This is my first Batman Begins/Dark knight fanficiton, please be kind. R&R, flames are welcomed, but would appreciate them to be constructive.
I won nothing at all but Raelene, the plot idea of mine and the handful of characters that make up the gang Gontham's Underground.
parts of this story have been re-written and names of characters changed due to a large amount of girls names Katharine on this site xD
"Dent act is oppression!"
"Corrupted hippies!"
"The city belongs to us! Not you!"
The hateful words were slung at congress in an unrelenting force, anger clouding minds, shaking fists, a slap to criminals in the city everywhere. The congress sat in silence, the group howling its protest against the actions of the police force; it wasn't going to end well for the people opposing the force. The wall of officers stood proudly outside Gotham's congress building, facing a group of mixed opinions.
"Harvey Dent was a fucking criminal!"
All of this chaos witnessed by a man standing inside a brilliant mansion, an older man beside him, his frame trembling slightly "Master Wayne?" He asked, the man stirred slightly from the cough "its worse then the one last year, Alfred. Every year it's the same thing, on the anniversary of the act's passing this anarchist group protests" Bruce spoke gruffly, Alfred looking down at him "They aren't going to do-" The television screen flashed a bright red for a moment, switching to a woman standing a fair distance away from what looked like a war zone "I'm Francesca Dodson here live with channel five news. This just in, the anarchist group commonly known as Gotham's Underground has declared an all out war against the law, the protests evolving in to a riot! The once peaceful group has turned violent, Molotov cocktails have been thrown, guns shot and police cars have been lit on fire! This is the worst protest Gotham has witnessed in eight years, we'll keep you updated as this violent story unfolds."
Disgust was the only thing he felt, Anger tightened in his chest "Alfred.." The old butler gave the young man a weary look "The police will handle it, Master Wayne. You aren't the hero anymore" Bruce looked up at his Butler, gibing him a defiant look "And why can't I help? Why aren't I the hero anymore?!" He demanded, Alfred giving him a sad look "Because Gotham out grew you, it doesn't need batman anymore" Alfred spoke bluntly, turning on his heel and walking slowly away from the east wing, refusing to let the conversation go on any further.
The old butler remembered how he had promised to keep Bruce safe to his parents and how he wanted nothing bad to happen to the child, but then he became the Batman, a hero for Gotham city,... Then the Dent act passed, a law that had left the streets so clean, Batman was out of a job. Not a soul had seen Bruce, save for himself, since the day he had taken the blame for Harvey's death, and it was that final push that put the costume in to retirement.
/
It was another individual, however, who had witnessed the riot on the television screen, reacted with a much different opinion, finally a group they could use! Her eyes glinted with hope as her long fingers Clasped around a mobile telephone, she pressed a single button on the keypad and held it up to her ear "Yes?" A voice spoke on the other end "Find me the leader of this group known as 'Gotham's Underground', they could be of great use to our cause" Three was a pause "It won't be easy" She licked her lips "Find a way to get it done" She hissed, snapping the phone shut and setting it back down on the coffee table, sitting back on the plush leather couch, smirking lightly
"What's got you smiling?"
Asked a sinister voice, a dark shadow standing in the doorway "An anarchist group's protests turning in to a riot" She spoke, opening her laptop and pulling up a search engine "I want you to go and find them" The woman murmured, the shadowy form approached the couch slowly, his steps thumping on the floor, the carpet muting the sound to a certain degree "Where?" She gave a wicked grin, then slowly wrote down an address on the back of a business card "Here" She spoke, handing him the card, rough, calloused fingers taking it from her grasp, he held the card up and stared at the address she had written, the blue ink smudged slightly "Alright, I'll do it"
/
Gunshots, Smoke, Fire, to her, it was a dream come true; it was her chaotic orchestra, magnificent and beautiful. The group really came together this year; there would be no more pleasant protests from them. Picketing and peace was getting them nowhere, and it was high time their voices were heard. She stopped and pulled the black bandanna over her mouth; the front decorated with a skeletal outline of the lower half of her face, and lit a white rag on fire, in her hand, a bottle filled with butane. With a huff, she threw the bottle as hard as she could, having just enough time for her face to become fast friends with a police officer's nightstick.
The blow sent her sprawling out onto the pavement, she could taste the pungent metallic flavor of her blood, she felt pain in her aw slice through her clouded mind and she lifted up the bandanna, spitting out a puddle of crimson onto the sidewalk. Her eyes went wide as the officer stepped towards her, raising his arm again and she stared at him, and as if a prayer had been answered by some divine god, a flash of black knocked the police officer to the ground, a tall, thinner man getting up off the concrete and straddled the man, punching him hard enough to knock him out
"Rae! Are you alight?!" The man yelled, kneeling beside her, her eyes were met with that tall lanky man leaning over her and staring down at her, a shock of blue hair stood messily in a Mohawk, his bandanna covering his nose and jaw "I'm alright Maddie, I just took a big hit to the chops" She spoke, gingerly touching her swollen cheek, noticeably wincing as Maddie helped her back up on her feet "Well it's a good thing He didn't break your nose" He yelled above the chaos, tying a rag to the neck of a beer bottle filled with butane and tossing it over a cement barrier, smoke rising up in a thick, ominous cloud. Rae ran up to a police cruiser that was pulling in, jumping up on the hood and stomping on the windshield angrily, shouting at the officers inside "GOTHAM BELONGS TO US! WE SHOULD BE FREE TO DO AS WE CHOOSE!"
The officers were about to step out of the cruiser when another vehicle rammed them from the driver's side, the officers stuck inside the car. Rae stomped on the hood once more before a tall man with a spiked bat approached her "Raelene we'd better fall back! We aren't a match this year, they've double their numbers and we're way over powered" She gave him a horrified look "Don't tell me someone was killed...We didn't lose anyone did we?" She demanded, the tall man shook his head "No, thank god but we better get out before someone does" Rae looked up and cupped her hands around her mouth "FALL BACK! FALL BACK!" She screamed, the protesters one by one running out of the smoke and down the streets, each one on their way to the safe house, a sleazy little club in the seedy downtown area of the city that people hardly visited. It was a great clubhouse for them to hide out at, the owner had a clean reputation so it was the ideal place for them to sleep, eat and heal their injuries at.
Rae gave the cop car one last stomp before stepping off and taking her leave, urging the other members to get out of the fray as fast as possible before she caught up with Maddie, running alongside him. A loud crack split the air and he stumbled, trying to regain his balance, his foot caught the curb and he went down, scraping his face against the grainy cement and curled up in the middle of the sidewalk "Damn it!" He screamed, Rae running up to him, kneeling down to help him up "Come on! We can't stay here or we're going to get arrested!" She yelled, hearing the tell tale scream of police sirens and squealing tires, She helped him up, looping an arm around her shoulders and ducked in to a tight alley, going as fast as her injured friend could handle, who was breathing through clenched teeth.
She pulled him around a corner and stumbled, nearly falling but catching her balance, Maddie seething now "Fuck , Rae we have to get there soon, I don't know how much longer I can run with a damn bullet in my leg!" He growled, Rae pulling him down a tighter alley and following it straight down to the end, turning a corner and running across the street to the other side, quickly ducking in to another, The sound of tires on the gravel made her jump and she pulled herself and Maddie behind a dumpster, the police cruiser screaming by and drifting back on to the street, driving off as quickly as possible.
Maddie gripped his leg and whimpered, blood staining his fingers a bright red crimson and his green pants a strange burgundy color, He was panting heavily, his face as white as chalk and his eyes were red and puffy, tears streaking down his face. Maddix wasn't the type of man to cry, ever, and the fact that he had tears streaming down his face told her he was in unbearable pain. Rae picked him up and grunted, his weight was beginning to be a burden and she was losing energy, her lungs burned, her muscles strained to keep pace and her heart thundered loudly in her ears, she wasn't gaining a second wind and she was afraid that they wouldn't make it to the club.
Six blocks left, she darted down a shabby looking street, garbage cans were tipped over and shattered glass littered the sidewalk. Rae's breaths were becoming frantic, if she didn't get to Tin Lizzies soon, she'd pass out, and she didn't want to do that while she was carrying Maddie, if he fell...there was no telling what kind of infection he'd contract from the dirt, shattered glass and garbage that he'd no doubt land on. She turned left and continued to run, her lungs were screaming at her to stop running, but Maddie was fading in and out, he was in too much pain and losing too much blood, she could only thank karma that he had taken the bullet in the leg and not in his chest or head. "Rae how close are we?" He whispered, his face ashen now, she assumed was from the initial shock of the pain
"Three blocks" She rasped, panting and ran into an alley, soon the pale green door to the back of the club loomed in front of them and without knocking, the twosome burst through it, Rae knocking bowls and cooking utensils onto the floor "Someone get Lemmy and Jeremy back here pronto!" She yelled at the cooks, setting Maddie against the bread cooling rack, the man winced "Fuck this hurts" He hissed, Rae pulled on a pair of rubber gloves and took out a pair of scissors from the emergency kit and slowly began to cut the blood soaked jean, pulling it carefully from the skin as to not cause any more damage to the wound. Slowly she peeled it from the crusted blood around it and placed the patch of material on the ground, slowly cleaning the wound, thick clumps of dried blood flaking off and falling around them.
Rae stood up and reached for a wooden spoon, giving it to Maddie to use as a bit as she dug around for the tweezers, once she found them she took a deep breath and plunged them in to the wound, Maddie jumping and hitting his back against the rack, moaning behind the bit, his jaw bearing down so hard Rae heard it crack. She grabbed the bullet and pulled on it, Maddie screamed at her and bit harder on the spoon, sweat dripped from his brow, his hands clenched so hard his knuckles were white. "Raelene! What the hell is going on?" Lemmy yelled, flanked closely by Jeremy, their doctor. Lemmy knelt down beside her and pushed his pale blonde hair back in to place, Jeremy washed his hands and came and sat down next to her as well "Maddie took a bullet" She spoke, yanking hard and nearly getting it unstuck, Maddie's eyes widened and he panted, his scream muffled by the bit "It's stuck"
Jeremy looked at her "It's probably embedded in the bone, pull a little harder, you'll get it out" Maddie gave her a look and yelled at her "Just fucking pull it out already!" He howled, Rae did as she was told and yanked hard, Maddie howled like a Banshee and sat forward, clutching his leg as the spoon fell out of his mouth "My god!" He panted, his eyes were bloodshot and his skin was pale, shiny from a thick sheen on sweat that coated his body. Rae cleaned the wound again and stitched the hole shut, by this time Maddie was so shocked by the removal of the bullet, his mind had floated elsewhere, Lemmy looked down at Rae with a soft smile "You take good care of your little soldiers, don't you?" She threw a glare at him "They aren't my soldiers, they're my family, and family is more important than anything"
She gave Maddie a glass of water and Jeremy got him a few pain pills, Maddie promptly throwing up onto the floor before taking the pill, Jeremy comforting him and easing him in to a position away from the bile on the linoleum. Rae rushed over to a mirror to check how bad the damage was to her face, and in her rush to get out of the fray, her bandanna had slipped off her face and now hung lip around her neck. Her olive skin was stained with dust and blood, her cheek and eye were bruised a deep purple color and her black hair clung to her head messily, sweat and dirt matting it into a ruddy mess. Her pale grey eyes searched her face for a moment then she turned around as Lemmy continued to speak with her "There was a fella askin' for ya 'round here earlier, belonged to some sort of gang I think, ugly little bastard, jumpy as hell"
Rae listened while she washed her hair and face in the bathroom sink, sighing softly "Did he say who he worked for?" Lemmy nodded "Sure did, said he worked for a guy named Dame or somethin' like that" Rae looked up from rubbing her hair dry with a towel "Bane? As in the warlord Bane? The anarchist Bane?" She asked her eyes wide, a smile on her lips "That'd be about right, he a big guy with a mask on his face?" He asked, Rae yanked a brush through her hair, wincing when it came in to contact with a nasty knot at the nape of her neck, taking the time to pull it apart "I think so, at least, that's what I've been told, there have been a lot of rumours circulating around about him"
She spoke, a teen with green spiked hair ran inside the kitchen, staring at her "Rae you better get out there, there's a guy looking for you and he won't take no for an answer" Rae sighed and went to cover Maddie with a blanket, giving him a pillow and the blue haired man muttered a thanks before his eyes closed and he was asleep once again "Tell him to get his panties out of a bunch, I'll be out soon enough. Relax Sid, he isn't going to hurt anyone" She murmured, lighting a cigarette and turned, Sid nodded and left the room, Lemmy giving her a look "Raelene..." Rae whipped around, a desperate look on her face "Lemmy this guy could really help our cause! He could have some ideas that we never had thought of!"
She spoke, her combat boots making soft squeaks on the linoleum as she walked, the bar owner gave and exhausted sigh "He might kill you" Rae rolled her eyes and smirked "Lemmy, he wouldn't dare try in a safe house" "I don't think he has your best interest at heart. I don't mind you coming here after you've protested or robbed someone but do you have any idea what you are doing? You're stepping foot in to his world, didn't you hear about the boys who aged out and went to the tunnels? He's been recruiting them for something, and I don't think it's for anything good. To us, he may seem-"
Rae gave him a look that could kill "I fought tooth and nail to get you out of prison Lemmy! Six charges of arson and petty theft, remember? I'm not going to back down! My father is in that fucking jail because he robbed rich people and gave the spoils to us in the underbelly of Gotham. He saved your ass numerous times, and he's in there because he did the right thing. I'm not letting an opportunity like this slip through my fingers, okay?" Lemmy pursed his lips and started to say something, but before he did, Rae had already gone to go meet with the man that had requested her company "Be careful" He muttered to himself, wincing when he heard Maddie burp, then vomit "Stop puking in my kitchen!"
/
Rae strolled into the bar, her head held high, a cigarette in her hand, she took a long, slow drag and surveyed the area, her mood deflating a little, no henchmen, no Bane. Her heart sank as she got herself a glass of water and sat down at a table, Sid running over to her "Rae what the hell took you so long? Never mind, we have to go, they are waiting!" He slowly lead her towards the staircase that connected the upper level to the main floor of the club, a short man approached them. Rae looked him over, his nose was crooked and dirty, as if it had been broken multiple times and had never been put back in to proper alignment, his face was thin and scarred, his hair was dirty and covered in grease, his hands were a mess and his clothes were ratty and dirty
"Get to hustling, the boss is growing impatient" He spoke to Sid, looking Rae up and down before mumbling something under his breath. The man lead them to the back of the club, sitting on a leather couch was the scariest man she had ever laid eyes on. He was tall, at least six foot six, if not more, he was a husky man and he had not a hair on his head. Covering most of his face was a strange looking black mask. His eyes met her form and he extended his arms in what looked like a greeting "Raelene Eaddows, what a pleasure it is to meet you" He spoke, his voice was gravelly and dark, when he spoke Rae felt a shiver crawl up her spine and bite in to her skull
"Oh, what happened to your face? Did you run in to trouble?" She was offered a seat across from the man and she sat obediently, putting her boots up on the coffee table and stubbed out her cigarette "I became fast friends with a nightstick earlier today" Bane shook his head a clicked his tongue "Tsk tsk, the police seem somewhat challenged when it comes to dealing with naughty girls and their gangs causing riots, don't they?" He spoke, Rae narrowed her eyes, he was mocking her! "We aren't a gang, The hit with the nightstick was clean getaway compared to what one of my closest friends' got, he took a lead pill to the knee" He nodded once, tilting his head a little "If you aren't a gang, what are you? A band of little renegade soldiers?, Nothing more than a group of young criminals fighting against the decadent idealisms of the city?"
He asked, leaning back against the leather couch, Rae avoided looking him in the eyes, something about his gaze unnerved her, the predatory stare was chilling and his eyes were wild, as if they held a thirst for power, a wolf salivating at a lamb "We're just an anarchist group that banded together to fight the Dent act, we don't think that an obnoxious figurehead should control what we do" "Ah, but that's the beauty of it, isn't it? You aren't just an anarchist group, you have so much more potential then that" His words were like an oil slick on a wet road, and to her they were tantalizing, as sweet as they were though, they held a sinister undertone that she quickly picked up on "I push them to strive for excellence when it comes down to it, we work as hard as we need, although our protests were doing nothing for our cause, this year I believe they got the message"
Bane watched her for a moment, Rae fighting hard to avoid squirming under his gaze, and he took great pleasure in this, seeing his power affect even the most hardened criminals, and he relished it "You have started well, I'll give you that, but there is more to it then tossing Molotov cocktails and beating up police cars, there is more elegance to it than that, it's a delicate operation, it takes careful planning and strategy" Rae glared at him now, and he was taken aback to see her react to his words like that, this one had a very short fuse, and the kid with the green hair gripped her shoulder like he had to hold her back.
He made an amused sound, she wasn't very smart if she was thinking about going for him, then again, he'd enjoy whipping her around the room like a rag doll, breaking every bone in her body one at a time, watching her face crease with the exquisite expression of pure agony "I planned for months for this and it was as delicate as it could be, Sid worked his ass off on those Molotolvs" The teen smiled at the praise, and yet again, Bane made an amused sound, something similar to laughter, he could see that Raelene was good and angry now, and she stood up, knocking the table back a little
"Stop your damn laughing, who the hell do you think you are? Coming in to my safe house and pushing around MY family! You are nothing like I expected, warlord my ass, you're an over critical sleaze bag! I ought to smack that smug look right off your face!" She barked, glaring at him, Bane reacted quickly to this upset and rejection to his dominance "I would hold my tongue if I were you, Miss Eaddows" Rae looked over at Sid "We're leaving, say goodbye" She hissed, Sid stuttered a little before Rae kicked the table over at the man, she spat on his boot and turned on her heel, before she could break ten steps she was roughly spun around and slammed against a wall, a crushing grip on her shoulders, blazing amber eyes bore holes in her head
"You have no idea what I could do to you, little Raelene, snap your neck with ease, break your spine.." He trailed off, his voice thick with anger, Rae attempted to glare back, but the brute force he was using to nearly crush her shoulders deflated the look before she even had a chance to make it "Why are you here?" She hissed, Bane tilted his head again "I watched the news, your group caught my eye, you showed great potential and could be of great value to me, I'm here to make you an offer" "And if I refuse?" Bane's gaze turned dark "Then you'll burn with the rest of the city"