Prologue
Gotham City, June 12, 2013
"Where were you when it happened?" That's the question asked after every and any life changing event- good or bad. It has been the question being asked for the last six months; unfortunately this time the event was cataclysmic.
I remember where I was, everyone does. Such shocking news only comes around once in a lifetime. But this…this was so earth-shattering that it would have been impossible for me to forget where and when I had first heard it.
It was a warm, humid mid- June evening; a precursor to the unusually warm summer that plagued Gotham. Some blamed global warming - that's for the scientists to decide - I had more important issues to deal with. Mayor Hardy's son had been kidnapped less than twenty four hours earlier. After ruling out all of the usual suspects-most of whom were styling straightjackets in Arkham- I came to the conclusion that it must've been someone new, someone fresh, someone trying to get his name out there by choosing a high profile crime. Elementary.
The surplus of media coverage slowed me down some, but it was nothing compared to the shooting of the commissioner's daughter a couple years prior. It didn't take me long to find where the kid was being held. It was then, while I was returning him to the GCPD, when I got the call.
"Batman."
"I'm busy, Clark."
"Not for this you're not; this makes whatever you're dealing with obsolete. Turn on the television."
"What Channel?"
"It doesn't matter."
Wha-? As much as I wanted to rip into Clark for calling a kidnapping obsolete, curiosity got the best of me. I headed to the GCPD lobby where a crowd of officers had already been forming. Uneasy looks were exchanged amongst the group; whatever was happening in Gotham seemed to be irrelevant at the moment.
I looked up to the small, square screen and finally realized that whatever was happening in Gotham was indeed irrelevant. This was much bigger than Gotham.
"No."