John Blake turned on the television. It was nice to turn off his phone, kick his feet up, and relax. No watch tonight. The only watching I'm doing is this tube.

He flicked through the first few channels, skipping a cop show, not tonight, a reality show with a bunch of rich wives, and then settling on a stand-up comedy hour. Not 30 seconds into it, a newscaster commandeered the screen.

"We'll get back to the program you were previously watching, folks. But we have a breaking news story."

Blake watched the feed from the live crew flying high above the heights of Gotham City, blazed with lights on all of the office buildings in the cityscape. The helicopter feed then shown a spotlight on what looked to be Fifth and Elm Street, searching for something. A dark shadow whizzed through the light, going what looked to be 100 miles per hour. The spotlight redirected and showed a fleet of blue and red lights chasing after the shadow, sirens blazing bloody murder.

"Shit," said Blake. He turned on his phone. "Damn, 17 voice messages." He clicked the first one.

The phone blared. "I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOUR PROBLEM IS ROOKIE. TURN ON YOUR DAMN PHONE! WE'RE GOING AFTER THE BATMAN!"


Batman slammed on the brakes of his Batpod and made a dangerously tight turn onto Fifth. Oncoming traffic, that should thin out the herd. He weaved from the path of a taxi that changed lanes at an intersection, almost hitting a sedan trying to make a left turn on red. "Alfred, I need to lose these guys."

The British butler was heard in his earpiece. "You should know by now, Mister Wayne, that's not my expertise."

"And?"

"You should know to take Woodward to Main, or is your mind slipping again?"

Maybe that's it. "Well I've never been surrounded by 40 cop cars at once Alfred."

Up ahead though, a police barricade blocked Woodward. How was this set up? "Woodward's blocked."

"Then take lower 5th, Master Wayne, rejoin with Maple then Main. C'mon, you really should know this, as many years you've been doing what you do."

Batman geared up the Batpod and streaked down the ramp to the lower streets, shielded from the sky above. A bat in a tunnel. A dead end.

Three police cruisers deep blocked the way north, towards Wayne Manor. Batman flipped a switch on his handlebars, which sent two rockets screaming towards the cruisers. The farthest one flipped end-over-end to clear a path. The three cops manning the vehicles continued to fire on the fleeing shadow and tried to pursue. Once they maneuvered their vehicles out of the steel inferno, the Bat had already made it to the Palisades.