Ioana took him around for the rest of the day, and by the time she felt ready to stop they had already ordered several things for the Brothel. Given that he had plans with Elizabeth to meet some smugglers tomorrow night, he asked her for the night off tomorrow. She nodded and said she would ask Adeline to take his place tomorrow night. But in return he would need to spend a day helping her new girls get acquainted with Gotham next week.

Returning back to his place with several bags of gifts from Ioana, he found that a letter had been pushed underneath his door. Opening it, he found that it was in fact from Liz. In large letters, the only thing it said was “Thank You. - Liz”.

Feeling a warmth spread in his heart, he started his shift that night in a good mood. Unfortunately, it didn’t last, several issues cropped up that soured his night. He had to throw several junkies into the street after they had started a brawl on the fourth floor. Then he noticed that the car that had been lurking outside a few days ago was back. He quickly ran out and saw a beat up car with heavily tinted windows. 

Even with that he was able to tell that the person behind the wheel was a man. Before he could approach it, the car suddenly came to life and then sped away. James was tempted to run after it, but given that he was still on duty and people were in the area decided to let it go for now. He would have to build some sort of tracker for the next time the car came. Whether it was one of the other crime family’s spying on Ioana’s place, or some other wacko he needed to deal with it.

The worst problem however came from the news that last night a hooker from a few streets over had been found dead. Apparently her chest had been brutally ripped open and her heart was taken. Understandably this put a huge damper on the prostitutes in the building. Most refused to walk the streets, with them calling johns to come up. At least this would increase the appeal of Ioana’s brothel.

When his shift was over, he went down to the basement and began to sort through the stuff. He would have to get a larger dumpster for the bigger trash he was thinking when the door to the basement opened and he saw Liz standing there. She met his gaze and strode in seemingly having no issues with the robotic leg. 

“Liz, you're here early.”

“I thought I would take you out to breakfast for a treat, and then hang out for the rest of the day.” She said, glancing around at the piles of furniture. “So uhm… Thank you James for making this leg for me.”

“Your Welcome Liz. I’m afraid I’m hardly an expert at prosthetics so please let me know if you have any problems with it. Plus in the future I can make it more human-like if you want.”

“It’s fine. It works incredibly well. I was surprised at how fast I got used to it, in fact I found I could run with it easily.” She bit her lip then said “I thought I wasn’t ready to wear something like this, but you were right.”

“No Liz. This is all you. So what do you want for breakfast?”

They went out and had some really good doughnuts at a place near her house. After that she took him to Robinson park near the reservoir. There were several trails that went through the park, and they started to walk around the park just chilling for the day. Given that it was summer it was warm out, but with the shade from the park trees it was pleasant. They just took in the view for the most part while talking about themselves.

When the sun began to go down and the sky turned dark orange, they returned to the apartment and got prepared to meet the smugglers that night. Liz was placing several bundles of cash into a briefcase and said “Alright, these smugglers are somewhat new in the city so I don’t know what to expect. I’ve got the money they want, but you're there to help me if they decide to cross me. I don’t think they will, but you never know.”

“Yeah I understand that. Is that why you decided to wear a mask?” James asked.

Liz had placed one of those domino masks upon her face. When he had read comic books, the idea of those masks actually hiding your identity seemed ludicrous. Yet the moment she had placed the mask on, it felt as if her features had completely changed. If he hadn’t known who she was beforehand, he would have thought it was an entirely different person. 

How this was achieved, he wasn’t sure. But with this place having actual gods, he wasn’t entirely surprised by it. Though it did make it a bit unsettling to look at, though he suspected that he was more aware of it because he was an outsider.

Liz rescinded by saying “It’s definitely not a good idea to let them know who I am, especially since they are selling out someone else’s information. No reason to give them more to sell about us. Here, I got one for you as well.”

Taking it from her, he placed it over his eyes, and he found that it stuck on his face quite well. He also noticed a strange hum in the air around him. This must be from the effect he had witnessed. He asked Liz “How do I look?” He noted that his voice sounded different as well.

When she didn’t respond, he looked at her to find that she was gaping at him. She swallowed and looked away “You look different.”

“That bad?” James said.

“No!, I mean not at all. I think you look great with the mask. More commanding. Let's move on.” 

“Okay. So where are we meeting these smugglers?” James asked.

Sometime later Liz stopped her car in front of a warehouse. She was using a rustbucket that she had paid cash for and had no information about. Liz knocked on the door of the warehouse in a pattern. Several seconds later a large man opened the door and waved the two of them in. Inside the warehouse was lit by several weak incandescent bulbs that left most of the place in the dark.

At least for everyone but him. James spotted a few people hiding out in the shadows keeping their hands on holstered pistols. Nearby a cargo container was open, and a few guys were unloading boxes of what appeared to be electronics out of it. A wiry man who was ordering the men about, turned and saw them.

Stepping towards them, he looked at Liz and said “Did you bring the cash?”

“Yeah, here it is.” Liz set down the small briefcase onto the table and the man glanced inside and nodded. 

“Good. Normally I would not be willing to discuss my business with prior clients, but the man failed to pay what was agreed upon. As such I don’t feel any regard to keep his secrets. So ask your questions.”

While the man spoke, James expanded his senses to examine the surroundings. There were a few other men hiding around who appeared ready to jump out at the first sign of trouble. Most curiously he heard someone up in the rafters of the warehouse, but they kept hidden so he couldn’t spot them. Could it be Batman or another crimefighter?

Liz said “The first thing I want to know is what exactly did The Riddler purchase from you?”

The man shrugged and said “The prick was annoyed that he had to come to us to get what he wanted. Apparently all the other procurers are busy gearing up the families. I initially refused since he wanted to pay with credit but after he broke one of my man’s arms I had little choice. So I got him a few pounds of C4 that he paid far too little for.”

“Anything else?”

“He got a few jammers, and a door hacking tool. He said he had everything else he needed.”

“Do you happen to know where he is?”

“If I did, I wouldn’t mind paying him a visit to get my money. All that I know is that he’s probably somewhere under the ocean.”

“What?” Liz asked, confused.

“Here’s the crazy thing. He arranged to pick up his stuff at the docks. So I’m thinking he has a boat. Nope. Turns out the psychopath has a submarine. Big one too. Can you believe that shit?” The man said, shaking his head.

Liz frowned and said “How did he get a submarine?”

“Who knows. So we're done here or what?”

“Just one more…” Liz was asking when James noticed that the person from above was moving. 

Seconds later something came falling down. As time slowed for him, he saw that they were two canisters which had a skull on them. He immediately realized that they were in fact some sort of grenade. Concerned for Liz he grabbed her and shielded her with his body. There was a loud clunk and then the canisters burst open spraying a white smoke out of them. It smelled acrid and made his eyes water. For a brief second he thought they had thrown smoke grenades down.

Then his body felt wrong and he realized that his breathing had grown shallow. A sense of pure dread wracked through him and his head felt like it was about to split. Something locked deep within his mind cracked open and several memories broke out and he found himself once more in the void. He was so cold and he realized to his growing horror something out there had seen him.

As this foul entity opened its eyes that James refused to look at, he could feel it’s stare bearing down upon him. As sheer panic sank down his spine, he found his gut suddenly yank him back to the warehouse. He had regained control of his emotions, but his gut was now screaming that he was in danger. He needed to run, to hide. Something was coming and it was dangerous.

Feeling like it was imminent he spotted the open cargo container through the white smoke and leaped into it carrying Liz who was gripping onto him in fear. He swung the metal door closed behind them and with his locking power sealed the door. He did this so fast, he realized that he hadn’t grabbed anyone else. Then he felt the space outside of the container rip open and something reached through. His body felt a cold tremor and his gut tightened in on itself.

All that he could do was hug onto Liz while the people outside began to scream. Not from the effects of the gas, but from the horrors that began to be committed against them. He tried to close his ears off to it, but it was so loud and invaded his very thoughts with its foulness. What was worse was that thing sending it’s whispers through the opening it had made. His mind could not comprehend what it was saying, and he feared he would go mad if he understood just one word it said.

It seemed never ending, and James watched in horror as the very metal of the container was twisted. He huddled down on the container floor just holding Liz as he tried to retain his grip on reality. But eventually the thing must have grown tired or bored for it let out a sigh that made James skin crawl and his bones crack. Then space snapped back to normal. Or close to normal. The area around them still felt unpleasant to James.

He turned his attention back to Liz and found that she was still in the midst of her delirious fear hallucinations. He begged his gut to help her and the ball within him relaxed and a tendril reached out and passed through Liz removing the fear toxin from her system. Now that he was no longer threatened by an eldritch horror, he realized that the person in the rafters had thrown down canisters containing Fear Toxin.

He wasn’t sure if it was Scarecrow who threw them down or someone just using the fear toxin. He also wasn’t sure who they were targeting, Liz, him or the smugglers. Maybe all of them? Maybe it was the assassin’s way of covering The Riddlers tracks. What he did know was that thing came here because it sensed James remembering it. Even now that memory was hazy as if he wasn’t prepared to remember it.

A deep unsettledness invaded his mind. He had thought he had remembered everything that had occurred during his trip through the void. But this was proof that he had encountered things in there and had sealed them away. For good reason perhaps given that thing had somehow known when James looked at it in his mind. The Fear Toxin had somehow broken that wall in his memories, and his gut told him that was not a good thing at all.

Liz began to come back from her drug addled hallucinations and she asked “What happened and why does my head hurt?”

“Someone threw down fear toxin canisters. You and I were exposed, and I brought you into her for safety. I managed to get it out of your body, so you should be alright now.”

“I don’t remember what happened. I feel as if I was listening to something incredibly nasty.”

“Don’t try to remember it. I will take you back to the base and we can talk more there. For now I need you to close your eyes while I carry you out of here.”

“Uh why? I can walk you know.”

“Because something really bad happened out there and you do not need to see it.”

She looked at him for several moments and then said “Alright if you say so.”

James nodded and lifted Liz. She squeezed her eyes shut, and James went to open the container, but found the lock had broken. So he kicked the door open, and he saw that he was right. It in fact was far worse than he had thought. Everything was coated in a layer of bloody flesh, like it had been painted there by some sick artist. No words could describe the smell that burned it’s way down his nostrils and Liz buried her face into his clothing to escape it.

Stepping out into the corrupted remains of the warehouse, his footsteps made fleshy noises, and worse he could feel the flesh under his feet throbbing as if it was still alive. The lights that were still illuminating the warehouse were putting off light that was wrong, it felt as if it was licking at his open skin and he quickly made his way to the exit. He passed several large fleshy lumps that he realized were the remains of people. Even though by all rationality they should be dead, they were still wiggling like giant meat worms in some sort of flesh cocoon.

Disturbed by what he was seeing he charged the door and with a kick sent it flying open. Then they were out in the open, and James took her straight to the car. Placing her in the passenger seat, he said “Stay here for a second.”

“What are you doing?”

He looked back at the warehouse and gritted his teeth. “I need to deal with what happened there. It’s my responsibility, if I leave it something bad will happen.” James said. His gut was in solid agreement with this.

Turning back he stepped in and to his disgust found that several of the worm things had moved. They let out weird moans that sound distressingly like the whispers he had heard coming from that thing. One of them opened a large gooey eye that leaked a clear ooze from it. This place needed to be cleansed with fire. Ripping open one of the boxes he found what he was looking for and reached in and grabbed a handful of packing peanuts. Soon he had started a small blaze.

He repeated his actions all over the warehouse, until it was completely engulfed in flames. He stepped out and cleaned himself several times with his power, but he still felt unclean. He sat into the driver's seat and started the car and left while the screams of those wretched things burned in his ears. He felt exhausted and his heart hurt for the evil that had visited this world had come for him, and several people were dead because of that.