“Wasn’t asking you to join. Anyway, I could potentially do more. You know, get it back to how it was before and much more - nightvision, LED’s, sonar, radar, the works."
"But you’re not an Avenger so it’s not happening."
"I will upgrade it on my own anyway, I doubt that your tech or whatever can do better than that.”
“I hear those white coats are giving our stuff back anyway. Al Ghul gave me the best of the best and I’m going to have those bad boys back soon.”
“I don’t give out my weapons for free unless you join the team, and actually do work under it. Otherwise I charge, but I’ll look at the helmet for free, if all you want is it being checked."
"Well I’m not joining your team anyway so I’ll take the free helmet check up. It used to have a radio transmitter in it as well, but I guess they got rid of it. Why, what else are you offering?”
“Tony Stark, weapons expert also known as Iron Man. That ring any bells, kid?"
"Might be. Harper mentioned a Captain America so I guess you’re a Justice League kind of team? Not my style of team, like I said, but if you make weapons I’ll take them.”
“I’m sure you two would get along like a house on fire, that is, unless you both light the house on fire quite literally."
"Of course I can do more, who do you think you’re talking to? So what - you want a gun? I sell them but they may be a bit out of your price range. But I’ll fix this helmet of yours first, get it back to working order."
"I make no promises, if that’s all part of the fun, how am I supposed to say no?”
“You sell guns? You mean that you make them too? Of course I don’t know who I’m talking to, I only know that you seem to recognise people from Gotham.. If it’s bomb free I’m all good. I don’t want any nasty surprises all over my face.”
“No way, the negative zone that I built will ensure that they’re locked up with no way to escape. The only way to escape is to re-open the portal, but that’s practically impossible from their side. I’m sending them to negative space to spend the rest of their lives. You would really get along with Frank…”
“You sure that’s all? That’s pretty easy stuff…"
"Negative zone? Now where did I hear something like that mentioned before.. Well, that seems to work way better than the bars in Arkham. People go in and out like it’s a walk in the park, Batman will never understand that. Really now? If I ever bump into that pal of yours, Frank, I’ll be sure to say ‘hi’.”
“You can do more? I wouldn’t say no to a couple of upgrades, all they left for me are those fucking wooden daggers.. I’m more of a weapons type of guy.”
“Well I’ve created my own prison for bad guys but no one here is interested - its a negative space. At least there’s no chance of them escaping, a link to a parallel dimension. Pretty much. There’s nothing stopping you from killing anyone you so chose. If I were the police force like I intended to be, then I wouldn’t condone it, but since I’m not - free game."
"Right, so you want me to fix this thing up..?"
"So you’re pretty much sending them to Hell. Nice. And they can’t escape from there? Because that’s exactly my beef with those damn prisons; they lock them inside and then they just waltz off, getting bailed out, whatever, carrying on doing what they did before. You wanted to be a police force? Screw it, just go solo, that’s what I do with my team. I don’t go around killing those who did nothing wrong, but criminal scum have it coming.”
“Yeah, there’s a reason that I don’t do sidekicks and it’s because of that. Well… I don’t agree with killing either, but sometimes it’s the only option. The last one, but the only one. But you know, half of the people in this city could die and I wouldn’t particularly care, to be frank. Pun intended.”
“That’s true. See people in this place have a habit of running into you, when you least expect it. I wouldn’t get too comfortable if I were you.”
“You seem to be more sane than Batman is. He doesn’t get that throwing maniacs in prison won’t solve a thing. But pulling the trigger and watch them going six feet under is both rewarding and safer for everyone else. So you don’t like this place, huh? I’m not a fan of it so far, but it sounds like a lot of these people wouldn’t be missed if something were to happen to them.”
“Right. I wouldn’t mind running into some certain people, but time will show. For now, knowing that my helmet is safe is a priority.”
“You sound a lot like a friend mine, his name was Frank, well known as the Punisher. Do things your own way and screw the rules. I can see why that didn’t fit well, there seems to be a certain criteria with sidekicks nowadays. But ever since I met a pal of Steve’s, I’m pretty lax in terms of a moral code."
"I’m sure he’ll come looking for you sooner or later, if he’s the guy that you’re talking about."
"Sounds like one hell of a guy to keep around, he must be fun at parties too. You see, people don’t like that term either. Sidekicks. That no killing rule that Bats preaches about sure is a downer for a lot of us. Who?”
“I don’t give a damn if he comes or not, unless he stays out of my way. I’ve got my own way of dealing with things, like you said, and since he doesn’t like it, he can just stay away from me.”
“Not really sure. I think I met him once but he seemed a little different… Anyway, you going to seek him out? So judging by association, you are a hero. If you two worked together, that is."
"Now that’s interesting.. He never changes his ways.. No, that’s not how it works, he’ll come looking for me. That was a long time ago. If you know him, he sure know about his tendency of picking street rats out of the streets. I grew up and his moral code doesn’t sit well with me anymore.Not that it ever did.”
