoes. His hair was black and combed neatly back, he had dark brown eyes and stood at about six-foot-one.

From behind Ash walked a woman with turquoise hair and green eyes. She put her arms around his neck and smiled. "Wanna get outta here? Not that I don't enjoy your quaint little town. But how about I take us on a little trip?" The woman asked teasingly.

"You don't haveta ask me twice." Ash said, spinning one hundred and eighty degrees in his barstool, to face her. Aside from her unusual hair color, she looked more or less typical of any other human. She wore a black high neck crop top that stopped just above her ribcage, a black skirt, a pair of purple stockings with a web motif on them, and a pair of black high heeled shoes. Ash stood up from the stool and the two leaned in for a passionate kiss.

She normally stood at five-foot-eight, but with her heels, she rose to an inch over Ash in height. She might have looked human, but both she and Ash knew she was anything but. In truth, Morrigan Aensland was a demon; a succubus to be more specific. As they walked from the bar, they passed a table where an older man sat.

"Hey pop, gonna go on a little tip. See ya later." Ash said with a wave.

"Take care. Keep in touch. And stay out of trouble, will you." The man said.

"Oh, I'll take care of him. You be well yourself, Mr. Williams." Morrigan told him.

"Please, call me Brock. We're practically family at this point." Brock Williams said, which made both her and Ash smile.

Ash's father had raised an eyebrow when Ash confessed that his new love was a demon, considering what their town had been through over the years. But Morrigan had quickly become well liked by their tight knit community and it didn't take long for even the gruff, elderly Brock Williams to warm up to her. He often made not so subtle hints about wanting to see the pair marry. But Ash and Morrigan were happy with things just the way they were. A silly little human tradition or not wouldn't change how they felt about each other, Morrigan thought to herself.

The pair walked out of the tavern doors, Morrigan's body shifting only slightly, to produce a small pair of bat-like wings from her back, emerging through her clothing. She gripped Ash tight and was prepared to fly them both into the night sky, when they both felt a small tremor beneath their feet.

"That's strange, Michigan doesn't usually have earthquakes..." Ash said in mild confusion, before shrugging it off. "Probably noth-" He tried to add, before another, stronger earthquake followed, nearly knocking him and Morrigan off their feet. A bar patron walking out behind them stumbled backwards, their back hitting the doorframe with an audible thud.

"Okay, I think... it's over..." Ash said tentatively, putting his hands out, both to steady himself and for emphasis. As if on cue, another series of rumbles began and the ground under their feet began to crack. The ground began to rise into a small hill between Ash, Morrigan and the bar patron.

"Watch out!" Ash said, diving forward and tackling the frightened patron back into the bar, with Morrigan flying in a split second after him.

No sooner had they passed the threshold, when a massive creature burst forth from the concrete below. The bar patrons, already visibly shaken by the tremors, stood by in abject fear at the massive creature that sprang forth. It was still mostly still outside, but what was visible through the now cracked door frame churned his stomach. Brown skin and numerous crawling legs, even what looked to be a number of tentacles; Ash wasn't sure he wanted to see the rest of it. The bar patrons and staff began to panic; but Ash was already withdrawing a sawed off shotgun.

"Alright, people. I need you to move to the back of the bar and remain calm." Ash said with an attempted showing of confidence. As he gestured for the people to get back, his father walked over to him.

"Ash, what's going on?" Brock asked him with fear in his voice.

"I don't know dad. But they're not demons. I think I know where they came from. Look, I need you to help me keep these people calm." Ash told his father.

With a nod, Brock Williams turned around and began ushering people to the back. "You heard him folks, move back, get back!" Ash heard his father saying as he once more faced the monstrosity. Morrigan was already at the ready, looking at him with a resolute nod. Before either of them attacked, the creature moved down, until it was peering into the building; with a cluster of large, deep black eyes, that reflected Ash and Morrigan in their sight.

Without another moment's hesitation, Ash raised his artificial right hand and fired a repulsor blast from the palm, aimed at the cluster of eyes. The creature immediately let out an ear splitting screech, as the soft tissue exploded in a spray of green viscera. The beast backed away from the door, as the wailing grew more faint. Both Morrigan and Ash ran outside to see that the creature had risen up into the sky, its serpent-like body stretching nearly thirty-three feet in length and with even a width that was taller than the both of them, measuring at six and a half feet. Along the length of its body, it had dozens of long, scurrying legs and thrashing tentacles, and black clusters in random places that Ash realized, with a queasy feeling, were patches of eyes.

It looked like a centipede; only it was decidedly NOT a centipede. The creature seemed to recover after a moment, looking down at the pair. It was salivating through clamping mandibles, as it let out a deep hiss. In an instant, it thrust its head down to attack the pair. Ash rolled out of the way and Morrigan took to the sky, as the creature slammed into the pavement.

Morrigan landed on the creature's head, her wings forming blades, as she pierced the creature's skull. Ash fired at its side with the shotgun, causing a break in the skin, but not seeming to faze it. The beast lashed its head back and forth and tossed Morrigan off. Before her blades could shift back into wings, she dropped to the pavement with a crack of the ground. Morrigan got to her feet and Ash shot her a look of worry, before speaking. "Well, THAT didn't work."

Morrigan looked behind her, movement catching her eye, when her heart sank. "Um, Ash, we have a problem." She said.

"Bigger than-?" Ash stopped his question of incredulity when he followed Morrigan's gaze and looked behind him, to see similar creatures all over the town. "Aw, crap." He added with a look of frustration.

They both looked back forward just in time to see the creature they were fighting moving down for another attempt at crushing or eating them; Ash wasn't sure. Ash and Morrigan both managed to again dodge out of the way in opposite directions, as the creature slammed again into the street below. With only a moment's thought, Ash ran up the beast's back, already removing his gauntlet and attaching his chainsaw arm. Morrigan gave him a nod of understanding. As the creature rose back up, she sent her wings, turning into spiked chains, into the creature's neck, holding it from rising up all the way.

The creature was noticeably agitated and made a move to approach Morrigan, when Ash pulled the string on his arm, his chainsaw revving to life. He then stuck the blade into the same wound Morrigan had made and began to cut left and right. As the creature attempted to rise again, Morrigan did the same thing, enlarging her blades and sawing at the creature from below. In just a matter of moments, the creature's head fell off and hit the ground with a massive thud. Ash tumbled from the beast's body when it too hit the pavement and staggered to his feet.

"Uh, just... five more times?" Ash said in a defeated voice, as he tried to count the creatures. Before Morrigan or he could move further into town, Brock emerged from the bar.

"Is it safe?" Brock asked hopefully.

"No, dad, go back in, please!" Ash barked, but it was too late; Brock had seen the other creatures attacking the town not too far from where they stood. Ash and Morrigan began to walk toward them when a shout stopped them.

"Wait! I want to help. This is my town too. I know these people, they're some of the best people I know. They'd do the same for me." Brock pleaded and Ash looked hesitant, before nodding at his frightened, but resolute father.

"Okay. Get your car. Grab anyone you find and bring them back here. If need be, plan an evacuation of the town." Ash said and Brock nodded, before running to his truck.

Ash and Morrigan arrived in the epicenter of Elk Grove just in time to watch a still screaming man be picked up in one of the creatures' pairs of massive mandibles, before being crushed and swallowed, nearly whole. Morrigan flew into the sky toward one of the creatures, while Ash sprinted toward the one that had just eaten someone. It was already moving back down toward the ground, as if it were looking for something. When Ash got close enough, he could see what it was after. The creature was eyeing the inside of another building, where a group of frightened people were hiding.

Ash reared back and let loose a slash with his chainsaw, along the length of the creature's body. Along with cutting a gaping slit in its side, Ash lopped off several of its 'arms' in the process. The creature turned and roared at Ash angrily. Ash just smirked and raised his shotgun. When the beast got within spitting distance of Ash, he pulled the trigger, firing into the creature's mouth and blowing apart its skull and upper jaw in a single blast.

"Hello to you too, pal." Ash said smugly, before ejecting the spent shells of his shotgun and reloading. Brock pulled up, already with several people loaded into the seats and back of his truck.

"Get in!" Brock said to the people in the building and they rushed out to crawl into Brock's truck. "Be. Careful." Brock emphasized to Ash, before peeling away as fast as he could.

In the skies above, Morrigan summoned a flurry of shadowy bat constructs that attacked the serpentine monster, causing it to flail about in confusion and fury. Morrigan dropped down, her wings forming a single long blade over her head, which chopped downward, severing the beast partly in half vertically. The creature fell dead, its two halves peeling to each side, as its green viscera leaked out. Morrigan looked on with sadness, seeing the remains of several partially digested people within. Before she could dwell on it too much, Ash ran up to her side.

"Well, damn." Was all he could say.

"How'd you do?" She asked him.

"One down, three to go." He said proudly. "And dad is still getting people to safety." He added.

"Hold on." Morrigan said, as she grabbed onto Ash. She felt him tense up, before she took into the skies once more, with a flap of her wings. They didn't have to travel far, before one of the creatures located them and lunged up into the sky, trying to grab them in its mandibles. Morrigan ducked to the side, narrowly dodging the creature's bite.

"I see another one. A bit further away, trying to get into another building. It's like they can sense where people are somehow." Morrigan said.

"Put me down on that roof down there. Then help them. I'll take care'a this guy." Ash said, gesturing to a several stories tall building just below them. Morrigan flew lower, dodging another lunge by the monster, before letting go of Ash. Ash curled up and tumbled as he hit the ground, rolling until he came to a stop. He nodded up to Morrigan, who returned the nod, before flying off to the next creature.

Before Ash had time to take a breath, the creature rose up until it was looking at him with dozens of black, beady eyes. "Hey, any chance you wanna talk this out?" Ash said half jokingly, only to receive a hissing in response. "Guess not." He added.

He fired his gun, hitting one of the creature's eye clusters, causing it to roar out, before lunging at him. Ash aimed his artificial hand at the ground and fired, propelling himself into the sky and causing the beast to slam into the roof of the building. Ash tumbled to the ground in a roll, as the ceiling began to crack and crumble from the impact. Ash began to slide toward the center of the roof, as it caved in, straight toward the creature. When he got close, he aimed his chainsaw downward and the blade plunged into the creature's flesh.

The creature let out a roar, as Ash carved into it mercilessly. Eventually, the roof gave way and Ash and the creature both plummeted to ground level, Ash only partly cushioned by the beast's spongy and slimy skin. When Ash pulled his now off chainsaw from the creature's body and stood up, his shirt was covered in the creature's signature green blood. The creature lay dead, partly buried by the debris that had fallen on top of it. It wasn't moving, Ash realized with a sigh of relief.

Before Ash could leave, he looked over and saw a group of frightened townsfolk, clustered together and shaking in fear. "It's okay, we're, uh... dealing with the problem. We'll have these pests gone or your money back." Ash joked to break the tension.

A beeping rang out and the illumination of headlights could be seen from outside. "Okay, everyone step around the nasty worm thing and my dad will take you to safety. Remain calm, but, uh... hurry." Ash said and people began to file out of the wrecked building. Ash followed them, nodding to his dad, as the people got into his truck. Ash and the people suddenly looked back, as the creature started to rise once more.

Ash equipped his repulsor hand and charged up a shot, before blasting the creature in its head. The blast blew the creature's face further into the building and caused the building to lose what remaining structural integrity it had and collapse onto the massive monster. Ash and his father exchanged one last glance, before Brock Williams peeled off down the street.

Ash looked into the sky to see Morrigan flying through the air, dodging the creature's lunges with speed and grace. Her clothing shifted as needed, creating chains and blades to cut at the creature's hide. Bit by bit, she bled the creature, until it finally collapsed dead on the ground. She landed back on the ground, just as Ash was walking up to her.

"That just leaves-" Morrigan began, before the sound of crashing and screeching tires could be heard several blocks away.

"One." Ash finished the thought with a look of worry on his face. Morrigan quickly grabbed him and flew them both into the air, toward the sound of chaos.

Brock Williams was driving his latest group of townspeople to the bar to keep them safe, when one of the creatures tried to cut them off. He managed to turn quickly and peel down another street. But the creature was fast on their trail. People hung onto the truck bed, as he raced away from the beast as fast as his vehicle could carry them. Brock was sure the creature was seconds from devouring them all when, suddenly, a missile shot out over the truck, impacting the creature dead on.

The explosion caused the creature to roar in pain and pull back, rising into the sky. Brock saw a jet black vehicle stop directly in front of them and the roof slide open. From within the car, a dark cloaked figure emerged; it was Batman. Batman aimed his grappling gun into the air and latched onto the side of a nearby building. The creature recovered and roared at the now airborne Batman, the side of its head missing.

Batman hurled three batarangs at the creature, which imbedded themselves into its flesh. Then, all at once, the batarangs exploded, blowing off more of the creature's hide and causing it to finally fall dead. Batman landed on the ground moments after the creature had, looking it over with an expression of interest and concern on his face.

"Are you alright?" Batman turned to ask Brock, as he got out of his truck.

"We're fine. I need to find my son, Ash." Brock said.

"Where's your son?" Batman asked. As if on cue, Ash and Morrigan appeared overhead and lowered to land on the ground. Brock immediately ran over to hug Ash despite the green coating his shirt. After a moment of heartfelt reunion, they broke the hug and Brock looked at Ash.

"I, uh... I'm glad you're alright." Brock said.

"I'm glad you're okay too, dad." Ash responded, before looking over at Batman.

"Hey, thanks for saving my dad, Bats." Ash said. Batman looked over at Ash, before looking down at his artificial hand.

"That's Stark technology." He said simply.

"It is. Was. In another timeline. Zombies. He didn't need it anymore. Uh... long story." Ash told Batman.

After a moment of silence where Batman seemed to just study Ash, he finally spoke. "I'm sure." Came his response.

"So, what brings you all the way out to Elk Grove? Here for the scenery?" Ash asked.

"I sent Robin here with Red Hood to investigate a facility that was flagged as suspicious on my computer system. A facility located in Portland, Michigan. Then police chatter in the area reported odd occurrences taking place in Elk Grove, Michigan. I figured it wasn't a coincidence." Batman explained.

"Portland? Oh no... I know the place? That's not good..." Ash said glumly.

"The other timeline?" Batman asked.

"Uh... yeah." Ash confirmed.

Batman looked Ash over, noting the blood on his clothes, before showing a minor flash of displeasure across his face. "Get in. You can explain on the way." Batman told Ash.

"Uh, sorry... I'll pay to have it cleaned." Ash said, as he followed Batman over to the Batmobile.

"It's fine." Batman said, leaping into the driver's seat. Ash made a small hop, jumping into the passenger's seat behind him.

"Pop, help anyone else who might need it." Ash said to Brock, who nodded in agreement. "Hey, you getting in?" Ash added, this time speaking to Morrigan.

"You know I can fly, right?" She said with a smile.

"Yeah, but it's the batmobile." Ash said enthusiastically.

"Hmm. Boys and their toys. Alright, I guess my wings could use a rest." She said and fluttered up, before slowly gliding back down into the seat next to Ash. Batman pushed a button and, in a few seconds, the roof closed and the Batmobile pulled back onto the road and sped off.

"You're a demon." Batman said matter of factly in regards to Morrigan.

"I am. A succubus. Is that a problem?" She asked.

"No. I've worked with demons before." He told her. "What's in store when we arrive?" He followed up with a question.

"Nothing good. If it's the same as before, they keep lotsa nasty things there. People, things, even monsters. All with something dangerous or weird about them. They're called the SCP Foundation and they lock up and do weird experiments on weirder things. I met Red Hood in that other timeline too. But he won't remember. He, uh... died." Ash explained.

Batman said nothing in response, processing everything that he'd been told. As the Batmobile peeled off into the darkness, he wondered just what they were walking into.

Chapter 3: FROM THE DARKNESS, IT GROWS

Jason and Carrie had arrived in Portland and taken a position on a rooftop directly across from the recently purchased facility. They both looked through sets of binoculars, at the building, seeing no signs of movement.

"Eerie... where is everyone? Shouldn't there be guards or something?" Carrie asked.

"There should. So where is everybody?" Jason asked rhetorically.

"They all headed inside a few minutes before you got here. Nobody's come back out yet." A voice told them and Jason and Carrie spun around to see a man in a suit not unlike Robin's, except his was almost entirely red and black and his cape was somewhat longer.

"Who're you?" Carrie asked.

"Tim." Jason said with an air of familiarity.

"Name's Tim.. Tim Drake. I'm sorta your predecessor. Now I go by Red Robin. Batman called and I was close to this place, so I offered to check it out. He's coming too, but he got held up. Something about giant centipedes." Tim explained.

"Of course he did." Jason said with indifference, as he returned to surveying the building.

"Should we wait for him?" Carrie asked.

"Maybe. But I'm not much for waiting." Jason said.

Before anyone could respond to his words, Jason withdrew his grapple gun and cast a line, before scaling it down to street level.

"Of course you aren't." Tim said, which made Carrie chuckle, before the two of them cast their own lines, following Jason to the ground.

They approached the building from the shadows, putting their years of stealth training to the test. But they encountered no opposition, not a soul they had to avoid or a guard they had to maneuver around. The trio approached the frontmost doors and Jason reached for a small explosive charge in one of his satchels. Tim stopped him and gently pushed on the door, causing it to swing open.

"That's concerning." Jason said simply.

After just a moment of hesitation, they walked into the building. Jason had his gun drawn, while Carrie and Tim had their own weapons, on their belts, at the ready. the lights were out in the front lobby, with not another soul in sight. Even what looked like a help desk in the center of the room was vacant. The trio approached an elevator, the doors of which were wide open.

They approached the elevator and Tim aimed a flashlight, casting the dim beam of light through the open doorway. The elevator wasn't on the ground floor and the light revealed the cables and inner workings of the elevator shaft. Shining the light, first up and then down, revealed that the elevator car was at least twenty meters below them.

"Going down?" Carrie said, peering over to look down the shaft.

Jason just looked at her briefly, before casting his line above, hooking onto the elevator's cables. He then propelled himself down. Without another word, Tim and Carrie followed suit. When they got to the bottom, they landed atop the stationary elevator car. Jason popped the service hatch from the roof and, one by one, they dropped into the elevator car.

Once inside, they saw that the elevator doors on this level were still closed. It was easy enough to pry the doors open and, once they had, they found themselves in a long, metallic hallway; and part of them instantly wished they hadn't. The walls were covered in blood, and several bodies, with several of each dressed in security and laboratory uniforms respectively. Most of the bodies were intact; but one of the security guards was in several pieces, its intestines partly spilling from the corpse.

"What the Hell happened here?" Tim asked in horror; while Jason and Carrie remained silent, having no way to answer his question.

They walked carefully through the halls, trying as carefully as they could to step around the bits of gore all around them. After what felt like several minutes of walking, they came to a more open area with a number of doors. Each of the doors had a string of characters etched into the steel, beginning with the letters 'SCP', a dash and followed by a string of three or four numbers. The numbers seemed to follow some loose sequence, based on those they could see, but not all numbers in a sequence were present. Each of them tried several of the doors, but all were locked; it seemed the keypad near each door was still powered by some sort of backup energy supply.

The trio kept walking, until they spotted another room, this one lacking a door entirely. Cautiously, they approached the room and peered inside. Jason was the first to cross the threshold and was immediately met with gunfire from a 9mm pistol. The shot nearly hit his helmet, causing him to duck on instinct and point his gun at the corner of the room where the shot came from. Jason saw a figure, just as they crouched down behind the armrest of a nearby couch.

"Easy, we're not here to hurt you. We're here to help." Jason told the person.

Very slowly, the person emerged from hiding, her breaths coming in rapid pants, clearly in a state of fear and panic. Carrie and Tim entered the room behind Jason, putting their hands up to show that they meant no harm. Jason also lowered his gun and put up his other hand.

"We're here to help." Jason repeated, more calmly this time.

The woman looked over the trio, before visibly calming down. She had brown hair, blue eyes and a slender frame. She wore a black top and tan pants, with a white lab coat over the top.

"Y-you're vigilantes?" She asked, recognizing them from their reputations.

"I'm Robin, this is Red Robin and Red Hood. Batman sent us. What happened here?" Carrie asked.

"Bruce Wayne happened. He went crazy. Then he got his hands on 960 and somehow got worse..." She told them.

"Nine-Sixty?" Tim asked.

"SCP-960. One of the... items we have here. It..." She suddenly stopped short in her explanation.

"Look, whatever you have going on here: if you don't tell us, we won't be able to help." Jason said with a hint of frustration in his voice.

"Okay... we contain anomalous items and lifeforms. One of them, a ceramic fragment found in Greece, SCP-960, it... it gives people inspiration. It follows the same progression of insights each and every time. But after nine creations, the work becomes more sinister." She told them.

"Well, this DOES look pretty sinister." Carrie said.

"That's just it, he began acting erratically immediately. The supplies he asked for, they were sometimes... people. Sometimes D-Class. But other times researchers, security or even administrative staff." She elaborated.

"D-Class?" Came Jason's query.

"Uh... we sometimes use former prison inmates with life sentences as... lab assistants..." She choked out.

"You mean you experiment on inmates." Jason said, more a declaration of disapproval than a question, causing the woman to avert her eyes in shame.

"Look, we'll help you get out of here. But then we're going to do something about this place. Hand it to someone who can keep the dangerous stuff in. Trust us. I'm Tim. What's your name?" Tim asked her.

His volunteering of even just his first name caused Jason to glare at him disapprovingly; but Tim just ignored him.

"I'm... L-Lara. Doctor Lara Green..." She finally managed to choke out.

"Those doors are locked. Any chance you can help with that?" Jason asked succinctly.

"Don't open those! Many of them are dangerous. Maybe even worse than HIM..." She told him. "I'll help you get through the facility. If you promise to get us out of here. Most of the people here are good people. We just do what we have to..." She added.

"We'll help. Then we'll turn you over to the authorities. Let them take care of the rest. Maybe you'll end up working for this organization again someday. As a D-Class." Jason threatened, before walking from the room.

Tim gave her a somewhat apologetic look, before gesturing for her to follow them. After a moment of hesitation, she started walking and followed Tim and Carrie out into the hall.

"Which way?" Jason asked coldly.

Before Lara could answer him, the ground of the facility rumbled and the emergency lights flickered. Then, a loud crashing sound filled the halls from some distant place and the lights died. Then, all at once, a series of clicking could be heard, just before a series of dim, red lights kicked on.

"Okay, what the Hell was that?!" Jason asked in a growl.

"Oh no... something overloaded several of the redundancies. We're down to our last few emergency generators... all the doors have unlocked..." Lara told them, fear evident in her voice.

"Yeah, that's not good." Tim uttered.

"That's not all... as a contingency, if the power reaches past the point of being able to maintain the outer seal, to prevent a full breach, the last reserves of power will be used by the automated systems to detonate a nuclear device directly underneath us." Lara told them.

"Well, that's fucking great!" Jason barked angrily.

"Maybe we should get outta here, call in reinforcements." Carrie suggested.

"We can't! If the perimeter is breached, they'll get loose!" Lara pleaded.

"It won't matter. We got in because the doors were all unlocked. It seems like someone disabled all outer defenses." Tim told her.

"No..." Lara said in utter despair.

"Look, we have friends coming and we've dealt with this kind of thing before. Keep it together and help us disable the nuke. And we'll reestablish containment." Jason told her.

"Trust us. We're the good guys." Carrie said, managing to offer a smile.

This seemed to convince Lara, who nodded in agreement. She walked ahead of the group, down a darkened hallway. The trio set off behind her, Tim shining his flashlight to help see where they were going. After a short while, they came to a wide open room that looked almost like a prison. Many of the doors were open and the inhabitants missing; but some of the rooms were still tightly sealed.

They walked over to one of the open rooms and Lara walked around to look at the etching on its front. The others followed suit and, before long, all of them could read the phrase; it read 'SCP-682'.

"That's not good..." Lara said.

"You mean compared to ANY of this?" Jason snapped.

"It's a beast that can adapt to any threat with no limit that we've found. And a disdain for all life." She told them.

"Not good, but we've faced worse." Tim said flippantly, which made Lara look at him in mild surprise.

They kept walking, until they came to one of the still closed rooms. This one being one of several rooms not connected to the building, but rather more like a large steel crate bolted shut and to the floor beneath. It looked reinforced and had what looked like rather advanced tech attached to it in several places. On the front of the door, right under a small viewing window, was the designation 'SCP-799-FM'.

"What's this one?" Carrie asked.

"I don't know. This is new. He must've contained something AFTER he got here." She said.

"Well, whatever it is, it can't be good if he didn't let it out. If some of them are still locked up, that means keeping these on the remaining generator was intentional." Tim added.

"Let's find out." Jason said and moved to slide open the viewing window.

Lara reached to stop him, but was too late. Inside, he saw a man sitting on a bench. The man got up and walked toward the door.

"You?" Jason said in sudden recognition.

When the man reached the small window, Tim's eyes also widened in recognition.

"Barry Allen. The Flash." Jason said.

"Hey, Jason, how've you been? Mind letting me out of here?" Barry asked.

"No... you're not him." Jason said, seeing the side of Barry's face, which was badly scarred.

"Got me. But in so many ways... I am..." He said with a smile and a wicked glint in his eye.

Chapter 4: INTO THE DEEP

"What are you?" Jason asked.

"Oh, I'm Barry Allen. Just a bit... darker. A remnant of a discarded timeline." He responded.

"How did you get here?" Carrie asked.

"I'm not really sure, honestly. I remember traveling back in time to aid my past self, being injured. And then, somehow, I was dragged here. As if by some sort of magnet. It drained my powers. By the time I got them back, this box had power dampeners affixed to it. A little help?" He asked.

"Sorry. I don't trust you." Jason said and moved to slide the window back closed.

"You'll need me to make it out alive." Barry said, before Jason shut the window.

The group began walking again, with Jason saying nothing, as the others followed. Lara guided them, as they rounded the corner and into another, nearly identical corridor.

Behind them, a figure moved in the shadows and attached a small device to the keypad on Barry's cell.

"Hey, maybe we should have-" Tim began, but Jason put up his hand, cutting off his words.

Jason drew his gun and spun around, prompting Lara, Tim and Carrie to quickly move out of the way. But Jason lowered the weapon when he saw Batman standing in the hallway.

"Took you long enough." Jason said.

"Sorry, I had to make a stop." Batman responded.

"I see that. Who're you guys?" Tim asked, noting the two people who walked up behind Batman.

"I'm Ashley J. Williams." Ash responded.

"And you can call me Morrigan." Morrigan introduced herself.

"Hey there, I'm uh, Robin and these are Red Hood and Red Robin. We're friends of Batman's. Oh, and this is a doctor here, named Lara." Carrie introduced herself and the others.

"Hey, any friend of Bats is a friend of mine." Ash said, earning a glare from Batman.

"We should get moving." Jason said impatiently.

"Hey, Jason, relax. We got plenty of time." Ash said.

"How do you know my name?" Jason demanded.

"Uh... another timeline. We kinda worked together. Only you... died." Ash explained.

"I'll try not to make a habit of it." Jason commented coldly. "And, as a matter of fact, we don't have plenty of time. According to Lara here, as a contingency, the moment the last of the power drains, a nuke will go off under our feet." Jason added.

"That's, uh... not good." Ash said.

"We need to divide into groups, or we won't have time to find the culprit, disable the device and prevent a cataclysmic breach." Batman said succinctly.

"I'm the only one who knows the way around." Lara explained.

"I'll manage. You should continue with Lara toward the warhead and attempt to disable it and divert reestablish containment capabilities. We'll move ahead to try and locate the culprit." Batman said.

"The guy's name is Bruce Wayne." Lara told him.

Batman just looked at her for a moment before responding. "He's an imposter. The real Bruce Wayne was accounted for at his estate at the same time as his appearance at this facility. I've been investigating this situation for some time." Batman told her; the truth, save for the omission that Batman and Bruce Wayne were one and the same.

Once they came to an intersection, Lara pointed to their right.

"That's the quickest route to the lower level, which is only used to house and, if needed, maintain the device. It usually requires Level 4 clearance." She told them.

"I'll get us in." Jason said confidently.

After a few nods and last minute assurances, the team of Carrie, Lara, Jason and Tim left toward the nuclear device. While Batman, Ash and Morrigan continued on straight, in search of the mysterious imposter.

***
Tim, Jason, Carrie and Lara walked along their corridor, past a number of containment chambers, each one wide open and empty; that is, save for one. From one of the chambers several feet ahead of them, they heard a low, gentle sobbing. Tim and Carrey moved forward, prepared to assist anyone in distress, while Jason held his gun at the ready.

"Wait, stop!" Lara called out frantically, causing the trio to stop and turn to look at her. "That's not human..." She added in an almost whisper.

They slowly walked up to the door and saw that it read 'SCP-096'.

"SCP-096... we call it the 'Shy Guy'." Lara told them.

"Sounds cute." Tim said sarcastically.

"It's not... if anyone sees its face, it will not stop until they're dead. And in its pursuit, any new witness becomes the next target. It has the potential to spread like a virus and decimate the planet. It has unbelievable healing and resistance and the unusual ability to breach any attempt at impeding it once it has a target." Lara told them.

"Then let's hope it stays put." Jason said and continued walking.

After just a few seconds, the others followed suit. They came to another open area with a number of large containment cells similar in design to Barry's, looking to have been built independently of the building. The nearest read 'SCP-104-FM' and the container next to it was marked 'SCP-108-FM'.

"More new arrivals?" Jason asked.

"Yeah, I don't recognize these designations." Lara told them.

Jason walked over to the closest of the cells and studied the reinforced door. Unlike the previous cell, this one didn't have a viewing window. Instead, on the front, an electronic viewing screen was attached. Jason reached out and, with a moment of hesitation, pushed a button on the bottom of the screen. The screen immediately flickered to life, showing the inside of the cell.

Sitting calmly in the cell was a large, amorphous figure vaguely resembling a human, with light brown skin and pale yellow eyes.

"Matt Hagan." Jason uttered.

Immediately, Tim clenched both hands into fists and his jaw moved slightly as he clenched his teeth in anger. Both Carrie and Jason noticed this and Jason put his hand on Tim's shoulder.

"Easy. He's locked up." Jason told him.

"What happened between you?" Carrie asked.

"It's... a long story..." Tim answered.

While Tim coped with being right in front of one of the men he hated more than anyone else in the world, Jason had moved to the other containment cell and activated the viewing screen.

"Uh, Tim? You might want to see this." Jason said.

"We don't have time for this, we have no idea how much power is left." Lara insisted, but Tim approached the second cell anyway, freezing in place when he looked at the screen.

In the cell was a young girl no more than five feet in height, wearing what looked like clothing typical of a Foundation researcher. But she didn't work for the Foundation. Tim Drake knew this; because he knew her.

"Annie?" He said in near shock.

"Who's Annie?" Carrie asked.

"I don't know, Batman would only tell me that Tim had a grudge against Matt. And Tim would never speak of it." Jason told her.

"She's- Clayface killed her... we have to get her out of there." Tim said.

"No, we're not. If she's alive and in there, she's anomalous, and we don't know how." Lara said.

"I DO. And she's not dangerous. Jason? Please." Tim pleaded.

Jason sighed, before walking over to the keypad on the door and planting a small explosive charge.

"This is a mistake." Lara said, as she and the others all stepped back.

Jason pushed a button on his belt and the charge detonated with a small bang and the door slowly swung open. From the screen, they could see Annie standing up in surprise, before walking slowly to the door. She slowly pushed open the door the rest of the way, as Tim sprinted toward the cell. When she stepped out of the room, she stopped and looked at Tim, who also stopped right before her. She eyed him over, as if trying to recognize something in the back of her mind that was just beyond her grasp; before letting out a barely audible gasp of surprise.

"Tim...?" She asked quietly and Tim only nodded, trying to keep himself from crying.

Annie walked forward and threw her arms around him, prompting Tim to do the same. He tried to keep from crying; but he failed, tears running down the sides of his face. When they finally broke the hug, Tim smiled at her, a smile she returned.

"H-how?" He asked.

"I don't know. I remember darkness. And then pain. And then I was me again. And he was... him... how long has it been?" She asked.

"Nine years..." Tim told her and she hugged him again.

"Let's get moving. I'll explain on the way." Jason told her and she nodded.

Before any of them could begin walking, a click echoed behind them and they turned around just in time to see Clayface reach his hand out and grasp the doorframe, as he pushed the door open. When his head came into view, he offered them a smile.

"He must've somehow rigged the locking mechanisms together..." Jason declared, gripping the handle of his gun tightly.

"Then I have you to thank for my freedom. Hello... Tim." Matt said, eyeing Tim with a wicked grin.

"How?" Tim asked in shock.

"I know what she knew. Hello, daughter.." Clayface utters in a deep growl.

"Aaaahhh!" Tim shouted, as he hurled two of his birdarangs at Clayface.

Clayface put up his arm, creating a shield, in which the projectiles embedded. Moments later, the projectiles exploded, blowing Clayface's arm off. Jason fired his handgun at Clayface, not wanting to give him the chance to recover, each shot hitting him in the face. When Jason stopped to reload, Clayface outstretched his other arm and impacted Jason in the chest, knocking him off his feet. Carrie ran forward and extended a long, collapsible staff, smashing it over Clayface's head, causing it to cave in like putty.

Clayface's entire face shifted to his torso and he smiled, before enlarging his hand and swinging it to the side, knocking Carrie off her feet as well. Tim tossed out a series of small pellets, which exploded in a spray of gas at Clayface's feet. When the gas hit Clayface's skin, it began to freeze solid. Clayface looked momentarily worried, before the upper part of his body slid off of the frozen portion. Still just a torso and a pair of limbs on the ground, Clayface turned one of his arms into a spikey tendril and shot it toward Tim.

Annie rushed at Tim and shoved him out of the way. The spike went through Annie's abdomen; but her clothing and skin shifted into a gray color and tendrils came from the wound, ensnaring Clayface's limb. Clayface tried to deform or retract his appendage, but seemed unable. Annie turned her arm into an axe and swung it down, cutting Clayface's body in half. Annie then withdrew her body and healed the hole in her gut.

"When'd you learn to do that?" Tim asked in shock.

"Um... nowish?" Annie answered with a nervous chuckle.

Clayface sent his arm lashing out to the side and shattered the ice that contained some of his body and, from each small ice crystal, burst forth a small fragment of Clayface, which rapidly drew together to reform Clayface's body.

"You're not gonna hurt him. Any of them. 'Dad'!" Annie declared, with a note of derision when she said the word 'dad'.

"Aw, how sweet. My little girl has a crush. But what kind of father would I be if I didn't put him through the wringer?" Clayface asked mockingly.

As the heroes stared down Clayface, a figure appeared in the hallway from which they'd just come, only part of an unnaturally long, gray arm visible from the shadows.

"Now what?" Jason asked in annoyance, prompting the others to turn and see.

"NO!!! LOOK AWAY! We have to go!" Lara screamed.

Not wanting to put what they assumed was this 'Shy Guy' to the test, they all obeyed and ran in the direction of the next corridor. Clayface was about to give chase, when he looked back at the creature in the door. At its disproportionately long arms and unnaturally pale skin, to its pale eyes and wide, unnerving jaw... to its face. When Matt and SCP-096's eyes met, the creature opened its jaw impossibly wide and let out a bone chilling howl of agony or fury; Matt wasn't sure which.

"Who're you? Walk away if you know what's good for you." Clayface declared.

But SCP-096 just rushed at Clayface, flailing its arms outward. Clayface shifted his hand into an axe and swung it outward, impacting the creature's chest. But the axe failed to penetrate very far. The creature smacked Clayface with enough force to entirely reduce him to a puddle. Clayface quickly and easily reformed from the attack with a cocky smile.

Clayface turned his hand into a spiked ball and slammed it over SCP-096's head, which did little more than break the skin. In fact, the slash across the creature's chest had already healed. With another slam, the creature broke Clayface apart once more. And once more, Clayface repaired himself. Again and again this went, with SCP-096 becoming more and more distraught.

When clayface healed again, his feet remained a puddle, with Matt's torso emerging from the floor. He held out his hands in arrogant triumph.

"Come on, ugly, I can do this all day." Clayface declared.

Unable to kill its target, much like when it had faced off against 682, 096 began to wail in distress, before turning and fleeing back down the hallway.

"Thought so." Clayface uttered proudly.

Before Clayface could even turn and prepare to chase after his 'daughter' and the others, a crash from the ceiling impacted him and sent Matt flying into pieces once more. From the red, shimmering sphere on energy that had come from above emerged four figures, each wearing similar uniforms, made from the same red energy and all with the same logo on their chest.

Chapter 5: THE ANGUISHED PATTERN

Batman, Ash and Morrigan walked down a long corridor, one of many they'd traveled, in search of the mysterious imposter. Whoever this person was, they went to great lengths to draw him out. Did they know that Bruce Wayne was Batman? Or were they just expecting Bruce Wayne? He hoped that, when all was said and done, he'd have answers to his questions.

"Ah, man..." Ash uttered, rubbing his forehead and momentarily pinching his eyes shut in obvious discomfort.

"What is it, Ash?" Morrigan asked with concern in her voice.

"I dunno, I just got a pounding headache." Ash told her.

"Maybe it's just the stress. This place is unnerving, even for me." Morrigan suggested.

"No, I feel it too." Batman said simply.

The trio kept walking, until a sign of movement caught their eyes. A figure in a white lab coat was facing a nearby wall, swaying gently back and forth. The moment the trio stopped in their tracks, the figure turned to look in their direction. His eyes were wide and unfocused, as if it saw them, but didn't really comprehend.

"Hey, uh... we're here to help." Ash told him, putting out his hand to try and convey that they meant no harm; but Batman had already withdrawn a batarang in preparation for possible hostility.

As if on cue, more figures shambled from the various open containment chambers, turning to look at the trio. They resembled various researchers, security staff, several administrators and even a few people in prison-like orange jumpsuits.

"Yeah, I don't think they're feeling too appreciative." Morrigan said, as the group suddenly rushed them.

Batman tossed the batarang at one of the mob's legs, causing one of them to stumble. Batman then delivered a spinning kick to the individual, dropping them to the floor. Several more rushed him, but he easily overpowered them with a series of quick, precise blows. Ash blocked one of the mob's fists with his metallic hand, before delivering a punch to their face. Another rushed him and he raised his foot, kicking them backwards off their feet.

Morrigan dodged the swipe of one of the mob's fists and delivered a flurry of her own punches, knocking the figure to the ground. She then flipped and delivered an acrobatic kick to several of the mob, knocking them down as well. By the time most of the mob had been incapacitated, they saw a figure standing in the middle of the hallway. Only this individual was unlike the others. They wore what looked like a ceramic mask on their face, its smile symbolic of 'comedy' in theater productions; from which leaked a constant black ooze.

"Who the Hell are you, buddy?" Ash asked.

"They have called me many names. THESE people have called me 'SCP-035' or, quite amusingly, the 'Possessive Mask'. But you may refer to me as the 'Black Lord of Alagadda'." The figure said in a deep voice that seemed to echo in their minds more than actually be spoken aloud.

"Whatever you say, your majesty." Ash said mockingly, raising his hand and charging the repulsor for a blast.

But before Ash could fire, several of the remaining mob stood in between him and the Mask. Ash immediately lowered his hand and scowled in frustration.

"What's the matter? won't hurt my subjects? What a shame... why don't you join them then." The Mask declared and suddenly, Ash doubled over, holding his head.

"Ahhhh!" Ash let out a pained groan, as the Mask pushed into his thoughts.

Morrigan put her hand on Ash's back in concern. Batman turned to see him gripping his head in pain, before returning to face the Mask. He raised a pair of batarangs and theMask's thralls got ready to take the blow. Batman tossed the batarangs, which pierced the metal on the walls to either side of the mob. In an instant, a gas sprayed from the batarangs and, in a matter of seconds, all of the figures collapsed to the ground, save for the Mask itself.

The Mask's ceramic face suddenly shifted from a smile to a frown, from comedy to tragedy. And he charged Batman in anger. Batman dodged the Mask's clumsy strike, causing the Mask to slam its hands into a nearby wall. The corrosive black liquid dripping from the mask and onto its host body singed and burned the metal surface like an acid. Batman reached out and ripped the mask off the body, peeling with it strings of partially liquified flesh and viscera.

Once the Mask was removed, the body fell into a heap, dead, its remains partially dissolved, leaving bone and internal organs visible in some locations. The moment it was no longer in possession of a body, Ash sat up with obvious relief on his face.

"Man, that was some headache. Almost as bad as my last hangover." Ash joked.

Morrrigan knelt down to check several of the bodies that had once been controlled by the Mask. "These people will live. Can't say the same for him..." She gestured toward the Mask's unfortunate host.

"Aw, don't be sad, he died in service of his Lord." The Mask said, twisting its face back into a smile.

"You're little more than a parasite." Batman told him.

"Now, now, don't be so quick to judge. I have much knowledge and great secrets. They were weak, you're stronger. Become my true, worthy possessor." The Mask offered.

There was a silence in the air, before Batman responded. "No." He said simply.

The Mask twisted back into a frown. But before it could speak again, Batman tossed it into one of the opened containment cells. Then, they decided to get moving, to get away from there. They'd worry about cleanup later. For now, they had a mission to complete. Once they were far enough away, Morrigan turned to speak with Ash as they walked.

"You good?" She asked him.

"Better now. It's like I could hear him in my head. I've been possessed before, but this felt different, like he was just trying to convince me of something. And it WAS convincing..." Ash told her.

"I felt the same thing. It's possible that Morrigan''s heritage gave her some immunity. Regardless, we should keep moving." Batman said.

***
"Annie, I can't believe you're... alive. How?" Tim asked once they were far enough away from the recent turmoil.

"I don't know. I remember bits and pieces. I think whoever brought Clayface here wanted some of him... and whatever experiment he conducted somehow 'woke' me. I guess I split from him again after that. I'm so glad to see you." She told him.

"I'm... glad to see you too." Tim said, offering a small smile.

"Are you sure we can trust her?" Lara asked.

"Lady, it's YOU we don't trust." Jason snapped at her, causing her to go quiet.

Tim smiled again at Jason, his 'brother', sticking up for him. Despite their rocky histories, Tim still considered him to be family and he hoped Jason felt the same way. Carrie was new to the family, but he hoped that, in time, they would become closer. While they walked down a corridor, Lara stopped in her tracks, eyeing one of the partially opened cell doors. Along the surface was what appeared to be drying blood.

Jason reached out and slowly began to open the door, when Lara reached out and grabbed his arm.

"Don't! You don't know what could be in there..." She warned him.

Jason shook off her grasp and pushed the door the rest of the way open. Inside the room was a pile of corpses of various Foundation employees. And along every corner of the walls were strings of text and random sentences. They walked in slowly, running their lights over the walls. The sentences were difficult to follow in any coherent, linear order; but appeared to describe events.

Jason remembered some of them. They were events in the life of Batman. Only a few of them were notably different.

"This, these are... events? This must be how he took the compulsion to enact his fifth work under 960. A fictional story, or an autobiography." Lara explained.

"That's impossible. This is Batman's life, his heroics. Mostly." Jason explained.

"Yeah, but I don't recognize some of it." Tim added, as Lara approached the walls to take a closer look.

"Do you think he's just making stuff up?" Annie asked.

"No, some of it happened. It just breaks from what we know to have happened." Jason added.

"In our world. I mean... like, Batman has gone to other realities before, right? Maybe we're fighting another Batman?" Carrie suggested.

"But that would mean that..." Lara said, as she intently studied the words on the walls.

The combination of the puzzle pieces of Bruce Wayne touching the shard of 96 and writing the history of Batman and a single pair of words on the wall made everything click for Lara. She read the words of the history of Batman that were written on the wall aloud.

"Bruce Wayne. Bruce Wayne is Batman." Lara said, before turning around.

They all just looked at her, confirming her realization.

"You tell anyone and prison will be the least of your worries." Jason threatened, raising his gun for emphasis, which made Lara's eyes go wide.

"Look, we should-" Tim began, but his words were cut off by an explosion from the far wall of the cell.

Through the newly created hole, a hulking figure in a red outfit grabbed Jason around the neck and dragged him through, to an adjacent room. Tim, Carrie and Annie quickly followed Jason and his attacker into the adjacent hallway, with Lara tentatively following close behind. When they finally looked over the scene, Jason was laying on his back, looking up at a hulking brute. The figure possessed red skin and an even deeper crimson suit, which shimmered and flowed in waves; a constant stream of blood-red energy. Beside him stood three other figures, each wearing a similar uniform.

The emblem on each of their chests looked much like that of the Green Lanterns' logo; a circle with a pair of lines touching at two of its sides. But while the symbol worn by members of the Green Lantern Corps had a pair of straight lines running horizontally and parallel with each other at the top and bottom of the circle, the logo on these figures' uniforms had two irregular lines touching on the left and right of the circle. The group consisted of the brute, a much skinnier blue skinned male, a humanoid female with long red hair, and a spherical being with a mouth filled with razor sharp teeth and disproportionately small limbs.

"And who are you guys supposed to be? Knockoff Green Lantern wannabes?" Tim asked snidely, noting the uniforms' similarities.

"We are the RED Lantern Corps!" The round alien uttered in a growl.

"With blood and rage of crimson red, ripped from a corpse so freshly dead, together with our hellish hate... we'll burn you all, that is your fate!" The large figure declared, holding up a fist and displaying a ring around its finger, pulsing with crimson energy.

"So, uh... your deal is that you guys are really mad?" Carrie said derisively.

"We are fueled by the crimson power of RAGE, you impudent child!" The woman declared, before thrusting her hand out and shooting a blast of red energy toward Carrie.

With acrobatic prowess, Carrie dove out of the way, the blast flying past her and blowing a hole in the wall behind. Jason used the distraction to roll to his feet and pull out another gun, before firing at the largest figure; but the bullets just bounced off of his body. The round entity rushed forward; but Annie turned her body into clay and met the assault head on, washing him away using the now near liquid state of her body. Tim was approached by the woman who rushed toward him, prompting him to flip to the side, before tossing several birdarangs at her. She erected a crimson forcefield and the projectiles shattered on impact.

The brute walked toward Jason, who tossed a handful of pellets to the ground at their feet, which burst forth in a cloud of smoke. Jason vanished in the smoke, just as the Red Lantern rushed in and attempted to punch down at him, only to impact the ground instead.

"I am Atrocitus! Leader of the Red Lantern Corps! Do you really think such tricks will stop me?!" He declared.

"I'm hoping!" Jason said, as he suddenly sprang from the smoke and slapped a small device to Atrocitus' chest.

Moments later, the device erupted in an explosion, shaking the area and further thickening the smoke filling the area. With an ear splitting roar, Atrocitus generated a field of red energy, which blew the smoke away. Feet from them, the round alien was struggling to get himself free of Annie's clay form, while sending blasts of red energy at her. The blasts created holes in her form, which quickly healed themselves.

"Stop playing, Zillius, grab HER!" Atrocitus pointed toward Lara, who gasped in fear and sudden realization as to the objective of this assault.

Zillius sprang from the clay and into the air with a burst of energy and moved quickly for Lara, who ducked down in fear. But Annie shot herself upward and hit Zillius from behind, knocking him out of the air and into the woman fighting with Tim, knocking them both to the ground.

"Damn it, Zox, get off me!" The woman growled and swiped her arm to the side, knocking Zillius Zox off of her, so she could get back to her feet.

Tim stepped toward the woman, while Carrie got in front of Lara, between her and the blue skinned man, who had been the most silent of the Red Lanterns.

"Deal with the boy, Antipathy. I'll collect the researcher." The man uttered to the woman in an unusually calm and collected voice.

Antipathy's mouth twisted into a wicked smile, before she raised her hand and, all around her, tendrils of pure red tendrils came into form.

Chapter 6: GHOSTS FROM THE PAST

Before Antipathy could attack Tim, a figure in a green suit flew along the hallway toward them and slammed into her, knocking her off her feet. The Red Lantern approaching Carrie and Lara turned his head and scowled at the new arrival.

"I was wondering when the Green Lanterns would send one of their lap dogs." Atrocitus growled.

"Hey, I'm Kyle Rayner. It's nice to meet you too." He said sarcastically.

"You guys never told us there were RED Lanterns." Tim uttered to Kyle.

"RED Lanterns? I didn't know... I'll have to ask the Guardians." He said.

"Leave it to the Guardians of the Universe to leave their pawns in the dark!" Atrocitus cackled, turning to face Kyle and losing all interest in Jason.

"Razer? Will you do the honor?" Atrocitus addressed the man who, up to this point, had had a singular focus toward Lara; but now he had his sights set on the Green Lantern.

Without a word, the Red Lantern known as Razer flew toward Kyle and delivered a powerful punch to his gut, before slamming him into a wall hard enough to bend the reinforced steel. Atrocitus began walking toward Carrie and Lara with a vicious sneer. Carrie tossed a birdarang, which broke into two parts, connected by a cable, which ensnared Atrocitus as they spun around him, wrapping him in the cable. Atrocitus flexed his arms, easily snapping the cable around his body.

"What do you want with the Doctor anyway?!" Carrie demanded.

"Our objectives aren't for you to understand... child." Atrocitus growled, before making a fist with his ringed hand.

To each side, the red energy formed a spinning, chainsaw-like blade. In a split second, they sprang toward the pair. Carrie tackled Lara out of the way, narrowly dodging the blades, as one of them managed to just barely cut her on her upper arm.

"Maybe, but THIS should be easy to understand!" Jason declared, leaping onto Atrositus' back and planting small explosive charges all the way down.

Jason then dropped and rolled away, before detonating the explosives. Atrocitus was engulfed in spoke, as the explosion rang out with him at its epicenter. Before the dust could even clear, Atrocitus sprang forth and backhanded Jason, knocking him hard into a wall. Jason fell to the ground, trying to stand up, before losing consciousness. With little interest in the man, Atrocitus turned his attention back toward his real target.

Antipathy formed a pair of clawed, ethereal hands above her, which launched down in an attempt to grab Tim. Tim began to flip acrobatically backwards, before tossing several birdarangs, which exploded on contact. But when the smoke cleared, the red constructs were unharmed.

"You're outta your league, little hero." Antipathy said mockingly.

Zox formed a red energy field around himself that looked almost like a suit of armor, from which emerged numerous spikes. He spun rapidly, cutting up Annie's clay body and sending her pieces in every direction. Annie attempted to reform, but Zox created a device, which sprayed forth a torrent of flames. Annie turned herself into a thin line of clay and rapidly moved along the floor, trying to avoid the inferno.

Kyle Rayner threw a punch toward Razer, who dodged and threw one of his own. So the battle went, between Green and Red Lantern. Kyle formed green constructs resembling the vines of a plant, which shot toward Razer. In response, Razer generated a series of long, lashing serpentine limbs with blades at the end and began cutting away at Kyle's vines. When the vines were all dealt with, Razer launched his blades toward Kyle.

Kyle erected a forcefield, which the blades just barely penetrated, stopping short of Kyle's body, before vanishing. Razer opened his mouth and let loose a torrent of red liquid that looked similar in many ways to blood. The substance hit Kyle's forcefield, burning it as it coated the outside. After a few moments, the forcefield shattered. Kyle thought he was done for, until the blood vanished and Kyle found himself surrounded by a brilliant, blue light.

From the corridor flew two figures, each of them looking like Lanterns as well, save for the fact that their symbol was noticeably different, and that their costumes were the same blue color as the energy they produced.

"What? Blue Lanterns now?" Kyle asked in disbelief.

"Indeed. I am Saint Walker of the Blue Lantern Corps. And this is my associate, Brother Warth." The alien humanoid introduced himself and his comrade.

Saint Walker was a gray skinned humanoid with a long tail extending down from the top of his head. While Warth had a similar skin tone to Walker, he was noticeably bulkier and possessed a pair of tusks emerging from his mouth. In many respects, Warth appeared very much like an anthropomorphized version of the Earth animal known as an elephant.

"HAAAAAH!" Atrocitus let out a terrible roar and fired a massive blast of crimson energy at Saint Walker.

Saint Walker held out his hand and fired a blue burst of energy, which clashed with the red blast. The blue energy seemed to be destroying the red energy as quickly as it could be made. Just before the blue blast could overtake Atrocitus, Zox and Antipathy rushed him and Warth. Warth erected a blue forcefield, which Antipathy punched repeatedly, causing cracks, which healed as new ones were made. Zox conjured a massive perpent made of pure rage energy, which lunged down and tried to devour Walker.

Saint Walker created a prying device to hold the construct's mouth open, struggling with all his might to avoid being devoured. With his attention free, Atrocitus again turned back to face Carrie and Lara. But before he could attack, Kyle got between them.

"Hey, big guy, we're not done here." Kyle declared, his face turning to a look of worry when Atrocitus smiled maliciously.

Razer stepped up to stand beside Atrocitus, as they faced down the lone green lantern. Atrocitus rushed forward and tackled Kyle into the wall behind Carrie and Lara. Kyle struggled in vain, as Atrocitus choked him mercilessly. Then, with a pulse of Kyle's ring, his eyes turned to a brilliant green and he stopped struggling. After several moments, Kyle's hand made a fist and he shot a blast of green energy out toward Atrocitus' gut, knocking him backwards, before Atrocitus slid to a stop.

"Guys, I need you to keep them busy for a few minutes." Kyle told Carrie, Tim and Annie, who regrouped together.

"You got a plan?" Carrie asked hopefully.

"Yeah, you could say that." Kyle confirmed.

"Hurry. We are kinda outclassed here." Tim added.

"Be right back." Kyle said and flew through the hole Atrocitus had made, before turning a corner.

Atrocitus moved to follow him, but Tim threw three birdarangs, which exploded on impact. The sudden attack took Atrocitus by surprise and he put his hand up, as he was coated in smoke. But he quickly recovered and looked at Tim with a hateful stare.

"Collect the woman. Kill the girl." Atrocitus ordered of Razer, before rushing at Tim.

Tim rolled out of the way, prompting Atrocitus to turn mid air and continue his pursuit. Tim used his grapple gun to magnetically hook to the ceiling and propel himself through the air, just narrowly moving out of the way of Atrocitus, before the Red Lantern slammed into the ground.

"You don't have to do this." Carrie said to Razer.

"You're wrong. This is my duty. Now stand aside. Or I will kill you." Razer said.

"What about ME!!!" Annie declared, turning her body into a flowing mass of clay and engulfing the Red Lantern.

Walker transformed his prying construct into a pair of circular saws, which spun in a wide arc around him, severing the serpent;s head, which then faded from existence. Zox scowled in displeasure, as Walked smiled triumphantly. Warth was still on the receiving end of Antipathy's fury, his shield healing less and less as her onslaught of punches wore him down.

***
Kyle Rayner landed in front of a still closed locker labeled 'SCP-3634'. His ring shimmered in a brilliant emerald light, before Kyle conjured a key and used it to unlock and open the door. Within, he found an ornate, stainless steel corkscrew designed to look like an old fashioned key. He took the item in hand and flew back down the hall; only he didn't immediately travel back toward the battle. Instead, he looked back and forth along the hall, using his ring to scan the area, as if looking for something.

"Come on, I know one of you has to have some. There!" Kyle said and stopped in front of a door, an office.

On the door was the name 'Dr. Jack Bright'. Kyle phased through the door with little effort. Once inside, he began his search. It didn't take him long to find a small cupboard filled with several varieties of liquor. Kyle used the corkscrew to open the bottle, smiling at his accomplishment.

Once he had what he'd come for, Kyle set the key down on the desk and flew through the door and down the hall, back toward the battle, with the bottle of liquor in hand.

***
Jason slowly rose from the floor, holding his still helmeted head in his hand. "Agh, how long have I been out?" He asked in a somewhat loopy voice, as his vision began to focus.

As if in response to his question, Saint Walker flew backwards, skidding to a stop next to Jason. He erected a blue forcefield to block a volley of red energy blasts.

"More Lanterns? Yeah, sure." Jason said in a flippant tone, before tossing one of his birdarangs toward the approaching Zox. The projectile impacted the wall next to Zox, who stopped midair and laughed wickedly.

"Hahaha! Your little toys never work. So why don't you just give up and hand over the woman, before we rip you apart!" Zox added.

The birdarang beeped rapidly, before spraying a mist into the air around Zox. Zox emerged from the cloud and held up his ring. Saint Walker held up his own in response, but Jason didn't move a muscle. Suddenly, Zox held his head, swaying back and forth in the air, before collapsing to the ground.

"Impressive." Walker said to Jason.

Tim swung with Lara in tow, as Atrocitus flew after them. Atrocitus shot out several red blades, which severed Tim's line, causing him and Lara to tumble to the ground. Atrocitus approached the downed pair. But just as Atrocitus reached down for them, Kyle flew through the open hole in the wall and over Atrocitus' head. Kyle grabbed Atrocitus around the neck with his forearm, as the Red Lantern attempted to shake him off.

Kyle formed a prying device within Atrocitus' mouth. Then, with another hand, he poured the alcohol into the brute's mouth. Atrocitus responded by clamping down his jaw, shattering Kyle's construct, before elbowing the Green Lantern and punching him in the gut, sending him flying into a nearby wall.

"Your plan was to get him drunk?" Jason asked with incredulity.

"Ugh... not exactly." Kyle said as he groaned out in mild pain, slowly getting to his feet.

From several feet away, an explosion of rage energy burst from Annie's body, blowing her into several pieces and revealing the furious Razer within. Razer locked eyes with Kyle and rushed at him, but Kyle put up his hands.

"WAIT! I know who killed your wife!" Kyle shouted, causing Razer to halt his pursuit midair.

"What did you just say?" Razer demanded in a low growl.

"I know who killed your wife on Volkreg." Kyle told him.

"Who?" Razer questioned.

"Ask HIM." Kyle pointed toward Atrocitus.

Razer looked at Atrocitus, before looking at Kyle once more. "You can't be serious?" Razer asked in disbelief.

"Just ask." Kyle prodded.

"Fine. Atrocitus, do you know who killed my wife?" Razer asked.

"Of course. I did." Atrocitus announced, before his eyes went wide with shock. "What did you do to me?! It's a L-L- it's the truth! AAAAAGGGHHH!" Atrocitus roared in frustration at his inability to lie.

In an instant, Razer sprang from his place on the ground and rushed toward Atrocitus. He punched the brute in the gut, but Atrocitus grabbed him around the waist and kneed Razer in the face, before tossing him down the hall. Atrocitus flew after him, but Razer let out an ear splitting shout.

"AAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!" Red acidic blood poured from Razer's mouth and coated Atrocitus, who became lost in a sea of Razer's fury.

"How did you know to do that? Find a truth serum in this place?" Jason asked.

"Uh... because I saw it happen. When Atrocitus grabbed me." Kyle explained.

"You accessed the Emerald Sight. You divined the future?" Saint Walker explained in a calm voice.

As Antipathy punched and punched, Warth's shield finally shattered and Antipathy grabbed him around the throat. With a burst of crimson energy, she threw him hard against the wall, causing the metal to buckle and bend. She then turned to face the others, once more focusing on Lara. Kyle held out his hand and shot a green blast toward Antipathy, who fired a red beam of her own. The beams connected and those nearby watched as the two entered into a battle of will vs rage.

Kyle was beginning to lose ground, his ring's charge beginning to wane. Then, as if on autopilot, Saint Walker's ring began to glow and a soft, blue light mixed with Kyle's green energy. In an instant, Kyle's ring sprang forth with newfound bower, emerald energy of will, surrounded by Walker's blue energy. With the newfound power in his fingertips, Antipathy was easily overpowered and he pushed the crimson energy back, sending Antipathy flying from her feet, to the ground below. Before she could get back to her feet, Brother Warg approached her and used his blue energy to nullify her red hate energy.

"How'd you do that?" Kyle asked in bewilderment.

"Hatred's greatest enemy is hope. The blue light of hope, in turn, can fuel the emerald power of will." Walker explained, as he did the same to a still unconscious Zox.

***
Batman, Ash and Morrigan walked down a long corridor, when suddenly they came to a stop. Ahead of them, shrouded in darkness, was what looked like a Foundation researcher, hunched down over what were obviously the remains of a corpse.

"Hey, guy, you okay?" Ash asked hesitantly.

As they neared the man, it became clear that the 'body' on the ground was little more than a pile of muscle and bone. The man rose back to his feet and turned around to face them.

"My apologies, it appears this gentleman has lost his suit." The man said in a sort of posh English accent.

"You could say that again..." Morrigan said, as she stepped closer to gaze down at the remains.

The man took a step forward and Batman grimaced, nearly imperceptibly, before tossing two batarangs at the man. The batarangs exploded on impact, engulfing the figure in fire and smoke.

"Why'd ya do that?" Ash asked quizzically.

"He's not human." Batman answered.

As if on cue, the man stepped forward, half of his face peeling off to reveal a skeletal form within.

"Now, that was rude." The man uttered, despite his obviously non existent musculature or vocal cords.

"Well, aren't you handsome?" Ash said snarkily.

"What are you?" Morrigan asked.

"They have called me many things: 'SCP-5091', 'Sir Skeleton'; but you may call me 'Dr. Bones'. Now, if you would be so kind, would you be willing to lend me one of your suits? Your friend there has left mine in tatters." The anomaly asked them.

"Not a chance, buddy." Ash said and raised his gauntlet hand, firing a repulsor blast, which knocked the skeletal man off his feet.

Dr. Bones began to rise from the ground, when the shadow of a large figure emerged from a door labeled 'SCP-901-AC'. Before any of them could react, it raised a massive, rusted blade and brought it down against the skeleton, shattering Dr. Bones into several hundred pieces. It then lumbered into the hallway and toward them, dragging its massive blade on the ground after it.

"Oh, great, from bad to worse!" Ash uttered and raised his hand to blast the new enemy; but it barely budged more than an inch, as it continued to approach them.

When it was close enough, they could see that, atop its head, was a large metallic fixture resembling a rusted pyramid. When it got near Ash, it swung its blade, but Ash ducked out of the way. He then grabbed his shotgun; but the beast used its other arm to backhand Ash into a nearby wall.

"Ash!" Morrigan shouted and conjured a series of blades from her wings, stabbing the figure repeatedly in the gut.

The entity staggered, before slashing its massive blade down at Morrigan. Morigan's wings shifted into a shield above her head; but the crash of the blade against her new defenses caused her to stumble to the ground. Batman moved to rush the entity, but he suddenly found himself unable to move. He turned around to see a small iron nail imbedded into the ground over his shadow. Worse still, he was unable to move in a way that would make his shadow not overlap with the nail.

He saw a shadow covered figure at the end of the hall and, despite not seeing the figure, he could tell that it was staring at him, observing him. Then, in an instant, the figure was gone. The entity approached Batman, raising its weapon and preparing for the kill. Suddenly, several projectiles flew from behind Batman, impacting the creature in the torso. The figure ran toward Batman and pulled the nail from the ground, tossing it down the hall.

Now that the man was closer to him, Batman recognized him in an instant; it was Owlman, leader of the Crime Syndicate, a criminal group from another reality.

"You." Batman said.

"Thank me later." Came Owlman's retort.

Chapter 7: LINES IN THE SAND

Batman and Owlman moved to opposite sides of the hallway, as the entity brought its massive blade down with a crash. Each of them threw a series of projectiles toward the hulking brute. But it raised its blade with a speed uncharacteristic of its large frame and blocked the metallic weapons, which bounced off of the blade with the sound of scraping metal, shattering to pieces. Before either of them could engage the brute further, they heard a gunshot ring out through the hallway and the entity's chest burst open from the impact of the blast. The entity moved to turn around, but before it could, a series of long, spiked chains pierced through the wound from the other side and sliced it apart from the inside out.

The blades rapidly withdrew, eliciting a loud roar from the monster. It took a step forward, before collapsing face down on the ground with a heavy thud. When Batman and Owlman could finally see behind the creature, they saw Morrigan's blades turn once more into the wings positioned on her back. Ash was standing beside her, holding a new, more advanced shotgun. His new weapon had a high tech scope and enough room to hold much more than just two shots; but, despite its higher capacity, the shotgun was still very compact for the power it held.

"Hey, looky what I found. Good enough to send ol' 'Pyramid Head' thing back to Hell where it came from." Ash said with a smirk.

"I see you made some new friends." Owlman said, turning to offer a smirk of his own to Batman.

Batman just stared at him for a long moment, before responding. "Why are you helping us? And how are you alive?"

"I have your counterpart to thank for that. He has some big plans. An improvement over my own. But I've had time to reflect. And I don't much enjoy working under anyone else." Owlman explained.

"So he's even more insane than you are." Batman uttered, more a statement of fact than a question.

"That is the question." Owlman said, as he began walking down the hallway.

Ash and Morrigan looked questioningly at Batman but, after seeing the Dark Knight follow after the villain, Ash and Morrigan reluctantly followed suit.

***
"So, what now?" Kyle asked Saint Walker.

"We need to get these prisoners back to our detention facility for questioning. But Atrocitus is their leader." Walker explained.

"You take them. I'll make sure those two don't destroy everything. We'll figure things out from there." Kyle said.

"And what of you?" Saint Walker asked of the other members of the group.

"We have a job to do. Find whatever's causing this and put it six feet under." Jason declared.

"Then we'll leave you to your mission. I'm sure we'll meet again soon." At that, Saint Walker and Warth flew off with the Red Lanterns in tow.

"Good luck." Kyle said, flying into the air.

"You too." Tim said, as they exchanged nods, before Kyle flew down the hallway, in the same direction as a series of loud crashes.

In the commotion, Lara attempted to back up and sneak away, only for Annie to shift her body until she was directly behind Lara.

"Not so fast." Annie said, as her hand transformed into a spike, which she brandished at Lara, causing the woman to back away in fear.

"I like her." Jason said.

"You're not going anywhere. You're gonna help us put a stop to all of this!" Carrie demanded.

"...this way..." Lara said after a moment's hesitation, pointing through the hole through which they were previously forced.

"After you." Jason said, holding his gun to her head.

Lara visibly gulped, before setting off, back down the long series of hallways.

"We're almost-" Lara began, but her sentence was cut short when she saw a figure standing close to an intersection, its back to them.

The others saw the same thing and halted in their tracks. The figure wore a white lab coat similar to that of Lara's; obviously a Foundation Researcher.

"Friend of yours?" Jason asked, raising his gun.

Lara remained silent, slowly approaching the figure, reaching her hand out toward its back. When she just barely grazed the back of its coat with the tips of her fingers, it swung around, staring at her with cold, lifeless eyes. Its retinas were a milky white and its skin was a greenish black, with the stench of rotting flesh. It lunged at her, but a single gunshot from Jason to its head dropped the reanimated corpse back to the ground, dead once more.

"Huh... a zombie... seems strangely familiar." Jason said, with disinterest in his voice.

"No, this could be an 'SCP-008' outbreak..." Lara uttered in shock.

"SCP-008? Care to explain?" Carrie demanded.

"It, uh... it transforms the infected, mutating their flesh and amplifying their baser instincts." Lara explained.

"So it makes zombies." Tim clarified.

"Uh, yeah, I suppose it does." Lara confirmed with a nod.

"You keep a damned zombie virus in here?!" Jason barked out angrily. "Of course you do." He added with a sigh of resignation.

"I can't get infected. I don't think... maybe I should lead for a while." Annie offered.

"Good plan. You and HER." Jason said, aiming his gun at Lara.

With a gulp, Lara walked up to join Annie, as they led the rest of them up to the next fork in their path.

"Which way now?" Jason asked.

"It's-" Lara's voice cut off again, when she turned her head to the right.

Standing there silently were two more zombies, both of whom were once security personnel. But standing between them was a man in what looked to be a nineteenth century Plague Doctor costume.

"Um, good news and bad news... good news is, there isn't a viral outbreak..." Lara said, not taking her eyes off of the figure.

"And I take it HE'S the bad news." Carrie asked rhetorically.

"SCP-049, what are- what are you doing out of your containment cell?" Lara asked.

"Ah, good doctor, I must admit I left my accommodations during one of the power outages. And was appalled to find so many afflicted with the Pestilence. So I endeavored to offer my assistance." The figure said in an Old French accent.

"Uh, Pestilence? You said there was NO outbreak..." Tim asked worriedly.

"There's not, 049, the 'Plague Doctor', he uh... thinks there's this sickness everyone has that he won't expand on. Don't let him touch you..." Lara warned in a whisper.

"So YOU made those... things?" Jason asked.

"I must admit I did. Not my best work. But a step toward progress. Pestilence is the greatest threat that humankind has ever known." The Plague Doctor told them.

Before they could question him further, a horde of undead creatures, that all looked to have been former Foundation personnel, rushed them. Annie immediately expanded her body into a wall of clay and shifted her arms into bladed weapons, cutting down the creatures as they came. Jason fired his weapon at them, landing headshot after headshot on the zombified monsters. Carrie and Tim threw flurries of birdarangs, impacting the creatures' skulls, dropping them to the cold, steel floor one by one. But the horde kept coming and coming.

Annie swerved through the horde, her body flowing like water, until she reached the Plague Doctor.

"Ah, quite a fascinating specimen you are." The Plague Doctor uttered, observing Annie with a rapt interest.

As he spoke, Annie saw that the figure's mouth, under its long, hooked nose moved. It was the same off white color as its nose, as well as the rest of its face. Annie's eyes opened wide with a sudden realization; that thing wasn't wearing a Plague Doctor 'mask'. That was its face. Its entire face seemed to be made of some sort of calcified bone.

Annie's body bulked up, before she rushed into the Plague Doctor, slamming him into a nearby wall. As her body rushed around the Doctor in waves, she came to another realization; the black robes weren't something it was wearing. Its clothing was attached to its body; it wasn't just skintight, it WAS its skin. The Plague Doctor managed to pry one of its hands free and reached toward Annie's mass, touching her body. On contact, the clay that made up her body began to drip and lose cohesion.

"What that-?" Annie uttered in shock, as she quickly pulled away.

After several moments, she began to gather the affected regions of her body and retake a human form with significant effort.

"How curious. My touch usually ceases all bodily functions." The Doctor uttered in mild curiosity.

SCP-049's zombie horde continued to encroach on them from every direction, attracted to their master. Carrie, Jason and Tim fought valiantly, trying to keep Lara between them and safe from the zombified beasts. One of the undead lumbered toward Lara, claws raking violently. Carrie leapt toward her, knocking Lara out of harm's way, before throwing up a birdarang, severing the zombie's head, and dropping it to the floor. Jason and Tim continued bombarding the horde with a flurry of gunfire and birdarangs, backing up down one of the corridors to avoid being overtaken.

The moment they crossed the threshold between corridors, a set of heavy metal doors slammed closed between them and the others. The zombies caught between the doors were instantly crushed into pieces. Tim and Jason continued firing, until the zombies on their side were all eliminated. Just the same, Carrie and Annie finished off the undead from their own side. The Plague Doctor got to his feet, looking worriedly at the pair of heroes and the Foundation Researcher.

Before the Plague Doctor could take more than a step, Carrie threw a series of small pellets on the ground, which exploded at the Plague Doctor's feet. Instantly, the Plague Doctor's body began to freeze, until he was entirely encased in ice.

"Hopefully that holds him." Carrie said, before turning to the door.

Jason was already knocking his fist against the reinforced barrier from the other side.

"What is this?!" Jason cried out in frustration.

"We must've triggered some sort of automated system." Carrie mused, as she approached the doors.

"This was no accident. It was a trap." Lara said, looking at words that had been etched into the metal. "There's writing here..."

"Yeah, there's some on our side too." Tim informed them.

"Huh...'and so, the true purpose of humanity is to return to order, and not chaos as the law of entropy might suggest. Humans naturally breed chaos, but desire order. And only in death will they find true order'' what is this garbage?" Jason asked.

"A psychological and sociological insight... as twisted as it might be...the fourth inspiration of SCP-960." Lara explained.

"So great, he thinks he's a damned poet now! What now?" Jason demanded.

"The warhead is in the other direction, on our end." Came Lara's response.

"I can liquify through the crack in the door-" Annie said, only to be interrupted by Jason.

"No, stay with the doc. You guys head on, we'll try to find another way around." Jason said, as he and Tim began walking away.

"You get the feeling that everything that's been happening is exactly what he wants?" Carrie asked and Annie and Lara could only look at her with worry in their eyes.

Chapter 8: SINISTER INSPIRATIONS

Jason and Tim walked down what felt like an endless series of nearly identical corridors. They tried to follow the numbers on what they guessed were containment chambers, most of them with their doors wide open. But just when they thought a pattern was emerging, the numbering system veered from its path. If he had to guess, a combination of semi random assignment, moved or redesignated anomalies, or even the possibility of different containment facilities like this one, made the numbers jump around sporadically, Jason thought to himself. Regardless, the numbers did help the duo ensure that they weren't just going in circles.

His mind was snapped back to full attention when he heard a faint melody echoing through the halls.

"Hey, is that...?" Jason began.

"I hear it too." Tim answered Jason's half finished question.

The pair moved quietly and cautiously through the hallway, growing nearer and nearer to the source of the sound. The melody was eerie and unsettling. It sounded like it was emanating from a stringed instrument; possibly a harp. Jason and Tim stopped in their tracks when a member of Foundation security rounded the corner in a sprint, turning to suddenly aim her gun at the pair.

"Easy, we're on your side. We're here to help." Tim told her.

Before she could speak, a massive hand gripped her around the neck and pulled her upward. A pair of massive teeth bit down, cracking through bone and cleaving her body in half. The first 'bite' was swallowed in seconds, followed by another gulp, which swallowed the other half of the former SCP agent. Standing before them was a tall man of seven-foot-eight, with a wide frame and impossibly wide and muscled limbs.

"My apologies, gentlemen. It appears I've let my appetite get the better of me. Where are my manners? My associates here sometimes refer to me as 'SCP-082' But you may call me Fernand." He informed them with a slight bow.

"Aren't you a big boy." Jason said in awe of the monstrosity.

"Ah, yes. My stature is quite impressive, it is how I was created. For you see, I am the one and only creation of Victor Frankenstein." Fernand explained.

"Uh huh. Sure you are." Jason responded, before firing several shots into the brute's gut.

Fernand recoiled; but the gunshots barely broke through his skin and he looked back up at the two with anger in his eyes. Fernand rushed them, swinging his arm toward them. Tim rolled out of the way, but the arm hit Jason. It felt like being hit by a tree trunk, Jason thought as he was knocked off his feet. Jason was slammed through the only non metal door in the corridor, breaking through the wooden frame with a crash and tumbling to a stop in the adjacent room.

Tim got to his feet and threw several birdarangs at the creature. The birdarangs exploded on impact. When the smoke settled, only his clothes were in any way harmed. Fernand reached out with his massive hand, gripping Tim tightly around his waist; pinning one of his hands to his body in the process. Tim grunted in pain as he felt his body being squeezed in a vice.

***
Jason shook his head as he struggled back to his feet. Looking around him, Jason noted that the room into which he tumbled looked decidedly different from most of the rest of the facility's decor. Unlike the cold steel of the hallways and containment chambers, the room was well furnished and carpeted, with a desk and several padded chairs decorating the area. The colors of the room were very muted, with mostly beige and dark reds. But none of that is what caught Jason's eye; his gaze was drawn to what sat in the corner of the room.

Sitting at the very edge of the room, behind the large oak desk, was a harp. But while an ordinary harp might be made of wood and metal, this one was made of raw flesh and bone. Jason didn't need to guess which animal the harp was made from; the instrument sitting before him still possessed the face, arms, legs and torso of the man it once was. The bone was used as the frame of the harp, while various strings were made from the man's tendons, pulled from his limbs and torso. His head, which sat atop the harp, stared at Jason, blinking and wordlessly mouthing unheard words; caught in a state between life and death.

As if in response to his presence, the arms began strumming the chords, creating an eerie, unsettling melody. Jason stared at the harp, at the bizarre runes etched into the human flesh. His head filled with the haunting melody and the room began to spin. Jason's eyes opened wide in realization and he spun around to make his way out of the room. He didn't make it more than a few steps, before collapsing to the ground in a heap.

***
Tim struggled to reach his belt with the hand still pinned down by the behemoth's vice grip. With the tips of his fingers, he managed to touch a small section of his belt, from which a small disc fell loose into his palm. Tim tossed the disc into the hand not pinned to his body, before raising the device to Fernand's head and slapping it against the side of his skull, fastening the disc over Fernand's left ear. Tim then slapped the side of his cowl, causing a mechanism to seal off his ears instantly. Within a matter of seconds, the disc attached to the side of Fernand's head began to emit a high pitched sound that continued to increase in intensity.

 

Fernand shouted out in agony and released Tim, as he gripped the sides of his head. With a large, lumbering hand, Fernand ripped the disc from the side of his head and crushed it, silencing the blaring noise. Fernand's left ear began dripping blood, as he staggered back and forth, trying desperately to maintain his sense of balance. Tim withdrew his grapple gun from his belt and shot out a cable, which wrapped around Fernand's feet. With a wave of his arms, trying and failing to remain upright, Fernand tipped over and hit the ground with a mighty crash.

Tim slowly got to his feet and looked over at the downed Fernand, seeing that the brute had, for the moment, been rendered unconscious. The slow rising and falling of his large chest told Tim that he was still very much alive. They'd worry about him later, Tim decided; they still had to figure out how to get this place back under control. Tim spun around when he heard footfalls coming from behind him. When he looked over, Tim saw Jason standing in the doorway he'd just been knocked through; standing but unmoving.

"Jason, you okay?" Tim asked. Jason said nothing, only beginning to slowly walk toward Tim.

"Jason? Hey, you're worrying me..." Tim said.

Before the words even left Tim's mouth, Jason began running toward the younger hero. Jason threw several rapid punches aimed at Tim's face and gut. Tim tried to block the surprise attack, but a blow to his cheek sent the young hero flying from his feet, falling to the ground with a hard thud.

Tim slowly pushed himself back up from the ground, wiping some freshly drawn blood from the corner of his mouth with a finger.

"What happened in there?" He asked, looking past Jason at the room from which he'd emerged.

Jason said nothing, just staring ahead. He wasn't looking at Tim; it was more like he was looking THROUGH him. His cold, dead eyes bore no expression. And his bloody twitched and jerked in an unnatural manner; almost nonhuman.

"Jason... you don't have to- DO THIS!" Tim's words went from a near whisper, to loud and frantic, when Jason rushed at him once more.

The younger hero took a defensive stance, as Jason closed in and threw a flurry of punches aimed at Tim's jaw and gut. Tim blocked the blows and returned several of his. This went on for some time, before Tim landed a powerful right hook to Jason's jaw. Jason's head turned to the side, before shooting back to stare down toward Tim. From the tear ducts at the corners of his eyes poured blood, which ran in rivulets down his cheeks.

"Jason, you need to snap out of it!" Tim pleaded.

Jason grunted, before reaching out toward Tim with grasping fingers. Tim ducked down and shot through Jason's legs. He quickly stood up and began running down the hall. The footfalls behind him told Tim that Jason was still in pursuit. When he got to the room that Jason had been investigating, he gasped in horror.

"What the-?" He asked, his words cut short by Jason, who hit him from behind, knocking him forward and causing the world around him to spin.

When Tim's world began to swim back to him, he felt himself being picked up from the ground and held by his arms. He looked at the grotesque instrument made from the mutilated corpse of what was once human. As if on some sort of cue, the inhuman thing began to play an eerie melody with its strings. Tim began to nod off to the music, much to his horror. In a moment of clarity, he realized that if he lost consciousness here, he'd end up just like Jason; and no one would be there to save them.

Tim reared back and headbutted Jason in the chin, causing Jason to loosen his grip. Tim pulled forward until he managed to yank himself free of Jason's grasp and tossed a small device onto the corpse. He began moving away, before he fell to the floor. He was just about to fall into total blackness, when the small device detonated, blowing the inhuman creation to pieces. Tim's world began to return to him once more, as he gripped his still spinning head.

He tried to get to his feet, when he felt a hand grab him under the arm and pull him up. When he was on his feet, he spun around to see Jason, looking like the life had returned to his eyes.

"Hey, you uh... you you?" Tim asked.

"You really need me to answer that?" Jason shot out and Tim just smiled. "Thanks. For saving my ass back there." Jason added.

"No problem. Guess that was one of his 'inspirations'." Tim said, making air quotes with his fingers.

"If that's his inspiration, I'd hate to see what happens when it actually gets to the end..." Jason commented in a worried tone.

The pair walked from the office and set back down the hallway, toward their ultimate destination. There were other rooms, some closed and some ajar, but the duo had learned their lesson and ignored them. Before long, their path ended at a large, reinforced door with an electronic keypad at its right side.

"This must be it." Jason said, withdrawing a small detonation charge from his belt.

He placed the charge on the keypad and he and Tim stepped back. He detonated the explosive and blew the keypad. A metallic clunk told them that the locking mechanism had successfully been disabled. The pair pulled at the door and, sure enough, it slowly slid open. Shining twin beams of illumination from their respective flashlights, Jason and Tim gazed through the doorway.

It was difficult to make out anything in the much darker room. But, after a moment, the two of them realized what they were seeing. The only thing in the room was a single elevator; a sort of lift you might see in a mine. They walked into the room with a hint of trepidation. Without another moment to waste, the heroes stepped onto the lift.

Immediately, the electronic panel on the left of the lift lit up in an eerie green glow. Jason and Tim looked at each other, the silence nearly as consuming as the darkness itself.

"You ready?" Jason said, finally shattering the silence.

"Yeah." Was all Tim could think to say and, with a single press of a button, the two of them began their descent.

Chapter 9: A WAKING NIGHTMARE

Carrie, Lara and Annie continued traveling from corridor to corridor, trying to find a way back to the others. The sight on their path stayed much the same, row upon row of doors hanging ajar, each presumably containing, or formerly containing, some object or creature. Their journey's monotony was finally shattered when the group approached another door, this one without any designation as a containment chamber. There was no other way to go except forward or backwards. So, with only a moment of hesitation, they pushed the door open and walked through.

The room was large and seemed to be some sort of break room. It was equipped with a fridge and a coffee machine, as well as several couches. But what caused the group to pause in their tracks, their eyes going wide in horror, was what they saw in the center of the room. There was a single large sigil drawn in what looked to be blood, with several similar glyphs drawn around it. Across the room, over a dozen long dead bodies were strewn about.

After recovering from the initial shock, Carrie slowly walked forward and knelt beside one of the corpses.

"Be careful..." Annie told her.

Carrie nodded, before examining the body. It was cold and stiff, rigor mortis having already set in. She partly lifted and turned the body, spotting a series of incisions and lacerations.

"What happened...? Are we in danger?" Lara asked.

"Probably. But not from them. The wounds suggest they were self-inflicted. These people killed themselves." Carrie told her.

"But why?" Annie asked.

"One of the 'inspirations', maybe?" Carrie suggested.

"Maybe... a painting? If you could call this painting... or maybe... a drama..." Lara told them.

"'Dramatic' is a word for it. We should get moving." Carrie told them, getting to her feet.

Without so much as another word, Annie and Lara followed her out of the room and down another long corridor; leaving that nightmare behind.

***
Batman, Morrigan, Ash and Owlman walked silently down the darkened hallway, the only sound being the echoing of their footfalls on the cold, steel floor. The silence was broken by the sound of a sorrowful weeping that echoed through the halls. Before any of them could react, a figure appeared at the end of the hall. It stood at seven feet and nine inches, with a lithe, skinny body and disproportionate arms stretching to just under five feet in length. They looked at it and it stared back at them with cold, pale eyes that pierced the darkness.

It then opened its jaw wide and let out an inhuman scream. It ran forward at impossible speeds, flailing its long arms in front of itself. Batman and Owlman rolled out of the way, while Morrigan and Ash were knocked out of the way, falling against the wall. The entity immediately turned around and stared ahead with a face that now distorted into a look of pure anguish. Its mouth opened and closed randomly and it covered its face with one of its hands, before roaring again.

Now that it was closer, they could clearly make out more of its features. Its entire body was a pale white color and its jaw opened unnaturally wide. Its eyes had no visible iris, only appearing as white spheres in their sockets. Its arms were nearly as long as the rest of its body. And its fingers stretched into long, sharp claws.

It looked past Morrigan and Ash, even seeming disinterested in Owlman. It was staring intently at Batman. It charged again and Batman used his grapple gun to launch himself up and out of the way, before dropping back to the floor.

"It's after me." Batman said calmly.

"Why just you?" Ash asked.

"Because I saw it first..." Batman replied.

The creature roared again and Ash stepped forward.

"Over our dead bodies." He declared and held up his repulsor, firing a blast at the entity.

When the smoke cleared, the creature was entirely unfazed.

"Whoa crap!" Ash uttered.

The creature ignored him and swung its long arm out at Batman. He ducked out of the way and it tore through the concrete and steel wall like tissue paper. Batman threw two batarangs at the entity, which imbedded into its flesh, before exploding. The smoke cleared and it had two small holes in its chest. But, within seconds, the wounds closed up; healing themselves completely.

"Uh... plan... F?" Ash asked somewhat sarcastically.

"Hold it off." Owlman said and Morrigan leapt forward, her wings becoming daggers as she slashed and hacked at the beast.

Owlman pressed a button on one of his arm's gauntlets and, somewhere else in the facility, a small charge was detonated. A cell door opened and a figure stepped out, before vanishing with a sudden flash of electricity.

The entity knocked Morrigan to the side and grabbed Batman in its long, powerful arms. As it began to squeeze and tear at Batman, a surge of electricity rushed through the area and knocked the creature back. There, standing before them, was Barry Allen: the Dark Flash.

"Thanks for the jailbreak. I assume I have you to thank." Barry said to Owlman.

"Indeed. This creature seems to attack any who see it, in the order of their observation. It heals rapidly and possesses an unusually dense bone mass." Owlman told him.

"That it?" Barry said with a smirk, before speeding toward the creature.

When Barry stopped running, he held in his hand the creature's heart. The entity suddenly collapsed unmoving onto the floor. Barry tossed the organ to the ground, before turning to face the others.

"Now what?" He asked cockily.

***
Jason and Tim had reached the lower floor of the facility, only to encounter more darkness. They walked through the corridors, narrow beams of light doing their best to cut through the shadows. The duo suddenly came to a stop when they heard a noise. It was a low, off key musical score. The sound sent shivers up Tim''s spine, as he turned to Jason.

"What's that?" Tim asked.

"I don't think I wanna know. Let's keep moving." Jason said and, with a brief nod from Tim, the pair continued on, deeper through the subterranean tunnel system. Then, before either of the heroes could blink, Tim was thrown from his feet, tumbling to the ground with a thud.

"Okay, what the Hell was that?!" Jason asked, unholstering his gun and scanning the darkened corridor with his flashlight held closely to his weapon.

His finger was resting parallel to the barrel, ready to jump to the trigger once he spotted a target. But, before he laid eyes on anything, Jason was knocked off his feet as well, crashing to the floor face first.

"You okay?" Tim asked as both heroes staggered back to their feet.

"I'll live. As soon as I put down whatever's in here with us..." Jason said in a frustrated growl.

Then they heard a scraping noise and both spun around, aiming their flashlights in the direction of the strange sound. That's when they saw it: it was a thing of nightmares. Not that that narrowed it down much in a place like this.

"What the Hell?" Tim said and Jason turned his head briefly to his comrade, a bit shocked at his use of even a mild curse word.

What they saw before them was human; or at least it looked like it might have been once. It looked to be female, wearing the same kind of lab coat as the researchers of this facility, complete with the converging arrows symbol they all wore on their arms. But that's where the similarities came to an end.

Under its long, brown and disheveled hair, it wore a type of half mask one might see at a mardi gras celebration. It was ornately styled, with feathers coming from each side. The domino mask only covered the eyes and the bridge of the person's nose. The crimson coloration almost blended in seamlessly with the blood dripping down the figure's skin under the mask. They weren't sure if it was a result of their eyes bleeding or some other facial lacerations; but Jason could have sworn he saw their eyes flash bright red for a brief moment.

In the time it took Jason and Tim to contemplate the figure before them, it began moving toward them. It was then that a long item in the entity's grip reflected the shine of their flashlights. Jason realized it was a katana just moments before the figure brought the weapon up and back down with a brutal slash. Jason and Tim both dodged out of the way. The figure then slashed toward Tim, who dropped lower, feeling the edge of the blade as it just narrowly hit the hairs on his head. It brought the sword up again, this time slashing across, aimed at Jason; but Jason blocked the blade with the gauntlet of his right arm, metal grinding on metal, before Jason managed to back away.

Tim got to his feet and immediately tossed a birdarang toward the entity. But the projectile only impacted the far wall, the entity nowhere to be seen.

"Okay, was that real? Or did we just imagine that?" Jason asked in confusion.

"I dunno. I wouldn't put it past this place to still be messing with our heads. I-" Tim said, his words ending abruptly as Jason aimed his gun at his ally.

Tim ducked and looked behind him, seeing the same figure as before, the sword raised high in the air and ready for an attack. Jason fired two shots, which hit the wall behind, the entity once more having vanished.

"Okay... let's say it's real... for now... what do we-?" Jason said slowly, his words also being cut off when the being appeared at his side and slashed at him.

Jason quickly ducked out of the way and delivered a spinning kick; but he hit only air. But, instead of disappearing, the entity this time bent backwards in an abnormally flexible contortionist routine. Jason could swear he heard the cracking of bones, as the creature rotated in a small arc, while being bent nearly in half, before suddenly righting itself. It turned its head, looking at Jason quizzically, before walking toward him. As it moved, it stepped in an erratic pattern, almost as if dancing the entire time.

Tim ran toward the entity, catching it off guard. With a swift flurry of punches, Tim knocked their assailant backward until it thudded against a wall; but it remained on its feet.

"What do you think? Another of the Dark Bat's little 'inspirations'?" Jason asked.

"Maybe. But what inspired... this?" Tim asked as the entity pushed itself up from the wall and continued to stare at them.

Without a sound from the being, it again began moving at them, its rhythmic swaying and footfalls suddenly lit a bulb in Tim's head.

"Um, a choreography?" Tim said as the entity moved at him, lunging the sword forward to try and stab him.

Tim rolled out of the way, before immediately getting to his feet.

"Choreography? You mean this thing is literally dancing?" Jason asked in disbelief, as the sword cae slashing horizontally toward him.

Jason was forced to duck, the blade having been aiming straight for his neck. He and Tim both moved in at the same time, but the entity stepped and vanished once more.

"Guess so. I'd hate to be invited to HIS dance recital." Tim said.

"In a way... I think we were!" Jason shot back, just as the entity reappeared and cut at them again.

Jason and Tim both dodged the attack, before returning the attack with a combination of their own strikes. The entity dodged both fighters with almost fluid-like movements, before knocking them away, against opposite walls. Tim pulled his birdarang from the wall it had previously imbedded itself in and slashed at the dancer with the weapon acting as a makeshift knife. The entity again vanished; but both of the seasoned warriors knew from experience that it would be back before long.

"Let's go!" Jason suggested.

After a nod from Tim, both heroes again found themselves moving down the darkened hallways. But, unlike before, they were running as fast as their legs could carry them. They continued to see it teleporting in front of them; but a few shots from Jason's gun quickly cleared their path for the time being. They were beginning to wonder if there was an end to these hallways, or if this was just another sadistic trap by the Bat. As if in answer to their unspoken question, the pair soon arrived at a large doorway, within which was a massive machine.

Neither Tim nor Jason had to guess what the machine's likely purpose was; it was the bomb they were looking for. They hurried inside and, after looking around themselves, Jason began studying the device. As was expected the device was counting down; and they only had a few minutes left. Jason got to his knees and used a tool to unscrew one of the side panels of the device.

"So, can you disable it?" Tim asked.

"I don't know yet. Just give me a minute, will ya?" Jason asked in annoyance.

Suddenly, Tim flashed his light back toward the doorway they'd entered from and saw the dancer that had been pursuing them.

"Uh... just a minute?" Tim asked, a mix of joke and nervousness in his words.

"Just keep it busy, I'll see what I can do." Jason told him when he realized they'd been interrupted.

Then he got down on his back, shining a light up inside the machine as he attempted to navigate the complex series of internal circuitry.

"Got it." Tim said more seriously, as the entity began its approach.

The entity lunged at Time, swinging its sword at him. Tim blocked the blade with his birdarang, before returning with a slash of his own. In an instant, his intended target was gone, causing Tim to stumble forward. The entity appeared behind him, slashing sideways toward Tim's head. Anticipating this, Tim ducked backward, the blade narrowly missing him by a nose.

It was Tim's turn to lunge at the entity, attempting to stab it in the gut. But with a few nimble foot movements, the entity sidestepped his attack and swept out a foot, tripping Tim and causing him to land hard on his back.

"Uh, how's that bomb coming?!" Tim asked nervously.

"It's a BOMB! And I'm not sure I can defuse it. But I might be able to reroute emergency power from the timer. I'm not exactly comfortable leaving an armed explosive under our feet, but it might be the best we can do." Jason said after trying to calm his nerves.

"Sounds good, just- hurry!" Tim's last word punctuated an attempt by the entity to stab down and skewer the young hero.

Tim rolled out of the way with microseconds to spare, the blade impacting the floor with a sickening grinding sound. Tim rolled right into the entity who had teleported to his other side. Using his well trained reflexes, Tim swung his foot around and tripped the entity, causing it to tumble to the ground. Tim rolled to his feet and watched the entity slowly rise. A wide smirk spread across his face.

"You can't teleport if you can't make your fancy foot movements, can you?" Tim asked in realization.

Time threw his birdarang at the entity; but it blinked out of existence, leaving the projectile to once again find purchase in a wall. The entity appeared behind Tim; but Tim was already in motion. As the dancer's blade came swinging down, Tim dove to the side. In a single, fluid motion, Tim grabbed his grapple gin and shot a cable, which wrapped around the entity's legs, before contracting. Tim then gave a yank, causing the entity to hit the ground with a thud.

As if to punctuate his own small victory, the lights on the sublevel immediately kicked on, and the timer display on the bomb switched off.

"Got it!" Jason shouted triumphantly.

"Great, uh- crap!" Tim said, looking from Jason back to the entity, which had managed to pull the cable from its legs and now began to crawl back to its feet, as it moved toward Tim.

With a loud bang, the entity fell dead on the floor, its mask flying off as Jason's bullet found purchase in the former Foundation researcher's skull. Both he and Tim looked down at the body mournfully for a moment, seeing the bloody face of what had once been a woman. She worked for some bad people, this was true. But nobody deserved this. The blood had been pouring from her tear ducts, as if she had been crying out from inside her own body.

"We should go. Maybe this opened the door..." Jason said somberly.

"Yeah..." Tim agreed.

As Tim passed by the wall bordering the exit, he once more retrieved his birdarang. Then the two heroes headed back the way they came, this time grateful that they could actually see where they were going. But, with all the horrors they had witnessed so far, neither of them was so sure that was a good thing.

Chapter 10: MACHINATIONS

Carrie Lara and Annie continued to search for a way back to their lost comrades, walking down a long corridor, when the dim lighting of the emergency power suddenly flickered back to full output.

"Hey, we have light." Carrie said enthusiastically.

"Yeah, but is that a good thing or a bad thing? What does it mean?" Annie asked.

"Whatever it was, I have a feeling your friends are responsible." Lara added.

"I choose to see that as a win. Until something-" Carrie began; but her words were cut short when she spotted movement further down the hall.

"Um, guys...?" Carrie said in a low whisper and pointed.

Annie and Lara looked over to where she was pointing and Lara almost jumped, before letting out a small laugh.

"What is that?" Annie asked, as they stared at a small, bipedal automatron standing at no greater than three feet and three inches tall.

The machine was hiding partly behind a corner and peeking out at them with curiosity.

"Oh, it's just 'One-Three-Seventy'." Lara said.

"So not dangerous then." Carrie said, walking over to it.

"Not unless you find inept hostility and harsh words to be hurtful. SCP-1370 has, well, lost to a houseplant." Lara told them.

"I think it's cute." Carrie said with a smirk.

The moment she neared the small automaton lunged its arm forward and attempted to impact Carrie's gut with its closed pincer hands. Carrie tensed up in anticipation of the impact, only to feel little more than a soft shove. The robot reared back and hit her leg with its other arm. Carrie smirked and turned around to face the others.

"Hey, what's the deal with this guy? He-" Carrie's words were cut short when she heard rapid footfalls coming from behind her.

Carrie spun around just in time to see the machine bounding toward her on unsteady legs. Before she could get out of the way, the automaton tripped over its own feet, its bulky frame slamming into Carrie as both she and the robot fell into a nearby room.

"Ugh, get off me, you lug..." Carrie said with a moan of discomfort as she pushed the automaton off of her and staggered to her feet.

A moment later, Annie and Lara appeared in the doorway, relieved to see that Carrie appeared mostly unharmed.

Annie looked down at SCP-1370, as he rocked back and forth on its face, unable to push itself up using its stubby arms. "Should we help him?"

"He's not going anywhere any time soon." Lara said dismissively, as she walked past the robot.

She faintly heard the question asked of her, but Lara's attention was directed elsewhere. The room was still bathed in shadow, the only light coming through from the adjoining hallway. Carrie felt along the wall until she felt a switch and flicked it. Instantly, the light overhead kicked on and they all squinted at the sudden intense illumination. When their eyes began to adjust, Annie and Carrie could clearly see what Lara was staring at.

There were a series of portraits lining all four walls, from one side of the open doorway, to the other. Unlike typical picture frames, however, these portraits were bordered in what looked like jagged pieces of bone. The bone borders were jagged and misshapen, with spikes and uneven edges lining the canvas. But, despite this, the bone of each portrait seemed to be of one solid piece all the way around. In total, there were no less than twenty different portraits running along the room's four walls.

The canvas of most of the portraits were identical, looking to be a piece of tanned leather stretching between the bone frame containing it. Lara walked to the nearest picture in front of her and reached out her hand.

"Be careful." Carrie said; but Lara either didn't hear her or didn't respond.

She continued until her fingers came into contact with the canvas. Immediately, her eyes widened at the sensation.

"It's... warm. It almost feels like-" Lara's words died on her lips as she gasped and quickly pulled back her hand. "Skin..."

"Gross... so these were probably...?" Carrie began, but her words trailed off.

"People..." Annie finished the sentence, as she walked to the other side of the room, studying another picture.

The picture her eyes fell on looked different from every other picture on the walls. The main difference was that, on the fleshy canvas of this portrait, was an actual image. The image itself was nondescript, a manic etching of a shadow-clad figure with piercing red eyes. The eyes seemed to be dripping, as if bleeding from its drawn sockets.

"This one's... different." Annie told them and Carrie and Lara turned to study the image. "What do you think it-"

Annie's words were cut short when the figure leapt from the canvas itself, suddenly shifting from its two dimensions, into a three dimensional form. Its shadow covered body slammed into Annie, causing her clay body to hit the back wall and break apart. The spectral creature then turned to Carrie and Lara, glaring at them with its blood red eyes.

"Oh crap!" Carrie shouted, as the creature rushed through the air, raking two shadowy claws in their direction.

Carrie grabbed Lara and pulled them both to the ground, just as the creature zoomed past them. The entity hit the wall by which they were just standing. The moment the entity hit the blank portrait, it slithered onto the flesh, once more becoming two dimensional. Carrie and Lara got to their feet, as Annie reformed her body and stood up as well. They all looked at the creature in the picture frame, as it faded from existence entirely.

"Is it gone?" Annie asked.

As if to answer her question, the creature jumped from the portrait behind her and slammed into her back. The claws of the creature cut through her flesh like a knife through butter and sent her sprawling to the ground. The entity then turned on Carrie and Lara again. Carrie leapt into the air and delivered a kick to the creature; but her body passed through the beast as if it were just smoke. Instead of hitting a target, Carrie landed on the ground with a roll. Next, it was Lara's turn to be rushed by the creature.

Annie shot a clay tendril out and grabbed Lara's leg, pulling her to the ground with a thud just seconds before the creature zoomed past her. The entity impacted another blank portrait and sunk into its fleshy surface. This time, Carrie was ready. She withdrew several birdarangs and tossed them at the portrait, as they ripped into the flesh after the creature. Seconds later, the devices let off a small explosion, completely destroying the painting.

"Got 'em." Carrie announced triumphantly.

Annie helped Lara to her feet, but Lara's eyes widened suddenly and she let out a shout of horror. "Watch out!"

The portrait next to the one that had just been destroyed suddenly produced an image of the spectral creature, which emerged from the fleshy surface. The creature lunged forward; but Annie turned her arm into a spike and stretched it out toward the entity. Like before, her limb phased through the creature, impacting the portrait behind. She turned the spiked end into a blade and, with a quick slash, cut the portrait in two.

"Destroy the portraits!" Annie said with realization.

Not wasting a beat, Carrie began hurling birdarangs at the portraits, causing them to explode one by one. Annie hacked the portraits to bits with elongated blade arms. Annie reared back to slash one of the remaining portraits when the spectral entity lunged forward and grabbed her. With surprising force, it knocked her off her feet and dragged her through the air, to impact the far wall. Suddenly, Annie felt something she had never experienced before; genuine pain.

"Aaaaahhhh!!!" Annie screamed out, as her body was pulled against the wall and began to form something behind her.

The bits of her clay body that touched the wall began to form jagged, uneven bits of a sandstone picture frame. While other pieces began to create a smoother, flat surface that stretched between the edges of the frame to take on the shape of a canvas.

"Hold on!" Carrie shouted and threw a birdarang at Annie's body.

The birdarang imbedded itself in Annie's gut, before exploding. Suddenly, Annie's lower body fell free of her upper body. Carrie and Lara watched as Annie's upper body was pulled into the portrait, to complete the newly formed picture and frame. Unlike the other picture frames, this one looked to be made of sand and other earthy materials, as opposed to bone and flesh. Annie's lower body dissolved into a puddle, before reforming to create a new body for Annie. But, unlike before, Annie's stature was smaller than before.

"You okay?" Carrie asked.

"I- I think so... does that mean all the other portraits were..." Annie began.

"People? It seems so. I-" Lara's words were cut short when the entity began to emerge from the newly formed portrait.

Carrie threw two more birdarangs, which flew through the entity's noncorporeal body and impacted the canvas. The entity roared and charged Carrie with its clawed arms outstretched. Moments before it reached her, the birdarangs exploded and the clay portrait began to burn up in the flames. The entity let out a horrified roar, before dispersing into smoke just seconds before it would have impacted Carrie.

"That was... what the hell was that?!" Carrie said suddenly, a mix of shock and adrenaline causing her heart to pound in her chest.

"One of HIS works, I'd imagine. A picture. A living portrait made from the remains of this he fed into it." Lara said, as she knelt down to study a small bone fragment.

"How many do you think...?" Carrie asked, unable to bring herself to even finish her question.

Lara rose to her feet and said solemnly. "Dozens, at least. We should-"

Lara's words were cut short by the sound of an object flying through the air, before impacting a surface with a loud, ripping noise. The object kept going until it imbedded itself into the far wall. The sound it made when it stuck easily into the surface made it clear that the object was metal; but it wasn't so obvious to look at, coated almost entirely in red. Fresh blood dripped from the surface of the item, and onto the cold metal floor.

"No..." Carrie said, eyes wide, as she and Annie looked over at Lara.

Blood now also dripped from the cut traveling all the way around Lara's neck. The researcher had wide eyes, which had barely been able to acknowledge her final moment before the light faded from them. Then, in a split second that shattered their all too brief peace, Lara's head fell from her body, which tumbled lifeless to the ground. Below her, the blood began to pool; there was nothing Carrie or Annie could do. They looked up at the sign of movement and saw a tall, dark figure standing in the doorway.

"It's you..." Carrie said with a mix of expectancy and fear.

Annie moved in without hesitation, shooting a clay limb out to ensnare the figure. But, with the practiced precision of years of training, the man dove out of the way. He then threw a device at Annie's feet. In seconds, the device exploded, causing Annie to be instantly encased in a thick layer of ice.

"You're the other Batman!" Carrie said, withdrawing another birdarang.

"Please, call me... the Batman Who Laughs." He introduced, taking a step forward as he grinned at her with a wide, red smile cracking his otherwise pale, white face.

"You... that's... Joker Toxin..." Carrie recognized.

"Very good. He's taught you well. But do you think you're good enough to stop me?" The Bat taunted, before running from the room, laughing like a lunatic. "Hahahahahaha!"

Carrie was not to be swayed or intimidated and immediately ran after the alternate Batman. She threw several birdarangs at him, but he was always just a step ahead, the blades impacting walls as The Dark Bat took a turn and then another, continuing to take her further and further into the labyrinthian nightmare. They both turned around a corner and found themselves in a long corridor with no obvious twists and turns. Every door along this route looked to still be solidly closed. She had him now.

Carrie threw another birdarang at the Bat; but he spun around, as if anticipating her action, and caught the high speed projectile in his grip. His hand must have had significant blade resistant material between it and the birdarang but, even still, blood dripped from his grotesquely pale flesh. The blood leaking from his hand coated the blade and reminded Carrie of Lara and all the other people this man had killed. In a moment of anger, Carrie ran toward the Batman Who Laughs. The Bat ran up to her in turn and the pair began to exchange blows.

Carrie threw a punch at The Bat's face, which caused his head to snap to the side. When it turned back, his manic grin was even wider. He reared back and threw a punch with his left hand, hitting Carrie across the face and causing her to stagger. When she regained her balance, she took a fighting pose before the Bat. A long moment passed between the two, before The Batman Who Laughs moved back in, with inhuman movements, and swung the birdarang still clenched in his grip at Carrie.

Carrie ducked backwards, narrowly dodging the blade, before leaping up and delivering a spinning kick to the Bat's face.The Dark Bat spun from the force of the impact, hitting the wall with his back. When he pushed himself upright, Carrie was already moving back toward him. He raised the birdarang and tossed it toward Carrie, spurring the young vigilante to duck out of the way of her own weapon. She heard the metal of her own weapon hit the wall behind her; but she was too focused on her opponent to turn and look.

Carrie raised herself up, but not quickly enough. An uppercut landed across her jaw and she flew off her feet, landing onto her back on the ground with a thud. She shook the sudden disorientation from her mind and managed to roll to the side, just as a foot came down in an attempt to smash her face in. Carrie rotated her body and tried to sweep the Bat's legs out from under him with her foot. But the Bta pulled his foot back just in time to avoid her leg sweep.

Carrie continued rolling, until she could get to her feet. But he was already on her. She felt cold, pale fingers wrap around her throat as she was lifted from the ground. She was spun around quickly, as she was slammed into the wall. The impact knocked the breath out of her, as she struggled to breathe around the vice grip constricting her windpipe. She tried to pull the fingers away from her throat; but they didn't budge in the slightest.

When she realized she wasn't going to succeed in pulling his fingers off her throat, Carrie raised her hands into fists and struck at the manic face grinning back at her. But he just took each and every punch, reveling in the pain, as red began to run down his chalk white skin in rivulets.

"Hahahahaha..." The Bat laughed. "Just give it up, Carrie, give into the darkness. That's right..." The voice told her.

The deep, booming voice was all too familiar to Carrie. It was the voice of Bruce Wayne. But, unlike her mentor, this voice offered no comfort. As her world faded to black, the last thing she remembered seeing was the man standing over her removing his cowl to reveal a set of piercing, green eyes.

Chapter 11: RAMIFICATIONS

Jason and Tim walked along a stretch of hallway, until they came to an open door. Slowly walking into the door, their eyes widened with shock.

"Annie!" Tim said, approaching the large ice formation that contained Annie.

Jason moved to Lara's body and shook his head at the scene. He knew before that she was gone. Standing up, he surveyed the room, noting the obvious signs of struggle. Tim had placed a small device on Annie's frozen form, which began to emanate with heat. In moments, the ice block had melted and Annie, her head now free, enlarged her body to shatter the remaining ice.

The moment she was free, she nearly melted into a puddle and had to will herself to keep her humanoid form. Tim helped her to her feet as Jason approached them.

"What happened here?" Jason asked.

"It was... HIM... he made this creature that attacked us from these paintings. After we destroyed them and it, HE attacked. He... killed Lara. And froze me. I think Carrie went after him..." She informed them.

"Come on, we gotta find her." Tim said and ran from the room with Annie in tow.

Jason followed him and they looked from one direction to the other, along the hallway.

"We already came from that direction. Let's keep heading this way." Jason suggested.

With nods of agreement, the trio set off in search of Carrie Kelley.

***
The team consisting of Batman, Owlman, Ash, Morrigan and Barry walked from one deserted corridor to another. Everywhere they looked, they saw the same sights. Dead bodies, open and empty containment chambers, and the flickering of damaged lights overhead. It was a sudden change in the monotony that caught their full attention. There was a large screen plastered on the wall to their left.

When they moved to study the out of place object when the screen flickered to life. On the screen was the face of the 'Other Bat'; the Batman Who Laughs.

"Hello Bruce." He said.

"It's you." Batman said.

"It is. Say hi." The Bat said and the camera atop the screen whirred as it focused itself. "You may call me the Batman Who Laughs. And I must say, I'm impressed you've made it so far so quickly. Although some credit must be given to Owlman. I figured you might betray me."

"What can I say? I have my own plans." Owlman retorted.

"And we have the demon, the anachronism, and the stooge..." The Bat continued.

"Hey, watch it pal!" Ash barked angrily.

"I can't have you spoil all the fun, now, can I?" He told them.

At his words, several metal canisters fell from the ceiling and began filling the room with smoke. From the smoke, something began to shift and move, and a deep moaning could be heard.

"Why don't I like the sound of that?" Ash asked rhetorically.

Suddenly, a humanoid creature leapt out of the smoke toward Ash.

"Look out!" Morrigan shouted and shoved Ash out of the way.

As the creature stumbled forward, they got a look at it. Decayed, rotting flesh over what was once a human visage. It was, for lack of a better term, a zombie. Morrigan shifted her wing into a blade and cut its head off. But the single creature wasn't the end of the nightmare. More movement within the smoke began to draw nearer and nearer.

"This is a fun little virus I found here in storage. They call it SCP-008. How dull. But the effects were quite entertaining. Hope you enjoy..." The Bat said from his screen, before his image vanished.

Owlman and Batman threw their bladed weapons, impaling several oncoming creatures in the head. Barry generated a bolt of lightning and threw it, incinerating several of the infected.

"Barry, stay clear, the virus could be transmissible." Owlman warned.

Ash raised his shotgun and began firing at the horde. When a zombie managed to get near, Ash placed his gauntlet over its mouth and fired his repulsor, blowing its head to pieces. Owlman and Batman each took a direction and threw their respective projectiles. The weapons stuck into the flesh of their respective targets, before exploding and taking out many of the oncoming attackers.

Batman saw a tall, twisted figure within the smoke and knew who it was. It was HIM, the Batman Who Laughs. Without hesitation, Batman threw another weapon into the smoke, before running after the receding figure. When the zombie outbreak was dealt with and the smoke began to dissipate, Batman was nowhere to be seen. Suddenly, their worry was directed elsewhere as a scream filled the halls.

"Oh, no!!!" Ash called out, before starting to shake.

Morrigan ran over to him, but Ash dropped to the floor and curled into a ball, shaking and shivering in abject terror.

"What's wrong with him?" Morrigan asked.

Owlman felt his pulse, before checking his own. "Fear toxin."

"Fear toxin? My accelerated metabolism must've already burned through it." Barry said.

"And I'm not human. What about you?" Morrigan asked Owlman.

"I've built up an immunity." He told them before injecting Ash with a syringe of fluid, which immediately knocked Ash unconscious.

"We need to find Batman..." Morrigan said.

"I'll find him and administer the antitoxin. You watch him." Owlman commanded.

"I'll search the corridors and try to find the others." Barry said, before speeding off in a flash of blue lightning.

***
Jason, Annie and Tim stopped moving and Annie pulled away, leaning against a wall for a moment.

"I'm okay. I think I can walk now." She told them.

"Good. We should hurry. Who knows what-" Jason's words were cut off by a low hum.

They looked ahead and saw an open door just feet from where they stood. Despite the dim light of the hallway, the darkness of the room seemed to cut through even the shadows themselves. Jason tentatively stepped forward, his weapon gripped tightly in his hand.

"What the hell..." Jason uttered in a near whisper.

"What is it?" Annie asked as she and Tim walked toward him.

They joined Jason in peering into the darkened room. What they saw was unusual to say the least. It looked like a typical MRI machine. Only it was hooked to a number of other machines and looked to have several additions built into it. Before any of them could react further, a screen attached to a nearby wall flickered to life, displaying the face of the Batman Who Laughs.

"Congratulations. You've located my latest creation. A scientific breakthrough. These mindless drones didn't have any idea what they had started, the full scope of it all. But I do. I see through the lie." The Bat told them.

Suddenly, a figure began to emerge from the room. Once he stood in the doorway, they got a good look at him. He looked to be an unremarkable, middle aged man wearing an orange jumpsuit.

"And who the hell are you?" Jason asked.

"I used to be called 'Harold Thompson'. I was a doctor once. After the accident, they refused to call me anything but 'SCP-2860'. I wasn't a human to them, not anymore. HE helped me. Made me better. And he says if I help him, he'll cure me completely. I'm sorry." He said before running at Jason.

Jason easily ducked out of the way, then dodged several slow punches by the man.

"Look, Harold, I don't want to hurt you." Jason told him.

"Harold is dead! Call me... Mister Marble." The man said and reached forward.

Jason again ducked out of the way. When the man's hand touched the nearby wall, it began to shift from its composition of metal, to what looked like marble. Tim ran up to the man from behind and threw a punch aimed at his face. But the impact felt like Tim had just punched a solid wall. He backed up, gripping his hand, and looked at Mister Marble's hands.

Mister Marble's hands were shifting into marble themselves. And the transformation moved up his arm and onto the side of his face. Mister Marble just smiled at them.

"See? He made me stronger. I can control it now. And I can transmute more than just living matter. I can alter anything I touch!" He shouted.

His entire body became overgrown with a hard shell of pure marble of varying colors. Annie shifted her body until she was standing before him. She created two large weapons with her hands and cut at him. Mister Marble's skin was cut, but quickly healed itself. He reared back and punched Annie, creating a hole in her abdomen; bits of Annie's mass flying away from her and turning into tiny pieces of marble.

A blue streak of lightning suddenly burst into the corridor, from which emerged Barry Allen.

"Reinforcements have arrived." Barry said.

"How'd you get out?" Tim asked.

"A mutual friend." He answered.

Mister Marble ran at Barry, who sped up, running around the man at blinding speeds.

When Barry finally stopped running, Mister Marble had a large chunk of his chest and stomach missing. He collapsed to his knees, before falling over.

Jason held his gun, trying to decide whether or not to try shooting Barry. Barry gave him a knowing smirk, as if he could read Jason's mind. After a long few moments, Jason lowered his gun.

"Great, maybe you can help us with THAT, friend." Jason said snarkily.

Barry looked into the room, seeing the machine spewing its darkness forth.

"This machine has a trace of the speed force..." Barry told them.

"Indeed it does, Barry Allen. I needed your speed as a catalyst for the machine's reaction. And Annie's, or should I say her 'father's', genetic material as a stabilizing agent. With it, I will bring death to this world." The Bat explained.

"What does it do?" Jason demanded.

"I already told you. It taps into death. Not the cessation of life, but the absence of it. The pure concept of death itself. I aim to tip the balance toward darkness." The Bat clarified.

"Not a chance, smiles." Jason spat.

Barry gave the man on the screen a glance, before building up speed once again. He ran into the room and began running around the machine at an extreme velocity. Before long, he ran directly at the machine and smashed his hand into a metal panel. Pulling his hand back, he ripped out a nearly spherical metal object with broken wires coming from it. The machine erupted in an explosion of darkness, knocking Barry backwards, out of the room, and against the wall.

"NO!!!" The Bat shouted in fury.

Annie and Tim helped Barry get to his feet and Barry just smiled at the man.

"I sensed that this device contained my stolen speed. Without it, you couldn't maintain the reaction. So much for your little toy." Barry said, before vibrating his hands and blowing the orb to shreds.

"This is not over... no... I have one joke left..." The Bat uttered, before the screen went black.

"Now where were we?" Barry asked.

"Let's start by how you got out and who exactly sent you." Jason demanded.

"I believe the man who takes the credit for that is called Owlman. He and Batman are working together for the moment. He felt they might need my help." Barry told them. "And Batman has gone missing. The Batman Who Laughs doused us with fear toxin. Batman went after him. We're not sure where they are now." He added.

"Things just keep getting worse..." Tim said.

"Owlman is looking for him. From what I understand, he's quite resourceful." Barry assured them.

"Yeah, well I don't trust anyone I haven't met. Come on, you're gonna help us look for ourselves." Jason commanded.

"You're the boss. Lead the way." Barry said with a smirk.

The four of them set off, back down the same corridor they had been traveling. None of them knew what tricks the Batman Who Laughs had left in store for them. But none of them wanted to find out. His words still echoed in Jason's mind: 'One Joke Left'. They had averted a catastrophe; but the madman had yet to run out of moves.

That very prospect frightened even someone of Jason's resolve. And he could tell the others were frightened too, even if none of them would admit it. Maybe it was the years of being trained by their own Bruce Wayne that gave them pause. But they knew just the kind of mind they were dealing with. As intelligent a mind as Batman, with the twisted insanity of the Joker; he truly was The Batman Who Laughs.

***
Batman slowly walked down a long corridor that seemed to stretch on for an eternity. The doors all looked the same and each new path he took looked exactly like the last. Even the numbers on what doors had them stopped making sense to Bruce. He felt as though he was in a labyrinth from which there was no escape. And maybe that's just what HE wanted.

Suddenly, the hallway's lights seemed to dim and the air filled with a haze that made it difficult to see. But Batman's years of honing his senses had made him acutely aware of his surroundings. He stood perfectly still, waiting. The shadows moved, nearly imperceptively; but Batman saw it. He was off, after the shadow cloaked figure.

He ran from corridor to corridor, as the figure evaded him by mere inches. Batman felt as if he were chasing a phantom. His head span and the shadows seemed to stretch from the walls to close in on him. Batman felt dizzy, suffocated. But he pressed on nonetheless.

He had to, it's who he was; he was Batman. Batman finally stopped running when he saw it. Looking down the long and twisting corridor, he saw an impossibly tall figure. Horns emerged from its head and it had no visible eyes. It's blood-red lips twisted into a long, wicked smile.

And he heard it; that laugh, that awful laugh. It echoed through the halls, permeating his psyche. He felt like he was going mad. He shook his head and tried to regain his focus. The man, if you could call him that, just stared at Batman. Stared without eyes.

It was everything Batman feared. It's what happened if he let go, if he gave into his darkest thoughts. If he gave himself permission to kill.

Chapter 12: THE FINAL JOKE

Barry Allen raced through the desolate halls of Site-19, blue lightning surging from his body. The world slowed down around him. He saw bizarre, red skinned creatures feasting on a recently dead corpse, saw a group of people who looked like they attacked and killed each other. When Barry came to a long stretch of hallway, he looked ahead and saw two figures, clad in shadow. He raced ahead, toward the pair, until he hit something unseen.

He saw nothing before hitting what he could only describe as a wall. The moment he made contact, powerful arcs of an unknown energy began to course through his body. Barry was thrown, with great force, against the wall; enough to bend the metal against his body. With a thud, Barry hit the ground; unmoving.

***
The twisted, maniacal laughing echoed through Bruce's head. It was taunting him, mocking him. In that moment, as he looked on at the Batman Who Laughs, the two became one. His very existence threatened to unmake him. He had wormed his way under Bruce's skin and taken his face.

Bruce Wayne shook his head in an effort to clear his mind. He steeled himself against the darkness and rushed toward the darkness; the impossibly tall shadow that shared his face. He raised his fist and threw a punch at the looming figure. The moment he made contact, however, a pain radiated from his fist and up his arm, causing Bruce to stumble backwards. The darkness began to shift around him and the other Bat reached out with a skeletal hand.

Bruce fell off his feet, landing on the ground with a thud. He looked up to see his own face, eyes glowing a deep, blood red. As it reached down for him, Bruce rolled out of the way and quickly rose back to his feet. Bruce again moved toward the darkness and delivered another punch. This time, he felt his target give way and the darkness began to recede.

***
"Are you sure he came this way?" Annie asked as she, Jason and Tim walked along the winding corridor.

"I'm sure. The tracker I gave him only just went offline a moment ago and it last pinged in this direction." Came Jason's response.

As they rounded the corner, they saw Barry's body lying motionless on the ground. They quickly moved up to him and Tim knelt down to check his pulse.

"He's still breathing." Tim said with relief.

Annie looked past Tim and Barry, further down the hallway. There, she saw two figures, clad partially in shadow.

"Is that him?" Annie asked and took a step forward, when she suddenly felt a hand grasp her shoulder and pull her back.

"Wait!" Jason told her.

She looked at him, shocked, watching as he took a small metal ball from his belt. He casually tossed it forward. It flew just a few inches ahead of where he and Annie were standing, before halting in mid air, accompanied by surges of electricity. Jason and Annie put up their arms to shield themselves against the bright and violent display. Tim grabbed a still unconscious Barry and dragged him to a safer distance.

After a few moments, the metal sphere shot back from the lightning storm, imbedding itself into the wall nearby. The moment the sphere was no longer in the vicinity of the electrical storm, the surges died to a stop.

"T-thanks." Annie said to Jason.

"It's no problem. I figured if Barry was down, but still alive, he was either bait or he triggered some sort of failsafe. I wouldn't think one of the monsters around here would leave him be." Jason explained.

They all looked ahead, past the now invisible barrier, to see the two shadow cloaked figures, locked in heated combat.

"So, how do we get through?" Tim asked.

"The floor... it's not electrified. Assuming the generator is inside the barrier, maybe we can get through from underneath." Jason suggested.

"Maybe I can find a crack and slip through. But if these people are keeping such dangerous substances in here, they probably made it air tight." Annie lamented.

"Damn. You got any explosives left?" Jason asked.

"No. And I've been recycling my last birdarang to boot." Tim responded.

"So we're back to impossible." Jason said in frustration.

"Impossible for us. But not for him." Tim said, gesturing down at Barry.

***
With every punch, the figure before Bruce gave way just a little more. With every strike, the darkness was repelled. But still, even with its face dripping blood, it laughed. It wouldn't stop laughing. It laughed with his voice, stared at him through his eyes.

It reached out for Bruce with ethereal, shadowy claws. But Bruce tore through the darkness and struck at the monster again and again. He felt the wetness of its blood on his face, heard the cracking of bones under his fists.

***
Annie, Tim and Jason looked behind themselves as Owlman, Ash and Morrigan walked up to greet them.

"What happened here?" Ash asked.

"There's some sort of barrier. You wanna help us with your friend here? We're thinking maybe he can shut this thing down." Jason said, his last words directed toward Owlman.

Owlman knelt down beside Barry and withdrew a hypospray. He held it to Barry's neck and injected the substance within the spray into Barry's skin.

"What's that?" Tim asked.

"A substance that'll increase Barry's metabolism. With his speed force abilities, it should also accelerate his healing." Owlman explained.

As if on cue, Barry's eyes shot open and he pushed himself unsteadily to his feet.

"Great, you're up. Now can you phase past this thing and shut it off?" Jason asked, sounding irate.

"Give me a moment." Barry said.

Suddenly, his body began to vibrate and he slipped through the ground. Within the perimeter protected by the defensive shield, Barry emerged, again through the floor. Blue lightning surrounded his body as he vanished in a flash. They heard a loud crash and, within seconds, Barry reappeared in front of them.

"Door's open." Barry said with a cocky smile.

With no more obstructions to hinder them, the group sprinted ahead, until they arrived at the scene before them. The figure they had seen in the distance was Batman, his suit covered in blood and his cowl partly torn.

***
Bruce pulled back and readied himself for another strike against his dark counterpart. But he was thrown off his feet by an invisible force. When he shook off the blow and looked up, he saw an unearthly spectre, clad in black lightning. He withdrew several batarangs from his belt and tossed them. But, moments before they made contact, the creature vanished from sight; the batarangs imbedding themselves into the far wall.

As Bruce got to his feet, he saw a pair of demonic entities with pale, white eyes. One of them had a blood red face and the other a face of pitch black. They moved to either side and grabbed ahold of his arms with clawed hands. Bruce struggled for his life, as a fourth entity appeared directly in front of him. This creature had a blue gray face, wide unblinking eyes and a pair of horns atop its head.

The horned entity raised its hand toward Bruce's neck, as he struggled. He heard a soft hiss and a slight pain on the side of his neck. Then, in a sudden wave, the darkness around him began to evaporate. A mist of fear and paranoia dissipated and his head began to clear. He sank to the floor, as the demons holding him released their grip.

The three demons before him slowly dissolved, until they once again wore a visage of familiarity. The 'demons' that had been gripping his arms became Jason Todd and Tim Drake, while the 'demon' now seen to be holding a hypospray injector in his hand, was a clearly visible Owlman. The ethereal entity that had attacked him was replaced by Barry Allen. Standing beside Tim was the person he knew immediately as Annie. And the one whom he'd been attacking was...

He looked on the floor and saw it, bloody and broken. The mockup of the cowl worn by Batman Who Laughs had fallen away to reveal a lifeless body. Their hands were tied tightly and their mouth was gagged. Their red and green outfit was stained with their own blood, which poured from their face and out of open wounds. As she laid still on the ground, the blood began to pool underneath Carrie Kelley.

Jason went to her lifeless body and checked her pulse, before shaking his head.

"She's gone." He said in a low whisper.

Bruce's heart beat heavily in his chest and sweat poured from his face, at the slowly dissipating fear. But none of that was his focus at the moment. He stared at the body of who was once his comrade and partner in crime fighting; laying dead on the ground. By his own actions. He looked down at his hands, gloves soaked in her blood.

In an instant, Bruce let out a blood curdling scream, mixed with anger and grief and self loathing. He pounded his fist against the wall against which he leaned. Pain radiated through his body; but it did nothing to dispel his immense sadness. He had failed them again, his only family. He felt a deep numbness inside, a strange mix of sorrow and emptiness that he couldn't put into words.

For the first time since they knew him, Bruce's face fell heavy and he looked as if he were about to cry. But he didn't, he just stared at the body of Carrie Kelley.

"Bruce, Bruce!" Jason said walking over and shaking Bruce by the shoulder.

"We need to go." Owlman said.

"Bruce, it wasn't your fault. He doused you with fear toxin and who knows what else." Jason pleaded.

"Hahahahahaha..." A sudden laughter echoed through the halls.

They could tell from the electronic hiss that it was coming over the building's intercom system. And, from the voice, they knew it was HIM.

"My final inspiration has come to fruition, my grand joke! Now, it's time to call a curtain on this performance. You have been wonderful actors in my production. But, as always, all good things must come to an end." The Batman Who Laughs announced, before the intercom cut off.

"Barry, get them out of here. Both of them." Jason ordered.

Barry nodded and sped away in a flash of blue lightning. With him also vanished Carrie's body. Then another flash of blue lightning caused Bruce to vanish as well. A moment later, an explosion echoed through the facility's halls, causing the heroes to be rocked on their feet.

"What now?" Jason asked.

As if marking his question with a tragic answer, the metal wall behind them buckled and began to break. Something slammed into it from the other side again and again and again. Before long, a large bone-like protrusion emerged and imbedded itself in the wall parallel to the now open hole. It took them a moment to register what they were seeing. The thing that was tearing through the reinforced building, the thing with a claw as big as their bodies, was something's hand.

"Run!" Jason shouted with all the urgency he could muster.

Chapter 13: REQUIEM FOR A BAT

Dawn the halls, through door after door, blue lightning surged. Then, through the front doors of Site-19 burst Dark Flash, with Batman in tow. Across the lot and toward the exterior perimeter he raced. Then, suddenly, a painful bolt of energy coursed through his body and Barry fell from his feet. Both Barry and Batman tumbled across the ground, before coming to a stop feet from the facility's border.

Barry and Batman pushed themselves up from the ground and got to their feet. No sooner had they stood up before they were faced by a small army of well armed soldiers. Each of them wore tactical gear that bore the insignia of the SCPFoundation.

"Stop! Don't move!" One of the SCP Agents shouted, aiming an advanced blaster rifle at Barry and Batman, the other soldiers following suit.

"You gonna shake it off and help me here?" Barry asked Batman, charging up blue lightning in one of his hands. Batman just stood there, unresponsive.

Before another shot could be fired, a group of six figures ran from Site-19 as fast as their legs could carry them. When they came to the blockade of Foundation agents, the group came to a stop.

"Get out of the way!" He implored, to no avail.

Several of the soldiers turned their weapons on Jason, causing him to aim his gun at them in turn.

"We have to go! Now! Something-" Jason's words were cut short by a rumbling all around them.

It felt as if the earth itself might break open to engulf them all. They turned around just in time to see part of the roof and a section of outer wall crack and break. Through the ever growing hole, massive claws emerged. They were soon followed by the equally large and terrifying head of a reptilian-like creature.

"SCP-682 has breached containment! I repeat: The Hard-to-Destroy Reptile has escaped containment!" One of the soldiers frantically shouted into his comm device.

In response to the massive creature's appearance, the soldiers ran past the group, toward Site-19 and the massive SCP-682. Once they were in range, the soldiers began firing up at the beast. But the energy blasts did little to no damage as it hit the creature's thick hide.

"What are we? Chopped liver?" Ash uttered sarcastically.

"I guess we should let them know who we are." Barry exclaimed with a smirk.

"Well, great. Got any ideas?" Jason asked.

"I have one. But I need you to make sure it stays put for a few minutes." Barry said, before suddenly speeding forward and running in rapid circles, creating a ring of visible blue electricity.

"Okay, you heard him." Jason said.

"Yeah, got it. Hey babe, give a guy a lift." Ash asked of Morrigan.

"Sure thing hun." She answered with a wink.

Morrigan spread her wings wide and grabbed Ash under his arms, before flying the both of them straight up into the air. Once they were over 682, Ash gave a nod and Morrigan dropped him. Ash fell several feet, until he landed with a roll directly onto 682's back. SCP-682 threw one of its massive claws down at the soldiers on the ground. Many dove out of the way; but a few of the soldiers were sent flying backwards from the force of the impact.

Tim ran forward, toward one of the downed soldiers. He hung his head for a moment when he realized that the man had been killed. Then, with a heavy sigh, Tim grabbed one of the blaster rifles and began firing up at the creature. Jason joined in, firing dual handguns at the beast. The surviving soldiers got back to their feet and joined in the assault, firing their weapons at SCP-682.

SCP-682 raised its claw and moved in for another attack against its assailants. But, before its blow landed, Annie dove between the reptile and the soldiers, ensnaring its clawed hand in her clay body.

"Got ya!" She declared.

Ash Williams made a fist with his artificial hand and began throwing punches at the top of the creature's head. In response, SCP-682 began shaking and bucking its body wildly. Ash tried to maintain his footing but, after a few moments, he rolled from 682's head and down part of its body; tumbling onto a section of Site-19's roof. SCP-682 raised itself up, lifting its free hand in preparation for an attack. Morrigan landed on the ground and transformed her wings into chains, wrapping them around 682's arm, holding it back.

With SCP-682's arms both restricted, Ash stared the beast down. He raised his gauntlet and fired a repulsor blast into its mouth. SCP-682 roared in fury, lunging forward to bite at Ash Williams. Ash ran from 682's chomping maw, 682 crashing into and causing the roof to crumble under Ash's feet. Ash's footspeed barely outpaced the crumbling of the roof, forcing him to dive forward, narrowly avoiding toppling down into the rubble below.

SCP-682 raised its head again, preparing for another attack. Suddenly, two figures burst from the ground, encircled in radiating, crimson energy. The figures were Razer and Atrocitus, the still warring Red Lanterns. Atrocitus punched Razer down into the ground with earth shattering force, before landing in front of him.

"Pathetic..." Atrocitus said as he reached down to grab Razer.

In response, Razer sprang up and threw a powerful punch at Atrocitus' jaw. The uppercut sent Atrocitus flying upward, causing him to bounce off of 682's hide, before falling to the ground with a thud.

"It's time to die!" Razer said, his voice dripping with anger.

"Now's not the time for your grudge match!" Jason called out to Razer.

As if in response to Jason's words, SCP-682 reared its head back in preparation for another attack. Razer thrust his hand out, conjuring numerous red energy tendrils, which wrapped around 682's neck and pulled its head down, pinning it to the ground. With 682 temporarily restrained, the fire from Jason, Tim and the soldiers momentarily ceased.

"Now what? Tim asked.

"Now we hope Barry's plan works. And fast..." Jason responded.

***
Owlman approached a still silent and still Batman and gripped him by the cape.

"Are you really going to stand by and let the rest of your friends and allies die because of one mistake?" Owlman asked.

Owlman pulled back and punched Batman in the gut, causing the hero to double over before standing straight again to look Owlman in the eyes.

"It's something I might do. But I don't believe in 'good'. Only 'necessary'." Owlman added, raising his fist for another strike. "Killing you now would be too easy."

Before he could throw another punch, the two of them turned their gaze back toward the entrance to Site-19. Standing there and walking toward them with a slow, methodicall gait, was The Batman Who Laughs. His presence punctuated by his ever present grin.

"Oh, don't tell me: having a touch of sentimentality, are we Thomas? For your dear, lost brother? Dead in your world, but so close in this one. His can be your life to take." The Bat told Owlman.

After a moment that seemed to stretch on for an eternity, Owlman released his grip on Batman's cape and turned to fully face the Batman Who Laughs.

"Sorry. I don't do requests. Besides, you've already broken him. I suppose I'll have to settle for killing you instead." Owlman told him, returning the Batman Who Laughs' smirk with a grin of his own.

Not wasting another moment, Owlman rushed toward The Batman Who Laughs. He threw a series of quick, hard punches aimed at the Bat's face and chest. The Bat took a strike to the face, before catching Owlman's second fist in his palm. The Bat gripped Owlman's arm and flipped him over his head, tossing him behind him. Owlman hit the ground rolling, quickly springing back to his feet.

Ownlman ran back toward The Batman Who Laughs who, in turn, ran toward Owlman. This time, it was The Bat who struck first. Owlman managed to block several strikes by the Bat. But multiple punches got through his defenses, hitting Owlman across the face, and causing him to stagger backwards. But, even as Owlman tried to recover from the blows, he saw the Batman Who Laughs closing in once more.

Owlman held out both of his hands, launching a flurry of exploding discs from his gauntlets. The Bat dove and rolled out of the way, as the discs exploded on the ground. Through the dust and debris, the Bat sprang, tossing a Batarang at Owlman. Owlman tossed one of his Owlrangs in response, the two projectiles colliding and exploding on impact. But The Batman Who Laughs was already running at Owlman once more, grinning like a lunatic.

Owlman responded in kind, rushing the Bat. The pair threw a flurry of punches, striking each other across the face several times over. Blood leaked from the corners of their mouths as they both took a fighting stance.

"You could have been so much more. We could have bathed this world in darkness. Together. As kindred..." The Batman Who Laughs uttered in a low growl.

"I don't work with anyone I don't trust. And, besides, you're not long for this world. You're a remnant of a failed timeline. I've come to realize where I had erred. Finding the true center of the multiverse is impossible. And it's true that, not just every choice we make, but every movement of every particle in our universe results in another world. Nothing matters. But it also means WE will always be. Not you and me. Me and him. Owlman and Batman. I will always exist. But, after I kill you, you will be reduced to little more than carrion. Forever." Owlman told him.

For the first time in their entire engagement, the Batman Who Laughs' smile vanished from his face. The Bat rushed in toward Owlman. He moved so suddenly and so swiftly that Owlman barely had time to throw a punch. The Bat caught his punch and aimed toward Owlman's ribs with a Batarang. Owlman prepared for pain, a pain that never came.

Holding the arm of The Batman Who Laughs back, with their own grip around his wrist, was Batman. Owlman stepped backward, looking down to see that the Batman Who Laughs' Batarang had been sharp enough to penetrate his armor slightly before his momentum had been halted.

"Look who finally decided to step off the bench! Aren't you taking a chance? Maybe I'm not who you think I am. You really ready to beat another of your little friends to death?!" The Bat taunted.

In response to his sadistic taunt, Batman punched his dark counterpart in the gut, following it up with a right hook to his face. The Batman Who Laughs flew from his feet, landing on the ground with a thud. Owlman moved to stand next to Batman, as The Batman Who Laughs got back to his feet.

"Ready to end this?" Owlman asked Batman; but Batman remained silent, gaze locked onto the Batman Who Laughs.

The Batman Who Laughs smiled anew, before tossing his Batarang at the duo. The blade landed on the ground between the pair, before erupting in an explosion. Batman and Owlman put up their arms in a crossguard against the spray of dust and debris. Through the dust sprang The Batman Who Laughs, who leapt into the air and delivered a spinning kick to both of them, causing Batman and Owlman to stagger backwards. The Batman Who Laughs kept up his attack, swinging a punch at Owlman.

Owlman blocked the punch and delivered a combo of punches to The Bat's face. The blows landed with a spray of blood from his mouth. Batman moved in and threw a punch at The Bat; but The Bat put up an arm, narrowly blocking the strike. Batman moved his other fist in and struck The Bat in the throat, causing him to double over in breathless agony. But Batman didn't let up, continuing with another series of punches aimed at the now defenseless Batman Who Laughs.

Batman punched The Batman Who Laughs in the face; again, and again, and again. The gloves of his fists were covered in blood; but Batman kept hitting his dark twin; anger and pure hatred in his eyes. But he still saw that terrible grin; taunting him, mocking him. And that laugh; a laugh that permeated his psyche. Batman reached out and felt his fingers wrap around the throat of The Batman Who Laughs; and squeeze.

"You- agh! Are you ready to kill? To sacrifice your morals, your code? To end my life?" The Batman Who Laughs taunted, even while still being choked.

Batman squeezed tighter, tighter, tighter; until The Batman Who Laughs was incapable of taunting him. Soon, very soon, he'd never taunt anyone again; never hurt anyone again.

"Batman!" Through his rage-addled mind, Bruce heard a voice call out; a voice he recognized as that of Tim Drake.

Batman looked up and saw Tim looking at him, worry spread across his face. He also saw Jason staring intently, silently, as if to see what Bruce might do. He looked down at the pale, bloody face smiling up at him; a face that once resembled his own. And, with every ounce of will in his being, Batman released his grip on the monster's neck.

"Ahhgh!" The Batman Who Laughs coughed up blood, before smiling at Bruce. "I knew you couldn't do it. You're still bound by your shackles. You're still too weak to do what you have to. You can't kill me!" He continued to mock, before lunging at Batman with a Batarang in his hand.

But, before he took more than a step, a blade plunged into the gut of The Batman Who Laughs. Standing beside him, holding the other end of the blade, was Owlman.

"No. But I can." Owlman said with a smile as he slowly ripped the Owlrang from The Batman Who Laughs and watched as the villainous Bat fell unmoving to the ground.

Batman looked shocked for a moment, before he did his best to collect himself.

"Batman, we have a bigger problem than him right now. Much bigger." Jason said as Batman and Owlman turned to look at the massive creature that was SCP-682.

Razer's chains shattered and 682 tossed Morrigan and Annie from either of his arms, as he prepared to go on the offensive once more. But, just as he moved in to attack, a bright surge of energy lit up nearby, followed by a crack of blue lightning. Before their eyes, a massive rift opened up in front of SCP-682. The heroes ran to a safe distance as the portal began to suck in debris from all around. SCP-682 also began to be drawn in by the vortex, being pulled the rest of the way from the building surrounding it.

As more of the building collapsed, Ash Williams jumped from the roof and was caught by Morrigan, who flew them both to the ground safely. They all watched as, little by little, more of the massive reptile vanished past the event horizon. Then, as the last of its body disappeared from sight, the portal winked out of existence. And, standing where the vortex had once been, was Barry. He approached the group with a cocky smile.

"What the hell was that?" Jason asked.

"I created an isolated speed force prison. Hopefully it'll keep the gecko contained." Barry answered.

"Hopefully." Batman said, looking down at his hands sorrowfully.

"It wasn't your fault. He's... gone now. He can't hurt anyone ever again." Tim told Batman.

"But I can..." Batman said, before starting to walk away.

"Batman!" Tim said and took a step, ready to go after him; but a hand on his shoulder stopped him.

Tim turned to see Annie standing beside him. "Let him go. He needs time." She told him.

"Yeah, well, we coulda used his help with cleanup." Jason said.

"Well, we still got the owl guy and speedy. Why don't-?" Ash began, only to look around and notice that neither Barry nor Owlman were anywhere to be seen.

"So much for them." Morrigan mused.

Before another word could be said, a number of armored vehicles pulled up to the scene. From each of the vehicles stepped a number of additional soldiers, as well as several individuals in suits. Jason raised his gun, but Tim put up his hand, silently signalling for him to lower his weapon.

Seeing both Jason's trigger finger and Tim's collected demeanor, one of the suited figures put up a hand in a gesture of peace. "We're not here to cause you harm. We're simply here to reestablish containment. We could use the help." The suit told them.

"That's why we're here. To clean up YOUR mess." Jason shot back.

In the days and weeks to come, the five heroes who remained helped sift through the rubble of the now destroyed Site-19 and recontain any remaining anomalies, as well as to search the surrounding area for any sign of anomalies that might have escaped the perimeter. They helped place numerous anomalous items and entities in temporary containment devices, with strict instructions on how to approach and handle each. Once that was done, there was nothing left but reconstruction. To the SCP Foundation's surprise, much of the funding came from donations by Bruce Wayne. Who informed them, via email, that he would be keeping tabs on the day to day operations of Site-19 and any other connected assets from now on.

***
Tim Drake sat on a rooftop, sorrowfully looking down on the city from above. He only broke his gaze, turning his head, when another figure moved to take a seat beside him; that of Annie.

"Bruce hasn't been seen as Batman in weeks now. He's not at the mansion and he won't return any of our messages..." Tim confessed.

"He just needs time. He just buried Stephanie. It can be hard losing someone close to you." Annie told him.

"I know." Was all Tim could think to say in response, looking into Annie's eyes wistfully.

Annie smiled back at him. She knew what he was thinking. After all, she had been dead, in a manner of speaking, until recently. And Tim had mourned her death. She wondered if she had ever truly been alive. But that was a question for another day.

"Do you, I mean... do you know what you'll do now?" Tim finally asked.

"I... I thought I might try and do what you do. Protect the city. Be a hero. What do you think of the name Claydoll?" She asked with a smile.

"I like it." He answered honestly. "What about, you know, your civilian identity. I know you have the name Annie. I know a guy who can get you papers. But he'll need a last name."

"I was thinking... maybe Hagen? I know my father wasn't much of one. Hee might not even see me as an actual child, merely a missing part of him. But he's all I have by way of a past. And maybe I can remind him of what it is to be human. One day." Annie told him.

"Annie Hagen it is." Tim said with a small smile, which Annie returned.

***
Around a table sat twelve figures, clad in shadows. On the round table between them were the words 'O5 Command' They were the O5 Council, also known as O5 Command, or the Overseer Council; the clandestine founders and leaders of the SCP Foundation. Little is known about its members, save for the fact that, at any given time, there are no less than twelve members and as much as fourteen; depending on the source of the information. They had called an important meeting, to discuss the recent turn of events.

"Containment has been restored."

"But at what cost?"

"They're right. Bruce Wayne hasn't just helped to repair Site-19, he's continuing to oversee its function."

"If he traces its operating costs to any of our other facilities, he could assume further control of the Foundation. OUR Foundation."

"And he will. He is Batman after all."

"World's greatest detective."

"Our shell companies will slow him down."

"But they won't stop him."

"Perhaps we should sacrifice the limb, to save the organism."

"We have bigger problems still."

"Yes... a darkness is coming..."

"We must prepare..."

***
In a shallow grave just outside of Site-19 in Portland, Michigan, a darkness passed overhead. Lightning tore across the sky, followed by a deafening crash of thunder. And a figure approached, clad in robes so black, they choked out any light that drew near. A heavy wind swept across the field, moving the loose dirt at the entity's feet, little by little. Until the body buried underneath was unearthed; the freshly dead body of The Batman Who Laughs.

With a hand of blackened skin, the color of rot, the figure standing over his prize conjured a staff. At the very top of the staff was a lantern that emitted an energy that seemed to be made of the darkness itself. And from that lantern was a long, curved blade. As the entity waved the scythe over the unmoving corpse, a small ring emerged from the lantern and drifted slowly down toward the body's gnarled finger...

Notes:

TBWL inspirations from SCP-960:
1. A piece of music: A human body turned into a harp with blood magic that plays constantly. Those who hear it will suffer intense hallucinations of demonic figures until moving away. The weaker willed or those who are fatigued will succumb, bleed from their eyes and fall into a violent state, dying unless brought back from that state.
2. An intricate choreography: Shows a written down dance to a foundation researcher that puts them in a trance and makes them act out the dance, as well as placing them under control. The dance moves allow them to move from point to point in an instant.
3. A painting, drawing, or sculpture: A living painting inked with blood magic that allows the painted entity to jump to other nearby paintings. Additional frames and canvas made from human remains of past victims.
4. A psychological/sociological insight: That humans naturally strive for control and pain
5. A work of fiction/detailed autobiography: Writing his life story in blood along the walls
6. A spiritual revelation: That all life in the multiverse should be exterminated
7. A work of drama: A room full of foundation agents committing ritual suicide
8. One joke: Killing Carrie Kelley
9. A scientific breakthrough: The creation of a machine that can tap into the power of death itself

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 6 of Armageddon
• Part 2 of DCAU
• Part 2 of SCP Founation Archives