Chapter 173 - [AT] Fear Toxin…

[After Transition]

Quickly sneaking across the top of the warehouse I begin to peer through every window I can to get a glimpse of the situation inside and while most rooms have knocked out dock workers inside them there are a few which still have some crazies running around and not wanting to disregard my duty in my new role I quickly jump into those rooms silently knocking out all of the crazies and taking them down which seems to work just fine though it's an effort to stay out of their line of sight since they are really jumpy and paranoid constantly looking around but I'd rather do it stealthily than alerting them which alerts others with the screams and maybe even Scarecrow himself and I don't want my presence here known so while it takes a bit of effort and skill I make sure to knock out each and every person I see that's been affected by the fear toxin preventing them from endangering others and clearing the path for the police to collect them and restrain them till they can get the help they need, clearing room by room making sure to travel between each using the top of the warehouse since that's seems to be the best avenue or not getting discovered I quickly clear out room after room of fear addled dock workers before I eventually make it to a room near the end of the warehouse where I finally find the people I was looking for but I'm heavily confused by the situation.

I had discovered the people I had been looking for but I'm befuddled by the scene inside because while everyone I was expecting to see is here the things I was expecting inside the room and what they were doing went heavily against my expectations since while Batman, Robin and Batgirl were fighting they were for some reason fighting against each other while Scarecrow watched on from the sidelines as he fiddled with his chemistry set presumably working on some diabolical concoction of fear but while Scarecrow was acting as expected the others were not and I could not find a reason as to why because as far as I knew the only thing that could possibly result in Batman, Robin and Batgirl fighting against each other would be the fear toxin produced by Dr Jonathon Crane but they can only be affected by that by breathing it in and I know that they took precaution against him as they wouldn't be part of the Bat-family if they didn't, in fact I can see all three of them down there wearing there gas masks which are heavy metal things that are affixed to there jaws covering there mouths and they appear to be working with ease and there doesn't seem to be any breaks or cracks on them so they are in working condition and when I take a closer look I can see nothing wrong with any of their gas masks but what I can see is their behaviour and looking closer I can tell that both Robin and Batgirl are acting erratically and wildly attacking not only Batman but each other as well going for devastating crippling blows while Batman remains his calm and collected self but I go an see his face is in a grimace as he constantly fights against the other two trying to not hurt them and trying to keep them from hurting each other which is taking all of his time and hence he can't focus on Scarecrow who seems to be brewing something malevolent in the corner of the room.

"Haha Batman, you didn't expect this did you? Before my fear toxin could only be dispersed as a gas to be used the most effectively which made my toys somewhat troubling given that a harsh breeze could blow them away which is why I mostly confined my activities to the inside of building and not only that but my marvellous fear toxin could usually be thwarted by wearing a simple gas mask which you make heavy use of which usually results in me being sent back to Arkham. But I had enough time outside of that wretched pen this time that I managed to actually make some advancements on my work since my experiments proved themselves to be useful and I finally managed to improve on perfection by making a new variation of my brilliant Fear Toxin by transforming it into pure liquid form and while I could always do this by condensing the fear toxin into a liquid that had always proved to be immensely lethal killing people as soon as injected which was a wasteful death since they had never experienced true fear before their death but now they can since I have finalised the calculations and my Fear Toxin now comes in pure liquid fear which your two sidekicks are now experiencing, it's a shame that I only had time to make two doses before I was unfortunately discovered by those insufferable workers but I made them worthwhile by using them on your sidekicks when they were least expecting it but not to worry Batman. I am making another dose now and you can soon join your sidekicks in their fate of experiencing true unadulterated fear before an ultimately satisfying death, it won't be long until you have two ounces of liquid fear running through your veins Batman, haha." Hearing Scarecrows villainous monologue it's not hard to figure out what happened since he pretty much laid it all out for me by telling me that the Bat trio must've come in here with their gas masks on and not expecting much of a threat because without the fear toxin (which they had effectively neutralised by wearing gas masks, though that doesn't seem to be the case now) Scarecrow better know as Dr Jonathon Crane was just a crazy man in a Scarecrow costume and so once his fear has had proven ineffective they must've gone to capture him (mostly Robin and Batgirl first, hotheaded teenagers that they are) and when their guards were down he must've struck out and injected them with the liquid fear before they could do anything which is proven correct when I notice with my enhanced eyesight tiny needle wound upon their shoulders/necks while Batman appears to have no such wound, most likely while they were hot headed and ended up being injected with fear toxin Batman must've still had his guard up because he knew Scarecrow would not face them if he didn't think he could win and when Scarecrow made his move Batman was able to avoid being injected with the injection but his two companions weren't so lucky and got liquid fear I side their blood veins which forced them to go crazy and starting attacking Batman and each other and now with Batman busy Scarecrow got to work making another dosage of fear toxin yet it wouldn't be long before this guys plan crumbles down around him since he didn't account for me.

With Batman preoccupied trying to keep his two sidekicks from killing himself and killing each other there was no one to stop Scarecrow from using his chemistry equipment and making more doses of liquid Fear Toxin one of which he will soon inject into Batman as he has the syringes nearby and ready to fill but what kind of newly minted hero would I be if I didn't try and stop this mad man and his obsession with fear and so while he's still focusing on his chemistry set I get ready to leap down and knock his block off since my mask already has a gas mask/rebreather attached to it and built into the mask since my chin isn't exposed but I stop myself before I try and leap down and take a moment to contemplate the current situation before I do anything rash and end up worsening the situation since you don't know exactly what hat the madmen that are part of Batman's rogue gallery have to n store and what backup plans and countermeasures they have so I take a moment to once again observe the situation and see if I missed anything before I can act, after looking around I can't see anything alarming and my spider sense isn't going off so I'm ȧssuming there's no traps in store but during my period of contemplation I come to the realisation that while everyone else (warehouse workers/dock workers) was doused with fear toxin in the form of gas both Batgirl and Robin were actually injected with fear toxin directly into their bloodstreams with a newly minted recipe as told by the creator himself and so I had no idea if this product would have irreversible side affects or consequences and we had no samples and f the liquid fear toxin on hand in case we do need to work on helping both Batgirl and Robin recover but luckily for me Scarecrow is working on creating more liquid fear toxin right now and while that may increase the danger a bit I should be alright as long as I intercept Scarecrow after he's made the liquid fear toxin and before he's put the liquid into the syringes.

And so I wait while watching anxiously as Scarecrow gets to work creating a new batch of liquid fear toxin and paying attention to the process he's using and the ingredients in case it might come in handy later but all the while Batman is continuing to fight to a stalemate with both Batgirl and Robin while protecting them from each other and I've seen multiple openings to take them down quite brutally but each time he doesn't take advantage of the opening and focuses on continuing the stalemate and I'm confused as to why since while they may be put out for a couple of weeks or maybe months by him taking advantage of the opening that should be a fair price to put them down and take out Scarecrow before he can create the next batch of liquid fear toxin but then I realise that perhaps Batman has come to the same conclusion as me that we need a sample of the liquid fear toxin in case it has lasting effects on Batgirl and Robin which must be why he's maintaining the stalemate because if he put them down now then Scarecrow would stop working on his next batch of fear toxin and most likely run which could leave both Batgirl and Robin in dire states so he's maintaining the stalemate till Scarecrows done but this comes with extra risks since he will have to take down both Barbara and Dick after the next batch is made and that will take some time which Scarecrow will use to load his syringes and make himself a bigger threat, of course he could just be trying to put them down as gently as possible while knowing that he has time since a scarecrow is busy making his next batch however I doubt that since Batman always has a plan and he's skilled enough that he could've already put these tow down as gently as he wanted so I'm guessing he's got the same objective as me and as I stare down at him as he continues to stave off his fear crazed sidekicks I could've sworn that his eye flickered to me watching them through the window for less than a second and though I can't be sure I've chosen to ȧssume that he's aware of my prescience as that would make the most sense going forward but whether he's aware of my presence or not doesn't matter since I still have the same objective and right now he's helping to compete it.

Now it's just a waiting game till the next batch of liquid fear toxin is done, Batman looks like he'll be able to tough it out for a few more minutes just fine. He'll be fine…

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