BATMAN
THE SHADOW OF THE BAT
FanFicton by
JCJ007
- I do not own any of these characters nor Batman Begins/Dark Knight/The Dark Knight Rises -
I believe what makes Batman so interesting and popular is the world so vast and rich in which he lives in. The characters and stories around him makes Batman one of the most beloved fictional characters around and The Dark Knight Trilogy is one big example of this. The Dark Knight Trilogy gave us a different vision of the Caped Crusader that make us believe he could be part of our own world. The story I present to you is the continuation of the fabulous finale/cliffhanger to this trilogy. The story represents the transition that Batman and its audience could experience if his story could continue. The transition from the old to the new and the fear and uncertainty that it is experienced in between. I think this is what Batman really is, a world so defined by its characters that even something so established, it provides room for something new.
Thank you for your time and please, feel free to comment.
BATMAN: THE SHADOW OF THE BAT
Batman can be anyone. That is the legacy of the Caped Crusader. But legacies are not only for heroes, evil has its heirs as well. Batman is the response to the ever evolving evil the world has to offer. What happens when this world matches his resolve? Can Batman adapt to the different kinds of evil or is this new world ready to move on without him? Batman casts a shadow over Gotham City that might be too heavy to carry by the man under the mask and cowl. Can Batman truly be anyone?
Act One
John Robin Blake is trusted with the Batman legacy. He understands what Batman means to the people of Gotham City but he sees Batman as means to an end. He doesn't understand that people sees just the persona not the person. People, good and bad, are intrigued by the mystery Batman represents and new ways are created to try to understand the Caped Crusader.
Bruce Wayne had the advantage of training with the League of Shadows and was able to master different kinds of fighting styles throughout the years, in addition to his wealth and resources. Blake doesn't have any of these.
Blake manages to convince an old childhood acquaintance from his early years in the orphanage, Jason Todd, to assist him with Batman's mission. Blake and Jason never got along in their youth but both of them were eager to show the world their worth and had the same anger inside of them. One day at the orphanage, they met Dr. Leslie Thompkins; a close friend and medical colleague of the late Thomas Wayne, Bruce Wayne's father. Leslie quits her job shortly after the murders of Bruce's parents and decides to open a clinic on the same street the crime took place so she can help Gotham's most needed. She thinks that if the most neglected population is helped, murders like Bruce's parents can be prevented.
Meeting Leslie changes Blake's view of the outside world. A world where people service others by any means available to them. That is why he decides to be a cop and when the opportunity to be Batman becomes available, Blake's sees it as an improvement and sees no longer limits to the help he can provide to the city. Jason sees it differently.
Jason, who helps Blake using the pseudonym Red Hood, believes crime can't be stopped. He thinks it needs to be controlled. Batman exists to strike fear in the hearts of the criminals but what if they are no longer afraid of him? Jason's alternative is to destroy them and set an example. He demands Blake to make Batman take the next step in its development. Batman cannot longer only intimidate evil doers, he needs to get rid of them permanently.
While investigating a series of murders that involve clues left in plain sight at the crime scenes, Blake and Jason follow a well known thief known as The Robin, the primary suspect for these murders. Blake suffers an accident while chasing Robin falling in to an alley full of undesirables. Jason keeps chasing Robin. Blake is assisted by Gotham City Police Officer Barbara Gordon, daughter of the late Commissioner Jim Gordon. When Blake manages to reach Jason, he sees that he is about to kill Robin and stops him. Jason decides to part ways with Blake and tells him that if he is not going to do what's necessary to protect the city, then he doesn't deserve to be Batman.
Blake decides to thank Barbara Gordon for saving his life and develop a relationship. Blake wants to trust Barbara as Bruce Wayne trusted her father. Blake reasons that Batman will always need a Gordon to his side. Barbara agrees for both the excitement and the memory of her father.
One night, Barbara is shot at her own apartment and Blake is framed with the murder attempt on her. He is sent to Blackgate Penitentiary. Inside, Blake meets the prison's psychologist, Dr. August Derleth, who oversees prisoners and determines if they need to be sent to Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane or kept inside the prison, informs Blake not only about Barbara been paralyzed from the waist down but the death of Jason Todd as well. Dr. Derleth also reveals to Blake that he knows he is the Batman.
Act Two
Residing at the Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane, Dr. Harleen Frances Quinzel, a young, ambitious woman decides to be proactive and actually helps the ones labeled as "unfit to function in society due to abnormal behavior" or "crazy" instead of just loading the patients with psychotropic drugs and hour long therapies. The reason behind her new found drive is due to her own troubled past of being an outcast and rejected at every social circle she turned to. She sympathizes with the inmates and sees her own reflection in them. Never allowed to be what she wanted to be and instead trying to fit the mould the status quo determines. Against all protocols, Dr. Quinzel uses her hour long therapies with the patients to encourage them to embrace their personalities. She sees Arkham Asylum as a safe haven for the inmates and her. She meets one day a patient that goes for the name Humpty Dumpty, a man obsessed in "fixing" things that he considers to be broken. He is a model inmate, quiet in nature and never drawing attention to him. He reveals to Dr. Quinzel that he started to try to fix things because his abusive grandmother considers him a good for nothing, deformed and broken failure. After numerous sessions, Dr. Quinzel is convinced that Humpty Dumpty is no threat to society and manages his release. One last thing Humpty does before leaving the asylum is leaving a gift for her. A make shift harlequin costume and a note saying how hearing her name always makes him smile. He also wants Dr. Quinzel to embrace her real nature. Dr. Quinzel appreciates the thought and provides Humpty with her business card in case he needs her.
Days before Jason Todd / Red Hood is killed and after parting ways with Blake / Batman, Jason starts hunting down people from criminals on parole or released under technicalities to mob informants and enforcers. Jason / Red Hood is always one step ahead of Blake / Batman because someone is providing the targets. Jason has his next target, Humpty Dumpty, recently released inmate from Arkham Asylum. Jason follows Humpty Dumpty to the public library where he finds out he has been borrowing books about how things work but one book catches Jason's attention, human anatomy. Jason follows Humpty Dumpty to an old apartment building where Humpty is eagerly waiting for him telling him that he dissected his abusive grandmother and sewn her back together attempting to fix her. Jason, disgusted, starts beating Humpty Dumpty mercilessly. As Jason continues with the beating, he notices Humpty is holding something with his hands, Dr. Quinzel's business card.
Jason / Red Hood takes Humpty Dumpty to Arkham Asylum and shows his beaten up body to Dr. Quinzel and the asylum's staff, telling her that her job is to keep people like Humpty Dumpty out of the streets and not encouraging them with false hopes and promises of having a normal life. Dr. Quinzel cannot take it anymore. All the abuse she lived and saw during her life, the ever present bullying of people like Jason Todd / Red Hood is too much to bear. Dr. Quinzel meets with Humpty Dumpty that evening in the infirmary and apologizes for what happened. Dumpty tells her she doesn't have to apologize for anything and that all the inmates consider her part of the family and that she belongs at the asylum. The only thing left to do is for her to accept her real self and give in to what makes her so special, her love for madness. Dr. Quinzel becomes Harley Quinn.
At the reopening ceremony of the train system destroyed years ago, Harley Quinn shows up with a couple hired guns to held hostage only the armed personnel providing security for the event, leaving only the Mayor and civilians not threatened. She tells them that she doesn't want to hurt anyone and just wants Arkham Asylum to be an annex to Gotham City recognized by the Mayor where she will welcome all the outcasts of the city. Jason Todd / Red Hood arrives at the scene getting into a fight with Harley Quinn. Harley Quinn, with her background of being both champion in gymnastics and mix martial arts in her youth, makes short work of Jason. Harley Quinn tells him that people like him and Batman were supposed to understand the feelings of the outcasts, that they have the obligation to protect and not damage. She tells him that the feelings he is feeling at the moment of fear, hopelessness, and anguish are the same people like him transmit to defenseless victims. She tells him that the worst of all are not the abusers but the bystanders that only watch without doing anything about it. Harley Quinn tells the people present that they have the chance to save this man and none of her hired guns will interfere. No one helps Jason and Harley Quinn beats him to death with one of the many tools Jason carries, a crowbar.
Back at Blackgate Penitentiary, the evening before John Blake is sent to Arkham Asylum, Dr. Derleth has one last session with him. They play chess together and Dr. Derleth tells Blake that Batman has been beaten and wanted to let him know that this world no longer needs him. He tells Blake that by resolving the biggest mystery of all, who is Batman, allows him to have control over everything that Gotham is. Blake reveals to Dr. Derleth that he is right about Gotham not needing him anymore but only as a man. That like the game of chess, both the king and the pawn go back to the same box but the game still exists regardless of the outcome. Blake tells him that the murders that had been happening around Gotham are Dr. Derleth's doing and the mystery behind them has been answered. Three murders were committed: one pregnant woman killed in the morning, an adult man killed in the afternoon and an elderly man killed in the evening. The murders symbolize the very first riddle known to mankind, the riddle of the sphinx. What goes on four legs, two legs at noon and three legs in the evening? The answer, man, who as a baby (first murder of the pregnant woman) crawls on four legs, then walks on two legs (second murder of the adult man) and finally in old age walks with a cane as his third leg (third murder of the older man). The most famous interpretation of that riddle is Gustave Moreau's painting "Oedipus and the Sphinx", which coincidentally a copy of the portrait is hanging on the wall of Dr. Derleth's office. A portrait that was stolen from the Gotham Museum of History by the thief known as The Robin. Not only that, Blake tells him that he knows August Derleth is not his real name. Another name given to a riddle is enigma as Edward Nigma, his real name. He was one of two students under Dr. Hugo Strange, the other one being Dr. Jonathan Crane / Scarecrow. They studied the works of H.P. Lovecraft and used his influence in their studies of the human psyche. Dr. Derleth / Edward Nigma is pleasantly surprised and congratulates him about finally understanding the way the world now functions. No longer will people be satisfied with money, power or material things. Superior intelligence will be the real power, knowledge will be the new currency and he, by knowing who Batman is, holds the most valuable possession of all. Blake laughs telling him that a riddle which everybody knows the answer is worthless and that he is not worried about Nigma revealing Batman's identity. Nigma enraged, aims a gun at Blake and Blake tells him that he defeated just a man not the legacy and Batman will live on while all of Nigma's efforts will go to waste in that little office of his. Everybody knows and respects Batman, one way or another but no one cares about Edward Nigma. Before Nigma can shoot Blake, a man dressed as Batman together with the thief known as Robin crash through Nigma's office window stopping Nigma.
Act Three
Floyd Lawton and his protégé Timothy "Tim" Drake are seen training one on one hand combat and practice shooting at an undisclosed location at the outer skirts of Gotham City. Floyd Lawton is a mercenary that is hired to do a job at Gotham City and tells Tim Drake that probably this is his strangest job yet. Floyd Lawton is known in the underground crime circles as Deadshot because legend has it that he never misses and is famous for his twisted code of ethics; as long as he's been paid for an accepted contract, he will always carry it out – no exceptions. Tim Drake is his weapons specialist and provides intelligence of his targets; he keeps Lawton's weapons and equipment well maintained. Tim is a young man no older than 30 years old and since he has memory, he's been with Lawton at his side. Tim has never killed a man, even though he knows what Lawton does. He doesn't agree with him but respects Lawton.
While Lawton is out on a job, Tim keeps researching on numerous subjects that have to do with Lawton's contract. Tim notices that several of the targets have no criminal records and one of the targets is Gotham City's own Batman. When police officer Barbara Gordon is shot, Tim decides to ask Lawton if he is responsible for the deed. Lawton reminds Tim about never asking questions regarding his job. Lawton admits not knowing anything about the police officer. Tim learns that a former police officer by the name John Blake is accused with the crime. Tim decides to go undercover as one of his many disguises he has used before while helping Lawton as private detective "Matches" Malone and interviews Barbara Gordon at the hospital and asks her if she recognizes her shooter. Barbara tells him that it was a man covered in bandages, wearing a trench coat using Blake's old service gun. The strangest thing is that the shooter wiped off her tears. Tim using his "Matches" Malone persona manages to infiltrate Blackgate Penitentiary getting close to John Blake who discovers he is the Batman.
Tim starts helping Blake solving the mystery involving Batman's demise and knows that Lawton is the key of what is happening. Tim tells Blake that whoever framed him with the attempted murder knows he is Batman and the only way to unmask the person behind the plot is to keep Batman on the streets. Tim asks Blake if he allows him to personify Batman. Blake agrees but asks him why is he doing this. Tim tells Blake that he has lived his life learning that everything comes with a price and knowing someone like Batman exists, a being that unconditionally gives his life for others without expecting anything in return, changes everything he knows about the world. Batman doesn't deserve to be cast out.
Tim suits up as Batman. He investigates the murders committed by Lawton (pregnant woman, adult man and elderly man) and discovers the meaning behind them. Tim feeds this information to Blake while in prison. While solving the crime, Tim find the thief Robin and after a quick fight mentions that he knows she was behind a theft at the Gotham Museum of History but not behind the murders she was being framed for. Tim convinces her to help him out and clear her name. Robin is not convinced until Tim tells him that there was a time when Gotham City needed Batman but now Batman needs Gotham City and she represents the city as a whole. Robin blames Batman for stealing Selina Kyle from her and that she feels that Selina betrayed not only her but all the East End that she once swore to protect. Robin is revealed to be Jen, Selina's protege. Tim finds out that Robin takes the name after a story she heard at a clinic and liked the meaning behind it. The same John Blake did with his name. Tim links the story to Dr. Leslie Thompkins. Tim discovers Dr. Thompkins provided all the information to Lawton's client because she blames Batman of turning the youth she dedicated her life to in to vigilantes, starting with Bruce Wayne. Tim discovers who benefited with Barbara's attempted murder. Turns out James Gordon Jr., Barbara's brother and Jim Gordon's son, assisted Lawton's client with all the police records and Blake's old service gun. Gordon Jr. tells Tim that Batman stole his dad from his family and shooting Barbara was the only way to keep history to repeat itself. Tim learns of Lawton's last job, the assassination of Harley Quinn. Tim arrives just in time to stop Lawton at the top of the Arkham Asylum. Tim is no match for Lawton but Tim just kept stalling for Barbara to assist him in freezing Lawton's accounts. Lawton decides not to kill Harley Quinn and in that moment of hesitation, Tim captures Lawton. Tim tells Harley Quinn that even though he saved her life, she still needs to pay for the murder of Jason Todd. She agrees telling him that looking into his eyes, she is comforted with the knowledge that the real Batman is standing in front of her.
After stopping Edward Nigma and solving the case, Tim keeps thinking about Nigma using the pseudonym of Derleth and his connection with Dr. Hugo Strange. He remembers, then that H.P. Lovecraft's followers created Arkham House to continue his work, just like Nigma and Crane were in charge of Arkham Asylum. Batman arrives at the Asylum meeting Harley Quinn inside, now an inmate, providing counsel to other inmates. She tells him that she is happy because one thing she did right was to save her good friend Humpty Dumpty who was released in the morning. Tim is given a note by Harley addressed for the Batman saying that before Humpty left, he left a note to the person that saved her. Batman reads it and finds out is from Hugo Strange / Humpty Dumpty saying how jealous he is of him for understanding a world he has studied all his life. Hugo Strange is the mastermind behind the plot. Hugo needed to know how a simple individual can evoke so many feelings in so many people of despair, anguish, anger, happiness and inspire hate and love at the same time. He keeps mentioning in his note that he thought only a man was under that mask but realized too late that the mask has a life of its own and only the worthy can wear it. Batman is immortality and that sooner or later it will be his for the taking.
Tim meets with Blake to return the Batman persona but Blake refuses. Blake tells Tim that he understands now that he wasn't supposed to be Batman but to protect his legacy until the right person would arrive to wear the mask. Blake says that Bruce Wayne didn't create Batman, Gotham City created him out of necessity and Tim will be Batman because Gotham City wants him to be Batman. Tim asks Blake what does he mean by that and Blake tells him about the day he met Dr. Leslie Thompkins and quotes her:
DR. LESLIE THOMPKINS
" This city tends to change people. It's like Gotham is alive, testing its children at every opportunity it has. A city that is always fighting with itself, trying to find its identity and in the process creates the worst of monsters and the most benevolent of creatures. The sad part is that on that night, Bruce Wayne's parents murder, Gotham decided to pit one against the other and the monster came out victorious. And young Bruce witnessed firsthand and too soon the nature of the city he lives in. This city will test you, no matter who you are. It will forge your destiny not the other way around. Look at me, for instance. I am a doctor but my place is to prevent young men and women like you from having to face the darkness alone. Adapt. That's the biggest challenge this city poses in front of us. Adapt or perish or worst, succumb to its darkest side. But not everything is sadness, Mr. Blake. I see it in your eyes, the will to become something else rather than another casualty of this place. Just remember, do not force your heart to change, understand the situation you are in, do not fret if you can't make sense of it. Sometimes the most insane response is the most logical explanation to a complicated issue".
Batman can be anyone, but only if Gotham allows it.