(^v^) - switch to Batman Perspective (*) - switch to protagonists view.
Just a quick note, this is the first fan fiction I'm seeing through. Please review even if its just to say it's shit.
Prologue
The air was cold on the face of the Dark Knight. He sat there perched surveying the city, which was quiet, well as quiet as Gotham can be, but quiet nonetheless. None of the major players were in the game tonight, but a city the size of Gotham can never be crime free. Not even on a Sunday evening. Batman looked down at the people walking happily along the streets. Citizens from all walks of life strolled along the streets. The young and the old, the rich and the poor. People running to get somewhere important, and some people just breathing in the cool, crisp November air and enjoying the feeling of relaxed peacefulness. This would have been comforting to Batman usually. Maybe it was paranoia, maybe it was experience. But he knew it couldn't last.
"It's awfully qui.."
"Yes, Robin, I know."
Jason Todd, the second Robin, stared at Batman for a few seconds before sighing and shrugging. Bruce was a kind man usually but while wearing the cowl he seemed to grow cold, callous even, and Jason didn't like it. But before he could say anything he heard the familiar sound of leaking gas.
Batman smiled, a sad ironic smile that was close to a grimace, he knew the peace couldn't last. Not in Gotham.
"Robin, let's go."
(*)
"Awwww, baby! I'm so proud of you"
"Thanks, Jelly Belly"
The young couple walked along the pavement giggling. The girl shoving him before cuddling back in at his side.
"Don't call me that!" she said as she laughed " Two years though! I'm so happy"
"I'm happy too" he said quietly
It had been two years since Alex Nuremberg had been released from Arkham Asylum, he was 19 now and had kept himself completely out of trouble, thanks to Jenni his girlfriend of two years. He was just a simple watchmaker, a lost art in the modern age, especially for a man as young as himself. Besides from his profession he was now completely unremarkable. He was about six feet tall, maybe less. He was average in build. He was handsome with his faded green eyes and perfect white teeth, but not enough to draw attention. His brown hair was an average length in a style that was not uncommon in Gotham. All in all, he was a normal middle class Gothamite now, and that was how he liked it. Thanks to her
"Y'know Jenni, I've been thinking…"
"Oh, careful with that"
"Shut up, Jelly Belly," Alex laughed as he playfully poked her stomach. But then he held Jenni by the shoulders and looked into her eyes before dropping down to one knee.
"Jenni will you..""What's that noise?"
The wall of the Gotham Biomedical Research Facility exploded into tiny stone fragments knocking both of them off their feet. Jenni flew across the street, slamming into a wall which left slumping, near death on the pavement. Alex due to being on one knee was knocked against a nearby lamppost as gallons of chemicals washed against him.
(^v^)
Batman landed gracefully with Robin following suit. The wall of the GBRF had exploded knocking a young couple down. Batman activated his detective mode as he saw Two-face and multiple thugs, running through the hole they had created.
"We've got it, Boss, the last remaining dose of TITAN"
"Oh Fuck! It's the Bats and his little sidekick"
Robin was the first to fly into the fray, his cape flailing wildly behind him. Effortlessly leaping into the air, he disabled two of the thugs with the shotguns, landing a foot on both of their heads, sending them straight backwards into the hole in the wall they created. However one of the thugs had the hindsight to launch the TITAN to Two-face, who ran away from the battle between Robin and his thugs.
"Batman, I got this," Robin shouted in-between blows to Two Faces thugs " GET DENT!"
Batman gruffly nodded to his young ward, before taking down the street, but the young couple had caught his eye.
(*)
Alex was dazed, his eyes blurry, his head throbbing. Hey had lain there for close to five minutes, feeling all sorts of foul chemicals entering through his wounds, his eyes, his nose, his mouth. He could have lain there in oblivion had he not seen Jenni lying against the wall, blood dripping from her nose.
"Move..Alex"
He urged himself to move the voice in his head increasing in volume between each word, the chemicals making him numb while all his muscles burned with the fury of the sun.
"Move….Alex"
He clawed feebly at the ground, lifting his body slightly off the pavement. Before falling in a heap and spluttering, his coughing causing his full body to rattle but again he saw Jenni.
"Alex….MOVE."
She had seen him now, and he could see her. She desperately reached out to him, her arm trembling.
"ALEX, GET UP"
He roared pushing himself off the pavement and taking off in a run towards Jenni. He collapsed in a heap besides her.
"I don't think I'll make it Alex." she said quietly
"No Jenni you'll make it"
"Alex, Shhhhh…" she shushed him, quietly embracing her fate.
" You know…" she said
"What Jenni?" Alex said, fighting back his tears.
"I would have married you"
" I love you, Jenni"
"I…. love… you… too"
Jenni had breathed her last. Alex held her to his arms sobbing hysterically. He stared at her beautiful face which only minutes ago had been animated with laughter and now would never smile again. He looked up to see the carnage that ensued around him. His eyes were met by Batman's steel gaze.
(^v^)
Batman looked at the kid, he wanted to help him. But she was dead. He knew it and Batman knew it. Dent would come first, the TITAN was far too lethal to be in anyone's hands. Let alone Two-Faces.
"Save her…"
The boy's voice was so quiet that Batman couldn't be sure he heard it.
"Save her!"
(*)
"Save her!"
Alex was screaming at Batman, he needed him to do something, and he was just standing there. Why wouldn't he do anything? WHY WAS HE JUST STANDING THERE!
"SAVE HER, YOU FUCKING IDIOT!"
(^v^)
The boy wasn't going to listen, and Batman couldn't waste time trying to console him, not while Dent was escaping. She was dead. Batman looked into his eyes
(*)
"Sorry Kid"
Batman began to run after Two-Face. Run away from Alex. Run away from Jenni.
"Sorry Kid? SORRY KID?! DOES SORRY BRING HER BACK!?"
Alex released Jenni gently and stood up to face Batman. Tears running down his face. He became angry, very angry.
SNAP!
Alex lost everything he had worked for in the Asylum.
But that was okay, Jenni wouldn't see what he was going to become.
"I'm going to watch as the blood drips from your corpse Batman"
He just didn't care anymore, he had lost it. His anger, his hatred it all came back to him in a blaze of red. But the gears were spinning in his head. He could feel his body pulsing, his veins running with what felt like acid. This wasn't anger. Not as he had known it. But before he could think of this. He was confronted by a Two-Face thug.
"Cut the shit kid" He said as turned to Robin "Or I'll waste him"
Alex in a swift and brutal motion turned to face the thug and picked him up by the throat, the two hundred pound man felt like putty in his hands. He knew that he was stronger when he was angry, so was everyone, but this strength was unlike anything.
"Please man, I got a family!"
"I had a girlfriend, but you killed her with you're explosives"
"I'm sorry man, I.."
"You're apologizing to me! ME! Who has now lost everything? Well, for that I'll kill you quickly"
"NO, NO! NO!"
CRACK!
Alex snapped the man's neck like a twig. He tossed the man aside and began to run at Batman. The second his foot planted the ground he moved at near superhuman speeds, however his vision was in near slow motion. His muscles pulsed as he reached Batman and raised his fist swinging in an undisciplined and untrained swing.
SMACK!
Batman flew into a wall creating several large cracks in it.
(^v^)
Batman raised himself from the wall as dust and fragments of brick sprinkled on his head. That punch was beyond human capacity, not near the strength of Bane or Croc. But enough to kill him if not for his armour.
Robin, having despatched Two-face's thugs, jumped into the air and spun his heel going straight for Alex's jaw. Batman saw Alex's eyes change, their faded green becoming an almost neon colour. Alex glowed green ever so slightly and a thin veil of electricity surrounded him.
"ROBIN, NO!" Batman yelled
Robin's heel struck Alex's skull, but the layer of electricity discharged and travelled through the steel plate in his boot. Alex's head burst open as Robin flew backwards. Alex's eyes turned back to their faded green. Batman saw his opportunity and launched into a flurry of punches before ending with a roundhouse kick. Alex despite his newly found strength and speed was outmatched by Batman's superior martial arts and years of experience in fighting super humans. Alex fell to the ground unconscious with a look of mixed hatred and sadness in his eyes, but Batman had to time to worry about the newly christened murderer he had just defeated as Robin was still on the ground unable to stand up.
"Jason are you ok?"
"No, I can't feel my leg"
Batman's detective mode activated as he looked at Robin's biology. The green electricity, as well as providing a powerful impact and force to the leg, had travelled through Robin's nervous system and numbed his leg completely. The estimated recovery time would be four hours, too much to let it affect anyone again. Batman activated the Batmobile, which drove at a steady speed to his location. Tapping his right ear he activated the communicator which was linked to the Batcomputer and therefore Alfred, his trusty butler.
"Alfred, send an anonymous message to Commissioner Gordon, telling him to get down here. Then phone Arkham Asylum and tell them they're going to have a new prisoner. Alex Nuremberg." Batman said, reading the man's identification. "He should be put in a reinforced cell, with double sets of doors, and it should be insulated with rubber or a similar, non conductive compound"
"Did you fight a new superhuman sir?" Alfred replied, polite as always, even though he had raised Bruce since childhood.
"I'm not sure, I need you to find out what chemicals were being housed in the west wing of the Biomedical Research of Gotham. I'm going to have this kid observed and, if his symptoms persist, I'll make an antigen to remove them."
"Very well, Sir"
"Goodbye Alfred,"
"Goodbye Sir"
Bruce looked at Jason, he had allowed the boy to be hurt, although not serious. He had screwed up.
"Come on, Jason. Let's go home."
(*)
Alex awoke in his cell and sat up, cross-legged. He looked around at the walls. Padded, rubber. Steel walls. He was in a straight jacket. He knew not to struggle. That would get him beaten, he had called this place home for most of his life. A guard dressed perfectly in uniform walked in through the door, he had a hand missing, and as Alex knew, was one of the few guards who would care for him.
"Alex?" said Aaron Cash.
"Aaron." he replied in a hollow monotone
"What're ya…"
"Don't ask"
"Well, ya need anything' pal?"
"Bring me. my pocket watch, I believe it's still in the warden's desk"
Aaron looked at Alex hesitantly, his obsession with gears and clockwork objects had been abnormal, freakish even, but he had moved past it when he turned 17, now he needed the watch again, and Aaron, conflicted between his desire to be a good friend and his desire to see Alex cured were fighting.
"Alex, I don't think.."
"You're right! You don't think. Bring me my watch now"
Alex looked straight into Cash's eyes for the first time since his arrival. Aaron remembered the gently faded green eyes of his friend, but they had changed. Now they were a violent neon green.
"And don't call me Alex! my name is Steam…"
Well prologue written, please review and tell me what you think. I took me a while to write but I'm fairly happy with it. Please give me any advice or pointers you can think of. I'll also answer any questions within reason.