Batman: The Dark Knight Before Christmas
Part 1: The First Freeze of Winter By Matthew B. CoatesAll was calm, and all was bright throughout the streets of the metropolis spread out below. However, this is rarely the case for a city such as Gotham, which in recent decades has become more familiar than most with the late-night echoes of criminal activity, police sirens, and speeding ambulances running throughout the city. Yet on this night, as the Batman is perched upon his stone gargoyle looking down on the city he's sworn to protect – all that can be heard is the light gust of wind carrying the first flakes of snow into Gotham.
Motionless, he crouches waiting for the first sign of trouble so that he may take his instinctive leap and run towards the danger, as he does night in and night out. This was often the hardest part of the night – the waiting… The combination of hope that Gotham may actually have one full quiet night to rest, along with the anticipation that if his focus drifts away, even in the slightest, it may give his enemies an edge that he can't afford to lose. Luckily for the Batman, he was raised as Bruce Wayne – son to renowned doctor Thomas Wayne. Growing up, Bruce learned early on the values of patience and focus as his father would teach him basic medical terminology and healing practices. To many kids this would sound a boring and tedious task, but to Bruce it meant everything in the world; while Bruce wasn't sure if he wanted to grow up to be a doctor, he did know that he wanted to find some way to help people when he grew up – just like his father. And just as the Batman's focus was starting to slip upon these memories of his father, he was awakened by the sound from the old Gotham Clock Tower as its bells began to chime across the city. Just as the clock tower finished its twelfth ring, noise was once again brought back into the night as the bells' echoes filled the night over the red and green trimmed streets of Gotham below.
"Well sir, it's now after midnight – shall I be the first to wish you a merry Christmas Eve? Or has one of our late-night perps already beaten me to the punch?" piped up the familiar voice of Alfred Pennyworth from the radio in Batman's ear.
"Nothing yet, Alfred. It's been a silent night thus far, but I'm not counting Gotham's luck until morning," said Batman regaining his focus as he peered across the city.
"Might I remind you sir, that even criminals take off the night to enjoy the holidays from time to time. Perhaps you might think to do the same; call it an early night to get some rest before the Wayne Foundation Christmas event tomorrow night," said Alfred.
"Only a few more hours until sunrise -" Batman began, just before he was interrupted by a direct transmission on his wrist gauntlet from the Batcomputer. "Looks like I'll be busy tonight after all, Alfred – there was a break-in at the new Johns & Huffam Laboratory," continued Batman. "Looks like the alarm sent out a short distress call, but was immediately deactivated – I'm going to check it out now."
And within an instant, Batman leaped down from his observation post to descend upon the city below with his cape rattling in the wind behind him as he fell. Once at a sufficient velocity, he jolted his arms out from his body, grasping the edges of his cape, and propelled back upward as he progressed into a glide over the streets of Gotham. This…this was the moment that he lived for – the rush of adrenaline coursing through his veins as he flew above the streets of the city that he treasured. In this moment, he felt at one with the city as if he could see all the citizens that he fought for like the guardian in the night that he strived to be. Beginning to lose altitude, Batman reached to his utility belt for his Grappling Gun and shot towards the top of the buildings to his right in order rise himself back high into the air before he dipped down too close to the Christmas lights of the streets. For several more blocks, Batman progressed to grapple and glide between buildings and above the streets until he finally approached the laboratory; at which point, he quickly climbed to the top of the nearby water tower for the best vantage point of the building's shipping docks below.
Standing tall upon the water tower, Batman suddenly started to feel the cold settle in as Gotham's first freeze of the year reached its darkest hour in the middle of the night. He observed the scene below through the slight cloud that arose from his own warm breath, exposed through the opening in his cowl. Initially, nothing looked too out of the ordinary for a midnight caper in Gotham – two empty vans parked by the shipping dock with no security guards in sight. In order to get a closer look at the scene, Batman then shot his Grapple Gun across the street to the top of the lab and swung down to the ground – landing in a rollout which placed him precisely at the back doors of the farthest van from the lab entrance. He listened quietly for a few seconds and still heard no sound – clearly these criminals weren't intelligent enough to leave a lookout outside… Peering around the corner, Batman spotted his first clue as the other van seemed to show several modifications with extra pipes and exhausts underneath it. Batman slowly progressed towards the van and examined the modifications to be some sort of extensive cooling system, meant to keep all cargo in the back of the van at sub-zero temperatures.
"Alfred - can you run a search on Johns & Huffam Lab to see what research they are currently working on?" asked Batman over his radio.
In a matter of seconds, Alfred's voice responded over the radio, "The lab's primary area of research is synthetic pharmaceuticals, and they were recently awarded the esteemed Belle research grant for their work in combating degenerative illnesses."
"Hmm… it may be possible that some of the compounds they are working with would require cold storage," stated Batman, "but that doesn't explain why only one of the vans would have the cooling system."
Following this quick exchange, Batman continued towards the large bay doors of the docks until he could begin to hear the murmurs coming from the other side. To investigate this disturbance further, Batman then launched his Grapple Gun yet again to the top of the building and ascended upwards until he reached the roof. Before fully climbing his way to the roof, Batman glanced over the ledge to confirm again that the criminals had missed another critical lookout position. Batman made his way towards the skylights of the laboratory, and looked down through the fogged windows to make out the shape of four shadows patrolling the lab's open layout interior. Batman discretely opened one of the skylight windows and entered the ceiling rafters of the lab, so that he could now hear the words being murmured by the patrolling shadows below.
"This is ridiculous; we couldn't have picked any other night to pull this job?" said an irritated voice below.
"Maybe you should speak up then – share a piece of your mind with the boss," said another voice, whose tone was beginning to show a sense of mild annoyance.
"You kidding?!" exclaimed the first voice in a loud whisper. "Did you see what he did to that security guard? The man was terrified; probably still frozen in that tiny closet!"
"Unless you wanna join him, then I recommend you keep your mouth shut," said the second voice calmly.
"How about you all shut up," commanded a third voice in an authoritative voice. "Think I might have heard something, and we don't want to let the boss get interrupted while he's getting the data we came for."
"Wait a minute…you don't think it's the Batman do you?!" said the first voice with a hint of fear. At that same moment in the shadows of the rafters above, a slight smirk began to emerge on Batman's face as he could already sense that fear had begun to enter the room below. Early in his crimefighting days, Batman had learned how valuable a tool that fear could be – that it was effectively a virus, that once it had made its way into the atmosphere, it continued to spread until all those around had become infected and weak.
"Can't have been the Batman; he's one of the 'good guys' – all the good guys are home with their families tonight," casually remarked a fourth voice from across the lab. "Why do you think the boss, chose tonight? No Batman, and he knew security would be light."
"Jacob – what are you doing?!" barked the third voice from the lofted stairway above, "You were supposed to be the lookout outside!"
"Relax…just came in to use the bathroom – on my way back out there now," said the fourth voice calmly.
"Better hurry it up then, or else you'll have to answer to Freeze yourself if things go south," directed the third voice.
With that last statement, Batman had heard all he needed to in order to confirm his theory that Mr. Freeze (a.k.a. Victor Fries) was behind this. Everything added up: the cooling system on the lone van for his personal transport, breaking into a lab to steal research on degenerative illnesses (such as the one that cursed his dear Nora), the security guard "frozen with fear" in the closet, and the subtle fact that Batman did not start to truly notice the cold temperatures until he had gotten close to the lab as if Mr. Freeze had left some sort of cold trail which effected the surrounding environment. Having gained all the necessary intel, Batman now set about developing his plan of attack on the enemies below. From previous encounters with Mr. Freeze, Batman had already calculated that the security guard had maybe 15 minutes before the affects of Mr. Freeze's Cold Gun would become fatal – so he knew he would have to move fast.
"Alfred, Mr. Freeze is behind the robbery – he's looking for research that may assist him with the cure for his wife," stated Batman quietly into his radio. "It appears on the way in, that he has frozen the security guard and trapped him in a closet – put in a call with the GCPD and request that they bring emergency medical help immediately. I'll begin to move in now."
"I've sent out the distress call to GCPD," replied Alfred after a slight pause. "Judging by the radio chatter I'm picking up, I expect they should arrive in about 10 minutes."
"Plenty of time," sneered Batman as he began to make his way across the rafters towards the fourth guard who was heading alone towards the docking bay doors. Just as the guard reached for the door handle, Batman swooped down from the rafters in a silent burst of speed and grappled the guard into a headlock. The guard put up a short struggle, but Batman's armlock around the neck was just strong enough to prevent him from shouting for help before he passed out in a matter of seconds. Batman then continued to move along shadows on the edge of the lab towards the lofted walkway, where the third (and likely most lethal) guard was pacing with his assault rifle in hand. From observing the posture of the guard, Batman speedily deduced that he had a very poor back and that the approximate 15-foot fall from the walkway would be sufficient to take him down for the count. While remaining in the shadows, Batman had a perfect angle to launch a Batarang with enough force to make the fall - however, the fall would surely be loud enough to attract the attention of the remaining two guards… Unfortunately, time was of the essence so Batman decided that the tradeoff between time and stealth was necessary to bring this fight to a halt in time to get the guard the medical attention he needed. With that thought in mind, Batman reached from his utility belt and threw a Batarang with a high velocity which struck the guard right in the back of the head. The force of the blow worked as intended, as the guard momentarily stumbled before tipping over the railing and falling onto a lab station below – from Batman's analysis, likely 2 broken ribs, a sprained ankle, and countless bruises. The noise of the fall was clearly heard by the remaining two guards, who swiftly turned back-to-back in a defensive formation with their guns at the ready.
"George! You alright?" called out one of the remaining guards.
"Forget him, kid," said the other guard, "looks like we got our own problem to deal with – clearly, we aren't alone here."
"Jacob!" shouted the younger guard in a panic over his radio. "I think we got a situation in here – fall back in!" The silence echoed throughout the lab, as no response was given.
"So that's two down, and barely a sound has been made…" said the calmer, more experienced guard, "looks like you got your Christmas wish – the Batman made it out tonight after all."
"Oh sh*t, oh sh*t, oh sh*t" rattled the young guard under his breath.
"Boss, we got trouble – got to get a move on!" called out the other guard across the lab.
"Just wrapping up, I'll be joining you momentarily," echoed a strong, deep voice from the office in the corner.
During the slight pause in action, Batman had once again ascended back up into the rafters and watched from above as the two guards continued back-to-back, turning left-to-right as they tried to stand guard and remain alert for any sign of movement around them. Batman once again reached into his utility belt and pulled out a handful of smoke pellets in order to make the distraction for his final assault. He threw the pellets towards the ground in the general area of the guards and just when the smoke started to rise, Batman then jumped down into the artificial fog. The young guard looked up into the rafters and began firing his rifle rapidly and carelessly at the large bat-shaped shadow that was descending upon him. Easily dodging the spray of misguided bullets, Batman landed between the two guards and immediately executed a leg sweep to knock both of them down to the floor. The more experienced guard reached out his hand to try to grab his gun, but Batman grabbed him by the ankle and pulled him back a few feet from it and stomped on his hand – thus ensuring that even if he were to reach the gun later, he certainly would not be able to pull the trigger. Refusing to concede just yet, the guard began to slowly crawl back on his feet and made a run at Batman hoping to catch him off-guard with this last act of fearlessness. Focused and prepared for the retaliatory attack, Batman sidestepped the running tackle effortlessly and swung a swift elbow to the back of the guard's head to finish him off in quick fashion. Knowing that the other young guard was still not incapacitated, Batman turned around to face his next foe but was instead met with a surprise – the guard was down on his knees, holding his gun up to Batman like an offering.
"I surrender…please, just let me go home – it's Christmas Eve, can you please just let me go home," the young guard pleaded. For a slight moment, Batman was actually moved – this was just another one of the kids from the Narrows, pulled into the criminal underworld in order to make any money he could to survive. Just as Batman was about to speak to the troubled youth, he was interrupted by the loud clanking of metallic boots and a rapid flurry of cold, wind, and ice.
"You really can't find good help anymore – especially around the holidays," said Mr. Freeze coldly as he approached the newly created ice sculpture that was the young guard. "Quite pathetic really; turned over like a coward at the first sign of trouble."
"You didn't need to do that Freeze, he was just a kid…a kid that you shouldn't have even pulled into this mess in the first place," said Batman through his gritted teeth.
"True, but he insisted," stated Mr. Freeze matter-of-factly. "You know kids, these days – always in a rush to prove themselves. And quite frankly, all the normal hired guns were busy tonight and I needed the extra manpower; couldn't skip an opportunity like tonight."
The two opponents stood approximately 10 feet apart, carefully watching the other – waiting to see who would make the first move. Again, Batman began to observe the way in which Mr. Freeze's suit and Cold Gun had impacted the atmosphere as the air grew colder and ice was beginning to form across the lab floor. Already being pressed for time to ensure the Cold Gun victims would be able get their required medical attention, Batman also understood that he would have to end the fight fast before his muscles began to tense up and slow him down. At that moment, Batman then launched himself into a full charge at Mr. Freeze in an attempt to knock him off his feet; however, in this case, it was Mr. Freeze who was prepared as he quickly drew his Cold Gun and hit Batman with an icy blast on his shoulder. Thrown off balance by the hit that he had taken, Batman began to lose footing on the slick floor and stumbled right into the fist of Mr. Freeze which knocked him back into several stacked boxes of medical supplies. The first mistake of the night – even in a rushed encounter, Batman knew he should have shown more patience than that.
Shaking off the debris, Batman stood back to his feet and stared down his opponent to analyze what weakness he should attempt to capitalize on. Mr. Freeze had made some updates to his cryogenic suit since their previous encounter, thus taking out the possibility of exploiting the same weaknesses as Batman as has done before. As Batman was analyzing, Mr. Freeze fired another blast from his Cold Gun but this time Batman was ready as he shifted out of the way by rolling behind another nearby stack of medical supplies. While crouching, he could hear the metallic boots reverberating echoes throughout the lab as Mr. Freeze was advancing towards him. Once Batman heard his footsteps reaching within 3 feet of him, he threw another handful of smoke pellets on the ground to provide cover as he used his other hand to shoot his Grapple Gun and ascend back up into the rafters to gather more time for a strategy.
Knowing that Mr. Freeze's suit allowed for thermal tracking capabilities, Batman understood that this smoke tactic would only buy him a few extra seconds – but that was all the time he would need. Observing the scene below as Mr. Freeze was regaining his sense of orientation, Batman noticed a small exhaust port on the back shoulder of Mr. Freeze's suit – dispensing some of the cold CO2 emissions from his helmet, thus explaining the suit's new freezing effect on the nearby atmosphere. If Batman were to cut off this exhaust port's access to the air, then this would compromise Mr. Freeze's ability to breath.
Having developed his new plan of attack, Batman once again dropped to the ground just behind Mr. Freeze and discretely covered the exhaust port with an adhesive gel from his utility belt. In the time it took for Batman to apply the adhesive seal, Mr. Freeze had turned around to launch another armored fist into Batman's gut which sent him rolling backward several feet. With the adhesive applied, Batman now had to keep Mr. Freeze moving – the more he breathed, the quicker the CO2 exposure would knock him out. Batman took off in a sprint along the edge of the lab as Mr. Freeze dispersed several blasts from his Cold Gun in a spinning flurry as he tried to catch the speeding opponent in the shadows. Some shots came close, but after a few moments they became much further from their target as Mr. Freeze was starting to feel the disorientation from the excess CO2. At the first sign of a cough, Batman then launched his Grapple Gun to the rafters and swung into Mr. Freeze with a flying kick which sent him across the lab floor. Batman approached the now unconscious Mr. Freeze and thrust a Batarang into the glass of the helmet in order to create a small opening for the CO2 to exit the suit once again.
Completing his mission and stopping the break-in, Batman turned his attention towards finding the closet in which the frozen security guard was being held. In near perfect timing, Batman had found the guard in the utility closet at the north-end of the lab just as the GCPD were storming into the building. Leading the charge of police officers was none other than the GCPD Commissioner, Jim Gordon. Batman met with his old friend and ally to disclose the details of the break-in, before he took off once again into the night to see what else the city of Gotham had to offer up for the night.
Compared to the encounter with Mr. Freeze at Johns & Huffam Lab, the rest of the night turned out to be quite uneventful with only 2 carjacking attempts before Batman returned home to Wayne Manor sometime between three and four o'clock in the morning. Changing out of his Batsuit and once again taking on the civilian identity of Bruce Wayne, he exited the Batcave through the manor's study to go to his bedroom for his limited allowance of sleep prior to early morning training. However, before Bruce could make it out of his study, his eye caught a glimpse of the family portrait of himself with his parents, Thomas and Martha Wayne. His mind started to reminisce upon the too few Christmases that they had shared together, and how much he had missed them both – most of all during this time of the year… Unsure of how long he had been lost in thought, Bruce was awakened to reality as his friend and butler, Alfred, had entered the room.
"The holidays are a time for family, Master Bruce," said Alfred fondly as he gazed up at the portrait. "Having served this wonderful family for many years, I can assure you that I miss them very much as well."
"They had given so much to this city – just a shame they aren't here for the time of year when all of Gotham shares belief in that same sense of generosity and hope," observed Bruce sullenly.
"And that generosity they showed towards Gotham still continues to this day, sir," stated Alfred. "After all, it was your father who used the Wayne Foundation to start the annual Christmas Charity Gala which will take place tomorrow evening. As you'll be hosting, might I suggest that you get some rest before the imminent sunrise?"
Bruce nodded in agreement and made his way up to his bedroom to adjourn for the night. Walking into the room, Bruce put out the fireplace which Alfred had lit earlier in the evening to warm the room. Crawling into bed, Bruce then dozed off into a pleasant sleep as he dreamt about the last Christmas he spent with his parents as they put up their tree together as a family.