Hey guys! It is I, the phoenix, back with another chapter of Hero Complex!

So the last chapter was pretty well received, and while a few people weren't happy about how I started near the end, something I don't normally do, everyone agreed that it was better than the original, which was all I neded to hear.

A lot of you also liked how I put more emphasis on his physical strength than cunning, and that's going to be a running theme here, because I honestly lose interest in stories which basically turn into DC power fantasies as every OC or SI is somehow smarter than the likes of Lex Luthor, and can somehow manipulate people beter than actual demons.

For those who feel like the first chapter spoiled the whole story, I recommend that you snap out of it. I don't mean to be harsh, but that's like saying that revealing the fact that Naruto becomes Hokage ruins the whole series.

I merely stated an event, not how it will play out or all the other subtle plots and arcs between the lines. I barely revealed what everyone is capable of, only revealing a few Menagerie characters, and I didn't even reveal any of Magnus' Embryo Skills.

I just gave some exciting things for people to look forward to. It isn't the usual way I write, as I tend to start from the beginning, but it was necessary since I needed people to see that this story has received a major overhaul from the older versions.

Anyways, my internet has been on the fritz lately, which is why I wasn't able to update recently, so I'll keep things short in order to save time and get this chapter out before my internet fails.

And for those of you who didn't notice, Magnus looks like a younger Sigurd.

That point is very important.

ALSO, THE POLL FOR INDEX IS NOW COMPLETE! At the time the Poll should have ended, A Certain Magical Grand Order was in second place after A Certain Unfortunate Phantom Thief, but later overtook it, so I decided to just do BOTH. I'm currently doing a little more research on all the franchises involved, so it might take a week or more to come out because my internet is shot to hell.

And a Dendrogram and DxD crossover is making its way very soon, so stay tuned for that as well.

Anyways, this chapter is a narration chapter, where Magnus explains his situation, and we see a few cameos from other characters who will become important in the future.

Please don't immediately start flaming me, because I have learned from my mistakes, and the action will kick off from the next chapter itself. Events referenced in this chapter will also get more of an explanation, and we will see more character interactions.

Magnus, unlike Micheal from the first version of this story, is the kind of person who jumps in to action first and asks questions as he fights for his life.

The reason should be pretty apparent in this chapter itself.

Anyways, I don't have much time to spare, so let us get on with the story.

Chapter 2 - Arkham Blues

{No Job, Magnus Grey}

Ice-blue eyes opened slowly as their owner took in everything around him at a leisurely pace, making sure not to overexert himself.

He took a deep breath as he saw the now-familiar ceiling of Arkham Asylum.

The dreary colors only served to set the general mood of the area, which was just as drab and grey.

Slowly sitting up in his rather nice bed, in his opinion anyways, Magnus looked outside the window, noticing that there was a storm brewing, adding to the already gloomy atmosphere that seemed to permeate the area.

Honestly, it was safer for him that way. Too many bright colors and high emotions could quite literally spell his doom.

His eyes became unfocused as he thought back to how he had landed in this situation, as an inmate of what was basically a poorly disguised maximum-security prison.

Two weeks.

That's how long it had been since he had woken up in one of the most horrifying mental institutions he had ever heard of, a place that was supposed to be fictional.

But no, he wasn't having a nightmare.

Somehow, by a process he doubted he could even begin to understand, he, Magnus Grey, had been transported to the DC Universe.

Or at least, some iteration of it.

But of course, just as his luck would have it, he had woken up as an asylum inmate instead of as Bruce Wayne's son or something equally ridiculous.

But that wasn't what served to reinforce the fact that he wasn't having a nightmare.

The persistent dull ache in his chest and the ever-present weakness in his limbs signified that his condition had somehow followed him across dimensions. It had never plagued him in his dreams before, so he could infer with absolute certainty that he was definitely not delusional or hallucinating.

His closed his eyes, driving away the bitterness he felt before he could become immersed in it.

He had long since progressed beyond the stage of self-pity, knowing full well it never did anything to help.

Instead, Magnus continued to introspect, getting lost in his thoughts, like he usually did.

He had woken up to find himself being checked into the Asylum, with charges so obscure and vague he had nearly laughed out loud at the absurdity of it all.

Murder?

Him?

He wouldn't even be able to kill a baby, much less a grown human being.

And why on Earth would he be convicted to the most infamous Asylum in the country, if not the whole planet, for killing a single person?

They hadn't even told him who he had apparently murdered, only that he somehow did, and had been convicted for it... without any recorded trial.

To be fair, the Asylum staff were just as confused, and in some cases, appalled, as he was, especially after his condition had been diagnosed, which meant that they weren't the ones responsible for what could only be described as a bad joke.

So who was responsible for this? And why? Why him? Why now?

He'd just come back from his parents' funeral, mourning their loss without shedding a single tear in order to avoid aggravating his disorder, and had fallen asleep in the process, only to wake up in an alien environment.

To be honest though, he wasn't upset with whoever had done this to him.

With his parents gone, he had nothing left. Due to his condition, there was no way he would be able to take over the company in their absence and manage it, meaning he would essentially have been left on the streets before long... if he wasn't assassinated first by their corporate rivals.

Not that it would be that hard.

A bar of Snickers would be enough to do him in.

What he wanted to know was why? And how?

At least, that had been what he wanted the first few days he had been in Arkham.

Eventually, he realized that there was no way he would get an answer to that question.

Instead, he wondered; 'where do I go from here?'

By that point, he had been able to fully process his situation, and realized that there were many opportunities ahead of him.

Yeah, he woke up in Arkham Asylum and the first thing he thought was that there were opportunities for him.

But he was right, wasn't he?

He was interrupted from his thoughts when a finger started poking his back, causing him to turn and look at the grinning visage of his cellmate.

"Heya White!" whispered Doctor Harleen Quinzel, better known as the Villain, Harley Quinn. "Rise and Shine!"

And yes, she was his cellmate for the duration of their stay in Arkham.

Which absolute moron thought that sticking someone with his illness in the same room as one of the loudest, most colorful people around was a good idea was beyond him.

But hey, Harley had been a much better choice from a logical standpoint than his first cellmate, Bane, although the luchador had been a rather nice guy for the duration he had roomed with him, which was about three days.

To be honest, Magnus thought he'd have died on Day 1 itself, and especially so after his cell was changed, but he'd forgotten that Harley had been a former doctor herself, and had no trouble adjusting herself to make sure she didn't set him off.

Though the fact that she had even bothered adjusting for his sake could be attributed to the fact that she, like many of Gotham's inmates, for whatever reason, had taken a liking to him.

There was nothing really special about him except for the fact that he was more fragile than a glass pane, so Magnus had no idea why they behaved the way they did towards him.

Of course, from reading the DCU comics, he knew that many of them weren't the monsters they appeared to be, though that could be debatable considering the infinite amount of alternate realities that existed here in this Multiverse.. There was no true way of classifying someone as good or evil, trustworthy or untrustworthy, considering the way people could change at the snap of a finger. However, despite this, there were those who seemed uncharacteristically nice to him. The fact that he hadn't been killed yet when he was the weakest person in the Asylum was a pretty good indicator of that fact, which logically indicated that someone 'higher up' on the food chain, both among the inmates and the Asylum Staff.

The reason he had been moved to the female block in the first place was due to the fact that Killer Croc had nearly eaten Victor Zsasz when the insane serial killer had tried to make a move on him.

After that, the male inmates were thought to be 'too psychotic' for him to be treated safely, and after Doctor Young kicked up a fuss about it all, he was transferred to Harley's cell the next day itself as a means to calm her and the others down.

When you looked at it realistically, however, there wasn't much of an increase in safety between the Male and Female Wards.

Gender didn't mean much when you were off your rocker.

Still, there was something incredibly suspicious about this whole thing, though he had been grateful that he no longer had to deal with the likes of Johnathan Crane anymore.

Magnus doubted that guy's fear toxin would really work on him due to his circumstances, but the man just made his skin crawl, in a manner far more attuned to disgust than fear.

Anyways, not only was the fact that a minor like him, one with no special powers in any way, shape or form was admitted to Arkham Asylum on some incredibly vague charges that would never hold up in court incredibly suspicious, but why they thought that sticking him with the 'special' inmates was a good idea to begin with was something he still had trouble understanding.

Were they trying to kill him? Did they think that he was some sort of secret Supervillain with telepathic abilities or something, like Professor X?

The thought was completely absurd. Along with everything else that had happened to him since he had woken up in what was basically Hell Central.

But hey, he wasn't dead yet, so Magnus decided to just roll with it, not being in the unfortunate habit of looking gift horses in the mouth, as rarely as he got them.

He just interacted with the super-dangerous criminals around him the same way he would with anyone else. They may have had frightening reputations, but Magnus had long since passed the point of feeling any kind of fear whatsoever.

After all, living every day of your life knowing you could quite literally die at any moment tended to desensitize a person to things like fear.

It could technically be considered a mental illness in its own right, but he didn't really care considering it wasn't irrational behavior. After all, there simply was no point in him feeling fear anymore; it wasn't as if anything was wrong with his mind.

The only disease he had was physical, not mental.

"Good Morning, Miss Harley." he said with a slight smile. "Nice weather, isn't it?"

The insane Supervillainess, although her lack of powers made the 'super' part contestable, snorted in amusement before breaking into a fit of giggles.

"Oh, you're a riot, White!" she exclaimed. "Only you would call this weather we're having 'nice'! What's wrong; don't you like the big old sun~?"

"Not particularly, no." he replied dryly, before slowly getting to his feet. "Bright lights and colors aren't really good for me."

Ironic, considering who he was rooming with.

Living with Harley Quinn was an experience.

For whatever reason, she hadn't killed him or bashed his head in when he was asleep, not that she even needed to wait for him to sleep, mind you, considering she was someone strong enough to swing around a hundred pound mallet like it was no one's business.

Magnus honestly couldn't understand why that was the case.

He knew that despite his bedridden nature, he had the charisma required of an heir to a multi-million dollar megacorporation, but there was no way something like that would give him even a tiny hint of an advantage when dealing with the likes of Arkham's crazy inmates.

Or practically anyone in the DCU, except for the trash characters whose only role was to be cannon fodder to stall or summon either the Heroes or the Villains.

In the beginning, Harley had prodded and poked at him, like he was some sort of exotic animal behind the glass in a zoo, which actually made far more sense considering her personality, but after a full week of rooming with him her attitude had completely changed.

She'd become far more friendly and genuine with him (or so he thought, anyway), which usually involved her violating his personal space and telling him admittedly disturbing stories about her escapades as a Supervillain.

It was kind of strange how her behavior had changed, but once again, he wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

She had no reason to pretend to be friendly, and he had no reason to treat her with disdain regardless.

Anyone who could put up with a monster like The Joker honestly deserved his full respect.

Magnus honestly couldn't tell what incarnation of Harley Quinn he was dealing with.

The only thing he did know was that she appeared closer to her Injustice/Suicide Squad appearance, which he was thankful for, considering that godforsaken costume she wore in the early comics hurt his brain. The lack of face paint was also welcomed. Oh, and she wasn't Red Lantern either, which was a good thing, meaning this was one of the mainstream Universes.

Maybe an iteration of the New 52?

One thing constant about Harley Quinns throuought the DC Multiverse is that they were really dependable people.

Admittedly, that was a crazy thing to say about someone who was insane beyond the shadow of a doubt, but that was something he had been able to conclude from everything he had read about her.

Once she registered you as a friend, Harley would practically never betray you, unless it was something involving the Joker, who was her biggest weakness, and someone who actively inhibited her from reaching her potential. Even in the Suicide Squad iterations, the reason she survived all the time was either due to her surprising luck or due to the fact that unlike everyone else on the various teams Waller had assigned her to, with the exception of Floyd Lawton, whose only motive was the welfare of his daughter, Harley never actually tried to betray Waller, once again, unless it involved the Joker.

Beneath the insane mask and the blunt weapons she smacked you to death with was a surprisingly selfless person who would do anything for the people she loved.

The main problem was that The Joker always took the number one spot on that list, which was probably the only reason why she hadn't ended up as a senior member of the Justice League or something.

Honestly, Harley's loyalty to those she cared about was something even Batman had acknowledged indirectly before in the Injustice timeline, the Insurgency Batman considering her one of his closest allies and someone he cared for like a sister.

As one could probably guess, this happened after the Joker died at the hands of Superman.

In a sense, she was probably one of the nicest people among the Gotham Rogues... which was a really good indicator of how screwed up the city really was.

He was brought back to reality by Harley poking his forehead, interrupting his train of thought.

He really needed to stop spacing out like that.

"Sorry." he apologized, rubbing his head sheepishly. "We're you saying something?"

"Oh no, I was saying nothin'! You just looked like you were thinking too hard about something!"

"..."

"...So what'cha thinking about, White?"

"About how you're a nice friend." said Magnus, not deigning to lie to her. He didn't think he was good enough of a liar to fool an intelligent psychologist, and he'd read online before that trust was a good way to build relationships.

Besides, it wasn't as if he'd said anything particularly offensive. She wasn't a tsundere villain type who got upset because someone considered her a 'good' person or something equally ridiculous.

"Awwww, you're making me blush, White!" squealed Harley, wrapping her hands around his neck from behind and nuzzling her cheek against his. "Don't worry, I love you too!"

To be honest, as long as her mallet/hammer/bat didn't love him too, he was okay with that.

"I'm sure you do." said Magnus, before gently extricating herself from the touchy-freely woman he had admittedly become friends with over the past week and a half. "Now look away. I need to change, and I won't appreciate you peeking."

"Hey! White, that's my line!"

One awkward conversation later, along with some time spent painstakingly making sure Harley didn't infringe upon the privacy he needed, Magnus found himself gripping the armrests of his wheelchair rather tightly as Harley cheerfully pushed him down the corridors of Arkham Asylum.

While he was capable of walking, he couldn't traverse the distance of Arkham Aslyum without over-exerting himself, which was why he was confined to a wheelchair.

Unfortunately, with Harley in the proverbial driver's seat, any semblance of this arrangement being for his own safety was lost.

He was thankful that she wasn't trying to push him as fast as she could like she had done the first time, nearly giving him a stroke in the process.

However, even if she was better than before, Harley still had a long way to go before she could wheel him properly without giving him a heart attack.

Fortunately, salvation came in the form of one of the Arkham Asylum security guards, Aaron Cash, a good man if Magnus ever saw one.

Extremely rare considering the place they were in.

"I'll take it from here." he said roughly, his hook gleaming in the low light. "Go to the Mess and don't try anything funny."

"M'kay!" said Harley, not in the least perturbed by the tone the man had used with her. She let go of the handlebars of his wheelchair before skipping off.

"See you later, White!"

Aaron had begun to wheel him away already, so he couldn't reply in kind.

"You still in one piece, kid?" asked the guard, concerned.

"Still alive." affirmed Magnus with a light smile. "Thank you for your concern."

The tall man sighed at that, as he pushed him forwards towards the place he went normally during mealtimes and most of the day in fact, because he couldn't eat food like normal people.

Unfortunately, eating food with his condition could cause a hyperglycemic effect that could increase his heart rate and thus cause heavy damage to his health. It was an unfortunate fact of the life and the body he had been born into, and as such, had never experienced what it felt like to actually have a full meal, or any meal, to be honest.

He could only have small nibbles of food at most, and had therefore been forced to survive off of multivitamins and nutritional supplements instead of eating.

It didn't do any favors to his thin frame, although thanks to the painstaking care that was put into keeping him alive, he was healthy in terms of body weight and nutrition, even in spite of his inability to actually eat anything or exercise in order to lose calories.

"I wish I could do more than feel concerned." said Cash. "A kid like you shouldn't even be in this madhouse. What is Sharpe thinking!"

Probably, the dude had been paid off by the person who had gone through so much trouble to remove him from his home universe and place him in Arkham Asylum. Of course, Magnus wasn't going to say that out loud, mainly because there was no point.

After all, pointing out something that everyone already knew was a waste of breath.

"I can live with it." said Magnus non-chalantly. "So how's your family?"

"They're doing fine." said Aaron, his brow furrowing at Magnus's obvious deflection of the topic and his apparent resignation regarding the matter. "I hardly get a day off from this job but I can still see them every once in a while."

Honestly, working at Arkham was about just as bad as being incarcerated there.

The pay wasn't that great, life expectancy was poor, the boss was an a*shole, the place was literally cursed, and so on.

There were also only 20 days one could take off in a year, including national holidays like Christmas.

Seriously, considering the lack of benefits, the people who worked here had to be insane.

...

...

Oh wait, they were.

After all, didn't Arkham have a wonderful history of its staff and owners going nuts and getting incarcerated there?

Heck, even the architect who built the God-forsaken place had gone bonkers and was sentenced to life imprisonment in Arkham.

Even the name of the place sounded sinister, which made sense, considering it was a part of the emo-wasteland from Hell known as...

Gotham.

Okay, getting back on track, the gist of his thought process was basically that Aaron Cash had to be an incredibly dedicated person to continue working in a place like that one considering all the negatives and obvious health risks, both physical and mental.

Honestly, Magnus may have come to terms with the fact that Arkham was his new home and that he probably wasn't going to escape anytime soon, but if he had a choice, he'd go far away from this place, and Gotham as a whole.

That place was literally Hell on Earth.

No, actually Hell was better, if those screenshots from the Justice League Vs. Teen Titans movie were to be believed.

Honestly, this whole Multiverse that was now his home, to put it simply, was one huge clusterf*ck.

Which was why he decided to completely ignore it and live life the way he could until it was eventually snuffed out.

He didn't have a dream or an aspiration. He didn't desire power, fame, fortune or women. He was a simple guy who was honestly waiting for death, as morbid as that sounded.

He'd given up hope on ever living a normal life since the heart transplant he had gotten at the age of 12 had ended in failure, forcing the doctors to return his own malformed heart back to him.

The knowledge that even a heart transplant could not cure his disease had been crushing, and had truly cemented it in his head that there was simply no meaning to his life, now and forever.

With his disease, his maximum life expectancy would probably see him as far as his early twenties, and no further.

It was the sad truth, and it was something he had come to accept.

Although, come to think of it, now that he was somehow in the DC Universe, there were probably lots of ways for him to cure his condition.

Heck, medical technology among societies like the Lanterns or the Kryptonians had probably evolved to the point where they could treat him with ease, considering the kind of injuries their kind racked up.

There were probably even magicians who could treat his illness with a spell.

But there was no way for him to go about actually meeting these people and gaining their help.

Unlike the standard Self Insert characters dropped into the DCU in all those fanfiction stories he had read, he had no idea how to magically manipulate people and reason with extra-dimensional beings in order to secure either power or their allegiance, all within a few days to a week of arriving in the World.

He was just a normal guy, one with a decent amount of information about the World and its events, but that was it.

He couldn't spontaneously tap into the Sage Force, he wasn't an incubus, nor did he possess some sort of hack ability that would allow him to easily gain powers that could put even the likes of Darkseid to shame.

He was just a sick child who had lost hope on ever living a life beyond his wheelchair, and the cage of glass and life-support machines that kept him breathing in order to wake up the next day.

That was all. It was something he didn't believe would ever change.

And that was why he had no goals in life.

After all, what point in there was having a grand dream if he didn't even have the strength in his limbs to do a couple of push-ups?

Even his wish of running around and being able to play amongst other kids was nothing more than a pipe-dream.

The weight of his own self-realization was crushing, but he still managed to keep himself from falling into depression through sheer force of will.

Though honestly, that didn't matter if this place didn't get to him first and drive him insane.

He shifted uncomfortably as he saw some of the other inmates, who were hanging off of the rails and attacking each other like rabid animals.

Honestly, sights like were what made Magnus realize how sheltered he actually was, even in a place like Arkham Asylum. Due to the unlikely friends he had made, there was a buffer between him and the true madhouse that was Arkham.

And he was grateful, because he was sure that he would have either died or actually gone insane otherwise.

And dying in Arkham Asylum was not the best way to go in the least, and would most likely lead to his deranged ghost coming back to haunt the place and make even more people go insane.

"They're like animals, aren't they?" said Cash quietly, looking just about as disturbed as Magnus was at the sight, though the older man hid it much better.

"It just... makes me feel nauseous when I realize that they were, at least once upon a time, functional human beings like you or me." said Magnus quietly. "To see them behaving this way is just..."

Aaron patted him on the shoulder reassuringly. No doubt, as a guard who had worked there for a while, Aaron Cash knew all about how the people who were incarcerated there behaved.

"I know." he said grimly.

Thankfully, they didn't have to see much of the dreadful sight any longer, as they passed out of the Special Ward that hosted Gotham's most criminally insane, and the normal Wards that hosted Gotham's slightly less criminal insane, passing by the entrance of the Asylum on the way to the office of Dr. Penelope 'Penny' Young, who had taken it upon herself to make sure he was being taken care of, and one of the people who were vocal about their displeasure regarding his imprisonment.

Such a thing had slightly surpised him, as he'd expected her to be another one of those cold science-is-God types based on what little he knew, but apparently, it was actually possible to be pleasantly surprised at the morality levels of a Gotham resident.

Truly, a mind-blowing revelation.

She basically watched over him like a hawk, something that had kept him from being placed in the hands of maniacs like Hugo Strange, which was quite literally a life-saver, as there was no way in hell he would have survived even one of the insane doctors's experiments.

Once again, Magnus was glad that he was basically getting the Arkham VIP treatment, and in a good way, instead of the way that would end with him becoming a vengeful spirit or Joker 2.0.

Anyways, it was as they were passing by the screening area of Gotham that Magnus laid eyes on his first Superhero.

It was only for a split second, as Aaron had already wheeled him past the man, but Magnus knew that their eyes had met before he moved out of sight.

He had to honestly admit one thing to himself; Batman was even cooler in person.

He hadn't known properly how it would feel to be in the presence of someone like The Batman, but as he realized once he first woke up with Bane as his cell mate that the people of significance in this Multiverse did not need to be embellished by comic books in order to be scary or imposing.

And Batman did not disappoint.

The legendary Dark Knight radiated an aura of power, despite being only human. It was as if he was a wizened warrior who had fought in countless battles, something which was more or less true.

He couldn't quite tell what age Batman was, due to the fact that most of his features were obscured, but it seemed that Bruce had been a vigilante for at least a few years, if he'd already managed to radiate an aura like that unconsciously.

But still, Magnus was in awe, even if his face didn't show it, as he met a person who he'd thought only existed in a work of fiction.

He shook himself out of it as he started to unconsciously fanboy over Batman, calming himself and breathing steadily to make sure his heart rate didn't spike from his sudden burst of excitement, and waited patiently as he was led to Dr. Young's office.

It wouldn't do for him to become so emotional, even when meeting someone as infamous as The Batman, as it would only cause him problems in the immediate future.

After all, they were on opposite sides of the prison doors, even though Magnus had done nothing to earn his place in this new World.

That was just how life was. Even if it hadn't been as apparent before, that was also just how life had always been.

{The Batman, Bruce Wayne}

In Bruce Wayne's honest opinion, the atmosphere of Arkham Asylum was just as morbid as the people who were incarcerated here.

Even so, the legal system that he had sworn to never place himself over had dictated that these people were to be assigned to the Asylum in order for their treatment.

Although, it had to be noted that no one had ever been treated for their insanity successfully in Arkham Asylum, something he was all too aware of. In fact, the opposite was often true; normal people would go insane and end up becoming psychopathic criminals in their own right, the biggest example of this fact being Harleen Quinzel, who would go on to become Harley Quinn when The Joker corrupted her.

The Joker.

The name alone was enough to make Batman's hairs stand on end.

Currently, the clown was running free in Gotham somewhere, so Batman had come to see the only person who might have any clue as to The Joker's whereabouts.

The Joker had escaped from Arkham a few months ago, and while it wasn't any surprise that he had left Harley behind, the fact that he'd been so quiet recently probably meant there was something big on his list, which wasn't a good thing for anyone. The only person who could possibly hold such information would be his sort-of sidekick.

He highly doubted that he was going to get anything out of her, but he sure as hell had to try, because the lives of whoever the insane maniac targeted next depended on his success.

But, there was something else that caught his attention, however.

It was a boy who couldn't have been more than fifteen years old, which was even younger than Tim, who was currently not with him as he was looking after the city in Batman's absence.

He was very skinny, almost emaciated if Batman had to be honest with himself. He was confined to a wheelchair, which was being pushed by a guard he knew personally, a good man and ally named Aaron Cash.

It was a sight that made Batman narrow his eyes in suspicion.

In what situation would a minor, a cripple if his assessment was correct, be consigned to Gotham's most reputed and most dangerous mental asylum?

It was a question he popped as soon as Cash came back after delivering the boy to whatever destination he was intended for.

"Who's the boy?" asked Batman directly, never being one for subterfuge when it came to conversations.

"So you noticed, didn't you? His name is Magnus Grey, and as far as I'm concerned, he doesn't deserve to come within a hundred miles of this place."

"What do you mean?" asked Batman as Cash led him from the screening area towards the Special Ward, where he could interrogate Harley Quinn privately.

"He doesn't have an identity. No birth certificate, no medical certificate, guardians, residence, etc. He's pretty much a ghost, which shouldn't be possible, especially with his condition."

"He's sick." It was a statement, not a question, and Cash nodded in response.

"He is. Not sick in the head, but he has an incurable heart disease. According to Dr. Young, not even a heart transplant can help him. While I'm not too sure about the medical aspect of it, the gist is that when his heart rate spikes above a certain level, even a little, it'll cause him to almost immediately get a stroke, and then get worse from there. He can't even eat proper food, and has to live off of carefully prepared nutritional supplements. T.V. can be too much for him to handle, especially when watching emotional scenes, so the only thing he can do other than sleep and walk around slowly is read. Hell, even when he reads anything he always makes sure to use Dr. Young's laptop to read the plot details beforehand so he doesn't get to surprised and knows when to avoid scenes that might be tear-jerking. To put it simply, he's basically a china doll sent into a dragon's den."

"How could someone like him have gone under the radar for so long? A person with a condition like that, as unfortunate as it is, couldn't possibly have survived to reach his teens without some form of modern medical help. Is he a Metahuman?"

In Batman's eyes, it was the only probably explanation as to how Magnus Grey had even made it to near-adulthood.

He was now slightly interested in the boy's case, as something about the whole thing seemed fishy, and since it resulted in a child ending up in a place where no child should even hear of, it was something he felt he should look into.

He had a soft spot for children, something that had resulted in the formation of what Barry Allen mockingly called the 'Bat-Family'.

The name might have actually been quite fitting, but that didn't stop Bruce from fixing the speedster with his worst glare at the time, causing the man to quail.

"Nope. He's not an alien, a junkie hopped up on super-drugs, or a wizard. Metagene testing was also negative. For all intents and purposes, he's just an ordinary person. Well, about as ordinary as one can be with a condition like that."

This only served to make the boy's circumstances seem even more suspicious from an outsider's standpoint.

"Then why is he here? If he doesn't have any identification, that doesn't mean that he'll be incarcerated in Arkham Asylum, especially with a condition that requires special care. That isn't how the law works."

Aaron had a good laugh at that.

"Believe it or not, he's here for murder. And even more amazingly, there was no evidence to suggest he was even responsible for the crime, other than the fact that he was the only person near the crime scene, lying unconscious outside the victim's home. He didn't even have a trial, and we don't even know the name of the person he supposedly murdered, when he can't even run down a hall without getting a stroke. Fact of the matter is, someone high up wants him here, which is obvious because Sharpe's doing his best to act like the kid doesn't even exist, but I can't figure out why."

Batman's eyes narrowed as he began to put his mind to use.

Just like his intuition had told him, this whole case was suspicious on a level that the word 'suspicious' couldn't even describe how suspicious it really was.

A child with no identity, a clearly fake murder charge, imprisoned at Arkham Aylum without a trial?

Definitely some unknown element, or even elements, at play.

If Batman had to make a guess, only two people came to mind, when considering who could be responsible for this whole thing.

Ra's al Ghul and his League of Assassins, or Vandal Savage.

While some may have called it paranoia for him to immediately jump to that conclusion, Batman had seen a lot in his career, especially that even the smallest of incidents could have huge ramifications and consequences.

While they weren't the only people who could possibly have some sort of connection to the boy, they were among the most likely candidates, because all the other ones would never have bothered to help a child like Magnus Grey survive to reach the age of fifteen.

Even Savage and al Ghul would only do such a thing if they had some sort of plan for him, which seemed highly unlikely considering the boy had no powers or any skills along that vein which could be useful.

So maybe his conspiracy theories had to be put on the back burner for now.

No matter which way he looked at it, all the evidence pointed to Magnus Grey being the victim in the situation, and that needed to be rectified immediately.

The way it was looking, Bruce Wayne might have to get involved.

Still, the fact that he was still alive and not a raving mess meant that he clearly was being protected in some shape or form.

"Where is he being kept?" asked Batman, just to make sure.

"..." Aaron tensed slightly and didn't quite meet the Dark Knight's eyes as they walked side by side.

The silence was enough to make Batman suspect the worst.

"You're kidding me. Sharpe didn't-"

"He's in the Special Ward." said Cash, not looking happy in the least to be the bearer of bad news. "With Harley Quinn."

Batman could have sworn he felt a blood vessel in his head burst.

"What?" asked Batman, wondering if his constant proximity to explosions was really making him deaf. Of course, he knew that wasn't the case thanks to his intelligence, but there were certain situations in which one didn't want to accept the truth.

However, Batman wasn't a person who would get caught up in that sort of thing, and the feeling subsided as soon as it had come.

That didn't mean he wasn't furious though. He'd always known something was off about Sharpe, but this?

"Why is he in the Female Ward in the first place? That is not a place where a teenager boy who can't even defend himself should be sent."

For obvious reasons, the Wards in Arkham Asylum were segregated for men and women, who only met up to eat in the Mess Hall, the neutral zone.

However, unlike most would expect, it was not only to protect the women from the men, but also to protect the men from the women, because the kind of people held in the Asylum were those who broke the commonly established gender norms that society seemed to mark people with.

Throwing a boy barely into his teens in the Special Ward was already bad enough, but the Female Ward?

This was looking more and more like some sort of fancy assassination attempt, the kind made to look like an accident.

But why go to all these lengths when you could kill Magnus Grey with a glass of lemonade?

'Could it be possible that someone is trying to make him Awaken an ability of some kind?'

Indeed, that seemed like the only possible answer, considering that while the kid had tested negative for everything now, there was still a chance some sort of change could develop later.

Besides, there was no guarantee that the tests were even correct, as the results could be easily falsified.

Arkham Asylum received a lot of leeway from the Gotham legislature, which was the reason why the boy hadn't been pulled out yet and why Sharpe was still the Warden despite clearly not being fit for the job.

It was one of the best places on Earth to do something like this without anyone ever knowing.

"He was originally placed in the Male Ward with Bane, but after an incident with Zsasz, Sharpe had him transferred to the Female Ward when Dr. Young started protesting, because in his words the inmates there would be more 'gentle'."

Batman fixed the man with a long, incredulous stare.

"His cellmate is someone who is famous for busting open people's skulls with an oversized mallet."

Cash acknowledged that sheepishly. "True, but the idea does seem to be working. Somehow. Even though he's bound to a wheelchair and probably can't ever get involved with anyone romantically thanks to his illness, that kid's a natural with the ladies."

"Don't even joke about that." said Batman sternly.

While that may have been a laughing matter normally, there was no way attention from anyone within these walls, from either sex, could be a good thing.

He had come here for information about the Joker, but Batman's priorities were rapidly beginning to change.

Leaving that boy in the hellhole known as Arkham Asylum was obviously out of the question. He needed to be removed from there. At once. He was at the age where he should be worrying about his future career and trying to work up the courage to ask his crush out.

Even if his condition removed any chance of living a normal life, he at least deserved to be far away from people like Harley Quinn and Bane.

For now, he would get the information he had came for. But his immediate priority was getting that boy out of Arkham. It might take him a day to get everything filed properly, but he would definitely make it happen.

Batman didn't intend to train the boy to become a vigilante like himself or the Robins, though. That was clearly out of the question, and was the boy's choice if they somehow managed to cure his condition.

Magnus Grey had already been living a life tougher than most. Getting involved in the wider World of Heroes and Villains would only make that life even harder.

The least Batman could do was protect him from getting involved in the Metahuman scene.

...

...

...

Unfortunately for Bruce Wayne, he would fail on both accounts, and only by a couple of hours, to boot.

Who knows?

Maybe, if he had been successful in his endeavor, things might have taken a very different turn.

It should also be noted that Batman had been correct in his assumption.

Magnus Grey was in Arkham Asylum for the purpose of awakening a new Power hitherto unknown, one that would shake the very foundations of the Multiverse.

For Magnus had been placed in Arkham Asylum for the sole purpose of awakening his Embryo.

{Unknown Location}

"Jabberwock, what is the meaning of this?" asked a figure angrily.

To those who viewed him, he would have appeared as a rather bizarre being.

For he was a cat.

White in color and pretty generic in appearance, he wore a clerk's vest and walked on his hind legs, making it look like he had popped out of a children's picture book.

Although, the expression on his feline face was one of barely contained anger.

"I don't see why you're so upset." said his colleague unflinchingly, turning his head to look down at the strange creature. "Shouldn't you be glad, Cheshire? By my estimates, this experiment has a large chance of being successful."

The being speaking, Jabberwock, was no less bizarre.

At first glance, he appeared to be an adult male human, but upon further inspection, one would notice that the skin covering his body had patches of draconic scales and beastly leather, while his head was decorated by devilish horns. Overall, he certainly looked more like a 'humanoid monster' than a person, but the glasses Jabberwock sported successfully moved the impression he gave off into the "human" territory, if only barely.

His mind however, was a completely different story.

"You took a child from Earth and threw him into one of the most dangerous Realms ever recorded!" thundered Cheshire, releasing a pressure that belied his small and cute frame.

"It is merely an experiment to see if adverse conditions can result in the formation of another one of us. An Infinite Embryo. An Incarnation. I thought you would have been more receptive to this plan; considering his life until this point, I've done that boy a favor. His Embryo will no doubt hatch into something that can cure his heart condition, and even in the event that it does not, there are various Jobs that could easily be used for the same purpose. Magnus Grey has been given an opportunity to live out his life in a way that would never have been possible without our intervention."

"You violated the freedom that all Masters, no, all people are entitled to! I want to see the birth of Superiors and Incarnations as much as you do, Jabberwock, but there are lines we can't cross." said Cheshire, not letting up.

Those were the principles that Cheshire's own Master had raised him on, which is why the cat-like Embryo felt so strongly on the subject.

"Unfortunately, the experiment cannot be undone. It took me, Rabbit, Mad Hatter, Red King, and Bandersnatch using our full power to bypass the Source Wall that protects that Realm, tear a hole into it, and arrange the proper conditions for the experiment. You may have your objections, Cheshire, but there is no going back. If it makes you feel any better, Magnus Grey is free to make his own choices from this point forwards. I have already simulated the prerequisite conditions, and as such, will no longer interfere in his life, with the exceptions of the Created Dungeon we've been making for his growth, and of course, the Job Trials he may have to face in the future."

Jabberwock explained the whole thing calmly. In his eyes, he couldn't see what all the fuss was about. While it was true that Magnus was an unwilling part of the experiment, and yes, he had placed the crippled boy in a place full of lunatics in a World where beings existed who could easily threaten even the combined power of him and his brethren, the Thirteen Incarnations, but in his eyes, he had done the boy a favor.

Magnus Grey was akin to a wilting flower, who would slowly wither away.

This opportunity, this experiment, had given him the chance to bloom once more into something greater than he could have ever been.

Jabberwock desired to see the kind of Embryo that could be born and cultivated by such an individual, in such adverse conditions.

And he would not be disappointed.

A screen lit up, as if to emphasize his point.

"Besides," said Jabberwock, cutting off his friend's retort as new information came in. "The Embryo Seed implanted on him has finished its maturation over the two weeks it has been incubating. Due to the nature of that World and The System's lack of a foothold on it, the process took much longer than it normally would, especially considering all the factors it had to take into account. It seems it underwent a radical change in order to save its Master's life, even changing its own Type at the last scone. Sorry, her own Type."

He scanned through the information quickly, his glasses glinting in the dim light.

A small smile crossed his face.

"Interesting."

Cheshire, exasperated but ultimately understanding that he couldn't reason with Jabberwock or help the young man unwittingly involved in his friend's experiment in any way beyond introducing him to The System and the concept of Embryos like the other Masters he usually met, looked at the same window Jabberwock was so focused on.

At the sight of the words written on the screen, Cheshire's small eyes went wide in shock.

'Wait, isn't that boy a descendant of...? What are the odds?!'

He hated to admit it, but Cheshire realized that Jabberwock may have actually been onto something with his plan, even if there was no way Cheshire would ever approve of something like the stunt the other Incarnation had pulled.

Considering all the Embryos that had been born until then, this one was completely unique in terms of its projected development pattern, and even the initial form she took was shared only by one other Embryo.

As his eyes flicked through the information that was present on the screen, Cheshire found himself slightly uneasy.

"Jabberwock, I know I've said this multiple times before, but I think you overshot again. This little one... could grow up to be even stronger than us."

Many of the words on the screen could only be deciphered by the Incarnations, but there were a couple in the common tongue that stood out;

[Current {Form 1} Type: Maiden With Arms]

[Projected Development Pattern: Maiden With Angel Arms/Guardian/Territory/?]

And just below it...

[Name: Warrior's Bride, Brynhildr]

"Very interesting."

And that's a wrap!

A little exposition on Magnus' situation, and an introduction to two people who will be very important for this story; Harley and Batman.

Of course, I was inspired to give Harley a more leading role in this version after watching the new animated series, which really opened my eyes about how fun her character really was.

I know she didn't really get to shine at all in this chapter, but that was just me getting used to writing her personality and speech pattern.

Of course, where there's Harley, there's also Ivy, who Magnus is already acquainted with, along with most of Gotham's rogues.

There'll be more interactions between them in the next chapter, as the word count started going a little excess for me to squeeze them in here.

Also, many of you may have noticed tat Magnus' character seems slightly different from the gung-ho gangster in chapter 1, but that's to be expected, because he's lived his whole life basically as a vegetable due to his heart condition, which is actually a real genetic disorder, though surviving it is rare.

I know that Figaro has a backstory similar to Magnus, but I actually have a friend in real life who has a condition like this, which is why I wanted to write it. He actually helped me with the development of this story, which is why Magnus is dedicated to him in his own ways.

Hero Complex is all a out one thing; GROWTH. As a person, as a fighter, etc. This story is mainly about how Magnus grows from a crippled boy who could necer imagine a life where he could run to his heart's content, to a confident and accomplished warrior with many achievements under his belt.

And of course, we have revealed the Control AIs, or the Incarnations, who were responsible for transporting Magnus to the DCU.

We also see the reveal of Magnus' Embryo; Warrior's Bride, Brynhildr.

If you don't know, she looks like the Fate Grand Order Brynhildr, who is also the thumbnail of this story.

Magnus is also a descendant of Sigurd, which is pretty interesting...

Welp, I guess that's all for me today, because I want to get this chapter out before my internet goes under again.

I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter, and don't worry, the action and interaction will pick up in the next chapter, Breakout.

Spatialphoenix here, burning to ashes.

P.S. - Do you think I captured the lawless nature of Arkham Asylum properly?