Fight or Fright Instincts
By: The Dark Knight 17
I own nothing of Batman, from the first comic to the latest movie, they are entirely someone else's creations.
Summary:
An very unlucky night on patrol is all it takes to trap Batman in a mind game devised by several Gotham's most wanted, where he will be forced to fight for his very life. No OC romance here, just Batman as realistic and as dark as I know how to write it.
Authors Note:
Its been a year since I have touched this story. I am now just starting to update it and revise the previous chapters. Please read or re-read it and give me your thought!
-Part 1-
Injection
The tumbler's sister vehicle made swift work of Gotham's underground network of roads. It was proving to be an oddly calm evening for the city's Dark Knight. False alarms had been triggered at several different locations including the Gotham First National Bank and a jewelry store, and they ended up being nothing to be concerned about. Faulty wiring was the main cause of at least one of them, and it would not have been the first time that the GCPD scared an amateur thief or two away before any damage was done. Unfortunately, these days the police were also looking for him, and not to shoot the breeze. Taking him down was now a top priority. The Batman tended to keep a greater distance between the shadows he sought refuge in and the loaded rifles the officers carried. He was about to turn in for the night, and would most likely have been headed home if it weren't for a rather strange noise disturbance that had come through over the radio not fifteen minutes ago. It was reported to be taking place at Gotham's Zoo, and that was simply too out of the ordinary for Batman not to go and investigate. After all, Arkham Asylum was just across the river from the gated location that housed the animal displays.
"I'm almost at the city limits; I should be arriving at the zoo shortly. I'm sure I'll be fine. Don't wait up." The dark knight's gruff voice cut through the silent rumble of the vehicle's engine.
"Very well. I will work on unpacking some more boxes before I retire, Master Wayne. Good hunting, sir." His old friend's voice chimed back. He knew Alfred understood how difficult his "night work" had become, so the butler tended to argue much less about his returning home later and later into the early morning. Moving back to Wayne Manor was becoming a very challenging task in itself, and he was glad that instead of pacing a hole in the floor of the bat cave, Alfred would be able to keep his mind occupied.
The great concrete walls of the Gotham zoo grew larger as the tumbler approached it's main gate. As a child he remembered coming here often with his mother and Alfred while his father was away at the hospital. The lion's den was his favorite exhibit. Tonight, however, in the eerie glow of the full moon, it possessed a rather menacing aura. He drove around the back of the compound, parking in a well hidden truck dock where animals were most likely shipped in and out of the facility.
With the flick of a switch, the Tumbler's overhead hatch slid back, and the one known as the Batman lithely jumped out of the driver's seat before the bullet proof glass slid securely back into place. The night air was cool on his exposed face, and clouds littered the sky, swirling from time to time in front of the moon, casting everything in a black darkness. He easily picked the padlock that secured the animal handler's entrance and proceeded forward with caution. Red security lights were periodically placed along the long halls that branched out to the left, right. There were even under ground tunnels, that he assumed, were in order to reach the more secluded animal habitats. Above him, at least in some areas, grates in the plastered ceiling allowed the white light of the moon to enter the corridor. Water dripped and echoed somewhere in the distance, but other then the steady splashing, sheer silence saturated the place. The call that had gone out was just a noise complaint, but it had come from only two blocks away from the zoo, quite uncommon, even with the grunts, roars and calls of the wide variety of animals. Besides, gunshots are not in anyway a common noise heard in a place like this.
Batman moved silently through the passage way passing locked door after locked door that most likely harbored the zoo's sleeping wild inhabitants. Once deep in the bowels of the facility, he finally came to a slightly rusted steel door that was labeled with white stenciled letters. The spray paint had grown faded, most likely with age, but the words, "Big Cats" were still clearly discernable. A lock had been burnt through with some sort of acid, and the door was slightly ajar. He could still smell small remains of the corrosive material in the air.
Opening a compartment on his utility belt, he took a quick swab of the material before placing it in a small vile. He would test it later, but before he had a chance to return it to his belt, something shifted behind him. He turned his head around, expecting to confront whatever it was that was there, but found nothing. Just an empty hallway bathed in a red glow. Pushing the door open cautiously, he slid into the room. Several sets of yellow eyes watched him carefully from behind thick walls of glass. The cats were awake, but the room was a dead end. Who ever had been here was long gone by now. A pipe at the end of the wall was broken, and some kind of steam had begun leaking into the room filling it with a thick fog. He moved over to inspect it, and judging from its jagged edge, it had been cut. There was also some sort of glass canister that the gas seemed to be diffusing from. Batman reached into the pipe to grab the strange object, but his fingers never reached their desired destination.
He felt the sharp needle as it was thrust between the Kevlar plates and into his neck. The Dark Knight jerked away in surprise catching his assailant with his elbow. He turned to apprehend his attacker, who was now cursing with the pain caused by a blow to the head, but the room had begun to spin violently. He needed escape before he passed out, so he took off at a run, sprinting at first then jogging. He soon slowed to a walk, what ever had begun coursing through his body was making him sick. He paused for a second, dry heaving roughly, and he was glad, for once, to have skipped dinner. He passed identical door after door, turning sharply, climbing small sets of stairs, and he quickly began to lose hope of escaping, until he finally made it to the surface.
The cool air made him shiver as it touched his clammy skin, and he clumsily climbed back into the safety of the tumbler. Sirens could be heard in the distance growing louder. The GCPD were on the way; he would need to leave it up to them tonight. He set the auto pilot and was soon on his way back to the manor.
Bruce Wayne drowsily removed Batman's cowl and placed it on the passenger seat, freeing his hands up to examine the injection site more carefully. The mishap at the zoo would have been nearly undetectable were it not for the tiny pin prick of blood that had dried where the needle had entered his skin. While the computer navigated the way home, he clumsily removed a first-aid kit from behind the driver's head rest and began drawing his own blood. He could, through his blurring vision, just make out the first rays of the sun's light on the horizon. Bruce was growing anxious; he wanted to test it as soon as he arrived back at the cave. What ever was now in his system was most likely never meant to be inside any zoo animal, let alone a human being.
A newly revised chapter. If you liked it, or see any area for improvement please leave a review, KIND construstive criticism is very welcome. Hope you enjoyed the first chapter!