Deep inside Arkham Asylum, in the high-security ward where no visitors were ever allowed, the Joker lay sprawled on his bed, whistling to himself.
He needed a new kind of fun.
A better game.
Something that could make him laugh until it hurt.
Lately, Batman had been spending less and less time in Gotham—and that made everything boring.
What had Batman and his shiny new friends been doing instead?
Alien invasions? Yawn.
Atlantis showing up? Dull.
The more the Joker thought about it, the more empty the smile on his face became. For once, he couldn't even come up with a good idea.
Then—
A blurry yellow silhouette phased straight through the wall and entered his room, speaking in a low, distorted voice.
"Joker. I'm here to discuss a partnership."
The Joker barely spared the figure a glance. Unimpressed, he rolled over and faced the other way.
The yellow figure spoke again.
"I can get you out."
"Why would I want to leave?" the Joker said lazily, waving a hand without even turning back. "The roommates here are all talented. Coming back to Arkham is like coming home."
"There are two Batmen outside right now."
The visitor from the future understood Gotham well enough to know who Batman's greatest enemy truly was.
The Joker was a virus this city could never purge—tormenting Batman, trying to drag him down into the mud, was his favorite kind of entertainment.
And Reverse-Flash also understood something else:
Batman wouldn't break. Not completely. Not in the way the Joker wanted.
Which made this even better.
Reverse-Flash wanted Thomas Wayne to see exactly what Gotham's Batman dealt with every day—what kind of lunatics his son fought, night after night, on the edge of death.
And if Thomas joined the game?
Then they'd finally reach the part Reverse-Flash loved most:
Father and son hurting each other.
Wearing each other down.
Bleeding each other dry.
"…Huh?"
That single sentence snapped the Joker awake like a defibrillator.
Two Batmen?
So Gotham had a counterfeit?
A fake wearing his favorite target's skin?
"Oh, that's not allowed," the Joker said, voice suddenly bright with interest. "If someone's pretending to be Batman… then I have to make them suffer."
Arkham Asylum — Main Gate
The front gates stood wide open.
Sirens screamed through the facility.
In a streak of lightning and afterimage, XLR8 and the Flash landed at the entrance.
"We're late," the Flash said, frowning at the alarm. "Reverse-Flash has already started."
He had to catch Reverse-Flash—fast.
And he couldn't allow Arkham's inmates to spill into Gotham.
Luckily, there were two of them.
"I'll hunt Reverse-Flash," the Flash said. "You help Batman—get every patient and inmate back into their cells."
Ben nodded once.
"Don't worry, Flash. Arkham's on me."
Lightning crawled across the emblem on his chest.
As the Flash ran into the asylum, Ben pushed into motion—his world slipping into that eerie stillness only speedsters knew.
Once you connected to the Speed Force and entered that hyper-accelerated state, everything else might as well be frozen in time—except other speedsters.
Inside Arkham
Ben rushed through the corridors and quickly spotted them:
Gotham's infamous "Batman fan club"—the big-name villains Batman had stuffed into Arkham over the years.
The nobody inmates clustered in panicked mobs, stampeding toward the exits.
But the veterans—the true monsters—had instinctively gathered together.
Fresh out of their rooms, they didn't have their toys, their weapons, their gadgets.
They were already planning their next move:
Hit the asylum's storage, retrieve their gear, then be ready for Batman's arrival.
To Ben—in full speedster state—their movements were laughably slow.
He started sending the escapees back to their cells one by one, almost like tidying a messy room.
As he worked, he studied the cluster of villains.
He stepped up behind a man whose face seemed split down the middle.
"Two-Face. Harvey Dent. A good man who fell." Ben's voice was flat, clinical. "We all miss the district attorney you used to be. Here's hoping Arkham's doctors can fix you."
Ben redirected Harvey's swinging fist—turning it back on its owner—then deposited him neatly into his room.
He turned—and spotted a man who looked like he was wearing a bulky space suit.
"Mr. Freeze. Victor Fries. I heard that after Flashpoint, your origin story got rewritten—your beloved wife turned into a delusion." Ben tilted his head. "That's brutal. If I ever get the chance, I'll go to the 'original' universe and punch the writer responsible."
Without his equipment, Freeze wasn't much of a threat. After the accident, he couldn't even leave his cold suit.
Ben simply grabbed him and dropped him back into his cell.
Back to the main hall—
Ben's eyes landed on a shirtless man covered in scars like tally marks.
"Victor Zsasz. Serial killer." Ben's tone turned colder. "Shame you're not the TV version. But whichever version you are… you should've died a long time ago."
Zsasz carved a new scar into himself for every life he took.
Judging by the map of wounds across his body, he'd accumulated a lifetime of blood.
Ben didn't hold back.
He drove a punch straight into Zsasz's head.
In speedster mode, XLR8's reactions were absurdly fast—but Ben didn't have super-intelligence. He couldn't precisely calculate what that kind of impact would do.
He didn't care.
Arkham was full of disgusting predators like this—people who escaped, rioted, and slaughtered over and over again.
If Gotham couldn't stop the cycle…
Then maybe someone should.
"Professor Pyg. You're filth," Ben muttered. "Die."
A Silence Full of Screams
In what felt like the blink of an eye, every villain who'd been released found themselves back in their assigned rooms.
Then the screams started.
Echoing through Arkham's corridors like a chorus.
XLR8 was too fast.
Even a "light" touch at that speed carried force that could send a human body flying.
Ben had pulled his punches for people like Two-Face—giving Gordon and Batman a shred of face, forcing the man to hit himself rather than turning Ben into executioner.
But for the worst of Arkham's freaks, Ben had thrown real punches.
Whether they lived or died afterward?
Imagine what happens when a human body gets hit at speed—like standing in front of a train.
When the main hall was finally "cleaned," Ben slowed slightly—just enough to notice the uneasy feeling in his chest.
Something was off.
It felt like Arkham had been missing… a lot of its usual monsters.
Ben frowned.
"Wait. That's it? This is Arkham's all-star lineup now?"
He scanned the hall again, eyes narrowing.
"Where are Joker and Harley Quinn? Didn't Batman just catch them? And what about Riddler and Poison Ivy? They're not here either."
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 175)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 115)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 126)
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter105)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter100)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter82)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter134)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 70
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 87
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 79
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 64
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 73
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 45
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 49
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 45
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 45
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 31
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 27
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player 26
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