The following is a non-profit, fan work based off the respective works of Rei Hiroe and Christopher Nolan
All rights belong to the original creators, Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., and Madhouse Inc.
The Bluefire Phoenix presents...
An Operation Dusk Hour Tale...
Knighthood
Chapter I: Next of Kin
My name...
My name is...
My name is John Blake and I remember the night Batman disappeared. Not many people left who care about that night five long years ago anymore. Five years of darkness at the hands of criminals. The Dent Act died on the floor, no one bothered to defend it. Not after so many supporters met violent ends at the hands of thugs. The power vacuum was filled by the Russian Mob, quickly becoming the top dog in Gotham thanks to the Joker attacks.
The Batman was last seen heading into the docks. There was a massive fire fight somewhere inside. Police tried to investigate only to find roadwork and other large obstacles preventing them from doing their job.
By the time the cops made it into the district, all they found was an empty Batmobile. I heard Wayne Enterprises won the bid to examine the vehicle. Their conclusion was indecisive and the file closed.
I knew ever since then that I had to find out what happened to Batman. He was a hero. In the five years of his absence, we all realized that fact. Most of us believed he was gone forever. However the way that he simply vanished after one night never sat well with me. I had to find him; I had to know why he left Gotham in its darkest hour!
With the skills I acquired at the Gotham City Police Academy, I thought tracking him would have been easy. It turned out it wasn't enough. So I did what I could to keep the city safe while I searched for clues about Batman. One day, about two years ago, everything changed.
I had just wrangled in a couple of con artists selling high-quality "off-brand" merchandise that I ran into him.
Back then I wore just a black hoody, some jeans, and some pads. The hood mixed with some dark face paint around my eyes obscured my identity, not that it mattered that much. The pads kept me from incurring serious injuries outside of gunfire.
My weapon of choice was usually whatever was handy. Mostly old pipes and boards. More often than not I fell back on my martial arts training from the academy.
That night though, there was something strange in the air. I walked out of the alley where I left the cons, and he was just...there. Under a street light across the road dressed in a trench coat and a fedora and masked in a silhouette. He motioned for me to approach.
I did, can't say why. But I did. His collar was popped, further obscuring his face. He greeted me with my full name. Something almost nobody knew.
My attention was firmly his. He continued to speak. His voice undercut with paranoia. His tone barely reached above a whisper. Occasionally he started mumbling things completely unrelated to the subject at hand before jumping back on topic. That topic being my career as a vigilante.
I told him that I was doing the best I could and that I had other objectives as well. He seemed sympathetic and claimed he could help me in exchange for working cases for him.
He then baited me with the first clue on the Batman's disappearance. Only I never mentioned Batman.
Turns out he was a shiftier bastard than he ever let on. Pretty impressive considering his introduction. We never spoke face to face after our first encounter. Every time I changed my phone number, he somehow knew it without me telling him. When he gave me information for a case he wanted me on, it was more like the first bread crumb in a long trail.
It was annoying but I guess he believed I could figure it out. They were good exercises and he helped me along my main case.
Most of the evidence had been eroded away by time. I only found a few bullet holes and burn marks. But I was able to piece together a violent, but contained struggle. Among the leftovers was something small, something the average person would easily miss. It was a rusting "Batarang," a bat shaped throwing star essentially.
They were one of Batman's calling cards. One of the rarer ones actually. But it was proof that Batman was here. He was struggling with someone throughout the docks. Grenade fragments here scorch marks there.
Now I had traded in my hoody for a racing jacket I had found. It was black with a blue stripe across the chest. I installed some metal plates in the chest for added protection. I added a slim domino mask to the mix to hide my identity. And at last I had put together a path to the area where Batman had most likely ended up with the help of my contact.
I was sailing to where that path led me. Southeast Asia. It took some digging but I learned that a single ship left the Gotham's docks not long after the fighting stopped. It cleared the port with barely any paperwork. I had traced its route all the way to the South China Sea before it just disappeared.
That ship was the key. Yeah I had a lot of ground to cover. But there was one port of call that my contact recommended. A city in Thailand called...
"Roanapur? Are you out of your fucking mind kid!" a middle aged Filipino man shouted at me. I had smuggled myself from Gotham all the way to the Philippines. There I met this fellow in a bar near the Manila docks.
"Yes, I'm seeking passage to Roanapur," I repeated. He was supposed to be one of the greatest smugglers in the region. Yet he was acting like I asked for the moon.
He put his hand down on the table. "Listen kid, had you come five years ago I'd have tacked on an extra grand to a oneway ticket. But today I wouldn't go near that city if God himself came down and told me to," the captain simply stated.
I straightened up. "Why not?" I asked. The captain leaned in close and looked me in the eye.
"Because of the damn Russians. About five years ago they started ripping the city apart for no real reason. Things are still hot between the Ruskies and the Triad. Place is a damn war zone," he whispered.
That was it. The Russians captured Batman in Gotham and were taking him to their base for some reason when he escaped! Not wanting to let him escape, they destroyed the city looking for him. I bet he was still there causing them havoc! I couldn't help but wonder if my contact knew about this ahead of time.
Well it was time to bring Batman home. I was simply too small to defend Gotham on my own. We need our hero back. "Please, I need to get there," I pleaded. The captain sighed.
"I'll give you a discount ticket out of pity for your suicidal dream to Bangkok and get you in touch with someone who knows the best overland route. But I sure as hell ain't sailing there," the captain declared.
He was adamant about not going there. I rubbed my temples. The place sounded extremely dangerous but there was enough there worth investigating.
"Very well, what's your price?" I whispered.
"For you, two hundred American up front," the captain offered. I nodded.
"When do we sail?" I asked.
"Tomorrow at dawn. Be at berth six with my money."
I nodded in agreement and stood up. Two hundred dollars! That was dipping deep into my cash reserves. But I was too close to worry about that now.
Soon I popped out of a box in a Bangkok warehouse to find an young man waiting for me. He was my guide to the city of Roanapur. Bangkok was alive as we stepped out onto the streets. My guide got me through a few police check points and we were on our way. He was silent through the city, but relaxed once we were in the countryside.
"Why do you go to Roanapur?" he asked as we cruised along in an old Jeep.
"I'm looking for someone," I answered. What would be the point of lying.
The guide laughed. "Roanapur isn't a city you go looking for someone," he said. "Unless you are a cop."
He turned to me. "Are you a cop?"
I shook my head. "No, I'm not a cop."
"Then why go to Roanapur?"
"Like I said, I'm looking for a...a friend," I repeated.
"I hate to say it, but your friend is most likely dead."
"The Russian thing, I heard. But my friend is a bit tougher than the usual person," I countered. The guided skeptically nodded.
"Your friend must be insane, hiding in Roanapur."
"Probably," I agreed.
The rest of our trip was nothing but small talk and by the end of the week, we had made it. A noose hung at the start of the bridge that led to the city. Law and order stopped there.
Roanapur was a legend even in the underworld. When my contact first informed me of the city, I had a hard time verifying its existence. The internet failed to have anything more than a few cryptic posts. Most of the crooks I interrogated recognized the name to some degree but called it a dream. But here it was: the heart of darkness.
The streets smelled of death and booze. Gunfire echoed all around, mixing with a dozen or so languages and accents. Several buildings looked like they were bombed out and apartment complexes appeared more like brick fortresses. Several burned out cars lined the streets.
Two other cars came screaming in from around the corner. They were heatedly exchanging bullets. I moved off to the side to evade the stray shots. One of them spun out and crashed into a building.
I pulled out the old Batarang and clenched it in my fist. Now was the time to get to work.
To Be Continued...
A/N: Hello and welcome to Knighthood. To anyone new to me or my work, this is a sequel to Nightfall. I'd recommend checking that out first, but you are welcome to proceed and you can always ask me a question about what's going on or what a character is referencing. Grant it I will point you to read Nightfall and/or quote it.
While previously my goal was to go over some of the things that bothered me about the modern view of Batman, this time I'm going to focus on legacy. Legacy is one of those fundamental human characteristics that we spend literally our fretting over to one degree or another. Legacy is universal and very broad so there will be a lot of ground to cover. The other goal is about the rise of heroes in an age that seems unfit for heroes.
You might just see some familiar faces, but because I'm using the Dark Knight Trilogy they might be a little different than their proper counter parts. So don't expect magic and full blown superpowers is what I'm saying. I know, I'm disappointed too. But think of this as a sort of thought exercise in how people would respond to something like Batman showing up.
This is part one of the opening Blitz so please read on.
Until next time, now there is a god {a god we've all forgotten}
