Chapter Text
Scarecrow, Poison Ivy, Joker, and Mr. Freeze escaped Arkham 17 hours ago. It was all hands on deck as soon as it happened, but they’d scattered into different parts of the city immediately so tracking them down was a headache and a half. Joker and scarecrow were top priority, obviously, so Ivy and Freeze had to be set onto the back burner until the two more murderous maniacs were apprehended.
They got lucky and managed to find the Joker within five hours. Unluckily it was Hood that found him. He was more than a little rattled by the experience, so Batman had pulled him for the foreseeable future, so they were down a man.
Scarecrow was harder to track down.
He’d managed to avoid detection for another eleven hours, with Oracle combing surveillance cameras constantly. No one can hide forever though, and Batgirl and Black Bat stumbled upon a few civilians who had obviously been fear gassed which led them right to the crazy doctor. He was holed up in the sewers since they were vacant with Killer Croc in Arkham. The girls took Scarecrow down fairly easily, but not before he managed to smash a few canisters of fear gas open. They only inhaled a minor dose before equipping rebreathers, but Batman had sent them back to the cave anyway for the antidote and to be monitored for any unforeseen side effects.
With the heavy hitters taken care of, the remaining inmates were much less of an issue. Ivy, while potentially very destructive, always ended up in Robinson Park. And Freeze usually needed at least three days to get enough resources to start causing major problems.
Batman and Robin went after Ivy, who didn’t put up much of a fight at all. She apparently planned on breaking out with Harley, but since her girlfriend wasn’t able to escape, Ivy wasn’t as motivated to stay out of Arkham as she would have been. She made a few cursory attacks with her vines, but it was obvious her heart wasn’t in it.
In the meantime, Nightwing and Red Robin got to work tracking down Mr Freeze. Freeze had always been more sympathetic than the rest. He normally didn’t try to outright kill anyone, and his full scale attacks were few and far between. It was obvious that he was simply a man driven mad by grief. Of course he was still a mass murderer, so he needed to be brought in as soon as possible.
They found the doctor holed up in a warehouse by the docks. He’d done a sloppy job with insulation, so the ground outside the doors were covered in frost. With the combined might of the first and third Robin, Freeze went down fairly quickly. He ranted and wailed loud enough to be heard through the comms, but without enough time to build up his arsenal, there wasn’t much he could do about being wrapped in wire and taken into police custody.
It was all in all a very successful response to an Arkham outbreak, though exhausting. Nowhere close to the record of three hours and seven minutes, but respectable. Batman and Robin join Nightwing and Red Robin at the doors to the warehouse.
“Report.” Batman growls.
“All escapees accounted for and sent back to Arkham. The only thing left to do is a sweep of their hideouts, and then we can go home.” Red Robin responds.
Batman narrows his eyes in thought. “Robin and I will search the warehouse. Red Robin, you have the sewer where Scarecrow was hiding. Nightwing, you’re on Joker duty.”
“Batman, we have a situation at the cave.” Oracle cuts in on comms, “Hood has been getting more and more paranoid. Agent A has requested you return to base to calm him down.”
A pause. “He’s been calling for Dad, they think he might be having flashbacks.”
Batman’s face tightens, hesitating.
Robin straightens. “Father, I am more than capable of completing a sweep of Freeze’s base on my own.”
Father is obviously unsure, but seems to see that this is the most logical course of action.
“Red Robin, Nightwing. Whichever one of you finishes first, double back and assist Robin with finishing the sweep.”
Or not.
“I do not need assistance! Especially not from Drake,” Robin sneers, crossing his arms.
“Names, Robin. I don’t care if you don’t need or want help, you’ll be getting it anyway. All of you return to the cave within two hours.” With that, Batman grapples off toward the Batmobile.
Immediately, Robin sticks his nose in the air and turns to stalk into the chilly warehouse. He hears the sounds of Drake and Grayson chattering for a moment before they too leave to their respective assignments. Good riddance. He will be done long before they return.
Though not quite to his usual sub zero levels, Freeze had managed to get his base of operations cold enough that Damian’s breath billows out in front of him. There are walls of ice creating a maze-like feeling, and Damian trails his hand across the glossy surface as he walks toward the center chamber. This place is going to take forever to thaw out.
He reaches the largest room in the warehouse, filled with half completed machinery and scrap metal, before his comm buzzes in his ear.
“This is Red Robin. The sewer where Scarecrow was hiding is completely flooded. Unable to access at the moment. I’m headed toward Freeze’s hideout to assist Robin in his sweep.”
“Understood,” Oracle responds.
“I still need to finish up here, so I’ll see you both back at the cave!” Nightwing chirps.
Damian groans, tilting his head back toward the ceiling. Drake will surely make this process a hundred times more tedious. He continues past Freeze’s barely constructed equipment. There’s a hum coming from a smaller doorway, and Damian is determined to shut down whatever is pumping out freezing air before Drake arrives to muck everything up.
The smaller room doesn’t contain any kind of generator, but does have a fully completed suit of metal armor and a glowing, futuristic freeze gun. This may have been a more thought out escape attempt than they had previously assumed.
Damian hears a scuffing noise behind him. Whirling around, he points his sword directly to the throat of the intruder.
Drake raises an unimpressed eyebrow, lazily putting his hands in the air by his shoulders.
“You caught me,” He says, his smug face entirely too irritating. “Can we just finish this and go home?”
Damian scowls. “I was doing just fine before you interrupted me. You can go now. You’ll only slow me down.” He steps back and sheathed his sword.
“C’mon Damian,” Drake said. “Let’s just do this without arguing, and then we’ll be done.”
“Tt. Fine.”
Damian returns to surveying the room, Drake doing the same behind him. Several minutes pass before Drake makes a noise of surprise. Damian turns to see his brother inspecting a completely blank section of wall near the floor.
“Are you actually going to do something useful for once, or will I have to tell Father that you’ve succumbed to your psychosis?” Damian says.
Even though they’re covered, Damian can tell that Drake rolls his eyes exaggeratedly. “There’s a seam in the wall here. The humming is louder too. Probably where whatever is generating all of this cold is.”
He slides his fingers around a faint line in the metal wall. It’s obvious now that it’s been pointed out. Damian sniffs and moves over to squint at the wall as well. He spots another seam next to the one Drake had pointed out, and lightly pushes on the edge of it. A panel about the size of both of his hands opens up with a small tablet inside. Damian smirks at Drake while he presses a button labeled ‘open’.
The small door swings inward, and Drake rolls his eyes again as he crouches to enter a tiny room with ice coating every wall entirely. Damian shoulders his way past his older brother, which makes Drake sigh exasperatedly.
There is in fact a generator inside. It takes up more than half of the room, though that isn’t saying much as there’s barely enough room for Damian to stretch his arms out from his sides. He goes straight to the hulking machine in the corner. There isn’t an obvious off button, so Drake quickly joins him. Their shoulders brush.
Before either can speak, a quiet click sounds from behind. They turn just in time for a nozzle embedded in the ceiling to spray water directly onto the now closed door.