Gotham Is... Chaos

Chapter 2: The Secret Rec Room

After some time in the vents, they dropped into an area Batman knew well. 'The Secret Rec Room' was an abandoned basement some of the inner Rogues had converted into a hang out spot. There were TVs, beanbag chairs, snacks, some personal belongings.

He should've reported it to the staff the moment he'd first found it, but... Knowing about it meant he could make regular weapons checks, and it seemed to keep his most dangerous foes somewhat content to have their own space. It had seemed a worthy risk.

Currently, it had been converted into-

"Our zombie apocalypse headquarters!" Harley spread her arms to encompass the room, giggling. "Don' touch dat pile of book over dere, we haven' cleansed 'em yet. Dis pile's fine, though."

"Cleansed them." Batman repeated. He sat on one of the beanbags, looking up at the TVs that had apparently been wired into the security feed, showing nothing but inmates reading. "What happened here?"

"It all started a couple months ago." Clayface sighed, pooling in a liquid heap on the floor. "That's when the first Worm appeared."

"Book talk to Worm, night day both." Manbat shook his head. "No sleep, book book book more!"

"Since when do you talk, Dr Langstrom?" Batman took a moment to ask. You didn't get named the World's Greatest Detective without a healthy dose of curiosity.

"No Langstrom." Manbat did something that might have been a grin. "Europe."

"Hehehe, Batman doesn't want to hear about all that, buddy!" Joker pushed the other villain away. "Why dontcha go practice your letters with Croc?"

"Are you serious?" Ivy asked, staring at Joker's definitely-not-inconspicuous attempts to block Manbat from sight. She turned to Batman. "The clown liked Manbat better than Langstrom, so he split them. The doctor went to Europe to be with his family, Joker's been teaching Manny to do things like talk ever since."

"You- is that why the cure stopped working?" Batman growled at Joker, who nodded. "Do you know how much time and resources I've devoted to making a new cure? Sleepless nights trying to save a man who isn't even in the country?!"

"I liked Manny better." Joker answered, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. He plopped into the beanbag next to Batman, laying his head on the other's lap. "Besides, I was bored, there were chemicals, he was a willing test subject! I think... Ya know, I sorta blacked out, I'd skipped my meds a few times. I'm not even sure that what I did is entirely possible... Aw, you're mad at me, aren't ya?"

"I'm always mad at you." Batman answered, absently pulling at the villain's green curls. He looked back to the TV. "So this started months ago? Who was the first to... Turn?"

"It was Edward." Fries answered in a monotone, he too was staring at the screens. "He will often challenge me to chess, I don't understand why, and I've taken to accepting. One day, he just stopped, and wouldn't do anything but read. After that, a thin yellow dust started to appear wherever he went. Whoever touched the dust became just like him."

"They took over in a matter of weeks, keeping the staff locked up as hostages." Ivy sat on a table, sighing. "For some reason, most of the staff were immune to the change. As were the seven of us."

"Music Meister was immune too." Harley pointed out. "But he had a meetin' in da fifth dimension. And Bookworm's immune! But he willingly joined da rest of da Worms. And Calendar Man escaped with dat creepy swamp guy. And-"

"The point is that we're the only ones left in the building who are fighting." Ivy groaned. "We've been fighting for months. They've cooled down a little, at least they eat and sleep more regularly now, so we're holding out hope that this will eventually go away. But they seem to be getting stronger, and fighting them is getting harder, and I haven't seen the sun in Gaia knows how long-!"

"What the weed means..." Joker started calmly. Then he yelled, "is that we need your help, Batsy! We're more the Walking Dead than they are. I don't have the best rest cycle normally, but this is ridiculous!"

"And this stuff we're living off of ain't exactly healthy or filling." Croc added, lifting a candy wrapper with his claws. "What I wouldn't give for a proper salad bar..."

"Why didn't any of you escape?" Batman asked, accidentally pulling too hard on Joker's hair, making the other wince. "(Sorry) Or contact me?"

"We did call you, in a way." Fries pointed out, not looking at any of them. "We had Mr Doe release the hostages and sound the break out alarms."