Scarlett was stuck with Commissioner Gordon in the back of a semi loaded with a thermo-nuclear bomb. The only thing preventing it from going off was a device that Gordon had attached to the bomb that blocked radio waves. She hoped that batteries kept working.
But then the nuke was going to explode in a few minutes anyway no matter what they did.
This was No Man's Island, Gotham City, and Scarlett wondered how she had gotten them into this.
Oh, yeah! It was a unique visit.
Philip Provost was back doing P.I. work for attorney Charlie Talltree, and she was working freelance as an analyst with the CIA, FBI, DHS, and any agency willing to meet her terms. Occasionally she would do favors for old friends. No more of that!
The old man's story sounded absurd. The man in the facemask who looked like Croc Master, sounded like Destro, and had the megalomania of the Commander himself had pulled off an engineering feet to make Firefly proud. According to Mr. Pennyworth, Bane had belonged to a mysterious ninja clan known as the League of Shadows. Scarlett knew something of mysterious ninjas.
"It was the exact day that Bane cut Gotham off from the rest of the world. I suspect Master Wayne was on the island," he mused.
Shana interjected, "Do you think he is still alive?"
"He shouldn't be," the old man retorted, "but he does have a propensity for survival."
Philip coughed and everyone knew he was about to ask an uncomfortable question. They had come to establish the date of Mr. Wayne's most recent disappearance and determine the exact date that his heir, the butler inherits what's left of the estate.
"I know the police have already looked into this, and I'm sorry for having to ask. But for clerical reasons, I have to ask…"
Alfred interrupted, "Would someone aware of a rich young billionaire's eccentric behavior take advantage of his habit of disappearing? Without a shred of evidence, I have to say that I could not. But the only way to know for sure is to find Mr. Wayne. And even if you do, I will probably live with the tabloid conspiracy theories for the rest of my life."
When they left the mansion, Scarlett received the fateful phone call. She looked at it as she sat in the passenger seat. Philip started the car and began to pull out.
"It's Kim," she announced and answered the call.
"Thanks for the help, Shana, your information was right on the money." Kim was working as an auditor in a Fortune five-hundred company in San Francisco and had asked Shana for help tracking down information on a suspect who had been embezzling money. "It turned out he was handing the money over to a terrorist group in Indonesia using some of his old Cobra connections."
The man had been a Siegie in Cobra many years before. With the fall of Cobra he had found other groups who felt as he did-that somehow America was the great scourge of the world.
Kim continued, "We handed him over to DHS, but not without some broo-ha-ha. I guess he thought he could take me."
Shana laughed, "Now he knows otherwise."
"How is Snakeyes?" Kim asked now with genuine concern.
"Better, Doc's nursed him back to health. Some of the guys, and my brother all came up and shored up that drafty cabin."
"Electricity?"
"No, still no electricity. I'll be back home tomorrow."
"You're not at the cabin, what's going on?"
"I'm with Philip outside of Gotham. He's working for Charlie Talltree now and wanted my take on the disappearance of a billionaire playboy. We were talking to his butler."
"The butler did it!" joked Kim.
"No, but he does know more than he's letting on. And he seems to know a lot. He had some ideas about Gotham," Shana explained.
"Like what?"
"Remember a few years ago when the Batman first came on the scene, and Gotham went crazy?"
"Yeah, I remember, there were lots of rumors, some of them very sinister."
"Well, it seems that the butler believes this Bane is related to the League of Shadows."
Silence.
Scarlett continued, "He's on some kind of quest to finish what was started several years ago. Kim-Jinx? Is everything okay?"
"Have you told Snakeyes this yet?" Jinx said with concern.
Scarlett hesitated, afraid to ask, "Why?"
"If you don't want him involved, don't tell him what you just told me." Scarlett regretted not taking her advice.
Scarlett sighed, "We've already been discussing this, but what does this League of Shadows have to do with Snakeyes?"
"I won't say. That's for Snakeyes to tell you if you wish to risk it. But I will tell you two things, the Gotham thing will end soon-one way or another. Second, my cousin will be involved."
Scarlett sighed again and closed the phone and her eyes at the thought.
Her mind continued, "What's wrong, Red?" Philip asked.
"I don't think Charlie will have to wait long to find out about Mr. Wayne. Take me to the airport, and stay away from Gotham." She said no more.
At least Chuckles was smart enough to take my advice.
Dojo, Djbang and Nunchuck had been the first to arrive. They did not keep their presence a secret for long.
Bane sat in city hall as if the king in his palace. The city was in the chaos that Ra's had wanted, and that Talia had brought to fruition. The city's decadence had been unleashed and those who had for so long coddled it, and nurtured it, now hid in fear. The city would tear itself apart and once it reached the point that there appeared to be no more hope, it would all end.
Only Talia, Bane, and the handful of Shadow members present knew that the explosion was eminent. They had kept this to themselves. There was no escape plan. Talia did not want to live in a world without her father, and Bane did not want to live in a world without her.
It was just a matter of weeks now and it would all be over. The world would see the demise of Gotham and then be forced to root out crime and injustice. More importantly for Talia, her father would be avenged-and with his murderer watching the entire event and helpless to stop it.
Bane had little contact with Talia. She served as his informant among the city's elites. They had stopped a special forces attempt to communicate with the elites because she had tipped him off. Now it seemed nothing could stop them.
"Bane, there is something you should see!" The speaker was one of the criminal thugs Bane had used to capture the city.
Bane was not given to speaking impetuously so he followed the man. There was a man lain on the steps of city hall, bound and gagged. He was alive and relatively unhurt to be in such circumstances.
Bane recognized that it was one of his Shadows. Bane untied the gag and released the man who instantly pulled a hat off his head. He leaned down so that Bane could see the top.
There, painted on the man's head were a series of broken lines. Bane recognized them immediately. This was a game-changer. The Arashikage were in Gotham.
hey weren't heroes like the police or the special forces operatives he had executed. They would not in the least be interested in protecting the lives of Gothamites. They
were only interested in revenge, and they could dish it out.
Several of Bain's henchmen walked into the room and grabbed the women. Lucius and several others tried to stop them, but to no avail.
His throne room was empty. Bane and Talia were alone. She knew that he would only bring her if something were serious. They had thought of everything.
"I am so glad to be apart from that rabble for a few minutes."
"I know this has been difficult, but we have a new problem."
"We only have a few weeks and that bomb will explode. What is the problem?"
He showed her a sheet of paper that was put against the ninja's forehead which reflected the Arashikage symbol. She cocked her head to the side, turned and guffawed.
"Even if they defeat us, the world will come to realize that the Arashikage are to blame for the city's explosion. You must change your rhetoric to be willing to end the occupation. Allow interviews, even be cordial to emissaries sent by the US, or the UN, or whomever may try to mediate. In this way, we can create a kind of global Stockholm Syndrome, where the world will come to love us, and hate the Arashikage. If they do, they will hunt every last one of them down," Talia said her mind working in a fury. "They will be the villains, and you will be reasonable.
"It seems to me that we might release the 'Expert'. I think he wasn't planning on dying with us, and wants to leave. He may be just the person to assure that the Arashikage clan is completely eliminated. I had planned just to let the petty criminal die with the rest of us, but now I think otherwise," she added. "He is now of more use to us alive. Get him off the island."
The 'Expert'. He was the mysterious man who had done much of the technical planning when it came to blowing the bridges and isolating the city from the mainland. He was a regular on the black market and had some pretty impressive credentials when it came to his craft.
What was even more impressive was his knowledge of the Arashikage. For a petty saboteur, he knew some very intimate details from within the secret clan. It was his information that led to the decision for the Bane to remain silent on his link to Ra's and the Shadows. Now, somehow, that info was out.
The 'Expert' appeared before Bane. "I thought you said the Arashikage were no threat to us," rehearsed Bane.
Firefly responded, "They aren't, unless they know who you are-Oh, so their here."
"Yes, they're here, but they won't complicate things."
"Oh, but they might," Firefly interjected. "Do you know which group is here? I am not dumb, I understand you plan to blow up the island. If Snakeyes and his ninja's are here, then to fulfill your plan you should trigger the bomb now, but know this-The Arashikage will outlive the League of Shadows. If Stormshadow is here, he will not care. Either way, they live on."
"How many men in each group?"
"I do not know."
"Well it's your lucky day, since you know of them, you will be allowed to leave the island on one condition."
"I'm not sure I like this idea."
"You must lead the hunt against the Arashikage."
Blackwater had been like living in a vacuum. Napier had felt suffocated in the prison, but now he felt free. He breathed the air of the fulfillment of his every desire, and this Bane had been the man who had opened the door for him. Jack withheld no pleasure or possession from himself. It was the Gotham he was meant for. It was his world.
He was on patrol keeping an eye out for police, or any that would try to force Bane's hand. The only flaw to Napier's new world was the nuke, and he wanted to preserve this world. Napier had heard reports of activity down by the Exchange and he went down to check it out.
Before Bane, he would have been afraid to go out alone carrying an automatic weapon, but without the Batman, he had no fear. It was his city, he deserved it.
He heard some racket and followed the sound into an alley. He heard something hit the ground. He had a sense of déjà vu. It was an alley just like this where the Batman had interrupted him in a robbery. He rolled his eyes and had a sense of dread. He fired his weapon into the air and hit nothing. Then he felt the thud.
His next site was of a group of police officers standing over him and a handful of others tied and seated. Napier knew he was once again in the hands of the police. This time the jail was a sewer. He had some pleasure in knowing that this had been the cops prison for some time. Napier thought about the nuke, and took some comfort in the thought that if he died, so would these self-righteous cops and those hypocritical law-abiding citizens of Gotham.