Batman Gotham Nights
Chapter One: A Dull Night
The night is dark, sirens can be heard wailing in the distance, and the stone work of the gargoyle below him is solid and sturdy. A shadowy figure looks down at the street below him and smiles slightly, "There's no place like home." he says. The communicator in Batman's cowl chirps, catching his attention. Batman touches his index and middle fingers to his ear activating the communicator to hear the familiar voice of my most trusted friend, Alfred Pennyworth. "Sir, not that I want to interrupt your busy evening, but the silent alarm at the First National Bank of Gotham was just tripped." Alfred says from the secret cave under Wayne Manor. Batman stands up on the gargoyle and says, "I'm only a few blocks away, I'll look into it, thanks Alfred." Another smile plays across his lips as he says, "Seems like tonight's going to be a dull night." Alfred lets out a slight sigh, "Sir a dull night for most people normally consists of watching television and eating chinese food." Batman gives him a slight chuckle and retorts, "When have I ever been normal Alfred? I'll see you back at the cave." He takes his fingers away from the cowl deactivating the communicator. He give the streets below him another look, the car and window lights almost make it seem like a different world, a bright hopeful world without crime.
He takes a breath and leaps from the gargoyle, bringing his arms to his sides and locking his legs together as the night wind rushes past him. Then, with practiced precision, he spreads his arms and opens the cape to glide around the building he previously sat upon. He reached the First National Bank in less than two minutes, landing on a building across the street from the bank. Batman reaches down to his utility belt and pulls out a pair of micro-binoculars. He raises them to his eyes and looks down at the bank, trying to find any obvious signs of the perpetrators. The street in front of the bank was empty, the alley next to the bank however was not. An armored truck with the bank's logo sat silently in the alley. Batman zooms in with the micro-binoculars to get a closer look at the truck. The plate number didn't match any trucks belonging to the bank, this was a good decoy. Whoever was pulling off the heist didn't want to draw attention. Any regular passers by wouldn't think twice about the truck parked by the bank, Batman however was not a regular passer by. He pulls his grapple gun from his utility belt and fires at the bank, the hook digging deep into stone of the bank. Batman leaps from the roof he is standing on and pulls the trigger of the grapple gun, almost flying across the street, and lands silently lands on the roof of the bank. He walks over to the glass ceiling of the bank and looks down. The bank floor below him was dark but occupied, the moonlight illuminates several goons below him. Batman kneels down and places his fingers against the glass, the sonic amplifiers in his gloves picking up what the goons were saying. Three men are near the main vault door, two standing off to the side with semi automatic weapons and the third comically trying to crack open the safe with what could only be described as a high tech stethoscope.
"Yo! hurry up with that safe will ya!" one goon says. "If ya'd shut ya face so I could hear this stupid thing maybe we'd have been done already!" another goon shots back to the first. The third goon walks away from the other two, unknowingly to stand directly beneath Batman. He leans against one of the benches of the bank and pulls out a cigarette, lighting it and takes a drag. "Will both of you shut up! Christ you two sound like a pair of old ladies. Just get that safe open, boss wants the loot by the end of the night." As the goon brings the cigarette up to his lips for a second drag Batman glides down from the roof, bringing his feet up to smash him in the back of his head. The goon is sent flying, out of commission, and Batman lands in a crouch as the other two goons turn around so see what caused the noise. "It's the freakin' bat!" one shouted. The goons reach for the guns at their waist and open fire. Batman throws a smoke pellet at the goons feet as he fires his grapple gun into a shadowy corner of the bank and repels into it, dodging the barrage of bullets they send his way. The gunmen cough as they walk out of the smoke cloud, trying to spot Batman again. Unfortunately for them they are unable to spot Batman as he swings from shadow to shadow. "Aww man what are we gonna do now? He already took out Johnny!" one of the goons says, the fear apparent in his voice with every word. "Calm down will ya! Just stick together, it's two of us and one of him! He can't get the drop on us if we stick close." The other goon says, trying to sound unafraid and failing. They get close to each other, almost back to back, desperately searching for any sign of the Batman. 'They think sticking together will give them better chances, they're just making this easier for me.' Batman thinks to himself.
He again reaches down into his utility belt and pulls out a batarang. He aims and throws the batarang, passing between the goons and sticking into the floor with a loud ting. The already frightened goons jump in surprise turning to see the source of the noise. With their attention in the opposite direction Batman glides from his shadowed perch, passing between the two goons like a shadow. He grabs their heads in his hands and slams them down onto the hard tiled floor. The two let out a pained noise before they slump onto the floor unconscious. Batman stands up, and observes the scene. The three goons are wearing nondescript clothing and ski masks, if they were part of one of the larger gangs of Gotham they weren't showing their affiliations with their clothing. Batman goes to each goon searching their personal equipment for any clues. None of the goons had anything to imply their allegiance to any of the gangs of Gotham but one of the goons had several different kinds of illegal drugs on his person. He gathers the goons together and ties them up against one of the rails at the tellers stands, almost gift wrapping them for Lieutenant Gordon and his men.
With the would be robbers disarmed and disabled Batman grapples up to the roof of the bank, leaping off the building and gliding off into the night. After a short flight he reaches the Batmobile, parked in an alley between two buildings on Park Row. With sunrise soon approaching he leaps into the driver's seat of the Batmobile, the engine roaring to life, and speeds off to return to the Batcave. A short drive out of Gotham City and through the woods surrounding Wayne Manor and Batman passes through the secret waterfall entrance leading to the Batcave. He parks the Batmobile and climbs out of the cockpit, his boots landing heavily on the metal grated floor. He walks over to a locker that rises out of the floor with a slight hiss, removing the cowl from his head. Bruce places the cowl in its proper place in the locker and walks over to the Batcomputer, taking a seat in the chair that sat in front of the computer with a slight huff.
Bruce hears footsteps behind him and turns his head to see Alfred walking up to him carrying a silver tray. "Was tonight as slow as you predicted, sir?" Bruce turns back to face the computer as Alfred places the tray next to him, lifting it to reveal a cup of tea and a small muffin. " Thanks Alfred. The would be robbers at the bank didn't have any apparent affiliations to the more... colorful criminals we're use to, so yes I'd say it was a slow night." Bruce said with a slight smile as he reached for the steaming cup of tea. "Ahh good, nothing like a slow night of stopping armed gunmen from robbing the Bank of Gotham." Alfred said with a slight laugh as he walked away to the elevator that lead up to Wayne Manor. "Do try to get some sleep sir." Alfred called. Bruce looked over his shoulder and replied "I'll be up in a little bit Alfred. I want to finish up some things here." Alfred nodded his head to Bruce saying, "Very good sir." and then activated the elevator. Bruce looked at the Batcomputer, different windows showing news feeds and information being fed in from the GCPD computers, as well as video feeds of Arkham Asylum. With everything as quiet as it could be in Gotham Bruce lifted the cup to his lips as a slight smile played across his face. "There's no place like home."
AN: Thanks for reading my first fanfiction. I hope you enjoyed it! Feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts or any ideas how I could make this better. Leave a comment with which of Batman's villains you'd like to see me write about first, I do intend to write more!