A Necessary Evil - Part 2 by nycherolover@yahoo.com
DISCLAIMER: The following story is a work of fiction. All the characters depicted in the story belong to and are copyrighted by DC Comics and/or its subsidiaries. I am in no way related to the company and have no ownership over the characters. This is fan fiction. This story depicts males in sexual situations - if that offends you, please stop reading now. Thanks.
And thank you to all the great writers out there who inspired this work. This is my first fiction attempt, so feedback is greatly appreciated and welcome, at nycherolover@yahoo.com
Nightwing chuckled. The Joker, or possibly the Riddler, running out of clich‚s, had decided to revisit their tired Alice in Wonderland scripts.
"So why don't you just sweep up the usual suspects and move on?" Nightwing asked.
"Because none of them could have done this. The usual suspects, Nightwing, are all in prison or out of the country," Batman responded, still looking out the window.
"Ok, so did you test it? The bottle, I mean."
A long pause. The doctor grew more animated ? he enjoyed a captive audience when it came to science. "We tried. We started testing at the University lab, but the testing ? uh ? had unexpected side effects on some of my graduate students."
Nightwing finally lost his last shred of patience. The drawn-out drama was too much. "Look, Doctor ? Tanner ? with all due respect, this is all very fascinating, but if there is a point to my being here, let's get to it -- I'm not good with melodrama."
Batman turned to face him, locking eyes with Nightwing for the first time. "Nightwing, we have an entirely new enemy on our hands. He is moving fast, and he's not going to be happy with Gotham alone. It's clear he's already moving on Bludhaven too. Tell him Tanner. Let's get this over with."
The doctor moved quickly now, with new urgency. "Simply put, Nightwing, we have a person ? or persons ? on our hands who enjoys humiliating the men ? well, up until now it's been only men ? of Gotham. They don't steal anything. They don't seem at all interested in financial gain, ransom, control. This fluid," he held the bottle up," is a powerful and as yet unknown hallucinogen and, we now know, an even more powerful aphrodisiac."
The doctor glanced over at Batman, who slowly turned his gaze away from him, back out the window. Again.
Nightwing stared at the doctor. Another raised eyebrow. A smirk. "You've got a pervert running loose in Gotham, is that what you're telling me? Really?"
"It's a bit more complicated than that, Nightwing. This ? pervert, as you call him ? is bringing the power centers of Gotham to a complete standstill. We've already had the executives of three corporations, including Wayne Industries, leave the city indefinitely, for fear of further attacks. He strikes randomly, but always successfully. He's taken out nearly half of Gotham University's football team. And last night, the Mayor's son was found near his dorm ? gagged and ? completely naked. All of them showed traces of this substance in their blood."
"There's more." Batman interrupted, beginning to pace to one corner of the room, then turning to move to the other. "All of the bank accounts, safety deposit boxes, passwords ? anything of value, were either raided or hacked within hours of their disappearances."
"I thought you said he wasn't interested in money?" Nightwing countered, watching the taller hero sweep back and forth.
"He's not. Any money, valuables ? anything ? that was stolen, was returned, dropped in random places around the city ? one day later."
"And so far only two of the missing men have been killed. The others ? what happened to them?" Nightwing asked.
Dr. Tanner responded, "Other than shock, and ? well ? humiliation, nothing."
"So what you're telling me is that you have a sick fuck who likes to take dirty pictures of Gotham's finest, steals their money ? but then returns it, and except for a couple heart attacks ? pretty much returns things back to normal? This is why you called me? You're slipping, Batman."
Batman chose not to take the bait. Dr. Tanner stepped in to respond. "That's what we thought, until he started again. Taking the same men ? a second time. In one case, even a third. The mayor is completely terrified and ? the exodus of some our finest citizens is accelerating."
Batman spoke quietly. "He's taking control of Gotham, Nightwing, and I will not let him do that."
After a pause, Nightwing asked simply, "Alright. Then where do we start?"
"By doing exactly what he told us to do," the doctor answered.
"And that would be?"
"We're going to drink it. We have no choice," Batman replied quietly.
"You're out of your fucking mind, my friend," Nightwing finally snapped, after another uncomfortable silence in the room. "You're going to ingest something that you yourself, doctor, have told us you've been unable to test successfully?"
"Not entirely so, Nightwing," said Tanner. "We've had several ? successful ? tests. Enough to know what it does and, more importantly, how to defeat it. We just don't know exactly what it's made of ? that answer will come with time. Too much time, I'm afraid. If we don't gain control of it soon, Gotham will be a ghost town in a matter of weeks. The Mayor's office will not be able to keep this under wraps for much longer. And, I'm afraid, there's the last message we received, another tattoo ? to consider."
"Saying?"
"You next, Duo." --------------- "Alright, you've got my attention. Tell me what I need to know."
Batman turned and made eye contact with the doctor, and then nodded.
"Step this way, Nightwing. We don't have a moment to lose." He pulled open a recessed door behind him, and disappeared inside. Batman held back, and then motioned for Nightwing to step inside. As the two heroes passed through the narrow door, it swung shut silently, a rush of air sealing it closed completely.
The area behind the door was the main testing room for Batman's lab. Tens, if not hundreds of antidotes, sprays, vaccines, and solutions had all been developed here to fight off one noxious substance or another. As Nightwing reacquainted himself with the room, he couldn't help remembering that one time when they had stumbled across a particularly arousing plant of Poison Ivy and he had barely made it home before collapsing from severe blue balls.
Batman had clearly invested in some improvements since then. Stainless steel ? everything. Cabinets, medicarts, sterile containers. A large cart on rollers ? also in steel ? with numerous drawers, large and small, nearby. And in the center of the room, something out of a mad scientist's cartoonish dream: a large mobile examining table that, as they entered, had been modified into a sitting position, a panel of buttons and controls arrayed down the right side of the table's base. What seemed to be extension panels for arms and legs were carefully folded under the table.
Nightwing's acute sense of crime solving told him the room had seen some use ? and recently. Empty syringe wrappers on stainless steal counters, used rubber gloves piled in the tall, metal biohazard basket. And above all else ? a smell he couldn't quite place. Human sweat, mixed with ? what was it? Chlorine? Vaguely reminding him of swim team practices in college.
Batman had placed himself strategically on the far side of the room, with arms folded across his chest, he leaned into the corner of the lab, his cape draped slightly over one counter. His eyes avoided the other two men ? staring into the distance.
"Nightwing. What I'm going to tell you now is, of course, strictly in confidence. Before we begin, I'm afraid I need to go through the formality of asking for your consent that, whatever you learn here, whatever ? happens ? here, will not leave this room."
All three men were silent for a moment. Nightwing chuckled, then responded, "Doctor, I have no idea who you are, but I can assure you that the Batman knows full well he can trust me. We've gotten to know each other pretty well over the years, wouldn't you say Batman?"
The older hero said nothing. The doctor began to pace.
"Right. Perhaps I should explain, then, "continued the doctor. "Batman asked for my help shortly after he found the first sample of the liquid. Under his supervision, we initiated tests at my university lab. The first runs were ? disturbing."
"We knew that this substance was being used on men, primarily. I began testing male lab animals ? rats, then dogs, then our resident monkey. In each case, only a second's exposure showed a huge leap in testosterone levels, as well as a highly increased amount of ? sexual arousal."
Nightwing smirked. "A lab full of horny animals, doc? Bet you don't get that a lot."
"Not just ? horny ? to borrow your phrase. Frantic. Manic. In short ? artificially induced ? well, heat."
"We knew we had to proceed quickly to human subjects. Once we were sure our animals suffered no long-term side effects, I asked three of my students for their consent to undergo testing. They did, and ? we administered the liquid, in an inhaler form. We ? tested them one afternoon and? "
Nightwing grew annoyed by the long pauses. "Yes?"
"Two of my assistants are still with us. The third, the oldest of the three ? was unable to endure the stimulation and suffered a massive coronary after two hours of exposure to the substance."
"Death from, what exactly?," Nightwing asked.
"Well ? simply put, so much adrenaline and dopamine response to the substance was produced, and so much ? well, arousal ? induced that ? upon the fifth ejaculation, he collapsed."
Another pregnant pause. "The. Fifth?"
Batman felt the need to speak.
"Nightwing, this is a sick fuck who has found a way to stimulate desire to inhuman levels. Cut to the chase, doctor. " He snapped out the words, and began pacing himself.
Dr. Tanner's eyes followed Batman as he paced the room. "During our testing on our different subjects, the last one in particular, we made a discovery which gives us some hope of defeating this substance. We learned, basically, that, over time, our subjects' response to the drug lessened until, finally, it became more ? manageable. The reaction I mean. Not entirely gone, mind you ? but clearly not as altering as the first exposure."
Nightwing thought for a moment before he spoke. "So, you've got some sort of super Viagra, basically, that you have no clue how to cure, but you've kept giving it to these ? what, volunteers ? until their systems were saturated enough with the stuff? A bit unethical, don't you think Doctor?"
Batman responded. "We had no choice."
Nightwing stared at him, then said, "You mentioned the last test subject ? what made him so special, who is he?"
Dr. Tanner was silent. Batman stopped pacing, turned to Nightwing and said, "It was me."