Christmas had come to Gotham.
It was evening and the city was alive in celebration. Colorful lights twinkled from rooftops, shimmered among the branches of the Christmas trees placed in front of windows, and glowed merrily from inside stores. Even the trees of Gotham City Park were bedecked in holiday finery, each one having been adopted by one of the schools in each of the city's boroughs.
All over Gotham, children were happily pulling each other around in homemade sleds, having snowball fights and making snow angels before the temperatures dropped too low and they were called back indoors.
Those not outside were glued to televisions, playing the latest video game or watching a favorite movie while adults conversed over steaming mugs of spiced cider or chilled glasses of wine in another room.
Alfred Pennyworth hummed along with the song playing on the radio as he pulled off the expressway. He drew to a stop at the red light, looked in both directions, and then slowly turned left. The star atop the hundred foot tree in Gotham Square splashed across the front of the town-car, looking like a golden beacon battering back the night.
To him, that star was a symbol that there was still goodness and light in the world.
Alfred briefly wondered if his employer noticed it. He found himself wanting to ask, Do you remember what Christmas is about, Master Bruce? That it is a time of celebration, of peace, joy, and happiness? About families and togetherness?
Not that his employer had any family of his own to spend the holidays with. The Kanes had given up any connection with the Wayne's before Master Bruce had even been born. After their deaths? Interactions had been far and few.
The police scanner in the backseat screamed to life, interrupting Alfred's internal musings. This, sadly, was also not surprising to. The particular frequency this radio was perpetually set upon was one that was hardly quiet for long. Crime never slept or took a holiday. Not in Gotham, anyway.
"I need all available units for a possible disturbance at Gotham docks."
"Turn right, Alfred." The voice that came from the darkness of the backseat was soft, but coated in velvet steel. "And stop by the alley next to the Aces & Eights."
Of course, you will respond to the call. Alfred wisely kept his counsel, saying only, "As you wish, Master Bruce."
"And Alfred?"
He ignored the slight speckle of humor that coated those words.
"Yes, sir?"
"Step on it."
Alfred glanced at his employer in the rearview mirror. "As you wish, sir."
Less than ten minutes later he braked to a stop by the entrance into an alley next to a less than respectable looking establishment.
"Please, deliver my regrets to Ferris, Alfred, and tell him that I will make up for my absence tonight at our New Year's Eve party. I'm confident you will handle things with your usual diplomacy."
"Shall I use the standard excuse as the reason for why you could not attend his dinner party this evening?"
"I have a standard excuse?"
There was an even stronger hint of humor in that velvet baritone now. Alfred checked to make sure he still had a pulse before he replied.
"Yes," he said dryly. "The standard excuse being you are regrettably detained by whichever of Gotham's beauties that you happen to be consorting with at the time."
There was a discreet cough from the backseat that may have passed for a laugh. Given how his employer infrequently engaged in any sort of joviality, however, the butler couldn't be sure of his interpretation of the sound. Yet it eased some of the anxiety plaguing him.
Sirens starting to bleat in the distance caused that concern to return. Alfred glanced out the front glass and flinched when he spied a spotlight shining something- a bat? high up into the night sky. Whoever made that? His brow puckered as he studied the rather crudely designed symbol. And why? Not like it mattered any, he realized. He would have to point it out to Master Bruce.
There'd be no living with him if he didn't.
"Sir?"
"Yes, Alfred?"
"Do you see that symbol shining in the sky?"
Alfred heard the slight sound his employer made deep in his throat.
"That's coming from the roof of the GCPD building."
"Do you think someone is trying to make contact with you?"
A hmm greeted that question.
"It could be Gordon trying to make contact with Batman."
"Why would Captain Gordon call Batman in this fashion?" He saw Bruce glance up, that very same question swirling in the depths of his eyes. "Can he not contact you on the private frequency you have on the GCPD's radio network?"
"He would unless communications at the GCPD have become compromised."
"What are you going to do, sir?"
Not that he needed to ask.
"I am going to the GCPD." Alfred heard the snap of material as it was unfurled and imagined Bruce swirling the cape around his broad shoulders. It broke his heart to see his employer donning a cape and mask to run around Gotham. "I want to check things out and make sure all is as it should be."
It's Christmas, was all Alfred could think. You should be sitting around a fire with your young wife and an infant of your own. You deserve more from your life than chasing bad guys. You deserve love and happiness. To have a life of your own.
If he expressed his sentiments, however, that the words would fall upon deaf ears. Just like they always did.
So Alfred just sighed and said, "Do be careful, Master Bruce. You have not actually had a chance to rest or recuperate from last night's activities. You have no idea who is trying to make contact with you. It could be a trap."
"I know it could be a trap, Alfred. I plan on being the one who springs it." He heard the back door open then, felt the brief chill that snaked its way through the luxury car against the back of his neck. "I'll be careful," he heard his employer rasp in that voice he used whenever he was his alter ego. "Get back to the cave as soon as you can. I might find myself in need of your help."
"I shall do my very best, sir."
Then the door closed and that dark figure was being swallowed up by the shadows. Alfred released another breath, waited barely a moment, and then drove off. He caught a glimpse of that Batsignal from the corner of his eye and felt a pull deep in his belly.
Do be mindful, Master Bruce, he thought. There is any number of enemies who would dearly love to put Batman out of commission.
And there were none more dangerous than the man his employer had brought to justice just the night before: the Joker.
Please, don't let it be that animal, was his final thought as he accelerated and embarked on the short trek back to Wayne Manor.
...
Batman plunged into the alleys thick shadows, his cape floating behind him. His every sense was on alert. Many dangers lurked in this part of Gotham. Some, he realized, that were not visible until too late.
He passed a group of homeless men huddled around a trash can they turned into a makeshift fireplace. They glanced at him with vacant eyes but made no move to impede his mad dash. They cared about his presence here about as much as city officials cared about theirs.
The neon sign above the Aces & Eights spluttered on and off, its iron lettering bent at unnatural angles. He didn't care to imagine just how it might have gotten so twisted.
Traffic in this part of the East End was absolutely non-existent for this time of night. Park Avenue was where the districts seedier bars and nightclubs were all located. The road was one-way, the cobblestone street too narrow to allow cars to travel in both directions and lined with dozens of dives just as bad as the one he just passed. The streets of this part of Gotham rivaled those of London or Paris in their size and complexity. They – as well as the cities rooftops – were the quickest and fastest way to get from one part of the city to the other.
His boots hitting the cobblestone echoed off the grimy brick walls. Frightened rats scurried across the cobblestone to find safety beneath boxes dumped outside the back door of a shop with its windows and doors boarded up. A black cat screeched as it was startled out of where it had been feasting upon something behind a pile of garbage. Broken glass, cigarette butts, crack pipes and other debris crunched beneath his boots.
Batman paid none of it any attention as he continued heading for the GCPD building. He moved swiftly, dodging the mounds of rotting garbage and stinking refuse. The stench no longer bothered him. He had long become accustomed to the sights and smells of the city he chose to serve and protect.
Plus, he learned to dab a little touch of mentholated salve beneath his nostrils after seeing coroners and forensic investigators do so while working upon cadavers.
The darkness in this part of Gotham was nearly total, but his footing was sure and his memory of the twists and bends, long. He reached for the grapnel gun attached to his belt a second before he vaulted a rusted metal gate separating two alleyways.
He was airborne less than a second later, the dark and seedy underworld nothing but a blur beneath him. He reveled in the feeling of weightlessness, imagining it was how another hero in Metropolis felt whenever he took to the skies.
A minute later he was pulling himself onto a gargoyle overlooking the GCPD helipad. He used the filters in his mask to scan the roof for heat signatures. His eyes widened when it revealed the only occupant was a small figure.
A child...? His eyebrows shot up underneath his cowl. What is a child doing on the rooftop of the GCPD?
More importantly, why was she calling for him?
Who she was, he didn't know. Likely the child of one of those on duty tonight. However, something about this seemed... odd. The girl huddled beside the spotlight, shivering from a combination of cold and nerves. She glanced at the access door as if she expected it to slam open at any moment and someone to come out and chastise her for being out there in the cold. As well they should, he decided, eyes narrowing as he continued to study the petite figure.
A feeling nagged at him, told him there was more to this situation than met the eye. He looked again at the bat-shaped figure stamped on the night sky. The girl was calling for him.
There was a reason.
He wanted to know what it was.
Only one way to find out, he decided as he dropped down and silently prowled towards her.
A/N: Hello, all, and welcome!
This story is set during the early years of Batman's career (about two years in). It is set before the introduction of Dick Grayson as Robin. This story helps to establish a few things that happen in the rest of the stories on my profile. I don't see this story as being so much an AU (as everything happening in canon does still happen) as I see it as a story set in another of DC's Earth-verses.
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