SURVIVAL TEST

The city was alive and things were happening everywhere in Gotham City. At a local pizza place, three men sat down to eat lunch. Each wore a pressed black suit, probably expensive, by the look of them. The three men looked around suspiciously and then sulked over to the alleyway behind the shop.

"So, are you ready for tonight?" whispered the tallest of the three. He had slicked-back black hair, and his eyes were a strange violet. Whenever he spoke, it almost sounded like a soft snake hiss dripping with poison.

"Of course I'm ready for tonight; tonight's the night that we all get paid if everything goes according to plan."

"Of course everything will go according to plan, you fucker, as long as you don't screw up again, Larry."

"Hey man, fuck you! Just cause your ass needs money, wasting it all on that expensive crap, don't say I fuck things up," replied Larry.
Something rustled in the corner, and the third man whipped out an M-9, instantly thumbing the safety and firing a quick short three shot burst at the source of the noise. A dead cat slumped off of the wall and tumbled to the ground.

"JESUS CHRIST, Mike, what the fuck are you doing? It's only a cat," yelled Larry in sudden shock.

"I had to shoot something to keep myself from shooting you two dumb shits, Larry. Steven, shut the fuck up and be quiet."

At that instant a small black metal bat-shaped object shot out of the middle of nowhere and hit Mike in the hand. "Fuck!" yelled Mike in shock and he dropped his gun, which clattered to the floor with a ominous clack.

"You shouldn't play with guns or you could get hurt, " said an ice-cold voice that seemed to come from the pitch-black night itself.

"Fuck, it's the Bat! Everybody, come on, let's go!"

The three men rushed down the alleyway and sprinted around the corner down the street. Larry ran and suddenly stumbled and fell when a razor wire whipped around his legs.

"Fuc…" was all he could say before his face smashed into the curb, shattering his jaw.

"Awww fuck, he got Larry. Fuck, fuck, fuck! Mike, what are we going to do…. Mike?"

Suddenly behind him Steven heard four gunshots go off and then a scream. Steven looked over his shoulder as he was running and saw Mike on the floor with his arm twisted behind his head and his face in the ground.

"Almost there," thought Steven as he burst through the warehouse door in front of him.

"Why did they always have to run? They always run," thought Batman as he sprinted down the street toward the warehouse that the mobster had burst through. "He' probably expecting me to go through the door," he thought as he jumped off a garbage bin and through an open window. Acrobatically flexing, he landed, in the building leaving it as silent as it had been before he came.From the catwalk he saw the mobster standing shaking nervously, holding his gun out at someone.

"Hey, the original plan isn't gonna work. I want more money now. YOU NEVER FREAKING TOLD ME THE BAT WAS GONNA BE INVOLVED." He yelled while thumbing the safety with his hand shaking violently. Batman jumped off the catwalk and down to the mobster to try and stop him before anything happened. Then in that split-second, he realized he had been tricked by two things: 1. There wasn't actually a man; it was a scarecrow with a voice recording. 2. Why would a mobster run into a building and hold up a guy?

"Nighty, night, Bats," said the man that had been held up. Batman reached into his utility belt to throw a batarang at the man, but suddenly he felt a dart hit him in his neck. His vision started to blur, and he tried to throw the batarang, but it seemed to slip from his hand, and then everything went black.