Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It was a normal day for class 1A as they were taking in the notes from their teacher, Aizawa also known as Eraser Head. Some were paying more attention than others, but everyone was writing down the words in the chalkboard.

"... So when in a situation like this, you need to evaluate your surroundings to make sure a new threat could not emerge as you take care of the civilian casualties" he explained in a monotone voice, charisma wasn't really one of his strongest points so he came out as disinterest in the subject as the rest of the class

"Ugh!... How boring!" A voice exclaimed loudly to the whole class, which made them look around for who said it but no one could quite recognize the voice, Aizawa however just assumed one of his students were being a trouble maker and not giving the course its necessary attention. But even he had trouble telling who it was, or if the voice had actually come from their room

"I didn't expect a school for super heroes to be so disappointing" the voice once again spoke and now some students were concenerd, was this a villain attack? Was another class playing some trick on them or were the students actually imagining this

"Alright, you better show yourself before I am forced to." The teacher threaten as he actives his quirk, trying to scan the room for whoever is hiding in their presence with whatever Quirk they possessed, but the students notice the words in the chalkboard move and contort into a bizarre drawing of... A costume wearing imp?

"If you want to learn how to be a hero, you need to do it from the best" the drawing said as he caught the entire classroom's attention, Aizawa tried to erase whatever quirk he was using but nothing happened. The chalkboard imp snapped his fingers and a cloud of smoke appears drawn in his place, meanwhile a 3D version in full color appears by the side of Izuku and before anyone can react, he claps his hands causing everyone to disappear from the room.

"First part, done!" He risked a checkmark in a list he spawned in the middle of the air, the following checkmark was written "get All Might" and the other checkmarks were various different individuals from MHA.

"Yeah... I don't know half of these people, nor do I care. Already got the main class so they should be enough for now, but let's get the big shot hero for good measure" he tossed the list out as it becomes a bunch of bubbles, he cracked his fingers before clearing his throat. 

"If I want to bring someone else, I can do it later anyway and it will be like they always were there" he blinked to... Someone, before disappearing from the class room altogether.

"What happened?" Izuku asked as they were disoriented for a second, but now he and his classmates found themselves in... A cinema? Seemed like a fancy theater that had been converted into one at least, the class was confused and Kirishima was trying to force the door to open but they were sealed shut.

"Is this a villain attack? Like in the USJ?" Uraraka asked the green haired boy as they observed how there was no villain around here, nor were they retrained by chains or something. Could still be a trap however, none of them could be sure

"I... Honestly can't tell" Izuku responded as he was also lost, some of their classmates were trying to see some other way out, like Bakugou trying to explode the doors open to no avail or Mina using her acid. But nothing they did seem to work, until they hear a poof of smoke as a confused All Might appeared in the theater as well

"What?... Where did I..." He noticed the class as they rushed in to ask for his help, but even the number one hero was confused as for a moment he was in his office when suddenly- their cut off by a bunch of noise from what sounded like a triumphant quartet play as if they were to announce something 

"Welcome hero wannabes, get ready for the show of your life with your host..." A voice said before a poof of smoke and confetti explodes in the air

"Bat-Mite!" The imp proudly proclaims as he appears in the confusion of everyone, from his bizarre look to the entire situation they were in, but the first thing that they all thought was... What the fuck was happening?

[Author's notes]

Happy new year! To start off 2025 I am going to be giving you all a new fic, that is different from my previous works

I'm terrible at writing beginnings so this is the best I could come up with, will be updating this chapter in the future but if you're reading this you might already know what a react fic is.

For those who don't know, in this fic I will have the characters from MHA react to BTAS and try to make the best version of this as I can, feedback is always welcomed and is encouraged since these will take a while to write, so your support is heavily required for the future of this fic

Chapter Text

A black and white panel appears on the screen with the silhouette of a bat as the title "On Leather Wings" appears

A police blimp flies over the night sky on patrol, two pilots signal in the control center saying how calm the night was

"A police blimp? Was that even a thing to begin with?" Kaminari asked in a bit of confusion, he never heard of such a thing ever being used outside of advertising.

"Can't imagine it being very effective" Ochako didn't see how such a large and slow vehicle such as a blimp could be of help in something like a car chase or robbery, but maybe it had another purpose, like illuminating the skies for the people below?

"What a waste of tax dollar payments" Bakugou scoffed with a roll of his eyes

Their radar beeps briefly as one of the pilots notices it, he tries to make his partner believe but he is dismissive of it

"Could be anything, might be a bird" Mina commented since a lot of stuff is up there and most aren't a problem

"It would need to be a big bird for the radar to pick up" Momo responded as those type of scanners would have been built to ignore something so small as a bird

Suddenly a brown bat silhouette bolts across the screen, the pilot tried to show his colleague but he didn't catch it and didn't understand what he meant by batwings, they agreed to fly above the clouds just in case.

As the dramatic music becomes more prominent, the camera goes below the clouds to focus on the city as a shadow silhouette of a bat passes through buildings, only this one was much more human looking.

"This must be Batman, his Quirk must give him a bat-like appearance and the ability to fly" Izuku began writing this information down as he assumed this was the reason Batman was called as such, his quirk must be similar to Hawks and that could be... The young boy noticed Bat-Mite chuckling for some reason as he gave the green haired boy a look before continuing to chuckle, did he say something funny?

"The architecture in this place looks old, when is this taking place?" Jirou commented considering how everything looked, it was pretty gothic which the likes of Tokoyami appreciated but some of the others also took notice of the old timey look.

"Around 1992 - 1993 give or take, the architecture and technology of Gotham is inspired by the '30s, '50s and '90s all meshed together for that noir look." Bat-Mite comments as the rest of them realize how old the thing they were seeing considered their world was almost 2 centuries ahead.

"So the events we are seeing take place in the pre-Quirk era?" Momo said a bit flabbergasted, which most of the class also were, Aizawa and All Might were as well to be honest but their shock wasn't in the same level as the kids.

"In comparison to your world? I guess, but this is a completely different universe where various events have and will play out differently, for instance people born with powers are called metahumans and not Quirk users." Izuku wrote that information down, it was interesting to learn this little bit of world building for this other universe and he wondered what else was different.

The camera focuses on Phoenix pharmaceuticals as the figure flies towards it but only the shadow can be seen.

A night guard is walking around the building with a cassette tape to record to improve his amateur radio host skills, clearly a hobby of his, suddenly the sound of broken glass is heard.

"Someone broke in, was it Batman?" Ochako said as she wondered why would the hero they are following break into this normal building, could it be hiding something shady?

"He's a hero so I think he knew a breaking in was going to happen, and came to stop it" All Might gave his answer considering they were told Batman was a hero, so he would naturally go out to stop a crime and a break in sounds like the sort of deal he would stop

The guard goes to investigate the noise but finds nothing, taking a breath of relief as he continues walking, but the shadow of the bat creature appears shortly after.

The man turns around and screams as he is attacked by the creature, trying to defend himself from it by tossing a chair that is dodged and breaks the window instead. The monster grabs him and lifts the man up above it's head before throwing him from the building

"What the hell? Isn't he supposed to be the good guy here, why did he attack the guard?" Bakugou exclaimed as he was confused at this seemingly random attack, crossing his arms at the act

"Yeah that doesn't seem very hero like" Mineta commented as well

"You said he was a hero, but Batman clearly broke into a private property and attacked a night guard who was only doing his job, I can't imagine such a person to qualify for the title of hero" Iida began ranting of how unbefitting such action was from the supposed hero and Bat-Mite was just looking at him confusing with slight annoyance

"It might not be him, we never actually see this Batman so he must be a red herring? Someone trying to frame him for a crime" Izuku spoke a small theory, considering how they were intensionally kept in the dark about the appearance of the supposed 'Batman' then this should be some form of setup, Bat-Mite said that detective stories were Batman's bread and butter so this should be treated like one, if the imp's words are to be trusted.

"That makes sense, if their goal is to frame the hero for the crime they are committing that is. We don't know the goals of this person just yet" All Might supplemented Izuku's comment, but since they were still seeing just a small part of the beginning, it was hard to tell exactly what was the plot of the villain they just witnessed.

"I see, my apologies" Iida did a bow as he returned his attention to the screen, as Bat-Mite rolled his eyes

The night guard falls into a nearby river, the newspaper shows that he survived but with various injuries as the headline reads "Gotham Police declares War on Batman"

We see a group of men discussing as one of them, Commissioner Gordon, is displeased by the actions of detective Harvey Bullock as he gave this statement to the news against his boss's order.

"Those are Harvey Bullock and Jim Gordon, one is the commissioner of police while the other is a ruff detective with a quick fuse." Bat-Mite introduced the two characters as Izuku wrote their names down, if their host is introducing them it must mean both are important somehow.

He is reprehensive about this action as now the Bat knew they were after him, Bullock doesn't seem to worry as he asks the mayor for support, a tactical squad of his own to catch the Bat.

The mayor asks Gordon who has already denied the request, saying nobody's taking a vigilante force onto his streets. Bullock argues that anyone that dresses like a Bat is bound to snap sooner or later

"Gordon has a point, that headline is going to notify Batman that he is being hunted" Aizawa agrees with Gordon that a public announcement like that would take the element of surprise on the police's side, this was clearly done because of Bullock's arrogance.

"If he's the hero, why are they referring to him like a vigilante?" Hagakure asked which Bat-Mite gave an annoyed sigh that was so long that everyone in the room heard it, especially with how loud the imp made it be.

"Batman works closely with the police but doesn't want to have his identity become public, it could make him a target for criminals and the media would come down on him. I thought you would all know super hero 101" the fifth dimensional imp gave a brief explanation that some weren't fully convinced considering how their world is, but they would go with that explanation since angering this fanboy with god like power didn't feel like the best idea. All Might and Izuku could understand why he would want to keep his identity secret, but that would depend on what secret he needed to hide from the public.

Gordon says this isn't Batman's M.O. of which Bullock replies sarcastically as he calls back to the man tossed through the window.

The mayor agrees to dispose of some men to authorize the strike force as Bullock had a reputation for getting results which flatters the man as he gives a smug smile.

The mayor asks if Bullock would need anything else, the detective requests for an airtight case by the DA's office as we turn to see another man sitting in a chair tossing a coin up and down, saying that if Bullock catches him, he would put the man behind bars.

"That is Harvey Dent, remember him because he is going to be important later." Once again the imp commented and the young green haired boy began writing Harvey's name and profession.

"Why is he important?" Aizawa asked, unless they would see a lot of the court and justice system from Gotham, it wouldn't make much sense for Dent to be this important

"Harvey is going to... I can't spoil much, but he is going to be a stand out character later. The coin is also a relevant detail" Bat-Mite said in a very vague way, so the group had to assume Harvey was a major player... But the coin was important? That must mean something symbolic, it's the only thing the students could gather

We cut to a mansion standing tall against a cliff, zooming closer as it transitions into a cowl wearing man sitting down as he reads the newspaper while a butler comes in with a tea cup and a kettle.

Batman says that someone is setting him up which Alfred replies with a sarcastic question about him not being the one tossing guards from windows, the caped crusader followed up with his own joke about only tossing butlers.

"There he is! The caped crusader! The dark knight of Gotham! And the coolest superhero ever! Batman!" The imp was fanboying over the hero he clearly cosplays as, the class was curious to see just what was so impressive about him to make a being such as Bat-Mite be so obsessed on his adventures, was he really the hero of heroes that the fifth dimensional imp claimed him to be?

"Batman seems to have his own secret lair and everything, though I expected his costume to be more menacing given your description. But not bad for someone from way back then" All Might spoke as from the initial look of things, Batman seemed like a well rounded if not very tech savvy person, though he seemed more like the type of hero character from a cartoon in the pre-quirk era than a real one. But considering the situation he may as well be, with this Bat-Mite person they might just be watching his favorite show for the imp's own amusement and curiosity on their reaction.

Also because he wanted to show how much of a hero Batman was compared to All Might himself and the others from their world, but the class assumed Bat-Mite was just incredibly biased which wouldn't be hard to see.

"Is that really his own personal butler?" Tsuyu asked since that sort of thing seemed excessive, Mineta briefly remembered his time interning under Mount Lady since it was a bit similar, though his colleagues thought he was exaggerating in the comparison.

"Of course! That is Alfred Pennyworth, one of his most trusted allies and someone that Bruce can always count on to give advice when he most needs it" Bat-Mite explained as Alfred was the heart of the Batfamily, truly an important figure for Bruce despite the minor role he usually plays. The audience didn't have much to say about him but Izuku wrote down as much information as he could from what the imp said.

"What sort of power does he have? Echo location or something around the bat theme?" Todoroki asked since Batman clearly leans heavily on the theme, there wasn't much they could assume from the costume so the best guess was a form of sensorial ability or maybe a wingless flight type of quirk

"Pfft, as if Batman needs super powers. He uses his years of training of both physical and mental capabilities to achieve the peak of human performance, and with his gadgets he doesn't need any super power to take down crime." the imp began with his fanboyism over Batman and the group had to keep their judgements in check, but if he truly was quirkless and fought crime on purely support gear, it would bring a interesting perspective considering the imposter seems to actually have a quirk.

"So wait... He's a quirkless superhero?" Bakugou was surprised by this, it was hard for him to picture someone without a quirk going out doing hero work, but when he tried to picture it... He remembered the sludge villain incident and how Izuku came in to save him, it was frustrating back then but the explosive blonde could try keeping an open mind for this Batman individual.

"Yeah, the best one there ever was! In fact, him fighting crime without powers already makes him more heroic than most people in your world" they could assume he would be the hero this interdimesional imp was rooting for, if the cosplay already didn't give it away.

Batman explains that two other pharmaceutical companies had been attacked in that same week, no one was hurt but chemicals had been stolen just like this one.

"So he is a fucking junkie? Guy has a half decent quirk and uses it for petty crime, typical" Bakugou scoffed, Aizawa seemed to agree with him on this but didn't voice anything.

Batman puts on his utility belt as Alfred says he will cancel Bruce Wayne's date with a woman named Bambi, the dark knight agrees as he rushes to the Batmobile

"Wow! He has his own personalized car" Ochako exclaimed when she saw the vehicle in display, some of the other students were also taking in the Batmobile

"A fitting method of transport for a dark knight" Tokoyami commented in appreciation for the design

"Gotta admit, Batman most certainly has a sense of style." All Might could tell that most of the caped crusader's support items would fall the theme of bats or at least be mostly dark in color, after all he is called Batman despite not having a bat-like quirk, so his gadgets would have to compensate for that fact.

"Huh... Personal butler and a car like that? No way he isn't rich, I bet it ain't cheap to build an underground base inside a cave." Aizawa gave his own comment, no way someone in the pre-quirk era could afford the cave location and technology in it.

"He must have a successful company to afford this lifestyle" Momo comments as she herself knew a thing or two about being rich from her family

As the vehicle speeds across the cave until coming out from the secret bridge and into the main street, smoothly but rapidly making it's way to Gotham, transitioning into Batman watching over the Phoenix Pharmaceuticals over an roof

He takes out an gadget from his belt as an grappling hook is shot out from the device, grabbing into the other building as he uses it to make his way onto the roof

"A grapple gun? I wonder what else he has on his belt" Iida asked as he adjusted his glasses

"A lot of things I assume, if he doesn't have powers then he needs to be prepared whenever he goes out" Izuku responds as he took notice of the gadget and wrote down, the young hero felt like dedicating a whole page for the future gadgets that they will be shown, but he didn't know if that would be too much.

Two of the building's workers, a male and a female wearing lab coats sneakily move to a more private location to make out with each other, until they see Batman going up the window quickly thanks to his grappling gun. Both are scared as the man goes to call the police

Meanwhile Batman slightly opens the door of another room and sees a police woman reading the paper by a chair, he kneels down and throws a small black ball rolling through the ground until it is right below the foot of the police woman, where it starts deploying a knockout gas that puts the woman to sleep.

"Knockout gas pellets, I wonder what type of chemical he uses for it" Izuku wrote down about the gadget, wondering if Midnight could have at one point used something like that, but that was very unlikely.

Bruce walks through the police tape as he enters the crime scene, at that moment Bullock was driving as he receives a call notifying him that Batman had been sighted in Phoenix labs. Bullock orders for his task force to move towards the building with as many men and helicopters they had immediately as he drove towards the scene.

"I would have just walked right through, is not like she could see me" Hagakure comments as she was already pretty good in terms of stealth thanks to her quirk

"Wouldn't the cop be able to hear you? Also she would notice the tape moving" Tsuyu comments since the whole reason for him to do that was so he could go through without needing to be stealthy

"My point still stands, but that gadget is handy" the invisible girl reaffirms, but that type of thing would be mighty useful if she really got in a situation where her invisibility wouldn't be enough.

Police sirens of three cars and an armored van made their way through the streets, as the task force prepared inside the van.

Batman takes out an spray from his utility belt that he passes through the room, before taking out a visor of sorts to find footprints revealed by the chemical spray, he follows them until find the tape player that was dropped by the guard during the attack. He plays the device to see the recording, before storing it away as he used a zoom in on his visor to see some small fur that is carefully picked up

"He got his first clue, but I'm wondering how he will use it since... That isn't much" Kaminari comments since those things feel like very small things, the recorded scream particularly felt like a pointless piece of evidence, all it confirms is that whoever did the break in was monstrous... He might have responded why it was important to himself by accident

"He has a DNA sample and a recording of the attacker, I say that's a good start" Aizawa said as every investigation needs a start and Batman had found a decent one, it wasn't much but it was certainly better than nothing.

Police sirens become loud as an large light shines through the rooms window, various police cars had surrounded the building while two helicopters moved around the air shining their light, Bullock moved over to command his strike team on how to capture the Bat, by any means necessary.

"I feel like they are under prepared for this, considering he is the one with the high tech gear" Jirou comments

"But the police have Batman surrounded and outnumber him, it will still be a challenge for him to escape" All Might believes the caped crusader will come out on top, but he is only human so mistakes can always be made and he would need to deal with such things, as he still has human limits.

The caped crusader dashed out of the room as the squad moved forward into the building, Gordon arrived in his blue car. Bullock proudly proclaims that they will hang Batman 'upside down' but Gordon doesn't believe that will be the case, as another lab had been attacked on the other side of the city, since Batman couldn't be at two places at one it meant they got the wrong guy.

"We knew that already!" Bakugou shouted as he didn't like being told information, sure it was new for the people of that universe but being retold that felt redundant

"To be fair, it could have been a werewolf tale, but with bats" Sero said as it could well have been a story with the big twist that the hero and villain were the same person

Batman moves for the elevator, trying to open it with his bare hands but the fire escape door is slammed open as the task force moves in, catching a glimpse of Batman's cape as it enters the elevator, meanwhile four smoke bombs detonate and knock out the squad

"Can we talk about how he forced open those doors? I heard that it's very hard to do without a strength quirk" Jirou said as it definitely was something else to do that without any physical enhancements, they knew that elevator doors, specially old ones were bulky and heavy since they couldn't make them of materials like the ones they had now, and though they were magnetically closed or locked, the mechanics to make sure that they wouldn't open half hazarded to ensure the safety of the passenger meant that it wasn't a easy thing to do

"Quirk this, quirk that. You guys don't know the value of good old muscle" Bat-Mite said as honestly this people were very uncultured, not understanding the worth of a true superhero physique, plus from his limited research apparently some of the big examples of bodybuilding in that world were all because of Quirks, he was willingly to bet that Muscular fella never did a single push up in his life, different from his idol Batman who could do a set of hundred push ups with a pinky while practicing his batarang throwing

"Nah bro, muscles are manly!" Kirishima exclaimed as he struck a pose, as he understood very well the value of muscles to look manly as hell

Sliding down the elevator cable, Batman moves inside and leaves the elevator, unfortunately he was on the same floor as another part of the strike team as they spot him and begin shooting.

"Woah! Are they trying to kill him or capture him?!" Izuku asked considering how they immediately went to shoot at him, and they didn't seem to be aiming at his leg or somewhere with the intention of only stopping him from running away, unless those were rubber bullets those guys are going for the kill.

"Yes, they should bring him in to be interrogated and face justice in the case he is their culprit, his death would not help" Iida commented while stinking his hands in his typical chopping manner

"I suppose the team is using the old 'shoot first, ask questions later' which I wouldn't put above Bullock" Aizawa gave his opinion and already could tell the police were either following a bad plan or they were just going to use this to take out their stress, the teacher could only assume if the Gotham police was corrupt or incompetent

Bullock is confident as he makes a sarcastic remark but Gordon tells him to call the squad off, meanwhile one of the men moves into a dark room looking for the dark knight, but he has the gun taken out of his hand by Batman as the man is shoved into the wall and has his mouth silenced, as Batman makes a 'Shh!' motion.

"Okay, that's cool and creepy" Jirou said as the scene was really cool in how Batman stopped that officer in a intimidating way

"Yikes, imagine Aizawa is the one doing that, it would be extra creepy!" Hagakure spoke with a little bit of a scare

"Why would it be? He dresses to strike fear and yet I would be scarier?" Aizawa asked since he didn't see how Batman doing that would be less scary compared to him in the same situation

"Nah, not scary but creepier. Batman is scary, but being grabbed from behind in the dark by someone who looks like an unkept hobo, with huge bags under his eyes and that shushes you? I would be...!" Mina noticed the glare her teacher was giving, she decided that it would be best for her to not finish what she was about to say, but this didn't help Aizawa's side of the argument.

The rest of the strike team comes to the room, taking out a tear gas bomb to smoke him out, however as he throws the bomb it slides close to volatile barrels that soon spark a chemical reaction, Batman rushes to the nearest window with the man he was previously pinning down as a large explosion is set behind them, catching by surprise as they protect themselves from debris

"Idiots" Aizawa said as they just made a big error that could have caused the death of their main suspect and a fellow officer, they didn't even think before going on with that plan

"How dangerous! Because of their actions a large amount of property was destroyed and could have threatened, if not potentially kill one of their colleagues. They could have avoided all of this if they had looked before shooting the tear gas and noticed the flammable chemicals" Iida spoke out in how unwise that approach was

"They must have been caught up in the moment, or the police are really incompetent in that world" Sero commented

Meanwhile Bruce is spinning in the air with the strike force member, the dark knight quickly throws a Bat-rope across a tree to help break their fall and help them land safely. He helped the man up who was scared for a moment before seeing Batman leave the scene through an alleyway, Gordon and Bullock make their way over there before the strike force member passes out.

It is the next day and we close in on the Gotham Zoo as Bruce Wayne adjusted his tie while walking towards the bat enclosure looking for someone.

"Is he going to reflect on the case while surrounding himself in his element? I hear that's something detectives do, having something like a think zone" Momo comments as she read some novels where that was the case and a few real reports about such locations used by detectives to clear their minds

"Right, because coming to a bat exhibit every time he needs to think would totally not help reveal his identity" Bakugou sarcastically spoke in response

A doctor rudely responds as his name was called out, Bruce says he is here to talk about bats as he shows him the fur collect from the crime while disguising it as a bat problem back home, the doctor acts aggressively towards Bruce asking if he would dispatch the creatures like bugs.

"Oh, he is just here to get some professional help in identifying the criminal" Ochako comments

"Even a hero needs help outside of their field from time to time" All Might spoke, trying to pass down a lesson to the class as this was the case most of the time, even some heroes specialized in different fields outside of hero work. He may have had the strength but he wouldn't be where he was now if he didn't have help from others

"Still, that guy is too defensive about flying rodents" Kaminari said since, sure they are mammals that can fly but he wouldn't call bats really that special.

He goes on to talk about how humans won't survive the next evolutionary cataclysm, but bats will.

"Oh wow, I wonder what type of cataclysm he must be thinking to believe such an absurd theory" Kirishima spoke as he thought that was a bit too far fetched to happen, what would even be this apocalyptic scenario where bats would triumph over humanity in terms of survival? Sounds like crazy talk.

"Well, quirks proved him wrong" Mina said as the appearance of quirks basically proved him wrong, since the powers given by them would ensure that humanity would survive... Unless the quirk singularity was the cataclysm he was referring to, but why Bats of all creatures?

"Who knows, vampire apocalypses are always a possibility, I know at least one universe where that happens and it's not fun." Bat-Mite comments as he remembered the vampire books recently made by DC, some ideas were cool like Green Lantern Alfred, but he didn't like what happened to the rest of the Batfamily. At least he got to make an appearance there, even if it was for gags.

A woman calls him out, referring to him as dad as she defuses the situation, she introduces herself as Francine Langstrom as she remembers Bruce speaking with her husband on the phone. Just then a doctor slides open automatically as Kirk Langstrom comes in, asking for the sample but Bruce says he left with the other doctor that had already left to his own lab.

They talk about bats for a bit as Langstrom points out how his wife's father seemed to like bats more than people, Bruce shows him the recorded scream he got from the night guard's tape, Francine is scared briefly as she can't tell what species it could belong to. Giving the tape to Langstrom for analysis and leaving the zoo

"So is her father, they are making it very obvious that he is the culprit" Kaminari spoke as the whole scene felt like a setup for doctor March to be the mysterious bat creature from the opening

"I don't know, it could be a red herring like before." Ojiro said as they were tricked before, the story did misguide them earlier with the bat imposter

"Batman is a detective, mysteries are a big part of his adventures and some of the cases are simply mind twisting, I can't wait to show you guys some of my favorites... If I don't get bored until then" Bat-Mite worded that in a way that both students and teachers were slightly concerned with what he meant by 'bored' but the imp was mostly inoffensive so far, maybe he wouldn't just... End them, right? He would just send them back home to their world

Back in the Batcave, the dark knight was hearing the recorded growl once again in his computer as Alfred mistook it for heavy metal, Batman reveals that his computer couldn't pinpoint the sound despite checking multiple different musical and auditory records. Suddenly a red phone rings as Alfred attends to it, a call for Bruce Wayne from Dr. March

Flipping a switch the line gets transferred over to the Bat-computer as he puts on his Bruce Wayne voice, March says the sample was from common brown bats and that he shouldn't worry as they'll move away once the climate gets cold, Batman asks for the sound in the tape. March says there are two sounds, bats and starlings that he presumes are fighting over a nesting place, Bruce thanks him before ending the call.

Batman says that his computer compares the sound to every animal species known to man, but the sound doesn't match either species even when combined, Batman deducts he is lying and he's going to find out why.

"I'm surprised his computer is that potent considering the time this takes place" Momo said as for that computer to run those numbers in the 90's of the pre-quirk era, would be mighty impressive, maybe that's why it is so large as to have so much processing power which wasn't as accessible back then

"I knew that man was suspicious, now it is time for Batman to arrest him and clear his name!" Uraraka cheerfully said with a fist bump in the air

Back to the research lab, we see the tape being burned before being placed in a metal plate, the same happens with the hair sample as the smoke alarms an caged bat.

We see Langstrom stressfully opening up a bottle as he says "Can't fight it. It's got me." Before gulping down all of its content down his throat, for a moment he almost seems to throw up but he recomposses himself before moving in to take the caged bat away.

"He's acting weirder than before, ribbit" Tsuyu says as this behavior was mighty suspicious and certainly closed the case that he was the bat imposter

"Tell me about it, destroying evidence is one thing but that other stuff? He's losing it..." Sero comments as the way he chugged the bottle was weird, kind of supporting Bakugou's junkie comment from earlier

"Isn't he a bit too tall? I remember Dr. March being shorter" Hagakure notices since he silhouette wasn't like the one of the doctor, but rather of the other man working in the lab.

Batman's silhouette appears in the window as he makes his way in carefully, moving to the table he finds the bottle Kirk was drinking from before as it had the Phoenix Pharmaceuticals logo on the description.

He hears footsteps and moves to hide as Langstrom opens the door, asking who was there. Batman revealed himself from the shadows as he asked for Dr Marcon which Kirk says he is somewhere else giving a lecture on human extinction and bat evolution. Langstrom admits he is quite brilliant but Batman says he is a misguided thief.

Langstrom says that March is more of a theorist and was afraid to put it to the test, but he wasn't. Langstrom says they found a formula to create a totally new species that was neither man or bat, he admits that once he started taking it, he couldn't stop. Despite desperately wanting to, it took over him, Francine and March tried to protect him but it was too late

"Hold on... If March is giving a lecture elsewhere, that means Langstrom is the one we saw early" Kaminari came to this realization as well as other members of the audience

"So he is involved in this, Dr March was the red herring all along. The way he's talking implies that he is addicted to the formula" Todoroki said as now he and the others were aware that Kirk was the most likely to be the fake Batman

"Is March and Francine aware of this? at least I feel like he implied that" Hagakure commented

The beast knew what chemicals were needed to bring itself about, it was out of control. Langstrom says it only needed one more component to surface, revealing it was already inside of him as the doctor began to laugh manically while Batman took a defensive pose.

Langstrom crushed the bottle he was holding as his teeth began to change and sharpen with pronouncing fangs, his hair became messier as his face contorted and his pupils disappeared as the man's eyes became completely orange, he leans his head back before springing back as his ears had begun growing large and his hands turned into claws. Langstrom's laughter turns to groans as his clothes begin to rip apart and the face stops resampling a man's but instead a bat, his muscles grow as the monster spreads his arms out, revealing that his hands had become the wings of a bat.

"That was terrifying!" Mineta screamed as the other members of the audience were shocked for a moment at the transformation sequence and revealed that Kirk was the actual Man-Bat, however they were interrupted briefly by Bat-Mite clearing his throat

"Here we have the terrifying Man-Bat! Kirk Langstrom's villainous alter-ego after taking a formula of his own making, a physical threat to our hero with the capabilities of flight! Batman needs to use his smarts to overcome this dangerous foe! Good thing that while transformed, he is batty insane!" Bat-Mite came in doing his best Present Mike impression to present the villain, that was weird but nothing they shouldn't have expected from the imp.

"So Langstrom made... An artificial quirk? I'm both impressed and horrified by the result" Todoroki said in a small show of shock, he didn't expect to see something like this so quickly. To think that Kirk could invent something like that was revolutionary since the idea of creating a quirk through science was purely a theory and never showed results, but the mad doctor seemed to have achieved this result

"I wasn't the only one that thought his whole transformation was painful, right?" Kirishima said as the whole sequence was disturbing, he knew quirks could get ugly but what they saw wasn't a quirk, felt like a scene straight out of a horror flick which is kind of what they were watching. The imp kept referring to this as a show but also a universe, so for the fifth dimensional guy every universe is like a different TV channel... At least that was what he assumed, the imp was the least consistent thing about the whole situation they were in.

"Since his quirk is artificial, his body isn't prepared for the process of transforming, which may be the cause for his screams of agony." Iida gave out his own theory from the little it was shown, considering how drastic the change is and how Kirk never had anything like a transformation quirk before the serum, his body could be incompatible and cause excess pain when forcing the transformation.

The Man-Bat swipes the table, destroying all the chemical bottles as it begins attacking Batman, the dark knight protects himself with his cape but the monster takes flight as it comes down towards him, Batman moves out of the way but the Man-Bat quickly flies around to hit him again, ripping his chest symbol. The monster begins to lift an large table over its head to throw at the dark knight, the object makes contact and pins Bruce down as he struggles to take it off before the Man-Bat lands on top ready to rip apart the dark knight.

"Oh no! He got Batman in his grip". Uraraka spoke in suspense and shock

"I would have dealt with him easily, just one blast and his ears would be ringing for days!" Bakugou shouted as with his quirk he could make the Man-Bat go down without problem, he could catch him on the air and his blasts would certainly be too much for the bat monster

"Langstrom seems to have completely lost it, he is going out of instinct alone" Todoroki comments since Kirk hasn't spoken or showed any sense of pride, he was screaming and attacking like a raging animal.

"The transformation must be too painful for the mind to endure, the concoction must also have some effect in this as well." Izuku notes as he watched in suspense, he hoped Batman could counter what Kirk was doing and free himself, the green haired boy could think of a few ways of dealing with the Man-Bat based on what he knew from the flying Nomu Midoriya had to deal with a while back.

"Kirk!" Francine's voice called out in horror, catching the Man-Bat off guard and upon seeing her horrified face the creature shows a shameful look, covering itself with one of it's wings with a sad look before flying away.

"Seems like a part of him is still there deep inside, he was ashamed of Francine seeing him in such a state" Momo notes as that was the first time Kirk showed some form of deeper emotion aside from mindless rage, so he had awareness of his actions to a certain point

"Love always prevails, even when his mind becomes that of a Bat monster he still remembered his wife." Mina commented as she had a bittersweet tone, felt more like she did this for the dramatic than anything, but for her this was heartwarming even if tragic. Kirk's feelings for Francine brought a brief moment of reality to him and made the man turned monster feel regret upon his transformation, to not want his lover to see the horrible monster he has become truly writes itself as a romantic tragedy you would see in a classic movie.

Batman launched his grapple gun, pointing towards the monster as it ties around his legs and Bruce is swiped from the room along with Man-Bat, as both take into the sky. The creature quickly notices Bruce and angrily maneuvers around the air to try shake him off

We cut back to the two blimp pilots from the beginning as they now pick up the same signal from again, his partner is already sounding annoyed until both see Man-Bat fly by them, followed by Batman's face slamming on the window and making a small crack. Both notified the command central of their Batman sighting, shortly after Man-Bat flew across another blimp in a beautifully animated sequence.

"Wow, I've never seen an aerial chase like that before. It's really beautiful in a way, especially that part where he flew by the side of the blimp" Izuku spoke as the whole part felt more detailed and expressive than the other moments in the flight, he couldn't quite explain why but it felt more life like than the rest of what they have seen so far.

"He is hanging on for his life by a thread, literally, one slip and is a certain fall to his death" Todoroki said as Batman's lack of powers puts him at the mercy of Man-Bat, grabbing onto him was the only way for Batman to not lose him but now he was in a element he didn't control, not as well as his enemy anyway.

"Do you think this happens often with Hawks?" Jirou comments

An police helicopter is descending down to the heliport on top the police station as Bullock runs to it, he tells the pilot to go but the man refuses, this angers Bullock in confusion before he hears Commissioner Gordon come in with a scolding, telling he can't fire Bullock but he won't take the heat from his fiascoes. He goes into the helicopter as it begins flying up, Bullock jumps in as it is lifting in a comedic way.

"Gordon has gotta be Batman's most trusted ally in the police, he seems to be the most competent one so far." All Might comments as Jim had shown to be a very responsible authority from the instances they had seen, clearly trusting Batman's heroism and using his own deduction skills to figure out he wasn't the culprit, not to mention he didn't take Bullock's arrogance and escalation lightly. Truly a worthy man to be appointment commissioner of police

"You're not wrong, Gordon is one of the few that recognizes that Batman is more useful working alongside the police than against them." Bat-Mite responds since Jim usually took that role in most versions, he was the first ally of Bruce to ever be introduced in the first ever issue featuring the caped crusader, so he takes a prominent role in terms of helping him.

"So why don't they make him join the force? Or officialize his partnership with the department?" Aizawa asked, if Batman is so vital in his help with the police then why would they have begun this man hunt to begin with? Imagine the improvements he could bring to the force with his resources and knowledge, probably could train the Gotham department to be just as good as he is, if not a little worse.

"There are a bunch of reasons, some that I can't get into because they are spoilers or not relevant for this version of the caped crusader, however when they need him they'll turn on the Bat-signal to call upon the caped crusader, but also serve as a warning for criminals that Batman is out there hunting for them!" The imp spoke as he knew how awesome it was that whenever the Bat-signal is out, it means a new epic adventure of the caped crusader for him to see.

'He really is a fanboy...' most of the audience thought

Back to the caped crusader, he was still holding on to the grapple line as Man-Bat flies through the skies of Gotham, when the monster makes its way towards a construction building, Bruce has to quickly move in order to not get slammed against the metal bars, he uses one of them to push the Man-Bat back but the creature maneuvers around to push him out towards a great fall.

As the two are falling, Batman takes a hold of the monster's neck as the Man-Bat begins to take flight again. The police helicopter soon finds them but are shocked to see Man-Bat for the first time, Gordon immediately understands that the monster is the real cuprite they were looking for.

"Batman is better at aerial maneuvering than I would expect, did he train for something like this?" Ojiro asked since the caped crusader seemed to have a great amount of agility when dodging the construction and he was able to handle the situation very well all things considered

"Unlikely, I can't imagine he would have considered this scenario and dedicated his time to train for such an occasion" Todoroki responds since this could very well be the first time Batman had to deal with a flying enemy, so he held his own very well if that was the case.

"So he's improvising all of this? Not bad, especially for a quirkless individual to be handling a beastial quirk user like that" Kaminari was surprised that someone could achieve such a thing easily, the improvisation skills he has would make him for an awesome hero, which he already was from the looks of it.

'They would flip if they knew about the contingency plans or the Hellbat...' the fifth dimensional imp thought to himself, the comics get crazier than what these people could ever imagine, one of the reasons he is showing them a different version of Batman instead of his main counterpart

Batman begins to punch the Man-Bat with one hand before obstructing the view of the creature and guide the villains towards a solid wall that it's slammed against, both falling down onto a roof nearby as most of the fall damage was received by the Man-Bat, however Bruce still had blood coming from his nose and mouth. As the light the police helicopter shines, Batman takes the creature on his shoulder and dashes away into the shadows

"Batman is very manly for standing tall despite his injuries, that fight clearly took a lot from him" Kirishima said as the way Batman lifted not only Man-Bat but himself after the fight was great, truly putting the Man in Batman.

"I'm glad this is over, but where is he taking Kirk?" Momo asked since Bruce seemed to leave the scene with the villain without the assistance of the police, who had just arrived, was he going to put Man-Bat in jail himself?

"Probably somewhere secure to wait out the transformation, if he wakes up it would only be a matter of time for him to fly away" Iida responds since that was the most likely outcome, Man-Bat was able to avoid capture thanks to his capability of flying, so Bruce was going to put him somewhere he couldn't take flight and escape into the skies. That was the most logical conclusion to him

"He should have at least waited to talk with the commissioner, explain the whole thing and if possible arrest Kirk" Aizawa said as in his eyes Batman should have done a proper arrest and handle the criminal to the commissioner who had just arrived, clearly his name and telling him about the culprit as he is taken to prison

"But he wasn't responsible for those invasions, it was the Man-Bat." Izuku spoke in Langstrom's defense, sure they didn't have a full story but from the clues given it was obvious that Man-Bat was a sort of split personality, a feral beast that took those actions out of its own will. Kirk said himself that the creature knew what chemicals to bring itself out of his body and Langstrom tried to resist the urge, but just like Jekyll and Hyde he was consumed by his own concoction

"They are still the same person, so Kirk should face the consequences for those actions in the eye of the law." Aizawa reaffirms what he believes should be obvious, Kirk may not be the Man-Bat but he is responsible for his creation and developing the addiction that led to those Man-Bat attacks, in his eyes the doctor had been just as guilty as the monster he made, a sad story for the scientist but one he deserved for conducting experiments on himself.

Back at the Batcave, the caped crusader has Man-Bat lying on a table as Alfred comes in asking if he should prepare a meal for their 'guest'. Bruce reveals he has a list of all the ingredients to create Man-Bat, hoping he could reverse them into a cure for Langstrom self-imposed fate. Alfred asks if it is possible and Batman smiles with his computer's confirmation of a possible cure

"I'm glad he is going to give him a cure" Uraraka spoke with a sign of relief in her face, Bruce was really a kind man for helping Kirk when the scientist couldn't do it himself

"Batman knows Langstrom wasn't in control of his actions, so he is going to help him instead of just locking him up" Izuku was more than pleased at this action from Bruce, he went out of his way to help the villain because he knew that Kirk had no real control over his actions, sure the doctor took the formula out of his own will but the side effects clearly had warped into a addiction.

Izuku pondered for a moment how Man-Bat would have been treated in their world, if the transformation was permanent without a cure then he would be doomed to life in prison as the Man-Bat showed very little intelligence and was an actively aggressive, but knowing how he turned that way made Izuku feel pity for the scientist

"Admirable of him to do this, I doubt the police or hospital could even know what caused the transformation to begin with" Todoroki added as Bruce seemed like the only one equipped to help Langstrom with the Man-Bat transformation, seeing as he is implied to have the resources and knowledge to do so.

Later he is seen bringing Kirk back to his wife, affirming that he wouldn't transform again as the formula was out of his system, for now...

Overall the class was all surprised by the first adventure they saw of the Caped Crusader, it had great twists and truly showed a real hero like Bat-Mite said when he 'brought' them here, a few like Izuku were excited to see what would be the next adventure.

[Author's notes]

Reviews are appreciated and encouraged, feedback is important for the process.

So I decided to try making a MHA react after binging a few myself, I knew it needed to be about a super hero media as those tend to work better since the cast can use their own experiences in their world to react, The first thought was the Fantastic Four movie or Superman. But I decided to do a series instead since it would be easier to write an 22 minute episode over a 2 hour movie, and what better series than BTAS?

For now it is just going to be class 1A with All Might and Aizawa, I might add others like Mirio or Mei later but for now I'll focus on the main class. The villains were considered but they might over bloat the roster, BTAS has some great villains for them to react to, but Shigaraki and All for One are characters I really don't like so writing them is going to be annoying (so if there is enough out cry I will try implementing them next episode).

Might skip some really unremarkable episodes, I don't think "I have Batman in my basement" is going to be missed, some episodes are just forgetable, plus I need to focus on the important stuff considering how long it might take to write these.

If I make more MHA react to other media is debatable, the show or movie would need to fit the superhero genre so that the characters can best react to it when comparing to their world, if anything I might make them watch other Batman stuff like movies or whatnot (is not like I have the time right now to attempt those, this one is already a big one for a while.)

Chapter Text

"Oh wait! Before we start our next adventure, I forgot to show you Batman's opening theme!" Bat-Mite exclaimed as he slapped his forehead playfully

"Batman has an theme song?" Ochako asked, this didn't seem like something he would make for himself, then again theatrics seem to be something he does from time to time, maybe is a theme to hear while he drives his vehicle

"Several, all iconic in their own way. But now delight your eyes and ears on this masterpiece! Beloved by fans of the caped crusader from everywhere!" The imp snapped his finger and a new scene begins playing to them

We open at the Gotham city skyline where three police blimps shine their light down into the streets as we go down to see the towering buildings of the gothic city, focusing on a bank as two fedora wearing silhouettes look around suspiciously

"A two man heist? Well it would be interesting to see how such a thing was done without quirks" Momo said as bank robbers were usually depicted in bigger groups when taking a large bank such as the one shown, it would be interesting to see two quirkless men pull off a heist when they don't seem that equipped for the job

Suddenly a large explosion burst through the class entrance for the bank as the two men make their getaway.

"I guess they weren't really going for stealth..." Jirou commented as those two clearly didn't care about the state of the building, felt more like they wanted to blow up the place over actually making their way in.

"Holy crap! How much dinamite did they use for that?! That was practically a Bakugou finishing move!" Mineta spoke out

"Cut the crap! My explosions far exceed whatever those lame extras thugs had! You're insulting me by comparing my power to it!" The blonde responded in complete disagreement, he could do much more than what those two robbers did and his was more potent for sure.

We cut to the Batmobile starting it's engine, dashing forward as the camera focus on the vehicle before we cut to the two figures being chased by a police car.

Then we see the car stopping at the bottom of a structure while the crooks were already at the top thanks to the ladders across the apartment building, they stopped their walk and looked shocked as they saw Batman landing down. The camera focuses on his face as he gives them a menacing look, both criminals take out their guns but Batman throws a Batarang at them and disarms both before jumping in to fight.

"He just arrived and disarmed them in a span of seconds? How fast can he throw those boomerangs to be able to stop someone from pressing a trigger?" Izuku asked in surprise as to Batman's seemingly super human reflexes to perform such a thing, he already began muttering to himself about how he could do that and what type of training he did to prepare for this type of situation.

"Perhaps Batman had already thrown the boomerang before they took out their guns" Lida shines in, maybe they didn't see the events in the fully correct order, meaning Batman anticipated the attack of his opposition and counter attacked before they could react, a well played maneuver

"That's a Batarang, which is completely different from a regular boomerang." Bat-Mite corrects them, looking insulted for them making such a mistake, which confused the students.

"They serve the same purpose, so why not call them boomerangs?" Aizawa asked since that seemed like the imp was just nitpicking, if the two weapons have the same purpose and follow the same design philosophy then why make a fuss about calling them boomerangs?

"Maybe, but it takes more skill to use and there are many different types of batarangs. Would you like me to call your gear by a different name?" The imp was annoyed when he asked but the teacher didn't even show a reaction, his whole expression was just a 'I don't care'

Knocking down one of them easily as his partner goes in to punch the caped crusader but had his attack dodge, almost like Batman was as fluid as water. We see the continued attempt at hitting the dark knight as the moon lays on the background, with a swift punch he knocked the crook out. We then see two police officers coming in as the police blimp shines a light at the tied up criminals with the police officers at the scene flabbergasted

"His fighting prowess is admirable, to dodge swiftly like that and deal a blow in the brief windows of opportunity, he is really well trained" Ojiro comments as he knew martial arts very well, he couldn't fully determine the prowess of Batman but from the looks of it he had an adaptable mindsets if his fight with Man-Bat was to be taken into account, granted the crooks didn't seem to have any proper form so a martial arts could fully take advantage of that.

"Please, those guys looked like total pushovers! Wouldn't even need an explosion to knock them! Just a glare they would drop dead!" Bakugou shouted full of himself, those two criminals seemed so pathetic even the weaklings in their school could take them.

'With how you look at everyone, one of these days somebody may actually die from how intense you stare at them...' Sero thought to himself

The shot moves upwards to another building high up as Batman's silhouette stands tall while his cape flows in the air, his eyes are the only thing visible until a lightning strike comes down to illuminate the caped crusader briefly before the screen fades to black

"Woah... That's so cool! Posing like that, being shaded in complete darks just for a lightning to strike from behind to give you a glimpse of the hero! That's both heroic and scary!" Uraraka spoke out in amazement from how epic that shot was, really elevated Batman in terms of coolness

"His title as the Dark Knight is well deserved, truly a figure that stilts fear towards the criminal element" Tokoyami said in agreement, Batman was becoming a favorite of his since he matched some of the things Tokoyami looks up to in a hero, plus he really appreciates the dark and gothic vibe of the whole thing

"You know, the lighting strike was a bit convenient wasn't it? Kero" Tsuyu says since that might be convenient to happen when there isn't even a sign of rain.

"Frankly if our "host" is to be believed, thunderstorm manipulation might as well be part of his abilities" Kaminari comments as the hype behind Batman seemed absurd, and it was coming from the most biased source possible. But he kind of wished he could do something like that, making lightning strikes whenever he wants would be so cool...

[Author's notes]

Leave a review as it really helps, favorite and follow to support the fic. This was something faster to get out while I work on future episodes like Christmas with Joker, however the episode is a bit more underwhelming than I expected from Robin's and Joker's first appearance, but I'm trying to follow production order so have to do it, despite Christmas being months away.

Thinking of adding Mei into the fic since she loves gadgets and makes technology so she could be really interested in the world of Batman, should I insert here after Nothing to Fear or Pretty Poison?

The same applies for the league of villains, they will be introduced into the fic but I don't want them to react to every episode so only villain focused episodes like Heart of Ice, Feet of Clay or Two Face would be where they appear. When should I add them? Nothing to Fear could be a suitable episode to do this but I'll leave it up to you guy

Chapter Text

A title card with the name "Christmas with the Joker" appears as we see a santa costume wearing figure hutch down while looking at the camera, with what seemed to be a bag on his back. The figure's face is completely surrounded in darkness but his large eyes and large teeth could be seen in a yellowish tone, his smile was much more malicious than jolly.

"A Christmas adventure? But we aren't even in the season yet" Kaminari comments since when the imp took them from their class, Christmas was still a few months away from taking place.

"Time moves differently depending on the universe, for you it might not be Christmas but it certainly is for that world" the imp said, he was showing them the episodes in their production order for the most part so he couldn't just hold this off until it was the right season, plus this is Joker's and Robin's first on screen appearance so they should get introduced as early as possible

"I assume this Joker is the one we are seeing in the title card, I must say his smile is a bit unnerving" All Might said as the way he was depicted was certainly going for a unsettling feeling, since the last adventure was a mixture of horror and noir mystery, the number one hero wondered if this would follow a similar theme

"Yeah, it is giving me the creeps!" Mina found the way this villain was smiling to be beyond weird, she could tell he had malicious thoughts behind that grin

We cut to a shot of Arkham Asylum's gate as the snow was coming down, zooming in to the building far away to see armed guards watching over patients preparing for the holiday by setting decorations and singing classic Christmas songs, one of them had their face obscured and seemed to be reading the song upside down

We close on that patient to reveal a man with a pale white skin tone, green hair and red lipstick on, his eyes and teeth were both very yellow and he had a distinctively large smile on his face.

"Now we have Gotham's clown prince of crime! Batman's arch nemesis and complete opposite! Give a round of applause to the Joker! This criminal master mind is dangerously unpredictable and should not be underestimated, otherwise it is the clown who will be laughing at you!" Bat-Mite introduced the villain to the audience in his best Present Mike impression once again, everyone could tell he was the same figure as the one in the title screen

"Huh, is he allowed to use make up inside the asylum?" Jirou asked since his appearance was quite distinctive to say the least, from the green hair to the pale white skin he didn't really look normal, more so like a clown which might be where the name comes from.

"That's just how he's skin naturally is. Before you ask, he doesn't have a quirk that makes him look like a clown, it is just that he fell into a chemical bath that permanently bleached his skin and made his hair green" Bat-Mite explained since anything weird about a person, these people would assume it was a quirk of some kind, which the imp honestly felt like it was their defacto explanation for most things.

"What chemicals did he fall to get that result?" Mina asked since that was kind of specific and reminded the girl of her own quirk, what type of acid could bleach a person's skin and make their hair green without leaving any other scars from the burning? The imp said he doesn't have a quirk so surviving an acid bath with only bleached skin feels hard to believe, for a quirkless individual at least.

"Originally it was a chemical used to print poker cards but I also heard it was an acid bath or just a mixture of different chemicals that were going to be disposed of. Better write 'unclear chemical bath' on that notebook" Bat-Mite pointed at Izuku who was writing down what their host said

"He doesn't seem like much" Bakugou scoffed as this clown didn't seem like anything big, he was just some random in a insane asylum, how could he be Batman's nemesis? Man-Bat felt like a proper holder of that title

"Oh you sweet, innocent child... This version of the Joker is much more tame than some others I have seen, if I told you some of the things he has done in the mainline universe, you guys would be traumatized!" Bat-Mite proclaimed which some of the students didn't really want to know what he meant by that, some of them along with the adults wondered what he could do to warrant the fact they were being shown a more tame version of the villain.

"So he's more inoffensive in this one?" Todoroki comments since if he's more tame for the sake of not 'traumatizing' the students, then this Joker there seeing will be much more of a push over in terms of villainy

"He's going to be inconsistent from what you usually think of villains, sometimes he's gonna do something silly and petty in terms of villainy, other times he's going to do something really heinous, often a mixture of both. But oh boy does he commit some really messed up stuff along the way, wait until you see... Right, can't spoil things" Bat-Mite stopped himself from revealing the big twists later, but hopefully he prepared them for the fact Joker's schemes are going to vary from child fun to criminal acts.

He begins singing a modified Christmas carol while dancing and helping decorate the tree, one that goes: "Jingle Bells, Batman smells! Robin laid an egg, the Batmobile broke a wheel and the Joker got away!" He finished singing the song as he puts the Christmas ornament at the top of the tree that begins to shake as smoke comes out from below

The Joker laughs manically as he puts the Christmas ornament on his head and holds on to the top of the Christmas tree as it takes off, bursting through the glass window on the ceiling. The Joker sings as the rocket tree flies far away from the asylum

"How did he sneak that in?!" A good amount of the students shouted when they saw Joker's getaway, how didn't anyone in Arkham noticed the rocket tree?

"They probably thought it was a normal tree, but I have to admit this is a bit hard to believe" Momo said but even her questioned how such a thing was able to go through all the necessary security measures without any of the rocket features being discovered, then again she couldn't say her first instinct would be to think of a Christmas tree as some sort of getaway vehicle but that was just her

"Arkham Asylum, their security seems to be lacking if the Joker got away sneaking a rocket inside" Aizawa said as it was a testament how something like this could even happen, perhaps they could learn from this and inmates wouldn't get any items or presents from outside in the future

"Not so much as the mainline Arkham, don't get me wrong this one isn't perfect but the other is much worse." Bat-Mite commented, the amount of times someone escaped Arkham in the comic continuity would probably make these people lose their minds

We cut to Wayne manor for a moment before showing an elevator go down as two people are talking, one being Robin who doesn't understand why Batman wants to spend the night patrolling when they could enjoy Christmas. The caped crusader says that Joker escaped Arkham but Robin doubts he will commit a crime since even criminals spend the holidays with their families, Batman responds by saying Joker doesn't have a family.

"Now we have the Boy Wonder himself, Robin! Batman's trusted sidekick, crime fighting partner and adopted son, Dick Grayson. He is more cheerful and lighthearted than our dark knight, but he is an invaluable member of the Batfamily and has a legacy of his own." Bat-Mite introduced them to Batman's protegee and that spiked up their curiosity

"So this is the Robin Joker mentioned in his mock song? I'm a bit surprised that Batman even has a sidekick" All Might comments as Bruce didn't have him the vibe of someone who would bring another person to help in his hero work, but at the same time the Number one hero could see how in a pre quirk era Batman would need more than just his gadgets in order to combat organized crime, someone to help in this crusade of his.

"Robin is vital for Batman's development, I could go on about it for hours but you're all here to watch him anyways" Bat-Mite responds as without Robin, the stories would feel completely different and he knew versions of the dark knight that didn't have a Robin to balance out the darkness inside Batman. He wished he could go into further detail but explaining all of that would be a indirect spoiler or would cause confusion for these heroes in training

"I wonder why we didn't see him in the Man-Bat case?" Momo asked since as Batman's companion he could have helped in the case, it still went well but maybe with the Robin's help they could have taken down Man-Bat faster and more efficiently.

"Well... Robin has to balance crime fighting with his college life, so don't expect him in every adventure" the imp responds and the students could kind of see that, having experienced how disruptive fighting villains can be for their studies, must be extra hard for Robin since he lives in the pre-quirk era as Batman and him seem to be the only heroes so far.

"Since this is before the Quirk age and the hero registration... How did Robin become Batman's sidekick? What was the selection process and how did-" Iida had been interrupted by Bat-Mite's finger in his right and currently detached from his body hand, as the left hand of the imp did a shushing motion.

"Be a little more patient, you'll see his origin story later" the fifth dimensional host said as he returned his attention to the screen

"Why not now?" Aizawa asked, if the imp was so powerful couldn't he show then when Batman first started his career and what motivated him to become a hero in a pre-quirk era? If Robin is important why not show them how-

"Is not the proper order of things, plus his backstory is going to be told in flashbacks so..." A floating head of the imp spoke right beside him before disappearing, Bat-Mite's response wasn't what the adults wanted to hear nor did the students fully understand why it would be that way, pressing further would probably not give anything considering the imp's behavior so they would have to deal with that fact.

They enter the Batmobile, Robin makes a bet that if they don't find any crime in Gotham the two would come back to the manor and watch "It's a Wonderful Life" which Batman had never seen as he could never get past the title. The vehicle's headlights go up as they make their way out of the cave, we cut to the city streets as people enjoy the holiday spirit.

We see individuals going around the street with shopping bags, some ice skating by a frozen lake and a Santa Claus ring a bell for charity donations, Batman and Robin watch it over a nearby building. Robin asks if seeing people enjoy the holiday spirit doesn't warm his heart, the caped crusader doesn't reply and swings elsewhere with his grapple hook with the boy wonder following after

"Can't he ease up a little?" Hagakure said as the guy was so tensed up even though it was the season of cheers, sure heroes didn't necessarily need to take breaks because of holidays but she would rather spend that time with her family and friends rather than standing on top of buildings in the cold wind of the night

"Joker just escaped custody from the insane asylum he was put in, to me that is an understandable reason to keep himself vigilante." Iida spoke up in contrast, if this Joker's threat was so notable then it made sense to be on the lookout for him even if it would require the sacrifice of the Batman's holiday

"I think Bruce should relax for a moment. He is only a human after all, everyone needs to take a break once in a while to recharge his batteries" Uraraka said as she still didn't quite get how this man worked since he seemed to deprive himself of the basic need to rest and ease up like Aizawa, though Batman looked like he somehow found a way to not look like a homeless person that never sleeps unlike their teacher who she still didn't understand how he looked like that.

"I agree, but unfortunately crime doesn't rest and sometimes that will drive a hero to do the same, finding a balance is important but depending on how much of a threat Joker possesses to the city, I too would be giving all my attention to patrolling." All Might commented as in his experience it was hard to find that balance and if he could be completely honest it was sometimes preferable to just forget about his personal life and just go out and do good, though his worsening health more or less forcing him into going out less was making it hard to avoid his own life in sake of fighting crime, in a way he more than understood Batman in his drive to protect his city

They watch over another building as an old lady walks down the street, Robin says that Bruce just can't accept the city doesn't need them for one night, Batman spots a man running towards the woman somewhat suspiciously and goes in to stop it. However the man was just going there to give her back a box she dropped a few blocks away, she thanks him and both go their separate ways, with Robin commenting how they should call it a night but Batman just moves on to another place

"Is Batman always this cold? Or is he really that focused on the Joker he can't even consider spending the holiday like a normal person" Kaminari comments as the guy looked like he couldn't get into the Christmas spirit even if it bites him in the ankles

"He's Batman, of course he won't spend it like a normal person, there's a criminal on the loose! Joker might poison the water supply if he's not vigilant enough" Iida responds as Batman was the only hero of this city and thus it was his duty to look after it, he wasn't sure how dangerous the Joker could be especially in such a short time to prepare but the threat of a villain was enough

"Or maybe he will take the holiday off and strike afterwards." Mineta said thinking he was being clever.

"Did you even read the title card?" Tsuyu responds since they were clearly told that Joker would be acting during Christmas, wouldn't make sense for him to take the holiday off.

We cut back to Wayne Manor at the dinner table as Alfred says the turkey will be done soon, Bruce says they should have done one more sweep of the city but Dick tells him to relax as he's gonna love the movie, they make their way to a large television as both sit in some armchairs. Dick turns on the TV but instead of the movie a Christmas tree full of gifts and a man standing by the fire place is on, he thinks this is some holiday special in the wrong channel and tries to change, but all other channels are passing the same thing

The narrator of the show says that the original movie schedule was changed into a different show, the figure by the fireplace reveals himself to be the Joker as he gives all of Gotham a merry Christmas, calling out Batman specifically and hoping he's watching before laughing maniacally. We cut to a mechanical santa inside a chaminé going around the Gotham street terrorizing the bystanders as the machine trumps over a car, before launching the Santa into the air as it explodes into a Joker shaped head in the sky, Christmas with the Joker title letters appearing for the show.

"Seems like he has hijacked every TV channel in Gotham, not to mention he was terrorizing those people with that mechanical mockery of Santa Claus, it could have killed those people if they hadn't fleed from their car." Iida spoke as he chopped the air repeatedly, now he understood why Batman was so worried with this villain, the careless nature of his destruction while also televising it was a act of both audacity and evil

"Was he preparing for this all year? That Santa was crude but it still would have taken time to make such a machine, much less ensuring it worked properly" Momo commented as no way Joker could have prepared all of this after his escape, so this had to be preprepared while he was locked away, it was surprising to see how coordinate this plan was if he accounted with his own imprisonment

"I find it hard to believe he would care if that thing worked or not, as long as it could cause havoc." Aizawa said as he looked at the screen, something about this Joker made it clear that he wasn't a villain who care more than causing misery

"Clearly has a flare for the dramatic" Izuku commented as most villains wouldn't go through with such theming and would be more than fine with a bomb but the Joker went out of his way to build a giant robot based on Santa Claus simply to match the holiday season

Joker thanks the audience's clapping as we see that it is just a bunch of cardboard caricatures of Batman, Robin, police force members and other people of interest. Meanwhile Batman and Robin are back in the cave in their full costumes as the caped crusader is using the energy spikes in the power grid to pinpoint the Joker's location, on the show Joker tells how he doesn't have a family to spend Christmas with, so kidnapped one. The camera rolls in order to show Commissioner Gordon, Summer Gleeson and Harvey Bullock all tied up in bags with candy cane on their mouths to stop them from talking.

"How did he kidnapped them so fast? He only escaped Arkham a few hours ago didn't he?" Kirishima said as unless Joker had a rocketed power vehicle or superspeed he couldn't have just kidnapped three whole people while setting all of this plan up

"Maybe he got his goons to do it, every big name villain has them and seeing how Joker is treated he certainly is one" Hagakure said as it was possibly how he escaped custody as well, having his henchmen start getting the gears of the plan rolling while he was escaping Arkham with the Christmas tree that was definitely sent to him by his minions

"I know that those two are cops. But who's the lady?" Bakugou asked as he looked at the red head that was featured along with the police commissioner and the detective, wondering just who the hell she was and why she was kidnapped as well

"Summer Gleeson, she is a reoccurring individual due to her job as a reporter." Bat-Mite explained and the rest just sort of acknowledge that information before focusing back at the screen

Joker says he always found family to be a bore and that Batman could keep them, if he is able to find the three until midnight. Meanwhile in the Batcave, the dynamic duo enters the Batmobile to begin their holiday chase after the Joker and save the hostages, the Batmobile speeds through the road as Joker's maniacal laugh can be heard. On the Batmobile screen, we see the Joker's hand with a little elf costume and a drawn on face introducing itself as Joker little helper elf, the two walk towards a miniature model of Gotham city where Joker says it has everything, including stores and bridges, upon hearing that Laffy says he loves blowing up bridges

"So he's going to blow a bridge, pretty standard villain stuff" Jirou commented as that seemed nothing much considering how much this Joker enjoyed the dramatic flair of stuff

"Is the name Joker ironic? Because I haven't laughed at a single joke" Bakugou commented as he was really finding it hard to see this guy as a comedian, the whole hand puppet bit wasn't even entertaining

"Well, humor is subjective..." Sero said as he didn't really expect Bakugou to have a normal humor considering his temper

"Not when the life of another is in danger!" Izuku and All Might shouted in unison as people were in danger, they didn't have time to be talking about comedy, but they realized how both had spoken the same thing at the same time, but Midoriya's embarrassment was much more visible than All Might's for the entire class.

Joker moves the camera to show a different screen, of the Gotham President's Bridge where two men with a wire and dynamite are waiting, Joker gives them greetings before telling the two to sing a merry tune while they blow up the bridge. The two do just that as half of the bridge is gone in an explosion, Laffy says how fun that was but Joker tells him that the fun has only begun, as the 11:30 PM train is at any moment, the Batmobile changes direction immediately as the dynamic duo goes to stop it

Back at the studio, Summer Gleeson tries to say something so Joker takes out the cane to hear what she has to say, Vicky tells him that her mother is in that train and his response is to put the cane back on and say as Laffy "then it will be more exciting when it crashes" laughing while the reporter cries.

"Despicable, taking joy of the lives of innocent people crashing into their deaths, laughing off a daughter's worry for her mother... This man is completely maniacal! He should be taken down at once!" Iida shouted as this taunting to a person he had wrongfully imprisoned while mocking her as a family member was about to be killed by his actions was a sign of true and twisted villainy, this man was truly evil and his name of Joker might be from how he makes jokes out of tragedies

"I am officially sick of that stupid hand elf thing he's doing" Bakugou said as he wanted to blow Laffy and the joker's hand by extension to kingdom come

"I bet the league of villains would love him" Kirishima said sarcastically

"Honestly they could bring a different perspective, Batman has the best rogue's gallery of any hero. They might find someone they can relate to... Do you guys want me to bring them here?" Bat-Mite asked since bringing in villains didn't sound like a bad idea, considering Batman's Rogues gallery is probably the most recognizable one amongst all superheroes.

"No!" All of them shouted, not wanting their host to even consider the idea.

"Just saying!" The imp back off for a moment, but quickly thought of just adding the less problematic ones... Maybe if he doesn't put that guy with the potato for a head and gave some discipline for the villains, then maybe these heroes would be fine with it.

As the Batmobile speeds across the landscape and stays side by side with the train, Batman turns on the autopilot as he tells Robin to uncouple the passenger cars while he stops the engine. Both jump up to the train and make their way towards the train engine, Robin stops to uncouple the passenger cars as instructed, finishing off by pulling down a mechanism to stop the cars from moving. Meanwhile Batman is moving into the conductor's wagon to tell him that the bridge has been blown, he grabs the man and both jump into the snow filled terrain to break their fall as they watch what's left of the train fall down, ending in an explosion.

"A solid and well executed plan. Batman clearly gave Robin the least dangerous part, because if he didn't make it on time they couldn't have jumped out safely so he was ready to risk himself to save the conductor." Iida compliments Batman's approach to the situation, he could tell the dark knight thought of the safety of those in the train but also his sidekick Robin

"I wonder if stopping out of control trains is part of our curriculum?" Mina wondered out loud since seemed like standard hero stuff for them to learn, maybe they could have done that if the USJ hadn't been attacked

"You'll have to wait until that test comes, but it is good to see a well coordinated effort, especially when both lack a quirk that could aid in this task" Aizawa responded

Batman and Robin reunite together as Batman pulls out a controller from his belt, with a click of a button the Batmobile comes their way. Back in the studio Laffy says how much he hates the dynamic duo before Joker says to deal with them, pressing a button that explodes the cardboard audience of the studio as he jokes about building a snowman. Batman has found Joker's broadcast signal is coming from the Gotham observatory as the two make their way there.

"Time to put that villain to rest!" Uraraka said enthusiastic as the dynamic duo would save the hostages

"I wouldn't count on that this soon..." Aizawa didn't think it would end this easily, for how Batman was treating the case and from what the Joker has shown so far, the villain is more clever than he looks

Upon arrival they see a giant present at the radar antenna and make their move to get there, they stop once they approach the box and Batman says to take caution when suddenly a giant jack in the box Joker jumps out, as he welcomes Batman through a microphone.

"Yikes, that thing is more horrifying than the real guy" Hagakure shivered from looking at the thing, somehow it mixtures a snake and clown turning it into something much more terrifying than both of those things individually

"Must have been a fake lead since Joker was expecting them" Ojiro comments since Joker must have known how to misdirect Batman from his trail

Batman asks what Joker's game is and the clown prince of crime says he is going to spread some Christmas entertainment to the audience, who won't wanna miss the occasion. Meanwhile a hidden camera watches over the duo as the observatory's telescope opens up and starts to aim at the heroes, before shooting out a explosive that the two start to dodge. Joker laughs while the two crime fighters do their best to evade the cannon, Batman tells Robin to get into the observatory while he draws the fire

Batman is chased by the cannon's fire, one fo the shots hits the radar antenna and Joker says they are experiencing technical malfunctions as the observatory's cannon begins shooting randomly, the clown jokes about it hitting Gotham as we see it destroy a small bridge and hit the top of the buildings as civilians run in panic for cover

"This maniac is threatening the lives of multiple citizens and causing so much destruction, all while laughing?" All Might clinched his fist in frustration upon seeing this, he didn't like how the Joker was taking fun out of the terror he was causing to those below in the city, completely at the mercy of an out of control cannon

"He's the Joker, he is known for his iconic laughter and twisted sense of humor. If you hate him now, you probably are going to punch the screen with what he does later" Bat-Mite responds which doesn't ease up the number one hero at all, maybe he wasn't as evil as All for One but with how the imp talks about this Joker, he may as well become a contender for the most hateable person All Might has ever seen. If this is not even him at his worst, the hero could only wonder what horrors he commits for Bat-Mite to not show them his main counterpart.

"Still, by the way he is terrorizing the city I imagine he's going to be put in a more secure prison, clearly an insane asylum isn't enough to hold him" Aizawa wasn't sure that a insane asylum was suitable for someone like the Joker anymore, he clearly is far more intelligent and villainous than those shown in Arkham so far. After his capture the Joker should be sent to a maximum security prison to make sure the citizens can sleep well known he wouldn't be able to escape

"Yeah... I wouldn't get my hopes up, the criminally insane in Gotham are sent to Arkham Asylum while those who aren't insane are sent to the Black Gate Prison. Because Joker is seen as insane by the legal eyes of the law, he needs to be put in an asylum for rehabilitation and treatment."Bat-Mite's response confused a few of the audience and made Aizawa annoyed, criminally insane didn't sound like a good reason to not put him in restraints so he could not harm others, his escape already proves that Arkham lacks the security to hold such villain.

"Considering how easy it was for him to escape, maybe they should reconsider that law" Momo comments since the Joker's havoc could endanger more lives than a serial killer, already he is destroying the city and almost caused a train to crash with no remorse.

Robin enters the observatory only to find it empty, save for a few cackling Joker statues that son begin to shoot bullets from their fingers aimed at the boy wonder, who begins dodging and making the statues shoot each other in the crossfire. With one remaining statue gunning for him as Robin takes cover

He communicates with Batman as the caped crusader instructed him to use the "Cause and Effect" maneuver, Robin proceeds to use an explosive pellet from the utility belt and throws at the cannon, destroying it while also having the rest of the weapon fall on the remaining Joker statue.

"Another well executed plan, it is good they have made a maneuver for such predicament" Iida compliments the dynamic duo once again for how they destroyed the cannon and saved the people from the city of anymore attacks from that out of control mechanism.

"I wonder how many of these they have? Can't be too many but also needs to be wide in the scope of possibility" Izuku spoke up as he wrote a few more details into the notebook, like the explosive batarang and the maneuver's name.

"Around thirty maybe? Or would that be too much?" Momo made her best guess but it really could be any number of possibilities

"I'm going with just 'enough' for now" Kaminari spoke as he didn't even want to attempt a guess just to be wrong.

After meeting back with Batman, Robin asks what their next move is, which the caped crusader responds with "to be quite honest, I don't know."

As the Batmobile moves around the Gotham streets, Robin says that time is almost up and they had to do something, Batman says is up to Joker now and that they need a miracle. Turning in the screen on their vehicle, as if hearing their conversation a new transmission of the Joker comes in as he has put on a new transmission mocking the dynamic duo as he forces Summer to open up a present, revealing a 'Betty Blooper doll' that Joker winds up and let's her wreak havoc in the miniature Gotham city model as the doll walks over the cardboard buildings while the clown laughs manically.

Robin comments on how he hasn't seen one of those dolls in years, Batman says that they don't make dolls like that anymore ever since the Laffco Toy factory went out of business 14 years ago, which would be their next stop.

"Ha! Now that he slipped, Batman is going to be able to capture him and save the hostages!" Ochako excitedly spoke as some of the others joined in that enthusiasm, they all wanted to see the dark knight triumph over the maniacal clown

"I don't know, what if he did that on purpose? To get them to come into another trap?" Jirou comments since the Joker already prepared one for them in the observatory where he wasn't even there, it was almost certain that both heroes were going to a death trap or a false lead

"Is possible, even if Batman and Robin know this is a trap they have to risk going in because lives are at stake" Izuku responded since he would do the same in this situation, that factory is the only lead they have so it was a necessary risk to take in order to save the lives of those Joker kidnapped.

"Hopefully they'll catch him off guard" Kirishima says, Joker was also starting to get on his nerves with how unmanly he was and the fact he got his kicks from people suffering

The dynamic duo arrives at the factory that had a giant clown face on the side of the building in rotting state, the Batmobile slams through the building's gate as the two exit the vehicle to explore the creepy environment full of bizarre toys, meanwhile Joker observes them before moving into another room in cackles as he turns on a vinyl record player.

As classical Christmas music begins playing, Joker turns a mechanism as giant toy soldiers begin moving towards the dynamic duo and attacks, Batman uses an opportunity to go up the toy's arm and break the head of the toy out, destroying it. Robin follows shortly by using his grapple hook to go upwards and kick one of their heads off causing one to go down against each other to make them both fall, breaking them both in the end.

"Woah! How did he get robots, don't tell me he made those himself. Is that guy secretly a genius?" Mina spoke confused at how the Joker could have so many gizmos and weapons this advance, unless he had someone else build them while he was in prison then Joker must be a tech genius which explains how he hijacked the TV signals

"If he is, I don't imagine him being a good one. Those robots went down easier than the ones in the entrance exam" Kirishima comments since these robots took significantly less effort than those he dealt with in the exam

"Or maybe Batman is inhumanly strong, you sure he's quirkless?" Tsuyu asked the imp, he told them Bruce didn't have powers but clearly he had enhanced strength if he was taking down robots with his bare hands

"Yes he is, peak human differs from universe to universe. For example, a version of Batman was able to survive re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere after being exploded out of a base in the moon, he was walking seconds after landing in the arctic" Bat-Mite comments and noticed the shocked expression on the audience from what he just said, maybe he should have used another example.

"How the fuck did that happen!?" Bakugou shouted in complete disbelief at what the imp said, surely he was hyping Batman up to an unrealistic standard now, because that didn't make sense at all!

"He was fighting Failsafe, a robot designed to kill Batman if he ever-"

"I can't imagine someone that could possibly just survive something like that, it would take a powerful quirk to even consider that possibility, but you said he was quirkless. How can someone without powers do that?" Izuku was flabbergasted, he knew what was like being quirkless but even he knew that a human body surviving entry into the Earth's atmosphere right after an explosion was utterly impossible, if Batman had a quirk maybe he could do it but how is a normal human-

"Because he's Batman, duh! If you find it so hard to believe, see with your eyes" Bat-Mite snapped his finger and a comic book fell to Midoriya's lap, the one where this entire sequence takes place, weirdly though is the fact that the pages after he lands in the artic are blurred over, seems like he was talking with Robin and another hero but he had been scratched over as 'not important' by a color marker, all Izuku could make out is a letter S symbol on his chest 

"Look it sounds insane to you all, but that is exactly why I'm showing this dark knight to you people! The Batman has been around for a long time and trust me he has done things you couldn't even believe if I showed it to your eyes. It is best if you accept that Batman has done some absurd feats, considering how vast the multiverse is the chances of him doing everything you think is impossible are astronomically high" the imp explained and the audience... Had to accept even with their doubts, Izuku alongside Iida and Aizawa wanted to press further on the matter but begrudgingly agreed to just accept this fact.

After those are dispatched, toy planes with the Joker's face on them begin to come down to the two heroes, Batman picks up a baseball bat to hit as many of them as possible while Robin uses a metal barrel to make the other toy planes crash. After disposing of them, Batman hears a gun sound and alerts Robin of snipers as they begin to move out of the way from gunfire.

The dark knight uses his grapple hook to go up as the shooters follow him on foot, he takes cover behind a bunch of giant Teddy bears while the men begin shooting, after a couple seconds they see Batman's cape and shoot it with all they got. But it turns out to be a giant teddy bear that falls on top of the two, literally giving them a bear hug as an automatic voice inside the plush says "I love you very much"

"I'm surprised those teddies could take so many shots, their stuffing must be really good" Momo comments since for Batman to be safe after they unloaded their guns at those bears, these teddies would need a lot of stuffing to even absorb the bullets without them going through

"Pretty pathetic for those guys to be defeated by a teddy bear failing on them" Bakugou said since those two crooks were overwhelmed by a freaking plushy bear, they should retire from crime after such pathetic display

"But it was kind of funny" Sero adds since that was kind of comedic in a way

Batman tells Robin to watch out for the Joker, only for the curtains in the factory to upon up and reveal the clown prince of clown standing by a rope with a present box and a pair of scissors, which if cut would lead to the three hostages to fall into a vat of boiling hot liquid (melted plastic or metal I presume)

Batman tells Joker to let them go as he is the one the villain wants, the Joker tells him to open up his Christmas gift as he throws the present at the caped crusader, encouraging him to open. Robin warns him not to, but Batman cautiously proceeds, only to have a pie thrown in his face by a spring as the Joker laughs uncontrollably

"... All of this, just to pull a prank on Batman?" Izuku said in disbelief, in fact the entire audience was in silence from this moment as they couldn't believe what the entire plot of the villain was building up to was... A pie in the face

"Is the type of petty stuff I would expect from one of our students, but he endangered the entire city! Kidnapped hostages and is threatening their lives! Just to throw a cream pie at Batman?" Aizawa couldn't believe this, how could a villain be so dumb, so insurable and ridiculous? Threatening multiple lives just for a practical joke? He needed to be put down on the ground and arrested this instant... The teacher was getting a headache from this.

"Yeah, honestly it got me the first time I watched this." Bat-Mite comments since he laughed when the scene first came up for the imp, it was a classic Joker thing to do and something the modern versions of him could use, a GOOD sense of humor that doesn't revolve entirely around dark humor

"... He's truly insane" All Might spoke as he just wanted to see the Joker get arrested already, he couldn't watch a single more minute of this deranged maniac

Whipping off the pie, Batman rushes in to stop the Joker who cuts the rope, the caped crusader does a jump to grab the three hostages out from their fall and land more safely in the ground. He tells Robin to watch over them as he goes to arrest the Joker

"Good save" Ochako complimented

"He's athletic abilities are always going to be surprising, I didn't think he could make that jump" Sero says since that seemed way too high for someone in peak human to do but of course a hero would make it on time

"I don't doubt it after his fight with those robots" Ojiro comments since Batman was always showing physical feats that were far above those of an Olympic athlete.

At first it seemed he succeeded easily, but the clown slipped out of his fake sweater and gloves to escape through the stairs. However Joker ironically trips over a roller skate and almost falls into the vat himself, if not for Batman catching him as the madman stands inches from the boiling liquid.

"He deserved to fall if he fell for his own trap like that" Aizawa comments since he could not stand the Joker and honestly if he wasn't a hero he would probably let the criminal fall in the plastic, but arresting him was the duty of a hero

"I don't think that was a trap he intentionally prepared" Izuku spoke since that seemed like a genuine accident

"So he's just a clumsy super villain, how could he not look where he was looking?" Kaminari asked in confusion, but remembered that Joker would not care to look where he was going since the villain was trying to escape

"Considering he fell into a vat of chemicals, which is his villain origin story... I say he is just clumsy like that" Jirou spoke as the imp said that's how he got his skin bleached, honestly he should be more careful if that is something that happens to him on more than one occasion

"This isn't going to be the last time he falls for his 'death' as that's Joker's favorite way to fake his own death." Bat-Mite said which some of the heroes could kind of see, but also doubt he would be doing that often

After Joker is arrested, we cut to Wayne manor as Alfred walks in right at the end of the movie, saying how gentle it was for Gordon to lend a tape of the movie for them, Dick comments on how 'wonderful' it is and so does Bruce. Meanwhile we see Joker is in a padded room in Arkham, cackling maniacally in a straightjacket as he sings a Christmas song.

While not as strong as the previous adventure for some of the students, the audience were introduced to some vital characters that were sure to appear in the future with more interesting adventures, the students were curious about what other adventures Robin would help in and what ridiculous but dangerous plan Joker would come up with next time.

[Author's notes]

Leave a review as it really helps, feedback is an important part of the process, favorite and follow to support the fanfic.

I don't know if this will apply to other episodes, but this one certainly felt weirder to write than on Leather Wings, the tone must be the reason for it. Anyway next up is Nothing to Fear, which I am considering including the league of Villains but for that I want to know what you people feel, since I'm not certain if all members will bring an interesting angle. Dabi, Toga and Spinner are the only ones I am certain would be interesting to see, others I have less interest in or know less of.

I was planning on having Mask of the Phantasm be the first movie they watch before the start of season two, but that means it will be a while until they see his origin which could be a good or bad thing depending on who you ask. Maybe I should show them after the movie after Appointment In Crime Alley

What is a good episode to introduce Mei in? Would love some suggestions from you guys, I don't want to leave her out for too long since she would love to see the gadgets Batman has

Chapter Text

"Alright, I think you all deserve a break to discuss our adventures so far. If you go through that door, there is a cinema snack bar for you to get some food and a few bathrooms, I gotta get something prepared for the next adventure" Bat-Mite snapped his fingers and the theater door opened up for them to leave, meanwhile he had to hold in his laughter before disappearing, the students were a bit worried about what he could be up to.

Walking out they see a somewhat standard movie reception, with a snack bar and bathrooms as promised. But also some corridors that were blocked off with tape and signs saying 'under construction' with the exception of one, the Museum which the students went to see while the teachers stayed in the reception.

"Do you think we can get out of here while he's not looking and try to figure out where we are?" All Might asked, considering the imp was no longer in the theater, maybe they could find an escape route from wherever Bat-Mite trapped them in.

"I doubt that" Aizawa said bluntly, the imp was an idiot but he seemed to want them to stay in here for as long as possible to watch... How many of these Batman adventures he wants, the hero was doubtful that wherever they were was even in Japan. Nothing guaranties they would even be in their own universe, from how the imp talk about his powers they could be in a pocket dimension of his own making

"I see... Let's hope we aren't missing anything important, being absent in times like this could cause a lot of problems" the number one hero mumbles to himself, but the feeling was shared with Aizawa 

Meanwhile, the group of students that got to the museum found themselves in a corridor full of statues for the heroes and villains they met so far. They were so life-like it was surprising, each with a different pose that demonstrated their personalities to some extent.

"Woah, this is like walking around in a wax museum" Ojiro comments as they look at the statue of Batman who was standing tall holding a similar pose to the one he did in the opening theme, only this time he didn't have the dramatic lightning strike and was instead being illuminated by a lamp above his head.

"Tell me about" Mina responded as she had shivers from the way the Joker statue was presenting himself, creepily smiling while extending his hand out where a joy buzzer was in, a plaque below the statue warned to not shake the hand of the clown prince of crime. 

Kaminari jokingly shook his hand,

Joker's creepy laughter came out from the statue and the student was surprised to be actually electrocuted by the small toy, thankfully his quirk made it be less painful than it would otherwise be for his fellow students. 

"What the hell?" Bakugou commented as the shocks stopped, Denki looked fine... Until they saw his face

"I think his brain got fried" Tsuyu comments as Denki gave a thumbs up while looking at the floor with a dumb look, seems the shock gave him a short circuit.

"That is a dangerous hazard! Why would that imp place such a thing for anyone to see? Kaminari could have been fried alive! And why didn't you listen to the warning!" Iida began to furiously swipe the air and tried to make sure no one else tried to touch the statue, in fact he didn't want them to touch anything else in the exhibit. 

After that commotion, Hagakure and Jirou observed the Robin statue as he struck a swinging pose while using a rope, like when they swing through the city in 'Christmas with the Joker' but it also displayed his name below as it reads "Dick Grayson, the Boy Wonder"

"He's kind of cute" Hagakure comments, seeing him up close have her a better idea of how handsome Robin was.

"I 'wonder' how he came to be Batman's sidekick, doubt it was through an agency" Jirou said since the world that Bat-Mite showed them so far doesn't resemble much of their own, so how Robin came to be part of this crime fighting duo was still a mystery for them.

Uraraka and Todoroki looked at the Alfred statue, which had the butter holding a silver platter up while having a piece of cloth hanging on his other arm. His face had a very plain and disinterested look, but the raised eyebrow gave him a bit of personality.

"Wonder what it is like growing up with a butler, how do you think he got to work for Bruce" Ochako asked the cold classmate, her family never had the income to even think of hiring a personal butler, made her wonder how much Bruce payed him

"Maybe he was always the family butler, but what I'm curious about is how he convinced Alfred to help in his crusade" Todoroki replied, pondering if Alfred shared Bruce's desire to help the city.

"I think Bat-Mite will tell us that, he seems to wait around for us to ask questions just for him to show his knowledge" the girl replied as she was certain their host would be waiting for them to ask 'who is that' just to give them a info dump

Koda and Momo were looking at the Man-Bat statue, which came accompanied by one of Langstrom taking the formula with an optimistic look, likely to contrast the monstrous expression of the monster he turned himself in. Which had a terrifying pose, almost like he was jumping from the display to attack and they almost wonder if there is a string holding the villain up in the air.

"I feel bad for him" Koda shyly said as the whole Leather Wings adventure was kind of like watching a horror movie, not to mention how scared he was when seeing the Man-Bat transformation on screen, it looked so painful...

"We can only hope he will never take that formula ever again" she said as the way Kirk became addicted to the formula and caused the Man-Bat side of him to learn the chemicals to bring itself out was a scary thought, it made her wonder if Man-Bat was really bestial and animalistic or could in fact have a personality resembling a human's despite how aggressive the monster was.

Mineta, Kirishima and Shouji were looking at the statues of Harvey Bullock and Commissioner Gordon. They had a small chat about how both represented different types of cops, one is dedicated while the other is lazy, one rushes to conclusions while the other thinks things through. Gordon was a good example of what a cop and hero should be while Bullock represented a more incompetent officer, who wants to do the right thing but isn't very good at it.

"Maybe he will get better later on" Kirishima said, hopeful that Bullock would learn from his mistakes after Batman saved his life

"It will be hard, Bullock seems pretty set on his way" Shouji replied

"Hey, what is this one?" Mineta pointed at another statue that was covered up, this caught the attention of the other students who were surprised to see it, was the fact it was covered up meant they had yet to see the adventure this person comes from? 

Iida tried to tell the others not to touch it in any way, shape or form. But Bakugou simply rolled his eyes as he took off the cover, revealing a rotund man with fancy clothes and supporting himself onto a umbrella while his other hand holds a large cigarette. The most unusual detail of this figure was the really large noise he had along with hands more reminiscing of flippers, this brought some confusion to the class as they wondered who he was, Izuku noted his name plate called him 'Oswald Cobblepot, the Penguin'

"Huh, wonder what this guy's deal is?" Kirishima asked as he leaned his hand into the name plate

"I assume he's another villain" Ojiro comments as the Penguin doesn't sound like a nickname he would pick out of his own.

"Seems he has some form of mutation, his hands look like flippers to me" Mina said as everyone observed the statue, this may be the first time they saw a person with any type of mutation from this Batman universe, Langstrom had an artificial transformation quirk but Penguin seems to be more natural

"Attention people! Get back to the central door for the next screening of epic Batman adventures!" Bat-Mite's voice echoed through the entire theater like it was coming out of a microphone, soon the students went there as instructed. Once there the doors opened for the heroes to take their seats, some had grabbed a snack or two from the main lobby before entering 

"Hello, my dear audience of wannabe heroes! Look who I brought to watch Batman with us" Bat-Mite signalled to their left where the students and teachers are meet by the league of villains, causing all of them to get on a tense fighting position while the villains looked disinterested in the whole thing with the exception of one, Shigaraki tried to attack them but was physically unable to, his own body contorting in such way to stop him from moving forward 

"Argh!" The villain let out a grunt of pain as he tried to force himself into grabbing the neck of even a single student, seeing this opportunity Bakugou tried to attack but was stopped by an invisible wall

"What did I tell you about attacking your fellow watchers?" Bat-Mite said with the slightest hint of insult over them forgetting this rule, granted he told that to the villains before bringing them, but he still didn't want the heroes to do the same right now

"Screw you.... Urgh!" Shigaraki's entire body began walking back in a contorted way, which was a bit unsettling for the heroes but the villain didn't deserve any of their sympathy 

"You brought the league of villains here!?" Izuku and most of his classmates screamed at the interdimesional imp for doing such a reckless thing, Aizawa was already giving him a glare that could kill with All Might not too different 

"More like kidnapped, we didn't even get a say in the matter" Toga clarified as the entire league was chilling doing their own thing until the weird imp came in, he took them away into some trippy space to given them a bunch of rules to follow, them were so powerless to fight the bizarre thing it honest felt otherworldly.

"Why would you do this?" Mineta screamed in complete shock, he was sure the fanboy imp was fucking with them now, he turned this whole thing into a dangerously cruel prank.

"Batman has some of the best villains of all time so I thought why not show them too? They can bring a different perspective on the matter" Bat-Mite tried to justify why he brought these people here, since the villains would absolutely love how much complexity was given to Batman's outstanding rogue's gallery 

"B-but they are dangerous! They attacked us!" Hagakure spoke out as bringing villains into the whole thing was pushing it a bit too far now, felt like the imp wasn't even aware of the danger they could cause

"Relax, inside this place I have complete control. They don't even have their offensive capabilities, I have strapped away from their quirks to anything that could cause problems. Besides they can't do anything with the intention to harm or kill, otherwise they'll have the same thing dry lips over there are having" Bat-Mite tried to assure the heroes by demonstrating just how much power he had on Shigaraki, snapping his finger and turning him into a puppet or simply turning the villain into a stone statue. This somewhat helps, but serves to show the villains and heroes that someone like Bat-Mite shouldn't really have this much power, with a snap Shigaraki returns to normal but feels incredibly uncomfortable for a moment.

"Now sit back and relax, as we go to see a great adventure of the caped crusader!" He exclaimed and reluctantly, both sides put aside their differences to watch the next adventure considering how odd the circumstances are and the maniac running this whole thing was far above them in power

[Author's notes]

Follow and favorite to support the fanfic, comments are heavily appreciated and help the creative process.

Since the fic is inspired by the one made by Kiddo and many others, I want to make my own theater be a little different and more unique, that will be shown in future intermissions.

Which would be a good episode to introduce Penguin that isn't Batman in my basement? Because I am not watching that episode no matter, it is one of the few I can't tolerate from how bad it is, boring and the only important thing is the Penguin's debut.

Chapter Text

The title card appears as an brown light is hitting the silhouette of a scarecrow that smiles maliciously as the words "Nothing to Fear" appear on screen with a suspense music playing

"Great, now I feel like there is something to be afraid of" Kaminari spoke as the title card was kind of creeping him out, Hagakure felt the same way but aside from a single chill down he spine there wasn't much of a reaction

"Only children would be scared by this, looks like a cheap horror movie" Shigaraki said with his hands crossed as the whole idea of this thing was infuriating him, the villain did not like this feeling of being powerless nor did he want to spend who knows how long watching a hero, all of this because this annoying imp thing wanted to show them the greatest hero of all time, but for Shigaraki it didn't matter since any hero isn't worth his time

"Meh, could be interesting I suppose. Especially if we see a lot of blood" Toga commented since horror movies usually have a good amount of on screen blood, so maybe there would be some enjoyable moments

"Going to be honest with you, there isn't going to be as much blood as you want to see, honestly it will be a bit rare so I hope you can savor the moment when it does show up" Bat-Mite's response made the girl gain a disappointed look on her face, now she lost the interest on the whole thing. The heroes were glad to hear that to a extent, it meant there wouldn't be unnecessary death and gore of innocent people

We see a helicopter fly across the Gotham skyline as one of the people inside holds a gun on his hand, but it was hard to tell who the other person that was piloting the vehicle looked like since only his hand was visible.

The Gotham University Charity Book Signing is in progress, and the guests talk about the string of robberies and vandalism that has been plaguing the university. Summer Gleeson greets one of the university's professors, Dr. Long, and asks to interview him about the robberies as he makes his way out.

"Great, a bunch of old people." Toga said, wanting things to move on so she could see something more exciting, now that she knew there wasn't going to be almost any blood the girl just couldn't be bothered to invest in the plot,at least until something interesting happened

"Seems like this University has seen better days, I wonder why it seems to be attacked by these robberies" Momo comments considering the fact their school had been targeted repeatedly by the villains as well

"Maybe a disgruntled student wants some payback for how much this place stole from them, universities teach you a bunch of nothing for a fortune out of your pocket" Dabi's words felt a bit personal but none of the heroes could tell if he actually went to college or not, felt more like he was projecting than anything, but also fells like he was commenting on the education system.

"Spoke like you have experience on the fact, did you burn down a college just because they didn't accept you? Or was finishing middle school too hard for you?" Bakugou threw an insult towards the villain, knowing very well they couldn't do anything against it other than taking it

"Don't push it you two, please" Iida tried to stop any unnecessary conflict from erupting, but with the villains here it would be hard to have any form of middle ground if the god like imp wasn't stopping the villains with his own power

"He's theory isn't that far fetched considering how little we were shown so far" jirou couldn't deny the possibility since they didn't know anything aside from the fact the university was being targeted in specific

"I think that gunmen in the helicopter is a hint, we are probably going to see who is doing this" Izuku said as that seemed like foreshadowing of something, likely related to the university's struggle

The two enter the elevator and encounter Bruce Wayne, as we cut to a man loading a machine gun with bullets, the one piloting seems to be wearing some form of costume similar to a scarecrow. Long tells Bruce that he attended university with Thomas Wayne, who had big plans for his son. Bruce assures Long that his father would have been at least pleased that Wayne Enterprise has made great profits, but Dr. Long huffs in disagreement.

He believes that Bruce has disgraced the Wayne family name by acting nothing more than a rich playboy, adding that it was fortunate that Thomas had not lived to see what had become of his son. Though Summer tries to assure Bruce that Dr. Long is only angry because of the troubles of the university, it's obvious that his words are troubling him.

"So the pilot of the helicopter is wearing a costume of sorts, he must be the villain behind these attacks" Iida makes a somewhat observation, but it was a fact they needed to get straight considering the previous two adventures also teased a villain, now would this man be on the same level as the dastardly Joker or something like the monstrous but tragic Man-Bat? That was the question he was making

"Wonder what he's deal is with the cheap looking outfit" Dabi comments as the suit doesn't seem that good, kind of a rushed job if he had to guess, with how the imp described, most of the League was expecting a bombastic personality to be on All these 'great villains' Bat-Mite hyped up before kidnapping them.

"That Dr Long doesn't know a thing about Bruce! He's father would be proud of the hero his son became!" Uraraka said proudly and some of the other students nodded in agreement, having seen the good Batman has done for the city in the previous adventures

"He can't possibly know that since Bruce keeps his identity secret" Aizawa brings up the fact that Dr Long couldn't possibly know that Bruce and Batman are the same person, therefore he only knows of the things his public identity of Bruce Wayne had done. Maybe his opinion would have changed if Batman had a public, but as the imp said previously, Bruce keeps the two separate for the sake of protection and prevent any criminals he stopped in the past to go after him in public

"Really? I was expecting a rich kid to want everyone to know he's a hero for the publicity it would bring his business" Mr Compress was lightly surprised by this reveal, almost every single hero he could think of had a public name and brand that one like Batman not possessing such a thing was a shocker

"No, he's a vigilante but since this takes place in the pre-quirk era people are still split on the concept of heroes, some dislike him and others appreciate his help." Izuku tried to explain it to the villains, it was only fair to give them a chance to catch up in terms of what they discovered in the previous adventures

They were surprised to hear this took place in the pre-Quirk era, but it explained the old look of the buildings they saw. Most weren't really certain if this meant anything special, but they knew Batman was quirkless if this is taking place before the dawn of quirks, suddenly they felt like it could interesting to see him try and fail to fight the rise of super villains since Bat-Mite promised to show them some of the greatest villains of all time.

"Maybe he will be a true hero... But I wouldn't hold my breath" Spinner comments under his breath

"The doctor has a point, I would be disappointed if my son turned out to be a hero." Shigaraki spoke in disdainful faith on Batman, he wouldn't want to be associated with a hero no matter the lengths it would take, having his son become a hero would be a disgrace and promptly make him kill said son.

"Anyone would be disappointed to be your son". Sero responded with some of the 1-A class agreeing, Shigaraki's personality would make him for a horrible dad if not a toxic one, they didn't even believe he could love someone to actually have a relationship with his own son of the villain was to have one.

While looking out the elevator windows, Bruce notices a helicopter suspiciously landing on the University Bank and heads out.

Meanwhile, two goons and a man dressed up as a scarecrow blast a hole in the ceiling and are confronted by the security guard. The Scarecrow sprays the guard with a gas coming out of his fingertips, and he writhes in horror as he suddenly sees himself covered with spiders. The goons watch in confusion, as they see nothing. The Scarecrow explains that he caused the guard to see his worst fear: arachnophobia.

"So his quirk is like Midnight?" Hagakure asked but was reminded by Sato how their host gets around these types of questions, although it was weird he only stopped after they asked, almost like he wants them to do it just so he can flex his knowledge. Then again he was a super fan of everything Batman, maybe that was just par for the course

"What a lame costume, but I guess it ties with the whole gas induced fear thing. Still that quirk wouldn't work on me" Shigaraki confidently say as the villain didn't seem to be that much, not when compared to him or his master. If he could use his quirk, he would kill the annoying imp and the heroes to get out of here, but Shigaraki was going to watch lesser villains just for the sake of a crazy fanboy of a hero.

"Is not a quirk, he made the gas himself. Not everyone is going to have powers, but I guess you people have all types of weird powers" Bat-Mite was starting to realize these people would always think someone has a quirk unless specifically stated otherwise or shown how they obtained that power, but he was just going to accept that since 80% of the people in this world of theirs were born with powers.

"Man-Bat did, but I guess his quirk was artificial." Sero comments but this catches the attention of the villains who didn't see the first appearance of the bat monster.

"Really? Someone made an artificial quirk in that universe, but it looks so far behind!" Kumogiri was kind of shocked since from everything they knew of quirks, you couldn't just make one in a lab, at best you could combine quirks from other people to make a new one but that requires the quirk of their master in order to be even achievable.

"Well, it did make him into a feral Bat monster. But I suppose he's quirk isn't anything much compared to the ones we have, still a pretty decent one overall." Momo explained a little more, what Kirk did was both incredibly but also unnerving, specially with how he became addicted to the formula that turned him into an almost mindless beast. Still he had quite the power for an era without quirks, even if it was unnatural in everyway she could think of

"Oh! Did he turn into a vampire bat? Was there lots of blood?" Toga asked excitedly since that could have so much glorious blood from the bat monster draining it from his victims, oh how she wishes they could see that over this boring guy in a bunch of rags.

"I can answer that! No, Kirk Langstrom doesn't show any hunger for blood when transformed into Man-Bat, likely due to the fruit eating bats used in his research being used for the serum." Bat-Mite's response made Toga get disappointed and immediately lose her refound interest, now she really needed something else to excite her.

'This Batman hero fought a villain named Man-Bat? Are they supposed to be reflexions of each other?' Dabi thought on how weird that sounded for a first villain encounter, did this Kirk guy made that decision intentionally or was it pure coincidence?

"Is this not the first adventure? Are we going to be missing crucial context for further plots?" Mr Compress expressed a bit of confusion, how many other adventures were the heroes shown before the league was brought to the weird cinema? If they have an unfair amount of knowledge they do, the heroes are going to spoil the whole thing for them.

"Don't worry, you only missed two adventures but fear not as we will see better examples for you newcomers, in fact the next adventure is going to introduce you villains to Batman's greatest nemesis" the imp promise the villains which didn't inspire much confidence in them since his word wasn't trustworthy for them, after all he kidnapped them to watch a super hero. He says they'll love the adventures of Batman but most of the league doubt that heavily, Shigaraki flat out didn't believe such thing.

'Great... Another Joker plot...' the heroes mentally thought to themselves, not wanting to see what the mad clown was preparing next.

They then head into the vault, where Scarecrow instructs his goon to take only what money he can carry, then to burn the rest of it which as his primary goal is revenge, not theft.

"That theory about the college student might be right" Ojiro said since the villain's goal is revenge, but for what reason was yet to be revealed

"While I understand the want to focus on revenge upon those who wronged you, that is quite the sum of money they would be destroying" Mr Compress expressed a slight nitpick as it was kind of surprising he would pass on the opportunity of stealing from the University, but clearly he only desired to make them regret wronging him instead of having a monetary motivation for the crime

"They should grab as much as possible. NO! BURN IT ALL!" Twice spoke, chomping down on a mouthful of popcorn which confused at least one of his colleagues as to where he got the bucket of popcorn, but seeing the imp snap a hotdog into existence told enough how it happened.

As Scarecrow pours gasoline, Batman arrives and quickly subdues the thug, Nigel, outside the vault as the villain picks something from his bag, with the caped crusader throwing Nigel at the Scarecrow's feet. The Scarecrow throws the pellets at the door which releases the fear gas, but Batman enters already with a gas mask on. The villain mockingly compliments Batman for his resourcefulness and when asked who he was, the man took out a flare while proclaiming he was fear incarnate, the Scarecrow.

"I wouldn't call that fear incarnate, sensei fits that role much better than this pathetic excuse of a villain" Shigaraki spoke as the Scarecrow couldn't even reach the same level of his master, he was a personification of despair and terror much better than this lanky man wearing a cheap Halloween costume. Sure he may be able to make people see their fears but he needs a gas to do it, otherwise he is just pathetic

"The fear gas is probably why he would consider himself that, if he was up against one of us his gas wouldn't do jack shit" Dabi said confident

"Don't underestimate Scarecrow, his fear toxin can affect even the mightiest of heroes and worst of villains around. The number of people that can resist the gas or be unaffected by it are incredibly small, none of you guys would survive a first dose" Bat-Mite came to the defense of the episode's villain, he knew how powerful the fear gas was and this league of villains were too confident in thinking they would be immune, if it can affect alien life forms as strong as martians or kryptonians than certainly none of these villains would stand a chance

"Is it Really that powerful?" Spinner questioned since there exist quirks that could do similar things, how would a man-made product be more efficient than a quirk capable of the same result?

"He made tons of versions over the years, so building an immunity to one type wouldn't do much when he gives a different dose of another formula. Some can be personalized to give an specific phobia to an individual, so if a ocean hero that can breath water to live more than he needs oxygen, Crane could give them a fear of water so strong they would avoid touching even a glass of water despite it potentially resulting in his death" The imp explained which still didn't convince the villains but gave the heroes a sense of danger and actual fear thanks to the example, now they felt this villain was much more dangerous than they would first imagine

"So he's a more mental threat than a physical one" All Might spoke with a look of caution on his face, he knew just how cunning villains could be and this Crane individual seems to be trouble if what Bat-Mite said is truth. Thankfully the implication is that Crane would take longer in his villain career before being able to craft such a thing.

"I would be scared if I was forced to see my own fears attacking me" Hagakure comments with a slight spoke crawling down her spine, something shared between other members of the audience, even a few villains.

"That's because you heroes are pushovers" Shigaraki spoke with a clear intention to insult the students and the teachers, he was fearless so this toxin wouldn't do anything to him, not like Scarecrow would get the chance to even administer such a concoction.

"Said the guy that can't touch anything with his hands, I bet you fear touching yourself whenever you're mas-"

"Do you wanna die? Because I am happy to help you end the pathetic excuse you call-"

"Really freak? Why don't you come here and shut it?" Bakugou stepped up from his seat and seemed ready to throw explosions at the villain, who also got up from his seat and had a creepy posture with his hands

"Hey! No fighting in the theater, we can't afford to lose precious watch time with that" Bat-Mite intervenes as he didn't want them to fight while they watch peak, those two could settle their differences after they were done with the caped crusader. Which would be much further away than either side would hope for...

After the other goon, Anthony, jumps Batman, Scarecrow shoots Batman with a drugged dart from a gun. The dark knight begins to feel disoriented but manages to pin down the Scarecrow to the wall as said villain drops his flare close to the gasoline, soon starting a fire. He tells Batman to fight all he wants, but he would succumb to fear as the caped crusader drops to the ground.

Batman has managed to grab a scrap of Scarecrow's mask, but is weakened and somewhat disoriented by the effects of the gas, Scarecrow mocks him before leaving with his goons. While Bruce tries to escape, he hears a voice and then sees a vision of his father in the flames telling him that he has disgraced the family name.

"Daddy issues, I can see how that would be his fear, is a pathetic one so it fits him" Shigaraki's comment warrants a look from their host, a very stern look at that but ultimately he didn't do anything, aside from dropping a Batman omnibus in his head which angered the villain, but all it served was to show how powerless they were here since the imp stopped the villains from using their quirks for anything he didn't want.

"Doctor Long's words about Thomas must have caused this to manifest, made Bruce doubt if his father would approve of the path he chose" Izuku was feeling that it was the most obvious reason for such hallucination, the fear toxin only amplified the inner conflict Bruce had at the moment

"The judgement of your elders can weigh heavily on a child, depending on the parent it could decide the whole life of their child even after their passing." Tokoyami spoke, this echoed to Todoroki the most as he also had problems with his father but Bruce's seem to be different, he clearly loved his dad but wasn't sure he would approve of the hero life he chose to pursue, it made him ponder what Batman would do with this problem

"... He should just let the flames engulf him, rather than listen to his father" Dabi said, his tone was... Different than his previous sarcasm towards the hero, almost felt personal.

"No! Bruce can get out of this, he must!" Ochako said with some of the other classmates agreeing, they wanted him to get out of there to stop the villain and save his life

The fire sprinklers come on and extinguish the fire, but Batman is still affected. The police arrive and question Batman about who attacked the bank. Harvey Bullock arrives and attempts to intimidate Batman for some answers. Commissioner Gordon arrives and demands to know what Bullock is doing. As Bullock tries to explain, Batman disappears.

"I guess Bullock is just going to always be against Batman, would expect him to be more willing to work together after he rescued the man's life" Kirishima said, considering how much help Batman has been giving to the police so far, why would Bullock be so against him? Unless he was afraid of losing his job to Batman, it didn't make much sense to be so aggressive.

"Cops can be dirty and the system is flawed down to the fundamentals, of course they wouldn't trust a vigilante even if he's doing their job for them." Spinner comments as the flaws in society that allow for scummy law enforcers to abuse their power, not to mention how this city must have a bunch of corrupt officers who despised Batman for doing the actual hero work and possibly taking down the criminals the cops work with.

"Commissioner Gordon believes in Batman, maybe he can't make an official alliance with him due to the laws but the man knows when a case is beyond him and calls for his help, that proves his trust in the hero despite the label of vigilante making him at odds with the police" All Might spoke and gave some insight to the villains, just so they wouldn't bash the police, that have shown to be decent at their job but not so much when handling super villains like Joker or Man-Bat, which is why they call on Batman to help.

"If they were better at their job they wouldn't need a hero to do the rest for them, I bet that if Batman outgrew his usefulness to them all of the police would go hunt him instead." Shigaraki said as some of the league agreed with him, while the heroes couldn't believe he would insinuate such thing. All the while their fifth dimensional imp hosting this whole thing was holding on to not speak about some plotlines from later in the show and comics.

'They are in for a surprise, wonder if I should show them some of the non DCAU movies?' Bat-Mite thought to himself

Elsewhere, Scarecrow watches a newscast on Batman's thwarting of the fire. As he rants, his goons wonder what Scarecrow has against the university. He explains that he used to be a professor of psychology, specializing in fear at the university, where he developed the fear gas which was originally to help his test subjects conquer their worst fears, but was expelled by the board members, among them Dr. Long, after they believed he was taking his experiments too far, and branded a lunatic. Now maddened that his intentions backfired, Scarecrow has resolved to destroy the university entirely and show them the "true nature of horror".

"What a petty individual, not only was he abusing his power as a teacher but after being justifiably expelled from performing these experiments, he has the audacity to blame the university instead of his own methods" Iida chopped his arm in the air as he spoke, to see a teacher do such things with his students was despicable, specially when they were shown he liked to scare other fellow students when he was a child, Crane should not be allowed to teach if he was forcing them to do things they are deeply uncomfortable with.

"So that's his motivation? He lost his job and now wants to get back on them, lame." Bakugou crossed his arms at the villain's backstory, from what it showed this guy shouldn't even be allowed to be a teacher.

"I think that was quite interesting. IT WAS BORING!" Twice responded

Meanwhile, a still weakened Bruce does an analysis on Scarecrow's mask. As he waits for his computer's results, he struggles to fight the effects of the gas. He stares at a picture of his parents and trembles as he hears his father telling him that he failed him. A news report on another screen shows Summer reporting on the arson attempt and Batman's failure to catch the perpetrator.

Bruce hallucinates Summer saying how he "failed" repeatedly. Alfred switches the TV off before the hallucination can get worse, and talks about why would someone attack the University before he inquires as to whether Bruce is alright. When Alfred is told about the hallucinations about his father telling Batman he is a failure, the butler firmly assures Bruce that Thomas would be proud of him.

"A butler? He truly is a rich man, how many servants does he have" Mr Compress said in a slight surprise

"Only one, Alfred is one of his most trusted allies and is a moral compass to help Bruce" Bat-Mite explained to the villains, they weren't really interested in a butler but hearing he was a moral compass to Batman was slightly interesting, at least for Spinner.

"Seems like the effects of the gas haven't worn off yet" Aizawa commented as Bruce was still experiencing them to some degree, they wondered how long it would take for them to wear off

"If they continue, it may cause him to have a much harder time capturing Scarecrow, not to mention the possibility of a second dose could make things even worse" Momo theorized which made some of the students worried as they were now picturing this scenario coming true, the villains on the other hand enjoyed this possible outcome

'Perhaps... This fear toxin will serve to prove if Batman truly is worthy of being called a hero, a test to see him conquer fear itself to become a true hero' Spinner thought as to how this gas could be used to prove if Batman was worthy of being called a hero

Later, at a Gotham University Museum benefit, the room is suddenly flooded with gas and Scarecrow waltzes in. As the guests go into crazed hallucinations, Scarecrow takes the donation money and then sprays Dr. Long with his fear toxin, who begins seeing his hands whiter away into bone before he faints, Scarecrow decides on taking him prisoner to torture the man later. He tries to leave in a flight of stairs but his ankle is tied by a rope that Batman is holding down

"Get him Batman!" Kaminari and Kirishima shouted excitedly as the caped crusader appeared to stop the villain's kidnapping attempt

"I guess Dr Long fears the thought of ageing into an old pile of bones, it at least tells us something about him" Jirou said since this could show them a bit of Long's mentality, granted the hallucinations might not portray the full picture, but the hallucinations Bruce experienced were very specific.

"He seems kind of old, so maybe he just fears dying" Sero gave his own idea of why he saw that, since it wouldn't be farfetched for a man like Dr Long to fear dying of old age, time is a scary thing the more you think about it.

"Only cowards fear death" Shigaraki said with his hands crossed, he was ready to die if it meant achieving his goals

"Are you trying to sound cool? Because all it does is make you come off as a try hard" Kaminari responded to the villain almost mockingly, which infuriated him of course.

"Why you little-"

"Have to agree with the kid, can you just enjoy something? Or are you going to be negative the whole time?" Bat-Mite asked the villain, so far he seemed to hate everything even slightly heroic or that doesn't align with his brand of villainy, he knew that personality wise he wouldn't offer much, but from the other Shigaraki's he saw in the other theaters, the guy offered something once in a while.

"I don't even wanna be here in the first place!" Shigaraki shouted at the host, since the whole league was kidnapped by him to watch the adventures of a hero none of them even wanted to see, but the imp forced them to anyway

"I'm sure something interesting will come up for you to see, it is not like we have a choice to leave" Kumogiri tried to calm down Shigaraki, they didn't stand a chance against the imp, not when he took away their quirk's offensive power

When the villain sees him, soon the Scarecrow begins to tell the crowd how terrifying Batman is as they now see him as a giant bat and attack him in a hysterical panic, all the while the Scarecrow laughs as he leaves. Batman manages to evade the crowd with his grappling gun, but Scarecrow has already escaped onto a dirigible and flees, trailing the gas hose that was pumping fear gas into the building's air conditioning ducts. As the hose pulls free, Batman manages to grab hold of it and climb up.

"He almost got defeated by a group of people, it would be pretty pathetic for him to go out like that" Mr Compress said since being overpowered by just a normal group of people was kind of pathetic for a hero, but he could cut Batman some slack since quirks don't seem to exist.

"But he managed to escape without severely harming anyone, considering he is still under the effects of a hallucinogen I must congratulate his approach" Iida compliments how Batman handled the situation overall, it doesn't look like he caused any severe wound on the guests, who were all under the effects of the same hallucination inducing substance

"Wish we could have seen some blood, so far this whole thing hasn't been as entertaining as I thought" Toga complained, this whole thing so far didn't have the usual excitement she wanted to see, no blood so far and the action was lack luster. Even the main hero and villain weren't doing much for her.

"You villains are hard to please" Bat-Mite said as they clearly had biased standards for their enjoyment, couldn't they just appreciate Batman or his villains? Maybe Scarecrow wasn't doing it for them, but maybe the other villains would get them to enjoy the show, certainly Two-face and Clayface would get some reaction

Scarecrow believes that Batman has been killed, but Anthony points at Batman holding onto the dirigible. Scarecrow sends him outside to get rid of Batman. In the ensuring fight, bullets are fired into the control cabin, staring a fire. Now out of control, the dirigible crashes into a building and Batman and Anthony tumble off together.

Batman manages to keep hold on the dirigible with his grapple gun, but Anthony plummets several stories, fortunately landing on an awning.

"The idiot just ruined their own chances of escaping, he deserved to kiss the pavement for being that stupid" Shigaraki said, this level of incompetence should be punished with death if one of his colleagues committed such a mistake.

"But instead he got lucky" Dabi complimented, these henchmen were useless.

"I wish we could have seen him splatter on the ground." Toga said, wanting to see the man become a beautiful blood splatter painting

As Batman tries to climb back onto the dirigible, his hallucination comes on again as a towering vision of his father with red eyes loomed over the caped crusader, saying he was a disgrace as Thomas becomes a horrifying skeleton of himself. However, Batman declares that he is not a disgrace with a speech: "I am vengeance... I am the night... I am BATMAN!" The vision disappears, as now Bruce had mastered his fear

"Wasn't that the coolest thing ever?" Bat-Mite asked the audience with his upmost excitement, which the students certainly shared as they also thought the speech Batman gave was sensational and awesome.

"Yeah! It was so manly!" Kirishima exclaimed with a fist in the air

"That's not cool, he just got over that hallucination with a corny speech. What is so impressive about that?" Shigaraki spoke up, not believing Batman did anything of significance and only gave a stupid speech when the gas effect had passed away. Bat-Mite was ready to go on a rant on why the scene was so powerful and was better than anything Shigaraki himself ever did, but someone beat him there.

"Being fearless is not this grand characteristic you think it is, having no fear doesn't automatically make you a better villain or hero." Aizawa spoke with his usual mood, but he looked at the villains direction when he did, they thought themselves so highly because they weren't afraid of dying but that didn't make them greater villains, it just made them careless.

"He conquered his fear, stood his ground on his believe and showed courage against something he feared deep inside, with the sheer will of his conviction." Tokoyami said in a somewhat poetic way, finding the scene to be an incredible show of will power and the determination to keep going, he might use the line once he becomes a full hero himself.

"Truly a heroic trait to have" All Might added, overcoming fear was a greater strength than having no fear at all, because fear can motivate some to go into great lengths, even to protect others.

"Bunch of nonsense" Shigaraki mumbled to himself in complete disagreement

Scarecrow and his goon are using extinguishers to stop the flames when the villain sees Batman swing around to crash into the dirigible's cabin, kicking the villain to the end of the cabin as Nigel begins tackling the caped crusader. Scarecrow tries to hit Batman with his drugged darts again but accidentally hits Nigel, who sees himself trapped by shrinking prison walls. Nigel panics and leaps out the broken window, landing safely in a convenient tree.

"Once again we are deprived of blood, couldn't we at least see some of it in the broken window?" Toga once again was disappointed, but she may as well try to look for something else to enjoy in this whole thing by now.

"A criminal fears going to jail, go figure" Bakugou commented, somewhat sarcastically but the 1-A class had found his comment funny even if just for a small chuckle

"I think it might also be some claustrophobia as well" Momo added, which some students could see

Seeing that he's lost, Scarecrow escapes on a glider leaving Batman and the professor alone on the dirigible. Batman manages to save Dr. Long as the two jump out of the flaming dirigible before it crashes with a building, leading into a massive explosion of the blimp.

"Wow! That's quite the explosion" Mina said impressed and a bit worried about the whole thing, it looked really cool but also very dangerous for when it comes down

"Now that is more like one of Bakugou's explosions" Kirishima commented to which Bakugou didn't disagree, but otherwise didn't express any opinion on it, he does find the explosion cool though.

"The debris from that is going to hit the streets! Whoever is below should seek immediate shelter" Iida exclaimed as the danger this explosion could cause was still incredibly large

"That's why blimps aren't a thing anymore" Jirou comments, why was Gotham filled with these things? Do they blend in the clouds during the night?

With Dr. Long saved, Batman summons the Batmobile and checks to see the results of the mask's analysis. The computer reveals that only five places manufacture such chemicals and Batman cross-references them against former employees of Gotham University. Only one place fits the bill: Crane Chemicals, owned and founded by Jonathan Crane, professor of phycology and fear.

Scarecrow reaches his chemical plant and removes his mask, frustrated how close he was to achieving his goal. However, he discovers that his fear gas has been released into the room as he goes to close the leaking tanks but soon the lights go out and Crane sees visions of a giant bat attacking him. He then smacks into Batman and cringes away, quaking in fear despite recognizing the dark knight. As Batman reaches for him, Crane sees him as a giant bat-like demon.

"Glad to see Crane get a taste of his own poison" Mina said with a bit of gratification, finally they got to see Crane be given a taste of what he was forcing others to endure.

"Yeah, he deserves it after all he did" Kirishima added, it was nice to see a unmanly villain like Crane be on the receiving stick of what he has been doing to so many others across the episode.

"I knew he wasn't anything big, if he can't resist his own gas then Crane is nothing but a pathetic little man playing pretend" Dabi diminished the episode's villain for falling for the effect of his own substance, this guy was so obsessed on making others feel fear he forgot that, deep down, he was just as cowardly. Dabi wouldn't have gotten into this situation if he could.

"Which is exactly what a villain like him is, a petty man who only wanted revenge for something he himself caused." All Might's comment was seen as inspirational by the students, but the villains saw it as an indirect insult to them, however they couldn't deny it was a good description of Crane throughout this adventure

"When exactly does the fear gas effect wear off?" Momo asked the imp considering they are never shown when the effect wears off the victims, since Batman was struggling with it despite having been exposed a while before his final encounter with Scarecrow

"Going to be a little different in every appearance, Crane is always tweaking the formula" Bat-Mite responded as that was true to this version and the mainline scarecrow from the appearances he made in the show.

Back at the Gotham Police Department, Bullock tries to convince Gordon that Batman and Scarecrow are working together. Gordon points up, revealing an apprehended Crane dangling unconscious from the ceiling fan.

"Hopefully he learns from this and begins trusting Batman more" Izuku said, as maybe Bullock would start to see Batman as a ally rather than an enemy

"I doubt that, heavily." Aizawa commented with skeptical doubt, he didn't believe Bullock had much of good detective skills to be in his position, maybe Gordon could fire him if Bullock keeps this bad streak of accusations

"Trusting a hero could lead to his downfall, he is better off like this anyway" Shigaraki shared his own thoughts, in his eyes the police shouldn't have to rely on any hero to do their job, nor should they give someone like Batman permission to fight crime while the villains have to struggle for their actions, if Batman is a vigilante he should be treated like one.

'Plus a incompetent cop can't stop villains like us, so the more of them, the better' Mr compress thought

Later, Bruce leaves roses at his parents' grave and silently walks away, despite being out of his costume, the shadow behind him resembles Batman's cowl as the screen fades to black

"That's kind of him" Ochako said as most of the students agreed with her, that one act was a nice way to close off things from this viewing in their eyes

"After the internal conflict he had, may this somber moment serve as a way to close things and end his doubts" Tokoyami spoke as this moment was very poetic in his eyes.

"I don't see why this is so special" Shigaraki comments, wanting to leave this damn place already. So far the villain shown here wasn't anything like the imp said nor did Shigaraki want to feel sympathetic towards Crane, same went for Batman who the villain didn't see as anything but an annoyance.

"We are just at the beginning, I assure you all will love Batman the more we see of his adventures, even the villains!" Bat-Mite exclaimed to the audience in hopes to get their interest up which wasn't really working on the villains, but the heroes were excited to see what comes next... Despite being another Joker plot

[Author's notes]

Leave a review as it really helps the creative process, feedback is always appreciated and I very much want to have as many opinions on the story as possible, to know the right route to take. Follow and Favorite to support the fic, takes a while to work on chapters

Hopefully I did a good job writing the villains, I feel they can be one dimensional at times but that can change depending on the episode they are reacting to, Nothing to Fear had less substance than I initially hoped for the villains, I could try to include more dialogue but I might over bloat the story. Next up is another Joker episode to introduce the villains to the clown prince of crime.

Mei is being considered heavily and I want to introduce her before we get to Heart of Steel, maybe Last Laugh because the robot captain or another episode could work, but any episode could be fair game if you have a good argument for it.

Chapter Text

A title card with the name 'The Last Laugh' appears as the only thing that can be seen in the black background is a smiling clown that is incredibly unnerving and creepy thanks to the shading, his bulging eyes and large smile adding to the bizarre sense of fear.

"Creepy clown, how original" Dabi spoke somewhat sarcastically despite his lack of interest, this one had an worst title card than the last simply for how generic it was, maybe this could scare a few people but he found it lacking.

"That thing is terrifying!" Kaminari and Mina spoke up together, a shiver going down their spines as they got all the wrong vibes from the title, plus the notification of this being a Joker plot didn't help

"I hate this, I hate this already." Hagakure said as she curled up, she already didn't like the creep factor of Joker's last appearance and now she was feeling like it was coming back for a second round, just looking at the title card was enough for her to get uncomfortable. The two classmates sitting next to her, Sato and Jirou, tried to calm her down, but truth be told they weren't eager to see the Joker either

"Going to have nightmares with this one" Mineta exclaimed as he didn't want to see more of that murder clown, but the students reaction got a scoff from one of the villains

"If you get scared by this you can't possibly face us" Shigaraki complained as he mocked the students from being afraid of this stupid clown

'I don't want to say it, but I have to agree with them. That thing is weirdly unnerving' Twice kept this to himself, he would be ridiculed if his fellow villains even so much saw him get scared but something like this, the odd thing is that he couldn't pinpoint what gave him this feeling. Might be his other personality

It's April Fool's Day in Gotham and a barge carrying green garbage that emits green gas floats over the river captained by a clown. An armored truck driver smells the gas, complaining about how it stinks before he starts laughing and driving erratically. More people smell the gas and start laughing as well. The victims seem to have lost all sense as the truck driver drives his truck right into the river but falls into the raised bridge.

"Oh my god! What was that?" Mina asked in concern for what had entailed, it seemed the man had suddenly snapped and almost got himself killed, but then everyone else started doing the same, which is a horrifying thought the more she gave it time to develop in her head.

"Seems like the people went insane, they lost all sense and began acting like maniacs!" Kirishima exclaimed equally confused but with an uneasy feeling about it, he could just tell this was all the plot of that terrible clown.

"All because they smelled the air coming out of that trash" Jiro said as it was quite clear that once that thing passed by the bridge, it was how that all began.

"Just a bad smell wouldn't cause this, there is definitely something else causing this reaction" Momo theorized as he fellow students agreed this was too suspicious to be just a case of an awful smell

"I can already tell who would try such a thing, this is not good" All Might spoke with his arms crossed and a strict face, considering the title of the episode he knew that maniacal clown would be behind this and he wasn't very excited to see whatever plan he had to spread chaos into the city of Gotham

"Alright, this might be interesting after all" Dabi commented as the start was a bit intriguing and seemed that whatever plan the villain had was already in motion

"Entertaining" Shigaraki appreciated the bit of chaos that took place, he was thinking this might not be so bad after all, hopefully he would get to see more death and destruction later on.

Elsewhere on Wayne manor, Bruce cuts himself shaving, and Alfred notes that he's tired from his crime-fighting. To help him relax Alfred tries playing an April Fools joke on Bruce but it falls flat. While Bruce takes a shower, he hears a report on the radio about people who are having nearly fatal accidents on the bridge due to them acting like complete fools. Bruce deduces right away that it's the work of the Joker.

"I would assume the same, that maniac is a danger to the whole city" Iida commented as he fully agreed with the caped crusader, having seen the danger Joker cause back in the Christmas adventure, he wanted Bruce to handle this with extreme precision and caution.

"Joker huh? I assume he has some type of clown or jester gimmick" Dabi commented, with a name like that he could only be based out of so much stuff.

"Did you already see him from one of those earlier viewings?" Toga asked the heroes on the other side, her gaze more so focused on Izuku when making the question but the hero student was trying his best to not look at the villain side of the room, Bat-Mite had assured them that none of the villains could cause harm, but he still had doubts about that.

"Yeah, so far he only seems to do a crime just for the sake of jokes." Sero responded a bit uninterested, not just because he didn't like the villains but also because he couldn't stand the clown just like the rest of his class

"And he has a shitty sense of humor" Bakugou came out of the gate insulting the clown since he didn't find he funny a single time from what they watched, and he was sure to hate him even more by the end of this.

Meanwhile, we see that below the barge there is a submarine as Joker's henchmen dive and steal the contents of the armored truck while Joker fixes himself up to go out towards the financial district, listening to the news cast of his latest scheme. Once the ship has docked Joker and his men go out with shopping carts and gas masks (or in Joker’s case, a fishbowl) and start stealing from the people and the stores in the area. The people are so busy laughing and dancing around that they do nothing to stop it.

"What an effective method of stealing, the people are practically giving it away for free" Mr Compress expressed his appreciation for the clown prince of crime method of stealing as his victims were completely powerless to stop him thanks to the laughing gas

"Never would expect a villain to use laughing gas as a weapon for crime, but how easily he is getting away with this is concerning, the people aren't even trying to stop him" Ojiro comments as the way he was so effortlessly committing his theft was alarming, it turned something like laughing into a kind of disturbing thing.

"The people seem to be unable to think properly, is affecting more than just their ability to laugh" Momo said as the way people were dancing around and being so casual to their property being stolen was not a good sign, their brains were being affected as well by this mysterious laughing gas

"Damn, he has a mind control gas, suddenly he got a lot scarier" Kaminari wasn't too happy about the idea of Joker messing with his or anyone's minds, specially after the shock he got from before the screening session.

"He is already better than that pathetic excuse from earlier" Dabi commented as he had to admit that Joker was a massive step up from Scarecrow, the blue flamed villain didn't find that villain to be anything much aside from having a bad costume and a pretty pathetic vibe. Meanwhile Joker was already putting the city into it's knees with practically no problem, that is what a real villain does instead of getting scared and sending his goons to do all the work

While Joker and his men go on their shopping spree, Batman does an analysis of the gas through a weather balloon and learns that prolonged exposure will result in permanent insanity. Batman calls up Alfred for help but Alfred blows him off. At first, Batman thinks it's just a joke but he hears crashing and runs upstairs to find that Alfred has been exposed to the gas, and is destroying most of the library in his lunacy. Quickly donning a gas mask, Batman tries to stop Alfred from hurting himself and realizes that he must stop the gas before it's too late.

"Not Alfred too!" Koda gasped in concern for the butler, so did most of the students

"But they are so far away from the river, how did he get infected?" Ochako asked since only the people close to the river seemed to be affected by the gas from all the trash, however some of the students and the teachers came to a realization

"... It's spreading through the air. The whole city might be under the effect of this gas!" Izuku exclaimed as the whole class was shocked to hear that, this situation got a lot worse than any of them initially thought

"This is extremely dangerous, if the computer's report is correct then if Batman doesn't stop that madman the entire city is going to become an insane asylum." All Might spoke as he hated to see what the clown prince of crime was doing, if the computer is right, he would be running thousands of lives simply for his own gain, Toshinori knew he couldn't help them but he felt so angry for what was transpiring, a feeling shared with his students.

"Hehe, alright I'm starting to like this Joker already" Shigaraki was so far having fun watching this clown themed villain put the city into chaos, finally something he and the league could enjoy.

'Yeah you would' Bat-Mite thought to himself, he did just the bare minimum of research on these guys, but Mr dry lips seemed to be the type of guy that would fanboy over Joker because of 'Society!'

"Uh... Would we be affected by this gas thing?" Toga asked, a bit of curiosity but also a slight hint of concern as she didn't exactly want to be in a perpetual state of involuntary laughter, felt her jaw would start hurting after a couple hours. She could care less about the city but like her fellow league members, she was curious at how this world had better villains than theirs, maybe the laughing gas was such thing that made that world more dangerous... Somehow.

"Depends, do you need oxygen to live? If so then yes you would, there are some versions that can even affect enhanced immunity systems so even with super powers you would be affected." As Bat-Mite explained this little fact, the heroes and villains took this into account, a bit scared of the gas actually affecting them and causing the audience members to go insane. It was similar to the fear toxin but in a completely different direction, Shigaraki wasn't worried since he could probably resist the effects, but that wasn't a guarantee.

Dashing through the water in a dark Speedboat, we see that the people of the city are trashing the whole place up and turning the streets into chaos, Summer Gleeson is seen with a gas mask covering the whole insanity going on. Things only get better for Joker as the stocks of Gotham have crashed and his own profits have risen.

"He... He crashed the stock market." Momo was perplexed and shocked, so were much of the students of her class. The villains meanwhile seemed happy to see this

"All the while making himself richer, I must applaud him for this achievement." Mr compress gave a few claps to the heist the Joker pulled of, making himself the richest man in Gotham while also destroying the economy. Ingenious, even if they didn't know what the long term plan of the clown was.

"The amount of lives he's endangering, it sickens me." Toshinori clinched his fist in disbelief, he wanted to arrest Joker himself by now after seeing this.

"I have to agree, this feels like going too far just for money" Spinner comments as even he thought that putting an entire city into such a state was far too much for simple monetary gain, specially when so many innocent civilians are being affected, he couldn't like a villain that didn't even hold a strong conviction and ideal, Joker seemed to only be doing this because he can.

"Look at it this way, he isn't killing civilians, he's just... Pushing them to insanity and if you ask me they don't seem to be doing so bad" Toga's explanation got the heroes to look at her confused and angry

"That doesn't sound any better!" all of them replied with different levels of voice tone, Bakugou particularly being the loudest. The villains just ignored them

"I'm starting to see what the imp meant by the greatest villains of all time, this Joker has put the whole city into chaos so easily." Shigaraki compliments the episode's villain, this was the type of thing he was hoping to see ever since the imp took them by force to watch some super hero, Joker was destroying society and turning it upside down like a true villain should 'He doesn't compare to master, but I applaud his scheme'

However, Batman drags the scow out to sea with the Batboat and boards it, which amuses the clown prince of crime. Joker's first two henchmen are dealt with easily enough but the "Captain" of the ship tears the tow cable in two with his bare hands and attacks Batman. When Batman hits him he only hurts himself as the captain is made of metal.

"Does that guy have a quirk?" Toga asked since that Captain Clown was weird, but seemed to be much better than those normal henchmen. The fact he tore a steel cable with his bare hands was also noteworthy since hardly a quirkless person could do that.

"I don't think that's a guy... It might be a robot" Ojiro spoke since that metal sound was specific, not to mention how the clown didn't seem to talk and moves rather stiffly.

"Hardly doubt they would have robots by that point in time" Dabi had some reservations on this other world because it really seemed to be old, judging by everything the league had seen there was no hint at robots or something like that to be present, it felt a little too farfetched for a world still in the 90's. But the heroes had already seen the mechanic death machines Joker used in his Christmas plan, so they knew that was a likely possibility.

"You're in for a surprise then" Bat-Mite commented as he knew just how many robots they would see in the future, like in Heart of Steel

Captain Clown grabs Batman and spins him over his head until Batman is too dizzy to fight back. Batman is then shoved into a canister used to combat trash, holes are poked into it when Joker stabs the thing with a knife which Batman has to dodge, and he's thrown into the river. Water begins to fill the canister as it sunk into the bottom

"No!" The students said in unison upon seeing the trap

"Don't worry, I doubt he wouldn't have a plan to get away" Aizawa told his students, considering all that Bat-Mite said about the caped crusader, he wouldn't die so easily

Batman nearly drowns but he manages to call the Batboat using his utility belt and has it cut through the canister with a laser. He goes up to the water surface to breathe, seeing Joker's barge move towards the Ace waste disposal plant "So you want to play dirty, Joker."

"Yeah! Go get him!" Mina exclaimed as the students of 1-A wanted the dark knight to takedown the villain who caused so much chaos and pain to the city

"Of course he escapes" the leader of the league grumbled as he shouldn't be surprised the hero got out 'of course he had a large in his boat, rich bastard'

Joker returns to the junkyard and sprays more of his toxin on the garbage. Fortunately, Batman arrives and cuts the hoses pumping out the toxin with a Batarang. He then easily handles and removes the henchmen's masks and they fall over laughing.

"I swear these henchmen are useless, not a single one is decent at their job" Shigaraki wasn't able to stand how bad these guys were, he would kill all of them if he got the chance for how pathetic they were.

"Did you really expect more from common criminal thugs? I would be surprised if they even appeared at a later scheme" Dabi commented as he didn't care for those no name idiots, but he had to admit they barely did anything and for that he wasn't going to give them even his attention if he came across them in the real world

"Joker's gas is a liability to his own men, even he has to use protection against it. Aside from Captain Clown, it seems to affect everyone indiscriminately" All Might comments as this type of thing is a problem for both heroes and to an extent villains, since it affects not just enemies but civilians and partners as well. So is always a gamble to unleash any type of quirk or attack that does such a thing, he knew that from how his punches could destroy city blocks if he wasn't careful when using One for All.

Captain Clown attempts to stop Batman and even though Batman grabs a metal pole to stagger the robot, the machine is too strong for him. Not ready to give up, Batman manages to lure the robot into a car crusher, knocking off the clown mask to reveal the emotionless robotic face underneath and with great effort throws the robot into the machine, the clown captain tries to get out to finish Batman but the caped crusader turns the machine on as it crushes the legs of the robot, his torso falling inside for the rest of the process until it gets turned into a small cube.

"So it really was a robot, no wonder it was that strong to cut the steel cable with its bare hands" Shouji said as that made sense, this villain seemed to have a lot of technology at his disposal

"How did he build that?" Hagakure asked since they weren't really told that Joker was a genius or anything, as everything he seems to come up with involves a lot of incredible tech for the time from what they had seen, she assumed it was on par with Batman's own to a lesser extent.

"Probably the same way he did those robots in his previous scheme on Christmas" Aizawa responded her question, granted he didn't know the actual reason but could come up with a possibility

Joker is outraged for his arch enemy 'killing' Captain Clown and dumps a load of garbage onto his enemy with a crane. Batman survives as his enemy mocks him by saying how bad he smelled and follows the Joker over the conveyor belt, the villain is standing on the remains of Captain Clown with his signature grim as Batman tried to grab him, but Joker waves him goodbye as he holds onto a cable to escape, with our hero finding out the conveyor belt leads into a vat of molten metal.

"Yes, goodbye and good riddance" Shigaraki waved goodbye to Batman as he wanted that death to be slow and painful

"Shigaraki, you don't honestly think he is going to die do you?" Kurogiri knew how much the decaying villain hated heroes, but it was unlikely the super fan of said hero would show then him dying.

"One can only hope, I just want this to be done already" Shigaraki replied as he didn't want to stay any minute longer in this place, he didn't like being forced by the imp to watch a hero against his will

He manages to grab hold of a hanging bucket as the compacted Captain Clown is melted, Joker starts swinging cabled hooks at him to throw him off. Batman grabs hold of one of the hooks but Joker pulls a lever and causes the hook to drop. Fortunately, Batman manages to grab hold of some gears and catch up to the Joker but Joker escapes down a slide and swings on a cable to reach a catwalk.

"Did he have time to prepare all of this?" Kirishima asked because of how Joker was so casual on his escape from his own death, it seemed he had that cable read just for this case

"Probably was using the place as his hideout for the whole plan" Izuku theorized since the villain did come here to spray more of the laughing gas into the boat, the only likely possibility was that he was ready for a showdown in this recycling plant.

"This looks like a death trap, but is just a recycling plant." Jirou commented as the whole thing felt like it was designed to kill someone if they ever so much as slip up

"It's already a dangerous setting to be in with all the machines operating, Joker knows this and is using the deadly scenario around him to get the advantage, since Batman is physically superior to Joker in every way." Aizawa explained to his class, this was a good moment to give them a quick lesson as they were seeing a real example of such scenario, he remembered a similar fight he had in a metallurgical plant in his underground days before teaching in U.A.

"So he compensates by using underhanded tactics and setting up traps on his home base, despicable." Iida was frustrated at the Joker's dirty tactics for conflict against the hero of Gotham

"Just like any cunning villain does, otherwise you heroes would have too much of an easy time capturing us." Mr Compress said as it was a tradition and trope for the villain to prepare himself for the confrontation with the hero, oftentimes they would have the field advantage whenever a hero came crashing into a villain's lair.

"You guys are so bad in catching us, it's laughable" Toga teased the heroes giggling

Batman is not so fortunate and is almost dumped into an incinerator. Joker drops garbage down the chute and Batman almost falls into the fire but he manages to save himself with a grapnel as the fire barely claims him and the caped crusader confronts Joker. The Joker throws a couple of his razor cards at him but Batman dodges the first as he approaches and catches the second.

Frightened, Joker tries to run, but he trips on a cable and nearly falls into the fire but the cable saves him. He calls to Batman to save him and he contemplates letting him fall, but in the end, Batman saves him.

"Take that! Not so funny now" Kaminari shouted with a fist to the air a sentiment shared by his friends, exception of Bakugou who kept his arms crossed

"He was so close, but then he just had to flinch and slip, if he stood his ground..." Shigaraki was disappointed, he respected the Joker for his villainy but to fumble right at the end is truly embarrassing, if he didn't run away he could have fought Batman and won considering the hero didn't have any quirk and Joker could-

"Batman is physically superior to Joker in every way, just in a fist fight he would get demolished considering the caped crusader's peak human performance" Bat-Mite spoke as he could read the villains mind, not that he needed considering how the decaying villain talked. But while Joker could hold his own against Batman from time to time, he truly needed the element of surprise and unpredictability to win in a physical brawl, especially when unarmed.

"He should let that clown drop down into the fire" Bakugou said rather bluntly as the Joker got off easy, after all he did, the explosive student would have blown him into next week

"Batman is a hero, he shouldn't just let him go down into his death, the correct approach is to capture him and hand the Joker over to the police" Momo reprimanded such attitude, as heroes they should strive to bring criminal to justice and give them the proper sentence for their crimes. Iida was going to say something similar, but felt it would be hypocritical of him considering the time he went after Stain, but that was much more personal than with Joker's case and he strives to become better since that day

"While I agree with your reasoning, Bakugou's sentiment isn't unfounded. Joker almost purged the entire city into complete chaos and would possibly lead to thousands dead thanks to their insanity clouding any sense of self preservation, by all means Batman should arrest him but the tribunal should give him life in solitary confinement or the death sentence depending on the state" Aizawa said as the whole class thought about what he was suggesting, it sounded extreme but some of them couldn't deny that Joker just threatened to end all of the city simply for material gain. He deserved a harsh punishment after such aggression, something more strict than just throwing him into a insane asylum

the villains meanwhile didn't agree with him at all since they were on Joker's side, seeing him as a much more entertaining individual to watch than Batman. But Spinner was having a harder time than his fellow colleagues in siding with the Clown, since Joker seemed to be far too extreme with his crime, after all he almost ended the city for money and giggles, if he had a good reason then maybe the villain could sympathize more with this clown criminal.

Things have finally quieted down and Bruce returns home, complaining that after eight baths he still smells like trash, he finds Alfred cleaning up the mess he made earlier. Alfred is upset over his destruction of the property and Bruce tells him that he'll take it out of his salary. Alfred is even more upset to hear this but then Bruce tells him "April Fools".

'I can relate to that' Aizawa thought as he had the same problem a few times whenever he had to track a villain through the sewer, in extreme cases he had to ask for a new suit simply because the smell wouldn't come off.

"Pulling a prank like that feels a bit mean, but I guess it's harmless" Mina said as that was somewhat funny but given the context, also felt out of place

Overall, the feelings were mixed as the heroes were very frustrated with the Joker's plan that almost destroyed the city simply for money, it showed how reckless and twisted that man was, so they were glad that Batman stopped him. The villains were entertained by the episode's villain and how he did things, sure it was a bit extreme but they overall liked, Spinner was the only one with doubts about Joker.

[Author's notes]

Leave a review as it really helps getting feedback on the fanfic, follow and favorite to support the story.

The episode was a bit hard to write, more so because of other things happening that delayed work on the fic, this episode was a good introduction for the League to meet Joker considering the scale of his plan, but I feel that some of them will start to get conflicted on some of his later plots, Joker was never known for being consistent. Which might also be the reason his episodes take longer to write, the high and low points keep changing with each episode making him flip from intimidating to dumb depending on the scene.

The league of villains can be a bit hard to write, I certainly have my favorites when I make their segments of the reaction. Since their reactions will vary depending on the episode, I will try my best to give every character a little bit of attention, so feedback on how the cast reacted to the episode is appreciated heavily

Next up is Pretty Poison, I wonder how they will react to the reason for Ivy's revenge plan, considering she is committing murder for plants and the ecosystem, the heroes wouldn't agree with her obviously but I also wonder who in the league would agree or disagree with her reason. Like, how much would the league actually care for the environment? They might agree with her vengeance plan, I imagine someone like Dabi or Shigaraki would find her motivation a bit weird, right?

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

A sewer grid that is spreading light below is shown while a person is covered by shadows, a title card with the name "The Underdwellers" is on display

"Okay, so whatever is going to happen is probably related to the sewers" Ochako said and immediately some of her classmates and Mister Compress weirdly enough didn't seem too fond of the idea of watching a adventure taking place entirely in the sewers, the saving grace being that they wouldn't be feeling any of the awful smell unless that imp decided to turn this into a torture section

"It also seems to be about a group instead of a single individual like the previous ones" Shoto remarked as the title "the underdwellers" implied that it would be some sort of group or faction that would be faced off in this adventure

"Just a heads up, for the villains more than the heroes in the audience. This adventure won't feature one of the iconic members of the rogues gallery, instead we are dealing with the... I want to say D list but that might be a compliment in this case" Bat-mite went ahead to inform as he didn't want to hear the villains complain about the main antagonist of this episode thinking he was part of the prestigious rogues gallery of the dark knight. He was a defender for all things Batman including minor villains but even he couldn't fault people from not liking some of the less interesting ones

"What do you mean exactly? Is this villain dumb or something?" Toga asked with a head tilt on why would the imp specify it this time that the villain was unremarkable

"At least the dumb ones can be remembered because of their stupidity. Let me put it this way, you know how heroes have those big moments in their career where they fight a big villain that really challenges them and gives you something to think about?" Bat-mite asked and both heroes and villains gave a slow nod of understanding as they understood that sometimes certain heroes and villains would have a sort of rivalry or career defining moment. The best example being All Might and All for One

"Yeah, this isn't really that. We are going to see those one time villains that fade into obscurity after their debut, the C to E listers. I am sure All Might knows what I'm talking about." Bat mite said as he looked at the simbol of peace, as certainly in his long career of fighting villains he must have entered in battle with the exceptionally forgetful and outstandingly insignificant types of villains that when you hear about it you just wonder who the heck that is

"I most certainly do" All Might responded as he had seen dozens of villains through out his decades long career and he could confirm that not all of them, heck, most of them didn't even come close to be enough of a treat or challenge that he could call them his "adversary" besides All for One that was his nemesis

"What you're saying is for us to keep our expectations down?" Spinner said with a eyebrow raised as he didn't expect that as he thought every adventure this imp shows them was meant to indoctrinate them into a "Batman fanclub"

"More so because not every villain is going to make the cut, some people are just not fit for that life or title. Be it by your standards or their career as a villain itself." Bat-mite responded and the league agreed that it does take a lot to be a villain, even if some of them didn't consider themselves villains in the traditional sense, they couldn't argue that some people are just awful as villains in the sense that they have no idea what they are doing or go about it in the most pathetic way possible

A couple of young boys stand atop a train and play chicken with the oncoming tunnel. Batman is right behind them and shakes his head seeing what they're doing. One of the boys sees him and jumps, but the "winner" gets his foot caught in cables and Batman has to save him. He then warns the two boys to play it safe.

"What a ridiculously dangerous game! Those children could have been severely hurt or killed by such action, just for a game of chicken?" Iida was incredibly mad at how those two acted so without any responsibility whatsoever, they could have lost their lives all because of a game, the family of these two would be devastated beyond belief if that happened to be the case

"Good thing Batman was there to save him" Hagakure said as at the very least they wouldn't have to see such a tragedy thanks to the caped crusader, which was a good reminder why it was good to have heroes patrolling the streets to stop not just villains but this sort of thing from occuring

"They deserved a longer sermon, just so it would stick in their heads" Aizawa commented as he would have chewed intro those two kids a bit more just so they can know how much of a stupid and dangerous idea that was

As the train moves elsewhere to a fancy district, a rather rich-looking woman is trying to get a taxi while a figure looks on, she has her purse snatched by a young boy wearing a green cloak.

She calls the police and claims that a leprechaun robbed her. The police don't believe her, but Batman goes after the thief jumping across cars only to lose him in an alley as the kid disappeared, seemingly out of nowhere. A cop asks what Gotham is becoming with costumed bats and leprechaun.

"I wasn't the only one who saw it right? That isn't a leprechaun at all, that was a kid" Jirou commented as the rest nodded, no one believed for a moment that the thief was a leprechaun as it was very clearly a child which was a bit more concerning than if it had been a mystical creature

"So it was a street kid, well this isn't going to be fun" Spinner commented as he couldn't say he was particularly thrilled about seeing a child commiting crimes, that wouldn't have been what Stain would have wanted

"Wait... Do you think the 'Underdwellers' are..." Izuku began but he couldn't actually finish saying because it felt wrong to do so, but considering what was presented so far...

"A Group of street children? I believe this is the case unfortunately" All Might said with a heavy heart at seeing possibly such a young group of innocent kids falling to the dark side so early in their lives

'Now I'm curious, if the imp said there was a villain in this... Who exactly is it?' Tomura wondered as he speculated if the reason the imp said for them to not have high hopes was because it would be a bunch of child thieves

Back in the Batcave, Bruce talks to Alfred, uncertain about what he saw. Alfred suggests taking some well earned vacation, playing golf and the like but Bruce finds all of that boring. Knowing that there's more to the crime than first meets the eye, Bruce decides to head out to the theater district.

"I don't know if he is being sarcastic, but to me it sounds like Bruce doesn't find those things as exciting as fighting crime" Momo added as she understood Bruce's sense of duty but at the same time it seemed like he barely had any actual rest that wasn't strictly required for his body to function like sleep

"There is still work to be done so obviously he needs to investigate, who knows when the next villain is going to show up" Iida commented as though resting was good, Batman seemed to be one of the actually few people trying to help this crime infested city and thus every minute he wasn't out there battling crime was one more heinous murder or robbery in progress

"Crime doesn't rest and neither will I, that mentality can be problematic" Aizawa as he not so subtly stared dead center at All Might, who noticed it but just kept quiet as he avoided meeting Aizawa's gaze since the man was already staring holes at him

"Are there any other heroes in Gotham besides Robin that could help him cover the city?" Ojiro asked Bat-mite as they knew the police was there and was most likely helping but they had also been told that there was corruption among them and as such it meant that not all crime was being dealt with, so other people that decided to fight for the good of the city out of their own heroism would be really good for these people

"In the mainline universe there are a few but they don't help much aside from monitoring their own districts of the city, a few even moved out from Gotham. This universe Batman is the only one, the most reliable help Bruce can get is from those in his inner circle which aren't many." Bat-mite responded as there was a lot of people that aid in the crime fighting in Gotham in the main comics like the entire bat family as well as people like the Creeper, Ragman, and if you want to get technical you could include people like Azrael and some rogues depending on the current events at the time

Underneath the theater district, we see the sewers where a large group of children silently sew clothing, farm, and stow stolen items. However, one of the farming boys hits his leg with a hoe and cries out in pain. One of his friends tries to quiet him but it's too late. A bell rings and the children file into a room lit by a single candle.

They come before a man who calls himself their king and he gives them their first lesson: strictly no talking whatsoever. As punishment, he takes the offending boy, Jack and pushes him into a room lit by phosphorescent lights for a few hours. The rest of the children are sent out to commit more robberies.

"Oh my god..." Mina commented as she covered her mouth with her hands as the others in the audience were also equally as shocked or horrified, even some of the villains were perplexed by all of this despite their moral standing and general attitudes

"That is awful, they are practically working as slaves!" Ochako said as those children clearly didn't enjoy that work neither did it was appropriate for them considering the risk of injury and just the general conditions of the environment they were in, plus she couldn't imagine these kids were getting anything as compensation for what they were going through

"And they are punished for making a single noise?!" Toga shouted as she felt particularly sympathetic towards those kids considering what her own parents put her through, she would forever hate them for making her starve while keeping her from being her "truth self" but at least they didn't make her work difficult labor in poor conditions while she was in first grade school

"Bastard! That guy deserves a full blast explosion right in the middle of his face!" Bakugo shouted as his hands crackled with small explosions and for once his classmates found his anger justified in this case cause it was a awful thing to see, the conditions he put these many children into was bad enough that for once bakugo's death threat were warrant

"I have to agree, I wouldn't mind putting a few holes on him" Spinner added as that guy would look like shredded cheese if he was locked in a room with him and his blades. A false Hero would just put this guy in prison, a true fighter of justice would rip this guy's throat off

"So that's why you said for us to not get our expectations up, he really is the most pathetic type of villain." Mr Compress said as he looked at such horrid individual with no class at all, using children like slaves was such a revolting practice against the art of fine villainy

'Didn't you all kidnap the explosive kid and try to kill his entire class?' Bat-mite looked at the league of villains confusedly considering they mainly fight fourteen years olds which are still considered children by practically everywhere in the world [1]

While the green-cloaked children roam the streets, Batman searches the alley and finds a hidden doorway using a infrared goggle. Going into the door, he finds his way into the sewers and a message saying "Beware the Sewer King". Batman continues on his search and eventually trips an alarm made of cans connected to a string.

"He should have been more alert to his surroundings" Jirou commented as she didn't expect Batman to fall for that considering some of the scenes they had been shown of him sneaking into places unnoticed

"It's possible he didn't see the trap, still that is going to be a problem" Satou commented as he couldn't fault Batman for not noticing something like that but he has unfortunately lost the element of surprise now and that left him in a disadvantage

"Do you think that Sewer King has any traps that could be triggered by the alarm" Kaminari asked as he imagined a Indiana Jones style bobby trap with a giant rolling stone but the giant stone was made of thrash from the sewer

"Not really, might just be something with junk but I wouldn't be surprised if he sends a bunch of kids with weapons as his security system" Tokoyami said as he doubted someone like the sewer king would have the means and the smarts to build any sort of complex traps, plus it would just leave the sewers more dangerous for the children serving under him since they couldn't possibly remember all the trap locations when going in and out

"That would be horrible and incredibly dangerous! The kids could not only potentially harm Batman but they too would be-"

"I doubt Batman would willingly hurt children, he's a hero." Shouji said as so far Batman has demonstrated that he only really delivers physical punishment for those that deserve it and no way in hell he would deliver the same type of punches and kicks he delivers on fully grown men against kids, at best he would push them aside

"Well to be fair, not every Batman is against kicking some sense into kids, but that's true to any multiversial variant" Bat-mite comments to the group's confusion, briefly showing a picture of some alternative Batman that was absolutely buff kicking a kid into the sea after putting a life jacket on her, the students and villains were shocked at this but also the fact this Batman seemed as muscular as All Might if not a bit more

"That guy is absolutely jacked" Mineta comments but... Why did he use the word absolutely? It wasn't what he was going to say [2]

A single boy hears this and runs right into Batman. He then backs away and falls onto the subway track and right in front of an oncoming train. Fortunately, Batman manages to save him, and they head out of the train tracks as Batman reveals the Batmobile's camouflage. They go to the Batcave, where the boy is left in Alfred's care as he puts the boy to bed.

"How sweet, he took him away from that despicable villain." Aoyama said as considering Alfred's personality and the bare minimum a mansion like Wayne manor would have, that kid might be about to experience the nicest time in his life in comparison with what that sewer king was giving them

"Pretty sure he just kidnapped the kid, aren't you going to reprimand him?" "YEAH! WHAT'S UP WITH THAT?" Twice added talking over himself again as he looked at the two guys always being noise about rules, Iida and Aizawa

"Given the circumstances and his standing with the law, I will give him a pass... This time." Aizawa said as he was giving the dark knight the blind eye this time, since in this case taking the kid away was the best choice, he should have handled the kid to the authorities still but he can do that later after the situation was handled. He got a side eye from Bat-Mite, but Eraserhead expected that if any criticism was throw to the imp's idol.

"Rise and shine, Master Leprechaun." Alfred eventually tries to wake him but the boy refuses to get up. Alfred forces him to leave the bed and tries to take him in for a bath but the boy is still uncooperative.

"I mean, you can't force the kid to go if he doesn't want to" Toga argued as if the kid didn't want a bath, then let him not take that bath! Freedom was the right of every youth to do whatever they want! Screw what their parents say!

"Gonna side with Alfred here, that kid must stink of sewer considering where he usually spends his time." Mr Compress argued as he could just imagine the awful stench of that kid, because he wasn't expecting the frickin sewers to have clean water and soap to clean oneself with.

"Agreed, proper hygiene is very important and I doubt that awful villain gave any of those poor children any." Iida agreed as if he wanted to be stubborn and disagree with that villain out of principle, he couldn't deny that 'Frog' desperately needed to be cleaned not because of the smell but all the possible germs

Back in the underground, the Sewer King enjoys a meal of turkey while the children watch and he asks "Frog" for the rolls. While he gets the rolls, it isn't Frog who gives them to him. The Sewer King realizes that Frog is gone and becomes enraged, ranting how he 'saved' them and took 'care' of them. He demands that the children find Frog and that they will not eat until they do.

"Can we all agree that he didn't actually save them? Raise your hands" Kirishima asked and most did lift their hands, since they couldn't really see how this was "saving" the kids, heck just the act of him gorging himself on a fancy table full of food, while the children watched as he didn't offer them any of it or gave them a seat to join in and eat was already pretty telling of the type of the abuse of power he was using on them.

"Was there even a need to ask? This guy stinks worse than the sewers he lives in" Tsuyu commented as this guy was clearly delusional for thinking he was helping these kids doing whatever it was he did. He simply seemed to sit around and benefit from the work he enforced on these kids and he had the balls to see himself as a savior?

"Yeah, I won't miss him if he were to die." "I would just because his voice is funny!" Twice said as he didn't like the sewer king but the guy did sound somewhat funny which was a valid reason to miss him, if not just to continue making fun of him.

"Maybe he took them away from the streets after they ran away from abusive households, that is always a possibility" Shigaraki commented as certainly this kid's weren't all sinisterly snatched away, otherwise they would be planning a revolt to take care of the sewer king and return to their homes. They seemed to be there mostly by choice and fear if anything

"Are you going to say this isn't abusive? He is practically enslaving them!" Iida came in shouting as the sewer king was definitly abusive and possibly even more so than whatever homes these kids might have come from

"Oh don't get me wrong, he is a piece of shit. But the world is cruel, a place where street children can be experiencing great suffering and be ignored by those who walk by. I can't blame them for being in this place, they are victims of circumstances, but I am certain that they were in the streets because society failed them. Because no 'hero' came to help them when they needed most" Shigaraki added with just the slightest bit of projecting but he knew how messed up society and the world was as a whole that somehow whatever these kids could have gone through before joining the sewer king could have made them think following him was worth it.

However Shigaraki saw the sewer king for what he was, a pathetic excuse for a human being that deserved to get dusted off the face of the world along with all the other vermin, what his sensei did to him helped shape him into something greater than he could ever have been while this guy clearly was only shaping this kids up into sheep to follow his pathetic leadership. Most students and the teacher didn't like the fact Shigaraki was technically correct in his speech since it did carry some truth to it

"Ah! But they have Batman now, and he will save the day!" Izuku said, ever the optimistic and Shigaraki just laughed at the successor of the symbol of peace, ready to see that enthusiasm be crushed once they were freed from this hellish series marathon

Frog, on the other hand, is being served a breakfast of sausage and eggs with toast. Alfred insists that Frog use his silverware, but Frog simply hides the utensils away under his shirt and eats with his hands. Alfred still doesn't give up and tries to have Frog help with the dishes, but Frog simply steals the silverware and a tray and tries to run. Frog then uses the tray to slide down the stairs.

"That should have been expected, of course he would be a problem child." Aizawa commented as he expected the kid to be acting a bit more grateful since he was being given good food in a nice environment and being treated like a normal human being for once

"But considering the conditions he was raised in, I can 'somewhat' excuse this behavior to an extent, Frog here never had much freedom of his own because of the Sewer King so he is enjoying as much as he can" Shoto said as the kid clearly behaved that way because he was being raised and taught by that awful man, doubting the possibility of that he allowed them to do ANYTHING unless the Sewer King said so, and they had seen proof of this earlier.

"Plus, if you're only taught to steal, you will steal. Their education is exclusively given by that awful man, so they don't know many things outside of the things he told them in order for the kids to be better slaves" Momo added as the Sewer King was turning the kids into his personal legion of thieves so he must have instructed them to steal anything that seemed valuable, so it makes sense he was stealing fancy silverware from a mansion

Things take a turn for the worse when Frog grabs an antique blunderbuss and starts pointing it around. Batman now intervenes, and realizing just how serious this is, he asks Frog for help.

"Good thing he stopped that kid, if that gun was loaded, Alfred could be killed or seriously hurt" Hagakure said as a kid playing around with a actual firearm was sure to end in disaster and injury either to the kid or Alfred

"Why is he asking for help now? He didn't seem to be all that happy getting dragged to the damn manor last night so I don't know if the kid would cooperate" Shoto said as this kid and in fact most of the ones they had seen seemed strangely loyal to the Sewer King so he wasn't sure if this kid in particular would rat out on him

"I guess the kid feels that Bruce can help liberate the others, so it makes sense." Satou remarked as Batman did have this strangely compassionate presence to him despite his intimidating appearance in this scene and some others they had seen so far

"Plus, he showed him kindness which is something Frog clearly doesn't experience in the presence of the Sewer King" Jirou commented as the difference between asking or demanding was probably the key here, Batman was calmingly asking for frog's help while she was sure the sewer king never asked gently but rather demanded rather aggressively for anything

We briefly see a large alligator in the sewers as Frog takes Batman down to the sewers and his home. Batman is enraged when he sees the children and takes pictures for evidence. He and Frog find the calling bell and Batman rings it so hard it breaks. He then tells the children that their poor treatment is over, that from now on they will be treated as human beings.

"I'm with him on this, just looking at this situation is making me mad" Kirishima said as he hit his hands together against the other as he wanted to be part of the action and kick this guy's butt

"Glad he is getting evidence of the whole thing, it should help put that villain behind bars." Tsuyu said as a whole problem with vigilantism and taking justice into your hands is that without evidence or proof of criminal activity, it can seem like you are just breaking into places and beating random people up which could allow the actual criminals to escape the law as they would look like victims, so getting proof for the police would help lock away the villain for good.

"Hopefully forever, no kid should have to live like this" Ochako said as this whole thing was about to be shut down and hopefully no more kids in Gotham would have to go through this

"Happens more often than you think..." Shigaraki commented under his breath, reminiscing about his own experience before he was took in by sensei

But the Sewer King arrives with a couple pet alligators and releases them onto the intruder. Batman easily manages to disable the alligators by using the broken bell as a flail against one, while physically wresting the other as he tied its limbs and mouth so it couldn't do anything. The Sewer King sends in another pair of alligators to finish the job, one is easily stopped while the other tries to bite into Batman's head, however the hero singlehandedly stops the attempt while opening the animal's jaw as it falls to the ground.

"Hell yeah! Show them who's boss!" Kaminari commented

"Those poor things..." Koda murmured as he saw the reptiles get beaten up, he knew Batman needed to do so specially to prevent them from possibly harming the children but they were just poor animals being used by the sewer king, just like the kids

"Look on the bright side Koda, Bruce seems to be focusing on incapacitating them and he doesn't seem to be hurting them more than he needs to." Izuku said as he placed a hand to the shy boy's shoulder since Batman didn't seem to be hurting the animals more than he should to incapacitate them

"He handled those things in a pretty manly manner" Kirishima commented as Batman was fighting those things like a pro for a man with no super strength or durability, showing those fighting skills he had

but the Sewer King threatens to kill a child. Fortunately, Frog swings in and saves the child as he gives a thumbs up to Batman.

"Nice work, kid!" Ochako cheered

"That guy just keeps getting more despicable" Sero said as for someone who acted like he "cared" and "saved" the children under him, he was all too willing to use them as hostages while threatening their lives

"Please tell me this embarrassment is over" Dabi asked as he was already done with this adventure, as he found it to be a pretty boring since the villain barely puts up a fight and the story didn't have much of a hook

"If I learned anything from you villains, is that he is going to retreat now that you ran out of options" Bakugou smirked as he glared at the league of villain, still pissed off at them for when they threatened his life and kidnapped him

"I mean most people retreat when they feel at the disadvantage, but villains are great at using that strategy" Shouji said as he used that comment on the villains, sure most people retreated in a bad situation but it was usually villains that did so most often.

"Talking all high and mighty when heroes do the same thing when they see a real villain show up" Shigaraki argued back since he had seen plenty of heroes put on pathetic displays of cowardice as they ran or begged for their lives, he found it humorous that these students were saying that, as if he didn't know that most of them would flee screaming like babies in the sight of a Nomu or his master itself

"Honestly this villain in specific fits exactly what the heroes say, a man that enslaves kids and has them do crime instead of putting himself on the line, is a coward. He most certainly would run away like one when he loses his ground of advantage and is put on equal footing to a hero" Kumogiri commented after mostly staying silent the entire time, the Sewer King wasn't a good representative of what a villain entails, he might make for a mediocre antagonist better than a actually threatening villain. But does serve the purpose to show one of the many 'villains' that exist in the world.

The Sewer King runs and Batman gives chase, but it's a trap. Batman falls towards a pool filled with alligators, managing to save himself by grabbing a pipe. The Sewer King tries to push Batman in but is grabbed and pulled down. Though Batman offers his hand to his enemy it's refused, and the Sewer King falls into the pool where his alligators dive in after him.

"Good riddance, at least I don't have to watch such a pathetic attempt at a villain anymore" Shigaraki said as at least this was done with and they could move on to something more entertaining or more fulfilling, like finding a way to defeat and kill this imp so they could get out of here.

"Ironic he got killed by his own pets" Ojiro commented as there was some sort of poetic justice delivered here, but he wasn't sure if they got it or not.

'Please let the water turn red' Toga had her fingers crossed in the hopes of seeing that velvet color emerge and spread through the water, and perhaps see a gator with a mouth full of blood surrounding it

"Well, Batman at the very least attempted to save him." Izuku said as Batman did his best, but the sewer king preferred to die instead of being saved, perhaps he just didn't want to face punishment for his actions but choosing to die by being eaten alive was rather weird

"But I guess the Sewer King had too much of an ego to let that happen" Aizawa commented as the sewer king seemed like the type to rather face death than to accept help as some people had egos that prevented them from getting assistance

Batman believes him to be dead, but the Sewer King simply laughs pointing out that the alligators would never hurt him because they are his pets.

"Really? I guess that makes sense..." Seto commented, at least now it made his willingness to throw himself to the reptiles and his use of them make more sense, this guy definitely wouldn't use dangerous carnivorous animals unless he had full control over them.

"Man, that guy might treat his pet alligators better than those poor children" Kirishima said as for the things to be so docile to him, he must have raised them from birth and really pampered them, which would be a stark contrast to how he treated the children.

"If he really cared for them, he wouldn't be letting them live in the sewer" Koda added as even if the Sewer King treated them nice, the sewers were no place for those animals to live in, the wild or zoo would be much better for the poor things

"Don't alligators live just fine in swamps? What's the big difference between that and a sewer?" Toga commented as she didn't see much difference since both lived in disgusted water full of yucky stuff, so the urban environment change wouldn't matter much would it?

"A lot of human waste is deposited onto sewers and I don't think they would find any good sustenance on that sort of water, plenty of other things that get left in the sewer don't make for a healthy habitat for such an animal." Koda clarified the difference since although we would like for the alligators to be in relatively clean water, it was better for them to be in the wild since compared to sewers that were filled with way more awful chemicals than the natural environment.

"So... Does that mean his previous threat of giving a child to his pets to eat is... Real?" Kaminari asked since if the alligators were not hostile to the sewer king but seemed to be for everyone else then... He wondered if that was part of the reason all those kids feared him so much.

"Probably, which only makes him more despicable" Shoto said as he found it even more revolting, this Sewer King probably wasn't the most horrific villain they would see either in Batman's adventure or in their own careers as heroes in the future, but he was doing enough to get on their nerves in this particular adventure.

Batman continues to pursue him and the chase finally ends in the subway when Batman and the Sewer King both fall onto the track. Batman manages to pull the Sewer King out of the way before a train passes. Bewildered, the Sewer King asks why he saved him. Batman, though expressing a desire to kill the man, claims that he does not pass judgement and will instead hand him to the authorities.

"Should have let the train finish the job" "It would have been a CLEAN JOB!" Twice said as technically speaking Batman wouldn't have broken any rules by letting the train run the guy over and not saving him didn't mean he had the guy's blood in his hands... At least in his double personality's humble opinion

"He did the correct thing and didn't let his personal biases interfere with the legal justice, Batman did what a hero is supposed to do." Tsuyu
Commented as she could understand why Batman would let that guy get run over after all he put those kids through, and yet he didn't let that stop him from doing what was right and saving his life so he could face proper punishment.

"It's not like we will see him again, if any of you are curious, this is what happens to him" Batmite snaps his finger and a picture of the sewer king laying on a table with blood over it, as a large blade is piercing his back as the other people in said table ignore him as they talk, completely oblivious to the horrified looks the students had on their faces and the look of awe Toga had for all that blood "He got killed when attending a meeting with other crime bosses, no one really cared for him."[3]

"Honestly he deserved it" Spinner said as that was a fitting for a guy such as this, killed off with no major acknowledgement from the surrounding parties, just a dead body killed unceremoniously among other crooks, with no legacy left behind

Later, the children are removed from the sewers and Frog embraces his newfound freedom. Watching from afar, Batman smiles as the children are taken in by social workers.

"Are we sure they will actually get a happy life now that they have been taken by the system?" Spinner commented as they couldn't be sure the kids would get in a better life instantly, sure it was definitely going to be better than whatever the sewer king had them go through but there was always the chance it could be a abusive home for them, there's only so much faith you can have in the system...

"Don't worry, they will because Batman will make sure of it, he is very influential... Plus there's also the good old threatening with a knuckles sandwich" Bat-mite responded enthusiastically as though he knew this kids wouldn't appear again, he was sure his idol Batman wouldn't allow any of them to suffer any more abuse

"Being the richest guy in the city, he probably should" Jirou commented as Bruce could use his wealth to assist the kids as well if anything, he didn't seem like the type of guy that would just not check to see if they actually got to have a better life.

"I'm happy for them, at least they won't suffer at the hands of that villain" Hagakure said as at least the kids got their happy ending and could go to have better lives

"We as villains do not take him as one of us, that man is pathetic." Mr Compress added in the end as they wouldn't accept to be put in the same category as this guy, he was less than a villain and more so a pest.

Overall, this adventure served to show how kind Batman truly is and the audience was ready to forget the Sewer King for how pathetic of a person he was.

[Author's notes]

Leave a review, your opinions really help with the creative process and that extra bit of motivation, is nice to hear some thoughts on the story.

So I want to say sorry for the lack of updates, IRL stuff kept popping up and had to delay some of my writing efforts that were less developed. Not to mention this episode was kind of a struggle in some regards, in the sense that making a reaction for it was hard when I myself didn't have much to think about after watching it.

[1] This is something I have seen said about the league and honestly might be a complete inaccuracy, but someone said that a few members don't go out of their way to kill or hurt children. I think this is hypocritical because of what they do in the series, Shigaraki in particular considering he was trying to commit genocide by the end of the series. So I don't know exactly how they feel about the topic, but the general opinion I got was that they don't like it but are not opposed to doing.

[2] Originally I was also going to attempt doing a 'MHA reacts to the Absolute universe' but I scrapped that Idea because comics are a bit harder to translate into this format, plus I realized that it would put much more work load on my other fic projects and delay stuff. So yeah, do not expect many other react fics from me for a long while.

[3] This might not be true anymore, just checked and he seems to be alive in current comics although he doesn't have any relevant role, just being one of the mentors Selina had when she was a young thief.