Chapter 2 is here, Finally. Please enjoy and thank you for the reviews, With Love ~Dresner
Looking for the New Batman was hard, Harder than trying to track the original. I remember when I was with the Suicide Squad under Amanda Waller, I say that because I formed one when working with Penguin, A rather bullshit group of Mercenaries from the Squad minus Karl Dael who seemed to have fallen off the face off the earth, and we attempted to track Batman during our raid on the Asylum only a year before the Joker took it over.
Even with our history with the Dark Knight we still couldn't track the newest addition to the Bat Family. So we had to rethink our efforts as Karl world say...
We decided to Find Nightwing in hopes of him. From Gotham to Bludhaven we found the first Robin, but he didn't hold the answer.
"Bruce is... Is... Gone Harley." He told me with a heavy heart. "Who ever this Batman is, he has taken a burden heavier than any of us could bare. Leave him be please Harley, just leave him be."
The current Robin gave us the same spill. It seemed that what happen that on the morning of November 1st was what it was.
But I simply couldn't believe that Bruce Wayne died, I couldn't believe it, I wouldn't believe it.
Selena believed it, and it broke her. Bruce was her love and to lose him was the hardest thing she had to cope with beside her status as the bastard child of Falcon. With those words, Selena packed her bags and left Gotham for good...
I couldn't let myself give up on Bruce, I couldn't except him being dead, and deep down I knew he wasn't dead.
I went to Wayne Manor later that night to comb the remains. There wasn't much left other than some wreckage, stone, and wood. The search lasted until the sunrise on the morning of the 5th. But even then, there was nothing. Or so I thought...
On the East Wing was a fireplace with a large stone chimney. The blast and the ensuing fire should have destroyed it, but no this chimney stood defiantly above the remains of the Manor. I looked around it until finial elbowing into a loose brick on its surface. The fireplace rose up and revealed a passageway leading down into the corridors hidden under Wayne Manor and Gotham itself.
Down there I only found ruins...
The once proud base of one of America's most powerful heroes was now just as barren as land above. The Computer was destroyed, the forensic lab annihilated, the training area obliterated, and the R&D Lab smashed to atoms.
My first Clue was the cave itself. If the Bomber planted explosives in the Manor, How did he know the location of the Cave? Bruce had this place locked down as tight as Fort Knox and anyone smart enough to find the access and dumb enough to try their luck against his defenses would have had a hard time getting to there. Through out the wreckage inside I soon found the charges used in the attack.. Then It hit me then and there, Bruce did this to himself. The charges were of high grade Semtex made only by Wayne enterprises that were invisible to the CSI's scanners. I new the stuff to well as 'Explosive Gel'. The smell of glue oozed over the computers and scanners of the Cave. Only one man had enough Gel to do this- Bruce Wayne.
This was planned and enacted by Bruce Wayne Himself!
This is all I had to go on and all I needed from there to build my case. After more searching I found a USB drive with a list of cities and file marked 'Batman Beyond'.
I can't go on about the file to you, dear reader, but what I can say is that this was in the works for years after the Suicide Squad hit Arkham a few years ago.
Bruce knew this was coming at some point, when the jig was up and Gotham needed a new hero. His successor...
He left his beloved city in the hands of a new Knight to continue his legacy. Who ever it was I did not care, he wasn't the man I fell in love with.
I leave this here to you, dear reader, to spread the word loud and clear: I'm going for the Bat, the original Batman, and I am not coming back to Gotham without him. I leave everything to Selena Kyle and her friend Maggie for the time being. To Selena I say to keep your faith in Bruce, for I know in my heart that he is alive somewhere in the vast world. AND to anyone wanting to stop me or kill Bruce is going to have to go through me!
With Love and Laughs ~ Harleen Quinnzel
"That is the end of the Letter, Comrade Major." A Ukrainian Mercenary Captain read to the coated Major. The Major was standing by a large window over looking the remains of Arkham City. Beyond the terror and dread of the former Mega-Prison below was the Gotham city skyline. Tower cranes and sky scrappers ripped the dark rainy clouds of Gotham city. It disgusted the Major, the Skyline, sure it was a sign of progress, but it was also the sign of Gotham cities ever growing similarity to Brazil or any other third world country with only extremes of Wealth and Poverty. Gotham was a depressing, even after Wayne's Gotham Reborn project and the election of Mayor James Gordon, who continued the project in Wayne's name.
"Thank you Comrade Captain." He says to the Captain in a slight Russian accent. "Bruce Wayne is still among the living, He has to be the bastard is to hard to kill by any force or man. Just look at the Army Jason Todd amassed to assault this armpit of America. One man defeated an army of over 6,000 men, 400 tanks and APC's, 23 Aerial Drones, Two Super Heavy Tanks, and a Chemical Weapon. One man defeated them all. ONE MAN! This man would not simply commit harakiri over losing his identity to the world. No..."
The Major turned around to a rather young man in late 20's with tightly groomed blonde hair and sea blue eyes. His name was Konev, Adamska Konev. Major Konev is Russian by Birth, Born 17th March 1990, Age 25, in a small neighborhood in Leningrad, Now St. Petersburg. The Major was young, but proven in battle with GRU Spetznaz operations in Korea, Ukraine, and the Middle East. He wore a simple black Battle Dress Uniform with a black hooded coat to shield him from the rain, All his men of this scout unit in Gotham wore a variation of this to hide among the populous.
"No, The Batman is not just a man. He is a legend, a legend that will not simply go away with the times." Konev replied. "Send this report to Headquarters and begin Phase One of the Operation."
"Da Comrade Major!" The Captain Replied, rushing down stares to the command vehicle, A Semi Tractor Trailer converted into a mobile command post.
Konev return to the window to gaze at the Gotham City Skyline with a straight face. Contemplating wither or not this lead would the Organization on trail of Bruce Wayne. The smooth vibration of a cell phone broke his train of thought, "Go ahead."
"Ms. Kyle and Mr. Dael have been detained in at Panesse Studios on Bleake Island. Report at 20:00 Hours for interrogation of the Subjects. Phase One of Operation Rebirth is a go." A female voice commanded him over the phone.
"Yes Ma'am." Konev replied hanging up the phone with a smile.
At the Studio a woman clad in all black clothing gazed over the containment chambers where the Joker Victims were once held. It was one of the last relics of the Batman that remained in the city of Gotham. She read of the facility in the reports taken from GCPD shortly after the disappearance of Mr. Wayne. But she didn't care of his secret and used this move by the Organization to check up on her old flame Karl Dael.
She looked over at him as he slept on the cell bed only briefly before scolding herself, "No, Not just yet." She said to herself as she looked over at Selena Kyle. The guards stiffened up and held their compact AK-104 assault rifles tighter. It was unwise to look docile around Madam Claudia Marlin, especially when she was given the choice of life or death for them.
"Prepare her for questioning, Interrogation room Alpha One!" She snapped at the guards. The two men rushed to open the door, keeping their guns trained on Selena as they opened the chamber.
"WHAT?! Why are you-" Selena shouted before being injected with a syringe full of a sedative. She passed out quickly and fell into the guards arms.
"Harm her and you'll know how it feels to be dissected like a frog." She shouted as the guards rushed Selena was slung over the shoulders of the guards and taken away.
