Batman Holiday Special #1
Gotham City, South Gotham Mall, February 14th, Valentine's Day.
Escaped convict Julian Gregory Day's mugshot is shown on a television while many men stick up a mall. Batman infiltrates the mall through a sky roof, bashing through it and then gliding into a small jewelry shop. Four thugs shoot at him as he disappears and run to his last location. Batman takes cover behind the main desk, "Those idiots are wasting their ammo." he thinks while tossing tear gas pellets back at them. He bites down onto a rebreather, jumps onto the desk, and leaps towards the men,"Just what I needed." Batman yanks the tommy gun out of a thug's hands with the batclaw, he then lands on another thug, knocking him out with an elbow strike. One thug jumps back startled and begins to open fire on Batman, the dark knight covers himself with his cape, stopping the 2 bullets left in the thug's gun. The first thug had ran off and grabbed his gun and then passes out due to the gas. Batman faces the fourth thug, then strafes to his left, avoiding gunfire. Batman punches his arm along the barrel of the gun, his gloves fins tearing it apart. He then roundhouse kicks the fourth thug into a wall, he turns quickly enough to throw a batarang at the fleeing third thug.
Outside the mall.
Batman drops the rebreather in a pouch when he gets a call, "Batman, what the hell is going on in there?!" Commissioner James Gordon asks over a walkie-talkie. "I just took out 4 of Day's men." Batman replies before climbing into a ventilation shaft. "Well, keep up whatever you're doing in there. We're cornering them to the south edge of the mall." Gordon informs Batman. The dark knight creeps above some gunmen who're chowing down at the food court. "They've split from the rest of the group. That's a rookie's mistake."
Inside the Mall, Food court.
Batman drops down and sneaks into the kitchen. "The thugs have a hostage with them. I'll need to change that." Batman thinks while plotting the thugs' defeat. They begin to run out of food,"Hey man, go get some more eats for us." the big one demands. "They just sealed their fate." Batman thinks while the thug enters the kitchen, immediately being swatted across the face and knocked to the ground. Clang! "You slip in there?!", the big one asks jokingly. Three of the thugs enter the kitchen to investigate. They see the thug, knocked on the ground, a hand mark across his face and an empty hanger. "Where the hell are you Bat?!", one screams while blasting the back of the kitchen, leaking gas from a stove. They cease their fire, when a deep voice begins,"You shouldn't have done that, you just released highly flammable propane gas...". They turn to see Batman on top of another stove holding a frying pan,"But I figured you would." Batman then leaps down, and with a smile on his face he lands on one of them, he swats one in the knee with the frying pan and turns quickly enough to hit another on the side of the head. Clang! Clang! The big one takes a step back,"Since I can't shoot you by regular means, this'll do.", he grabs a quiver and puts it on his side. He then grabs an automatic crossbow and begins shooting at the kitchen.
Outside the kitchen.
The last thug quickly dodges a frying pan. He hears footsteps behind him. As he looks back, Batman throws a batarang, jamming the automatic crossbow. The thug tosses the crossbow to the side and takes off the quiver. He charges Batman, but before he can make it to him an explosion erupts from the kitchen. This sends them sprawling. Batman quickly gets up and stomps on the thug's face, knocking him out. Batman unties the hostage, telling him precise directions to escape and get to the GCPD. Batman then calls in,"I just saved a hostage, she's headed your way." Gordon exclaims,"What the Hell was that?! We just heard a giant explosion, followed by flames!" Batman, while carrying the big thug over his shoulders and sprinting, replies, "There was a gas leak and the kitchen went up in flames. I saved the hostage and I'm currently carrying the surviving thug." "Those bastards are getting squirrely. We're currently at a standoff." "Thanks for the update, Jim." Batman then lays the thug down at a wall, cuffing him to a pipe.
South edge of the mall, next to a flower shop.
"Ah, Valentine's Day. A day for all to tell their beloved how they truly feel." Julian Gregory Day, the Calendar Man, says while grabbing a bouquet of roses. He smells the roses while continuing,"And what better way to show you that I'm your true love, your other half, by showing you what I'm capable of?" He hands a young lady the roses, she refuses them. Calendar Man then takes off his mask, it has a checkered forehead with the 14th box marked with a red heart. "Maybe if I remove this?" She pushes herself back, covering her nose due to the stench of his breath. She swats him as he tries to dance with her. He rubs the left side of his face while remarking,"Gah! You absolute ingrate! Can't you see that we're meant to be?!" Meanwhile, a thug is walking and then falls flat on his back. A cable is around his leg, and it starts pulling him along the floor. "He screams all the way. That alone is worth it, to know how easily these fools crumble under pressure." The scream stabs through the air, interrupting Calendar Man. Three thugs run to free their hanging friend, two of them shooting at the cable and another standing beneath the hanging screamer, waiting to catch him. "They're wasting their time. I'll raise their hopes." Batman thinks from behind a kiosk before releasing the thug by pressing a button on the side of the batclaw. The screamer falls on top of the thug below him. A gas then spreads from his jacket, knocking out the thugs around him.
Outside the flower shop.
Batman jumps out towards Calendar Man and chucks a pellet at a thug. It expands and envelops around his face,"I wouldn't recommend trying to pull that from your face, that'll only make it expand more. It's a cocoon grenade, like Killer Moth's tools but better." Batman says while landing from the story above. The thug trips over his own feet and passes out. Another thug aims at Batman, his hands shaky and his legs trembling. A grey ball drops from Batman's hand, and smoke erupts from the ball. The thug empties his clip, a few stray bullets hit Batman's ear. Batman lunges at him once he's out of bullets. He breaks the thug's left hand and arm. He runs over to the hostages and frees them, he sees the fear in their eyes. "The things these people have been through. They're all so broken, I can see the terror in their eyes. I can barely hear them. I need to save that girl and put an end to this." the dark knight thinks while a terrified hostage explains what happened. Batman then explains the way out.
Flower shop.
Batman enters the flower shop, the only light in there being two candles on a table with a platter of lobster. Julian and the young lady are sitting there. "Day hasn't noticed me yet. I throw a bouquet of daisies across the shop, he stands up and opens fire. The time is ripe." Batman leaps over to the table and pinches the candles' wicks. "Day turns around startled, he can't see anything." Batman picks him up by his throat and throws him into a shelf, knocking it and Julian to the ground. Julian gets up clenching his neck. He can't even see in front of him. He then gets punched in the face and kneed in the side. Batman socks him in the same spot where he kneed him, breaking a few ribs. Batman grabs him by the collar and pulls him down into a knee to the face. "I stop myself from breaking him any further. That's better than what he deserves.
I grab him and walk him out to Gordon and the GCPD officers." As he's cuffed, a heart pin falls from his trench coat. He sees his "valentine" and yells,"You know, the reason we cuddle cute things is because we can't process how cute they are? So we smother them. I'll SMOTHER you! I'LL STRANGLE Y-", he's cut off by Gordon socking him in the face. "That's enough out of you! I tell you, these crooks get crazier and crazier by the dozen." Gordon says to Batman while Batman follows a strange scent to a pretzel shop. "It's a good thing one of them sold Julian out." Gordon says as Batman finds the source, it's a thug with bloodshot eyes and green sludge leaking from his mouth. Batman pulls a small sample collector from a pouch on his side. He collects a small bit of the sludge and puts the sample collector away. "What in the hell happened to him?! It smells like weed in here." Gordon says while covering his nose. "He was smoking on the job, not normal tobacco either." "Yeah, I can tell." Gordon says while swatting away the nasty smell. "I need to find whoever sold him this, our best lead is Black Mask." "I'll get my best men on it." A hooded figure watches on from afar. The figure turns and takes a leap of faith off a rooftop.