Gallows Humors, Gallows Duties Ch 7

What's that? Two releases in one day?

Remember how I keep saying I would work on this story!

WELL GUESS WHAT!?

I need some sleep. ._.

Also chapter seven! For those of y'all who consistently vote for this story? This is for y'all. ^_^

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“It’s not this Reaper Man’s actions so far that worry me, Clark.” Bruce said, sitting in front of the Bat Computer, on its screen Jason could see Superman’s unconcerned face. “But what its actions, paired with what it said to you and Diana, hint at.”

“Oh? Didn’t it quote a fantasy story at her?” Superman asked.

“To be precise, what he said to Diana was; ‘What can the harvest hope for, if not for the care of the Reaper Man?’ yes, a line from a book in a fantasy series.” Bruce leaned forward. “But of particularly important note, a great number of people have said that the ‘Death’ from these novels is what they imagine and, in some cases, hope, that the Grim Reaper is like. Then there is what he said to you.”

On the screen, Superman blinked. “The thing about his duty?”

“Precisely, specifically, when he said that the reason he intervened and saved so many lives was that he did it to ‘protect the balance.’” Bruce pressed several of the giant buttons of the Bat Computer, bringing up several files. “On the day that the Reaper Man visited so many places and healed all those sick people, by killing them then resuscitating them, there were a number of events. The most prominent I found was a terrorist organization releasing nerve gas in a small country in Africa. We can summarize that this Reaper Man felt the need to even the scales, as it were.”

On the screen, Superman nodded. “I could see that, yeah, very noble of him, even.”

“So it would appear.” Bruce said, his eyes narrowing. “But what happens when this ‘balance’ needs to receive a bump in the other direction?”

“You don’t mean—”

“We must be on high alert. The next time that the League saves a lot of lives, we may well have to deal with a supernatural entity that feels the need to ‘balance the ledger.’” Bruce leaned forward. “Especially since I have reason to believe that this Reaper Man is no hero. I had the Bat Computer search through public surveillance systems around the world.”

Several windows opened, showing videos of people who had died, mostly by car accident if Jason was any judge, though there definitely was the occasional murder thrown in there. After a few seconds, an emo motherfucker with a weird skull on fucking fire and wings made of shadow set down gently, pinched the chest of the corpse, made a motion as if pulling something out of it, then flew off. None of the pedestrians and other civilians present seemed to react to it.

As much as he hated doing so, Jason begrudgingly changed his opinion of the Reaper Man’s getup, yeah it could be emo with all the black and the chains and shit, but a skull perpetually on fire was metal as fuck.

“That is disconcerting.” Superman said. “But it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s something bad, we do not have all of the pertinent information.”

Bruce grunted. “The information we do have, is that it was present at a number of deaths that it could have prevented but chose not to, before doing something to the corpse while occluding the minds of those around it.”

“The real question is, why occlude the minds of the people around it, but do nothing about the cameras?”

“Both you and Diana said that when it spoke to you, this Reaper Man’s words also pressed into your minds.”

Superman nodded. “Yes, though I agree with Diana that it probably wasn’t on purpose.”

“It may be an automatic process.” Bruce said, leaning back on his chair. “And if what keeps it hidden is an automatic process, it may simply not have considered the fact that it could be seen by electronics. Or, the last time it was active, there was no electronic surveillance, and we only have a brief window before it adapts and we can no longer track it.”

“I still think Reaper Man deserves the benefit of the doubt.” Superman insisted.

Bruce grunted. “Just keep what I said in mind. For now, I am needed elsewhere.”

They said their goodbyes and the call ended. Jason opened his mouth.

“Yes, Jason?” Bruce asked before he could make a noise.

Grumbling, Jason stepped up to his adopted parent. “Hey Bruce, got a weird question.”

“Ask.”

Jason took a deep breath. “I’ve got a friend, yeah? He’s been sayin’ some shit that’s got me worried.”

“Alexander Mors?” Bruce asked.

Jason blinked. “How did you…?”

“He’s the only friend you have that you’d actually bother to worry over.”

Jason bit back the first retort he had to that.

And the second.

And the third.

“Right well, he’s been sayin’ some shit. About droppin’ out of school and sellin’ drugs or workin’ for the mob.” Bruce’s eyes sharpened. “I don’t think he actually means any of that, pretty sure he’s only said that cause he knows it’ll piss me off, he’s kind of a troll like that sometimes, and his Guardian, Nana, she’s a hardass. But uhh, he’s been talkin’ about some fight club or somethin’ and yesterday…I think he may have made up his mind to go to it yesterday, and that’s got me worried. Could you help me find this fight club and, I dunno, stop it? He’s good in a fight but…”

Jason was able to breathe easier when Bruce nodded and said. “I know of a few venues that might fit…”

He turned to the Bat Computer and began using the hidden more normal keyboard, which begged the question why even have the giant buttons?

Windows showing walls of text that looked boring started appearing. “Cross referencing the kids that go to your High School whose parents have ties with the various gangs or mob organizations…here, Joseph Stain, son of Johnathan Stain, an accountant for a venue at Park Row, where there are illegal fights, gambling, minor drug use, and prostitution.”

“The hell? Why haven’t we busted that shit down before?” Jason demanded, immediately angry because this is the exact kind of stupid that Alex would throw himself into to piss him off.

“Because we’ve been trying to track down that sudden increase in drugs getting into Somerset and causing an increase in violent crime.” Bruce said, raising an eyebrow. “A fighting venue that only rarely causes fatalities and peddles small quantities of recreational drugs has not been a priority.”

Oh…yeah that made sense.

Bruce stood, stretching to limber up. “But since this seems like a time-sensitive issue. Let’s take a break on the drug case and go shut down an illegal fighting ring.”

“Hell yeah!” Jason said, changing into his Robin costume and leaping into the Batmobile, Bruce taking off pressing him into the seat as the Batcave’s walls sped past.

Batman emerged out into Bingham Street, driving at speed into Napler Street, past Gotham Academy, the school that he’d initially tried to enroll Jason in and he’d gotten kicked out of for teaching a few snooty brats proper fuckin’ manners.

After that they drove down the Trigate Bridge, into Hamill Avenue, turned right at Moore Street, past star labs and onto Mark Wald Boulevard. As the Batmobile went up the Conroy Bridge connecting Burnley and Somerset, Jason could see Gotham Heights and remembered he hadn’t done his homework like Alfred and Bruce had told him to.

Alex would let him copy his homework, but he’d be so damn smug about it that Jason didn’t want to deal with that.

If he burnt down the school, he wouldn’t be late with his homework though…

Burning the school would be the easy part, the hard part would be pinning that on someone believable. And doing it in a way that Bruce wouldn’t realize it was his fault.

…

Jason was going to have to copy Alex’s homework, there was no way he’d have the time to do it after breaking up the fighting thing.

Alex would be so fucking smug about that.

Dammit.

They reached Park Row really quickly, especially considering Gotham traffic. Then again, Bruce drove like a maniac. Jason didn’t know how he’d never caused a car crash.

“We are gathering information first.” Bruce said. “Don’t do anything reckless.”

“Yeah yeah.” Jason said rolling his eyes.

They went in through the roof. Dick always made jokes about skylights, but Bruce simply picked the lock of the roof access door and they made their way down via the stairs.

When they ran across a guard who was clearly a bum who had been paid to watch the door, the man’s face paled, he took off his hat and said. “I didn’t see nothin’ Batman sir. You need me to leave or sumthin’? Cause I can leave.”

“Stay here.” Batman said, the tone instinctively making Jason stand up straighter. “Do not warn anyone about our being here.”

“Yessir. Batman sir. Thank you sir.” The bum said, then went back to watching the door and trying very hard to look like he didn’t know they were there.

They continued going further down, the basement of the building was a large open space with an octagonal pit in the center full of sand. The pit was surrounded by benches, it had spotlights, LED strips, even screens over the pit so those sitting too far away to see the fight directly could get a show.

In all honesty? Jason found himself impressed against his will. He also wondered how it could possibly still function as this was a little too involved for your run of the mill illegal fighting ring. Then he saw a few cops that he recognized and sighed morosely. Because of course.

Batman and he did their thing, moving about on the metal rafters that ran over the whole place where the lights were bolted onto. Very few people looked up, and the lights would blind anyone looking up anyway so they had the run of the place.

Judging by the mounting excitement in the crowd and the lack of blood in the sand, the fights hadn’t started yet, which was good.

The lights went crazy, the guy handling the smoke machine got way too overeager, and admittedly alright music started blaring out of the speakers as an announcer started hyping up the crowd for the first fight of the night.

Nailed it. This was always the fight where they’d put some chump up on the chopping block and beat him to hell to work up the crowd before the real show. Hopefully Alex hadn’t had the time to do anything too stupid. Jason needed his homework.

“On this corner, a fighter who fancies himself a saint! Here for his debut fight! Greeeeeen Demon!” For some reason the announcer pronounced demon as ‘deh-mon’, but Jason stopped wondering when the ‘fighter’ walked out into the pit.

A muscular youth stepped into the sand, barefoot, wearing a bright green pair of shorts, and with a fancy green mask with dark red lines and highlights.

That was Alex. Alex was wearing a stupid mask and he was the goddamn chump.

“His opponent is a returning favorite! Give it up, for Kiiiiilleeeeeeeer Croc!”

Croc’s huge form stalked out of the other door in the pit, and Jason could only palm his face. Because of course.

“Without further ado! Let the fight, begin!”

Yeah no.

Jason jumped down and landed with a flip between the two fighters he stood up and failed to bite back the snarl on his face. “Alright, break it up!”

The crowd realized what it meant for Robin to leap into the pit, and a good chunk of them began to file out in a surprisingly orderly manner.

Croc rumbled a growl. “Look kid, I just agreed to show up for some quick cash alright? I really don’t feel like dealing with Batman tonight. I haven’t done nothin’ so I’m leaving.”

He turned around and walked away, and while normally Jason would be livid at being dismissed like that, at the moment he was just thankful that he was going to be able to get Alex out of this without too much trouble.

“Absolutely not!” Alex yelled while flexing, speaking in an over-the-top and clearly fake Mexican accent. “I cannot allow you to stop me, Mister Robin! Though you may fight for Justice, I need that money for the Children!”

Jason blinked, what children?

That was as far as he got before Alex was suddenly there, Jason was hoisted into the air, across Alex’s back, and he jumped surprisingly high.

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Batman felt his heart climb down from his throat as the large Luchador landed from the combined Airplane-Spin-Atomic-Drop-Backbreaker, carefully holding Jason so that the only thing that happened was that he put pressure on his protégé’s stomach, forcing Jason to fight to keep hold of his dinner.

He watched as he jumped again, even higher, and again landed so that Jason was rattled, but a move that could have easily shattered the young man’s spine merely caused him to lose his breath. Followed by a third jump and a flip, landing relatively gently on the sand on top of Jason, who finally lost the battle against his body and projectile vomited the dinner that Alfred had slaved so dutifully over.

The boy jumped up, throwing his arms up and working up what remained of the crowd. Giving Jason ample time to crawl to his feet. It would appear that since he hadn’t made his own entrance yet, the crowd had decided that Robin was there alone.

As the muscular youth grabbed Robin and threw him into a suplex, pulling back so, once again, his protégé was only lightly thrown rather than shattered against the ground. Batman tentatively decided to let this play out, Jason needed a lesson in humility, and it made for a wonderful distraction.

At the sound of rustling cloth, he turned, hand on a batarang.

“Woah there. I’m friendly.” Said a flying woman, her arms up palm out in front of her. Her costume was fairly basic, a dark blue body glove with dark yellow boots and gloves, dark gold highlights emphasized her curves. Her face and head were covered with a helmet that fully obscured her features. However, the featureless faceplate served as a monitor in which she was playing a smiling emoji. A dark red cape hung from her shoulders.

“I take it you are with Green Demon?” He asked, not lowering his guard but making the decision not to be the one that started hostilities.

“More here to make sure he doesn’t bite off more than he can chew.” She said, floating close enough to be able to speak without shouting, she crossed her arms as she gazed down where Green Demon continued to throw Robin around the sand to the enjoyment of the crowd.

“So who are you?” Batman asked.

“Haven’t really thought of names much, but I’m leaning towards ‘Aspire,’ kinda hard to find something that isn’t dumb, corny, or taken. As to why I haven’t been active before? Been busy, simple as.” Aspire shrugged. “As to why I’m here personally? Like I said, dumb-dumb down there decided he was going to win the prize money and donate it to Saint Jude Children’s Hospital because, and I quote, ‘Fuck Cancer.’ I’m just here to extract him if things look hairy.”

“Paying for cancer research with blood money?” Batman demanded.

“Hey, not everyone is independently wealthy.” She said with a scoff. “At least his heart is in the right place. If you’re willing to trust a friendly stranger I’ll keep watch of their little scuffle, make sure it doesn’t go too far, and you can get going with whatever you need.”

Batman hummed, looked down and saw Green Demon bring Jason to the sand with a DDT, once again, making certain to let go and mitigate any impact so the worst thing his protégé got was a face-full of sand.

“Please do.” He said and made his way toward the office area.

Aspire nodded and continued her vigil. Once he was out of earshot, he clicked the button over his left ear. “Oracle, come in.”

[Go ahead for Oracle.] Barbara’s voice said over his communicator.

“I need you to look up any information available on Metas who go by the name ‘Aspire’ and ‘Green Demon.’ Furthermore, prepare a dossier on Alexander Mors and his Guardian.”

[Jason’s friend?]

“Yes.”

[On it.]

With that business taken care of, he made his way through the building until he found the main office. Luckily, nobody was present, but something nagged him about the ordered chaos of the office. He wasn’t familiar enough with the location to be able to tell if anything was truly out of place, but his gut told him he wasn’t the first one here.

It didn’t take him long to take pictures of most of the documents, as well as plugging in a USB stick that copied the computer’s hard drive for later dissection.

With that done, he made his way out of the office and back to the trusses so he could look over the pit, where he saw Jason trying to get back control of the fight, only for his opponent to block a punch with his forehead before sweeping into Jason with a lariat, but rather than striking, he picked Jason up with one arm, spun him around three times, and tossed him, sending Jason tumbling through the sand and once again playing to the crowd.

He watched Jason get tossed about for a while longer, he couldn’t fault Jason’s persistence, but he’d have to remind the boy about all the lessons on adaptability, he really should have tried something different by now. “Wouldn’t it be faster to just steal the money?”

Aspire scoffed. “That’s what I said.”

“And?”

She put on a clumsy overemphasized Mexican accent. “I would never use the Sacred Lucha to commit such a dishonorable act.”

 “Did he actually mean that?” Batman grunted.

“No, he’s just a dork.” Aspire said fondly. “Plus, I guess it’s his way of showing me he’s ready; for this much, at least.”

“You’ve been training him for a while?”

She nodded. “Perhaps for too long. I just…I worry. How do you know when they’re ready? You know?”

A conundrum he was most familiar with. Still, he found himself answering her question.

“You don’t.” He said, causing her to turn to look at him. “The best you can do is be there for them when they stumble. And be ready to take them to task if necessary.”

She sighed. “Guess so…Want me to put a stop to it? I can pretend to be the bad guy, you know? Huff and puff and call the authorities? Force everyone to disperse?”

“No.” Batman said. “This will be a good learning experience for Robin.”

Aspire chuckled quietly. “Ah, his head been a bit swollen lately?”

“Just so.” He answered. “This an issue you’ve encountered with Green Demon?”

“No, surprisingly.” She said, crossing her arms and tilting her head back. “He was quite thorough about his prep for this little operation for having been something he put together last minute. If anything, I’d say that his problem is that he is a little too cautious right up until he isn’t. Then he’s entirely too reckless.”

“Ah, one of those.” Batman said with a commiserating sigh. “It’d be better if he were too cautious or reckless. Far easier to correct than being both.”

“Exactly.” Aspire said with her own sigh.

They watched a while longer, but with Jason being the way he was, he did decide to end it by stepping in. He allowed Aspire to extract a ‘struggling’ Green Demon who vowed to return and get the money ‘for the children!’

He looked the other way when Aspire shouldered a duffel bag he hadn’t seen her carrying around.

“Why’d you step in!?” Jason growled, unsteady on his feet. “I had him right where I wanted him!”

Batman held in a sigh.