Luck of the Irish Prologue
AN: So, this is a new story that I couldn't get out of my head, enjoy and please tell me what you think of it.
This story takes place about a year after the events of Arkham Knight. Here are the events that have taken place.
Bruce and Alfred are presumed dead after Wayne Manor explodes. A final will is found, leaving the land upon which Wayne Manor was built to Barbara Gordon. This makes sense because Bruce was close with both Jim and Barbara and the people of Gotham think nothing of it. This move also leaves the Batcave to Barbara, and since Barbara married Tim Drake, Tim as well. The will also leaves Wayne Enterprises to Lucius Fox, along with instructions for getting Bruce's adopted son, Tim, into the business and gives Tim, Lucius, and the Gordons, all a sizable share in the company. He donates the rest of his fortune, knowing that the stock in the company alone will easily support everyone whom he wishes to support. A sizable portion of the donated money went to the GCPD to make them capable of actually fighting crime with Bruce gone. The rest of the money went to charities all around Gotham. In remembrance of Bruce, the GCPD decides to start taking its job seriously and turns into an actual police force, keeping the crime rate at a regular big city level, rather than the normal lawlessness of Gotham. When Gotham's crime rate gets below Detroit's, there is much rejoicing (not to hate on any Detroiters). Tim and Barbara are happily married and build a much smaller house on the land that was left to them. They maintain the Batcave and Tim has dawned the mantle of Batman but only occasionally goes out, seeing as how he doesn't need to now that the police force is actually functional. Nightwing follows Tim's lead and operates much less frequently and solely in Blüdhaven. Due to this decrease in crime, Gotham has started to expand, growing into a massive city. And Bruce and Alfred are never seen in Gotham again. They may not be dead, but no one has heard or seen them since Wayne Manor exploded.
Now, what happened to our villains? Well, for once, there was an actual trial, on the level of the Nuremberg Trials, to figure out what to do with all of the super-villains captured by Batman in his last hurrah. Let's start from the top and work down, shall we? (This will not include any DLC villains, for the purpose of the story; we will assume that they are still at large. These sentences are only for their crimes in Arkham Knight, all crimes from other games are disregarded.)
Scarecrow was originally sentenced to death, but the sentence was lowered to multiple life sentences in a maximum-security prison with no possibility of parole on an insanity plea.
Simon Stagg is sentenced to life in prison for aiding and abetting a criminal and for illegal experiments that were found on board his airships. His airships have since been turned into a Batman museum and Stagg Enterprises has been absorbed into Wayne Enterprises.
Jason Todd, as he was never captured, leaves Gotham and becomes a mercenary for hire.
Deathstroke chooses mandatory life military service over multiple life sentences.
Azrael escaped and has been hunting down the Order of St. Dumas ever since.
Oswald Cobblepot is acquitted since, as a result of the destruction of all of the weapons and the fact that the safes were fused together and not worth attempting to open, there was no evidence besides Nightwing's testimony, that there were any guns or that Cobblepot had any connection to the supposed guns.
The Riddler is acquitted because he legally bought every place he used and no one can prove that he attempted to kill Catwoman since she refuses to testify and Batman's dead.
Harley Quinn is acquitted because her only crime has really been breaking and entering but the Bat-family didn't want anyone to know that they had essentially kidnapped four people so she was let go.
Two-Face was sentenced to 25 years in a maximum-security prison for armed robbery and destruction of property.
Hush was sentenced to life in prison without parole for murder and attempted murder. (I'm including the murders in Arkham City because he couldn't have fooled Lucius otherwise.)
Deacon Blackfire was sentenced to life in prison for murder, attempted murder, and leading a cult.
Firefly was sentenced to 30 years in prison for arson and attempted murder.
Kirk Langstrom was sentenced to 20 years with possibility of parole in a minimum-security asylum for murder when he was not in control of his own mind.
Professor Pyg was sentenced to death for multiple counts of murder, kidnapping, assault and battery, and general mutilation.
Catwoman escaped and hasn't been captured since.
Chief Underhill was sentenced to 6 months in prison and many hours of community service for aiding in arson.
So, because there had been so many breakouts beforehand from these criminals, the courts decided to do the right thing for once, get them out of Gotham. Everybody who was given an extensive sentence was shipped to separate prisons across the country, with no two super-villains in the same prison. Everywhere from Alaska, to Montana, to Texas, to Kansas, they were sent to high-security prisons in the middle of nowhere. The only ones who were sentenced and were allowed to stay in Gotham were Chief Underhill and Kirk Langstrom. And for the sake of the story, everybody who was sent to prison is out of the story. The only exception is Deathstroke, who escaped from military custody three months in and is back to being a mercenary, though not in Gotham out of respect to the greatest enemy he's ever faced.
So, to recap, Batman and Alfred are gone. Tim and Barbara are married. Lucius runs Wayne Enterprises. The Joker and Poison Ivy are dead. Scarecrow, Stagg, Two-Face, Pyg, Firefly, Blackfire, and Hush have all been shipped out of Gotham. Jason Todd, Deathstroke, and Azrael have all left Gotham. Nightwing stays in Blüdhaven and both Nightwing and Tim, who is now Batman, rarely come out anymore. As for everyone else, things have changed.
Harley Quinn, since being acquitted, having any possibility of getting the Joker back destroyed, and watching the man who she thought had killed Mr. J himself killed, she's settled down. Still a criminal, as her connection to the Joker has waned, her intelligence has made a major comeback. She is now the de facto mob boss in Gotham, but plays her cards low and doesn't engage in too many illicit activities. Her only real opponent left in the Gotham mob world is the Penguin, who continues to run his illegal activities from the cover of the Iceberg Lounge.
The Riddler, no longer believing that he had anyone to match wits with, sunk into a depressive funk, until, however, he found a certain game by the name of Super Meat Boy in which, death traps like his must be conquered. Seeing that people would pay money to virtually conquer his death traps, he taught himself to create video games and created his own video game company, creating death trap games in the vein of Super Meat Boy, but with the Riddler's own flair added in.
While there have still been burglaries, Catwoman seems to be taking it easy on the city with the cops becoming much better at stopping her.
Mr. Freeze, Killer Croc, Mad Hatter, and anyone else whom I haven't mentioned are all still out there, in Gotham, but due to the crackdown by the police, have been in hiding or severely limiting there criminal activities.
And that is the Gotham at the time that my story starts. If I missed anything or something happened in a DLC that changed the stories of these characters, please tell me. Thank you