"See him?" Bruce asked the Joker who was holding the binoculars.
"He's far off," the Joker said.
"There's a water source over there," Bruce said. "That's where they will be."
"Hmm," the Joker said and handed the binoculars back. "They don't look very big."
"A wild hog is like a 700lb elk," Bruce told him. "Compressed into that 250lb animal."
The Joker watched Bruce pull out his phone for the fifteenth time on their hunt. Bruce sent a text and then put the phone back into his pocket. He noticed how the Joker was looking at him.
"In her defense," Bruce said as the Joker watched him. "Adriana usually texts me about every half hour when while I am out hunting."
"Ahh," the Joker said. "So, she's only contacting you about three times more than usual."
"Well," Bruce said. "We're out here. Alone. With rifles."
"Arch enemies," the Joker said to Bruce.
Bruce and the Joker looked at each other for a few moments before laughing. How things had changed.
"Let's go," Bruce said. "He's gone over that ridge but we can still track him."
.
.
.
"Rewind it again," Adriana said to Bruce.
They were in his office watching surveillance footage of a woman who recently was killed by the police. She flipped an officer over her shoulder as he tried to cuff her and then seemed to run a few steps up on a flat brick wall before grabbing onto a fire escape.
"How is that even possible?" Adriana asked.
"I've heard from a few sources that," Bruce sighed. "This is the effect of some new street drug."
"A drug?" Adriana asked. "Giving the people the ability to run up a wall?"
"She only ran a couple paces...it's physically possible...with the right amount of adrenaline, force... and stimulant," Bruce told Adriana. "The drug is called Burgeon. Powdered substance."
"Did you get some?" Adriana asked and Bruce squinted at her. "Come on, I don't want to try it, I just really wonder what the hell is in it."
"Unfortunately, not," Bruce told her. "It's hard to find. But this is the fourth college kid that the police have had to shoot. Two police are dead so far. Three others are in the hospital. One might be paralyzed. Getting a sample won't be easy. Finding out where it's made and shutting it down will be even more difficult."
"Sounds like..." Adriana said. "You want to participate in this."
"What do you think?" Bruce asked. "Did you think I would just leave it up to you?"
"Well....the city won't be happy to see the Batman again," Adriana said. "Especially over a street drug that so far...is having less casualties than coke-"
"So, you think that you can handle this alone?" Bruce asked.
"I've shut down drug operations before, if you'll remember-" Adriana said.
"Of course, I remember my love," he said. "This is different. You could be seriously hurt. This...whatever this is...is giving these people who are completely average and untrained...almost superhuman capabilities. And we do not even know where the operation in question is operating from."
"Well, maybe if we can just get a sample..." Adriana said. "And get it to a lab..if there's some rare component, we could find the source and cut it off."
