Chapter 2
It's the next day in the Gotham City zoo, and tourists are walking by the many exhibits. We see one boy and his mother indoors watching an exhibit of vultures. In another area of the zoo, a guide brings groups of people to an outdoor exhibit. "Over here, people, we have our resident Rhino, Alex," the zoo guide says. People look over the edge to get a good look at the rhino.
"Alex was transported to the Gotham City Zoo only a year ago. His favourite activity is swimming. It also helps to keep himself cool under that thick hide, particularly on warm days like these."
Back in the vulture exhibit one of the vultures is flying around in circles before dive-bombing into the built-in waterfall.
"Mom did you see that?" the boy says to his mother.
"That vulture would be Toomes," one of the other spectators near the boys tells him. "Many would consider him the star of this exhibit. What you saw is one of his many tricks he likes to perform in front of people."
The boy continues to gaze at Toomes. He could only make out his shape on the other side of the waterfall. "What's he doing?" the boy asks.
"Toomes just loves that waterfall. Don't worry he doesn't stay behind the falls for long,"
The boy looks around the exhibit and notices something. "What's that?" He points to the water.
The spectator looks in the water too. "I don't know."
In the pond at the other end of the exhibit that's connected to the waterfall by a river, a green substance begins to surface. A loud splash occurs as Toomes flies through the wall of water and lands on the soft ground. The bird doesn't appear to notice, but the green glowing substance is on its back.
Over in the Rhino exhibit, Alex is resting and frolicking in the water. He ultimately comes back on land and heads towards an area of his exhibit where vegetables are laid down as a snack for him.
The tourists begin talking amongst themselves and start snapping photos. "I'm sure it's nothing folks," the zoo guide tells them. "But just to be safe, I'm going to inform the zookeepers there might be something in Alex's habitat."
Alex happens to be covered in the green glowing substance too.
Robert sees all of this in the view screens. "A rhino and a vulture?" he thinks about it some more before he remembers something, "Spider-man's Rhino and Vulture?" He lets the movie play out to see if his guess is right.
A while later the view screens are inside Wayne Manor as Dick Grayson is seen sitting on the couch, taking a look at the news.
"Earlier today a mysterious chemical was found at the Gotham City zoo," the news reporter says to the camera. "So far it appears to have only leaked into two exhibits. However two of the residents, a rhino named Alex and a vulture named Toomes have already been contaminated by the chemicals." The two animals are shown being led into two separate trucks as the reporter's voiceover is heard.
Three men in fine coats and hats arrive as Mr. Kane greets them. "Good morning gentlemen."
"Morning Bob," one of them responds back.
"You can pass your hats and coats to my assistant here," Mr. Kane tells them.
"Oh thank you," one of them tells the female assistant as he passes his hat and coat to her.
Not too far away, Jervis looks over and is revealed to be watching all this.
The men begin stepping into a large boardroom with a glass front wall as the assistant walks away with a big pile of coats and hats. She walks away from the boardroom and down the hall until she accidentally drops a few of the hats on the floor. She bends down to grab the hats but someone picks them up before she does. She looks up to see Jervis.
"Here let me help you with those ma'am," Jervis offers.
"Oh thank you," the assistant compliments with a smile.
Jervis takes half the coats. "You can pass me all the hats too."
"If only there were more people like you," she says.
"If only..." Jervis rests two of the coats on one arm then sneakily reaches into his pocket and pulls out four flexible devices about the size of a stick of gum. He gladly takes the hats of the chairmen and slips the first device into the inner rim of a hat. His actions are well concealed by the coats.
The view screens next show a high rise somewhere else in Gotham. Two men enter an office of the highrise. "You wanted to see us?"
The woman in charge is sitting in her chair, facing away from the door. "Yes, come in and close the door behind you."
"Ah, that must be Helena Bonham Carter," Robert says to himself as he watches from the view screens.
The men step closer to her desk. She's watching the news on a TV in her office. "Tell me Noah, what's that you see on the screen?"
Noah looks at the TV. "It's news on the Gotham zoo."
"Not just news on the Gotham zoo." She pauses the TV at the image of Alex the Rhino. "Is that chemical on the rhino what I think it is?"
"It might not be," the other man suggests.
"It might not be?" The woman spins her chair around to face them and it indeed is Helena Bonham Carter. "You don't think I know when I see my own chemicals on TV?"
"We could explain," Noah tries to reason.
"Don't explain," she cuts him off. "Fix it. They'll need to examine those two animals in order to know where the chemicals came from. You guys make sure those two creatures don't make it to their destination."
"Sure thing. What do you want us to do with the rhino and vulture once we have them?" the other man asks.
"Bring them to my research facility," she finishes. "Now get out of my sight while I'm still in a good mood."
The two men begin to leave as Helena turns her chair around and continues to watch the news.
Night time in Gotham. An armoured money truck drives out of the overpass and stops at the red light. The drivers wait patiently for the light to turn green.
Right before the light is about to change, a van drives right in front of the armoured truck and blocks its path. The back doors swing open as people in ski masks and windbreakers jump out from the back of the van. The driver tries to back up, but a car comes up from behind and blocks its path from the back. Five additional men step out from the car.
The security guard in the passenger seat steps out of the truck. He pulls out his nightstick ready for action, but the robbers open fire. The bullets miss, but the security guard stops what he's doing. The robbers rush at him and knock him to the ground. The driver raises his arms up as one of the men clocks him in the head with the back of a gun, knocking him out.
"Ah, a shameless action scene. I was wondering when we'll get one of those," Robert says with a smile on his face.
The masked men pops open the back of the truck and is surely enough presented with the sight of stashes of money. They gleefully step in and begin unloading the money.
The Batmobile then comes racing down the street. Its roaring engines and flames can be seen and heard along the street.
"It's the Bat!" one of them calls out.
The men take their attention off what they're doing and look in the direction where the Batmobile is coming from. They draw out various weapons from machines guns to shotguns to pistols. A few climb on top of the van as the others simply take cover from behind and starts firing aimlessly.
Gun barrels are a blazing and they're shooting all over the place. A few sparks comes off the Batmobile as the bullets hit and ricochet off it. The Batmobile continues its pace in spite of it.
The robbers notice the Batmobile isn't slowing down and some of them begin to panic. Most of them move away from the van as the Batmobile collides into it then finally comes to a halt. The people on the roof of the van are knocked off down to the ground and several people too close to the van get injured in the collision.
Robert at first is surprised at how reckless that stunt was of Batman, but then he remembered. "Oh right, Burton's Batman kills people."
A motorcycle comes roaring from the other end of the tunnel. It's the Redbird cycle as it drives through the tunnel and towards the robbers. A group of robbers near the back end of the money truck turn around and start shooting at Robin. Unsurprisingly, they miss terribly. Robin lets out a shout of excitement before he leaps off the motorcycle and lands on the group of robbers. He takes three of the five robbers in the group out from just his landing. He quickly knocks the gun away from a robber still standing before taking him out in a series of punches. Then he turns around and takes down the last standing robber in the group with a jumping spin kick.
Other robbers at the front of the money truck climb on top of the Batmobile and try to shoot through the window and roof. Suddenly a cable shoots down from the edge of the overpass and grabs onto the back of one of the robber's jackets and pulls him up. The other two don't notice at first, but eventually turn around and are dumbfounded as to where their comrade went.
Batgirl drops down and takes down another robber on her descent. "Hope I'm not late to the party." She kicks the third robber off the Batmobile.
The Batmobile's roof slides open and Batman climbs out of the driver seat. He approaches the last three standing robbers.
The first person comes at him with a baseball bat. Batman ducks underneath the first swing, then catches the second. He backhands the robber, causing him to stumble back on the ground.
Batman jabs the bat in the stomach of the second robber coming at him. He grabs the person by the back of the jacket then tosses him at the van. The robber flies through the air and crashes head first into the vans passenger seat window.
The baseball bat assailant gets back up off the road and goes after Batman, but is quickly kicked back down. The last standing person is out of arm's reach and has a shotgun in his hand. Batman whips out a batarang and hurls it at his face, effectively knocking him out.
The driver of the armoured money truck lies on the road and is starting to regain consciousness. He opens his eyes and sees the robbers unconscious on the road too. He looks up and is shocked to see Batman in person.
Batman just gives him a stare before turning back to the direction of the Batmobile. "Let's go," he instructs the others.
The driver is uncertain how to react. "Thanks," he calls out as the caped crusaders head back to their vehicles as that's the Tim Burton Batman way. Just beat up the bad guys then leave.
The phone starts ringing inside Mr. Kane's home. He picks it up, "Hello?"
"Bob, it's Richard," the voice on the other line says.
"Hey Richard."
"The rest of the guys and I are going out. Get your coat and hat and join us at my place, will you?" Richard says.
"Sure thing, I'll be right there," he hangs up the phone.
Shortly after Mr. Kane places on his coat then his hat, he suddenly acts like he's in a trance.
A time jump happens and we see Mr. Kane and the rest of the three chairmen heading into a car.
Looking through the window of one of the homes of one of the chairmen, Jervis is watching all this.
The next morning the news is playing on a TV screen. The news crew is at the parking lot of a factory in the middle of the city. Walls of nearby buildings and mailboxes on the sidewalk are burnt. Black soot is all over the ground and out on the streets as firefighters clean up.
"We're here at the site where a tragic accident occurred last night." The reporter walks over to where the remains of two vehicles have collided. "Behind us we have what's left of the cause of the accident. According to reports a vehicle swerved off road and collided into a pickup truck carrying canisters of highly flammable material. Fortunately, the pickup truck was parked and no one was inside it. Unfortunately the same can't be said for the other vehicle which claimed the lives of four people."
The view screens move back from the TV to show the living room of the person watching the news feed. It's Johnny Depp. He gets off his couch as the news is still heard in the background.
"Interestingly the victims are believed to be the chairmen of some of Gotham's promising industries. Reports have stated that the men withdrew large amounts of cash from their bank accounts before being seen in several nightclubs in Gotham."
Jervis goes over to a briefcase on his table and opens it. "And I like to thank those dearly departed men for sharing some of their money with me."
"At the moment, Gotham police is ruling the case another example of an intended night of fun tragically ending in another drunk driving fatality."
"At least this one doesn't make the people of Gotham, not counting the heroes and villains, look like utter morons," Robert says. Thinking of such examples like them trusting the Joker and attending his parade even though he went on TV days earlier telling Gotham he poisoned their products; or almost voting the Penguin for mayor; or believing Riddler's boss committed suicide with such a lame goodbye note and video evidence to name a few memories.
Jervis then turns and walks over to the lab mice from work that he brought to his home. "Today, guys, is the beginning of our new lives."
Next is a short time lapse of Jervis suiting up. His hair is well groomed and he's sporting suit pants, a white button shirt and a vest. He then puts on a trench coat and trademark top hat.
"And the Mad Hatter is born," Robert remarks as he watches from his view screens. "Okay let's move this along." Robert does some more fast forwarding.
He stops until it gets to a scene where he sees Johnny in the hideout of the gang from the failed armoured truck robbery. He slams his cane on the floor to get their attention. "Greetings. I need some extra hands with certain tasks, and I've heard you people been having some trouble with our resident Bats, so maybe I can help you out with that."