Batman: Revolution
CHAPTER FOUR: Reborn
Sionis was screaming, burning, flailing, laughing, howling, writhing… He dived from the flames, as he heard firemen burst in, water spraying across the hall. He saw one, through his scorched eyes, and then he fell… slumping to the ground once again. But he was alive.
He rose… he touched his burning face… and laughed. He was… he was… he was not simply alive. Roman Sionis was DEAD… He was reborn! hh
He was now… The Black Mask.
Two firemen were approaching:
"Hey, buddy, you OK!?"
"Oh, I'm far more than OK!" Black Mask moved like a cheetah, or perhaps like that speed-of-sound guy in Keystone City, reflected one of the fire-fighters as the man lashed out with a black metallic blade. The man fell, the shuriken protruding from his head.
"Oh my…" began the second fireman and Mask strode forwards and shoved him through the window… down, and down…
The Black Mask laughed… and glanced around. There were no bodies. NO DAMN BODIES! But he'd killed Ra's! He'd seen the bastard die… and the girl and the Bat, they couldn't have escaped. They couldn't…
He ran, stumbled, and dashed to Wayne's office. He stared at the old grand piano, and played three notes: C#, F, D.
And there he was. In the Bat Cave. He had no time to look around; he just ran towards a costume on a stand, and… his mind erupted. A stick slammed down again and again onto his head. Black Mask yelled out, slipped to the ground…
"Master Wayne, get the hell down here!" He heard a voice, and opened his eyes… the cave swam before him… and an old man in a dressing gown stood several feet away, talking on a mobile phone. Silently, Mask rose, snuck forwards, and seized an old handgun from a workbench. He brought it round, and struck the old man across the head… as, through a waterfall across the cave, a black tank-like vehicle erupted. Batman ejected himself free of the Tumbler and glided with his memory fibre cape at the Mask, landing as the villain lifted Alfred and rammed the gun barrel against his jaw.
"A jaw for a jaw, eh, Bats? Think a bullet will do more'n a fist, asshole?" giggled Sionis… and then a third figure stood in the cavern. Talia al Ghul aimed a rifle, and Sionis smiled.
The stage was set. The players unmasked. The final showdown was about to begin!
"So… welcome to the endgame, Batman. Miss Ghul, I believe you have a score to settle with our Caped Crusader here… the man who killed your father." The Black Mask laughed.
"I didn't kill…" began the Dark Knight, and Talia fired a short burst of gunfire that knocked the hero to the ground, saved by his Kevlar suit.
"You lying, murdering son of a…" began Talia, and then Batman rose weakly and ran for the hi-tech computer in the cave corner. Brakka boom! He was shot into the machine, slumping to the ground.
"I'll kill you slowly, you know, Wayne," hissed Talia. She raised the gun.
This is all so wrong… Bruce thought as he lay there, so weak, …why??? Why, dammit???
He had thought Ra's al Ghul gone. He had thought Talia at peace. He had thought Sionis dead. And now he had been defeated by his assumptions! He rose, anger coursing through him.
"THIS IS FOR ALFRED!" He bellowed and threw a shuriken perfectly, burying it in Sionis' face. The Black Mask fell back, away from the old butler, "THIS IS FOR MY PARENTS!" He tore across the cave, dived as he heard Talia aim and fire… and then he struck Roman across the face with such power that several bones in his hand broke, like twigs, and the mask, now burnt and beaten so it was a blackened part of the man's terrible visage, shattered, "AND THIS IS FOR GOTHAM!"
Batman lay Sionis out with a kick of such force that Black Mask's head was thrown back and he slumped, senseless. The Dark Knight turned to Talia:
"I am not a killer."
"I saved you and you murdered him in cold blood."
"It was Sionis…"
"It was your shuriken."
"The footage is on the damn computer. Just look!"
"SHUT UP!" Talia fired, blasting Bruce down, "MY FATHER WAS RIGHT! HE WAS RIGHT! ABOUT EVERYTHING!"
"Your father is…"
"HE WAS RIGHT, YOU SON OF A BITCH! He was right."
"Talia, listen to me, Ra's is…"
Talia began to squeeze the trigger of her gun. A wooden stick struck her across the had so hard that it broke into pieces. Talia al Ghul fell, unconscious… it was over.
"Such a shame," whispered Alfred, "But Miss Rachel will be happy."
"Rachel?" Batman stared at the butler.
"She's back, Master Bruce. She's waiting in the sitting room."
"Tell her I'll be with her, as soon as I've made a couple of deliveries to New Arkham."
Soon afterwards, Bruce walked into the sitting room and sat with Rachel Dawes. She looked much different from when he had last seen her… older, more mature…
"How are you?" he asked straight away, noticing her staring at his hand, which was clutching his side weakly, "Oh… don't ask…"
"Bruce, I came to tell you… to say, well, I'm sorry I left, and… though I don't know if we can be together… you know. Also, well, they're trying to get me a new boss, after the Scarecrow thing… you have to vote
Harvey Dent… he's a great guy. And…"
"Why are you really here, Rachel?" Bruce stared calmly at her.
"I had to warn you. Word came in early to me through Captain Gordon… there's a new psycho around. The joker card guy. He's pretty nuts… and he calls himself…"
Bruce looked worriedly at her.
"The Joker."
TO BE CONTINUED IN THE DARK KNIGHT
STARRING CHRISTIAN BALE
COMING SUMMER 2008