Chapter 7 - An Unexpected Entrance

Bruce sat down at table number 10. Next to him, his aquantance, Lucius Fox to his left. To his right, a plump man, unknown to Bruce, though he sure did look familiar.

Bruce flicked through his notes quickly. Steadily going over the entire speech in his head, word by word. He'd rehearsed it fully to Alfred only hourse before, there was no chance of him slipping up now. His hands shook as the nerves finally began to kick in. The rustling of the shaking paper in his hands attracted the attention of Lucius, and the familiar man on the other side.

"You'll be fine, you've made hundreds of speeches like this one." Lucius remarked in his reassuring tone, just his voice was enough to make Bruce calmer.

The plump man turned his head, looking at the notes in Bruce's hand. Noticing the name on the first piece of untidy paper, he introduced himself.

"Bruce, Bruce Wayne?" He asked.

"That's correct, and you are?"

He leaned his gloved hand in to greet Bruce properly, "Cobblepot, Oswald Cobblepot." He replied shaking the hand firmly and tightly, staring in to the eyes of Bruce deeply.

As Bruce pulled his hand away gently, he could have sworn he could smell fish in the air. A tall skinny man approached the podium as Bruce turned to face away from Oswald.

Bruce and Lucius simultaneously lifted their glasses to their mouths and took a sip. Lucius took a slightly larger gulp than that of Bruce's. The man on the stage, standing behind a microphone and an alter began to speak. His voice was posh and he was clearly of English orogin.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, Lords and Ladies of Gotham City. We gather this evening to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Gotham's most incredible acheivements and most honourable person. Here to receive the award for longest running and most giving charity is Bruce Wayne of Wayne Enterprises and -"

The man stopped speaking. Stood still. A trickle of blood poured down his forehead, seeping into his left eye and working around his nose and down to his lip. The whole the room was silent, not a murmur, just total shock. The thud of his body hitting the floor on its side pounded and vibrated the entire floor. Only his fingers left twitching was the only remaining sign of life.

One by one people rose from their seats, peering through the rows of heads and moving panicing bodies. It was as if noone in the room knew what to do. One man rushed over to the body, hesitantly, whilst everyone else either watched, or just sat, shocked.

Voices started shouting, "Somebody call an ambulance!", "Is there a doctor here?" the panicing, desperate voices continued.

The double doors flew open, one was sent half way across the room, narrowly missing a red haired women by only inches. Smoked rose, hovering above the red carpet. In walked about 10 men, they look like your average thug, tank tops, jeans, leather jackets, some wore studed belts, collars and bands. A few carried baseball bats, one had a crowbar and others carried small guns like Uzi's and and TMP's reckelsssly and carelessly aiming them at the helpless people.

The screams of frightened women was heard, as they saw the men and instantly dropped to the ground. As one man ran to the back of the room for another exit, several shots were fired,he stopped in his tracks, cringing as he accepted the pain and accepted his death. He too fell to the floor helplessly like a rag doll.

The thugs masks were recognizable. They were like wrestling masks, only the left hand side was jet black, and the right hand side, snow white. As Bruce Wayne raised his hands to his head and got down to his knees, thousands of memories were running through his head all at once...

IThose masks, I recognise those masks, surely it can't be...Harvey Dent?/I

One thug took a woman by the hair, lifting her to his eye level. Seh was clearly in pain, the tears began to trickle down her face, though she didn't make a sound.

He whispered into her ear. He put the gun on her temple. She closed her eyes, stood up, then looked around the room at the huddled, scared shaking bodies tremoring on the floor.

She turned in a last glance at the man. Then in one second she pointed to a man, Bruce Wayne.

He fired. Her eyes closed as the bullet penetrated the skull, sending her flying backwards tumbling into a table. The thick, dark red blood covered the table cloth and the surrounding peoples faces. Again the whole room went quiet.

Out of the smoke, two sillouettes appeared. Both carrying canes. One was swinging it back and forth, they didn't walk, they just stood in the smoke of the doorway. As the smoke began to disappear, their faces became evident.

Two-Face and The Riddler. Past enemies of the Batman. Bruce knew it wouldn't be long before Edward got back in touch with Harvey, and tonight was there first heist, but what were they after?

"Good evening ladies and gentlemen!" Called Two-Face.

"We're tonight's entertainment..." continued Riddler .

They strolled down the set of 4 stairs, not caring for the beaten man knocked out on the floor. The netire room was silent apart from the pairs shoes clicking on the marble flooring and the quiet whimpering of distressed women and men on the floor.

Harvey glanced around the room. The biggest thug stared right back at him, without either of them speaking, he pointed to Bruce.

Both Harvey and The Riddler smirked. The Riddler gave three slow claps as he paced towards the kneeling Bruce.

"What do you want, Edward?"

"So you remember me then do you?" Riddler replied as his pace came to an end.

"How could I forget?

The Riddler giggled, "Well it just so happens...we're here for you!"

"Is that so?" Bruce confidently asked Edward, rising to his feet. As his legs straightened and his back cracked, the huge paned windows on the ceiling gave way. The glass shattered and landed everywhere. As two figures dropped in amongst the shards of glass the still cowered and curled people on the floor screamed again. The first figure landed on a table with a thud. His hair was long and black and he wore a black mask covereing his eyes. His suit was light blue and black.

The second figure, female, landed on the stairs behind Two-Face. She had long red hair and wore a similar suit to Batman's.

As the final shard of clear glass hit the floor of the hall Bruce turned to face the boy who had landed on the table.

"New suit?" He asked.

"I'll tell you later..." The puffed out, slightly childish voice replied as he threw a small bat-shaped boomerang to the largest of the thugs, knocking the gun straight out of his hand.

Bruce turned to face the now quivering Riddler. He was almost in tears, but there was no time to run. Bruce's uppercut threw him onto a chair behind and knocking over another thug in the process. The girl on the stairs ran towards Two-Face. She was stopped in her way as another thug punched her in the stomach blasting the wind out her lungs. She stood back up on her feet, brushed her suit down and took one long kick. It hit the baggy flesh of his face with a crack as she felt his nose break through her toes.

Ouch! She thought to herself as she watched the helpless man fall to the ground.

Again she made her dash for Two-Face. He was facing the other way, totally uninvolved in all the fighting, watching Bruce as he moved onto his next victim.

She grabbed a switch from her belt and pounced in his direction.