Chapter Eleven
Echoes of gunshots and police sirens cried out through the night. In Crime Alley, The Penguin had created a barricade on a four way intersection. Some sort of shoot out with the police to distract from a robbery two blocks down, allegedly being led by the crime boss himself. Dispatch had already been sent, but it seemed that just as they were another crisis had popped up. City Hall was under siege by former DA, Harvey Dent, now known as Two-Face. He was after Mayor Sharp, apparently because of allegations of corruption. If he did get the Mayor, he'd no doubt flip his executioners coin of his. Reserve GCPD officers were sent to City Hall to deal with the situation there, and Commissioner Jim Gordon was just getting in his car to head that way, when he got the call.
"Yeah? What is it?" He answered, not even seeing the number.
"It's me, Dad."
"Listen Barb, I'm very busy tonight," he claimed, swerving through traffic with his siren blaring.
"I know, Dad. That's why I'm calling. There's trouble at Miller Harbor. Scarecrow is going to release a fear-toxin bomb. It'll send the whole city into a violent panic." Gordon swore under his breath.
"And you know this how?" His voice betrayed his anger. He could tell she was working closely with him.
"It's not important. You need to drive. Now!" Gordon swung left on the wheel hard, pulling an admittedly reckless U-turn to get to Miller Harbor.
"On my way, hon. When I get back though, you and I are going to have a talk about-"
"Love you too, Dad." She hung up, leaving him shaking his head, his scowl bristling his mustache against his nose. Grabbing his radio, he dialed in a frequency.
"This is Gordon, I need all available units to Miller Harbor ASAP. Bomb threat identified. Again, Bomb threat confirmed in the area." Technically this wasn't true. According to regulation, he couldn't confirm a bomb threat unless their was an eye witness, and all he had was Barbara's she wasn't that close and just had a strong lead, but that was good enough for him. Besides, knowing the Caped Crusader, it'd probably already be solved by the time they showed up. At least that's the relief Gordon would have felt, if it hadn't been the ninth night in a row without a Batman sighting. Nine nights, nine in a row of criminals testing the waters of the law. At first it had been small, things that would be misdemeanors if caught by GCPD. Then, at round day four, crime bosses started getting more aggressive. Drive by shootings, ordering hits on cops, even poisoned a judge's water in the very court he was presiding over. Bigger and bigger names started getting in on the action as time passed. Tonight, the biggest names on the roster were trying their hand at twisting the law, but Gordon wouldn't let them. Even without Gotham's vigilante, people would still defend this city, be they cops or… Other individuals.
Speeding down a back alley onto the concrete roads of the Harbor, Gordon could hear that a gunfight had already broken out. With a badge around his neck and his duster flapping behind his feet, Jim jogged closer to the building, weapon drawn, but down and safety on. As he got closer, he noticed another car, a beat up black camry with a familiar looking licence plate and a police light attached to its roof.
"Damn it, Bullock."
There was a ferocious gunshot from inside a nearby warehouse. Shotgun from the sound of it. Instinctively, Gordon ducked, but nothing happened outside. He dared to hide behind Detective Bullock's car, parked just across from the warehouse where the commotion was coming from. The building had a lot of windows, two stories of them, but no lights were on inside, and the glass itself was very muddy. Gordon couldn't see a thing, but didn't want to charge in half cocked if he could help it.
Working his way around the building, Gordon tried to find a ladder to the roof, hoping maybe there was a skylight on the place to give him a better angle of the situation. Hustling the best he could, Gordon turned the corner just in time to see a window crash outward in front of him.
Glass shattered, some even spilling over the edge of the concrete and into the waves of the river. A thug in a thick jacket had been launched from wherever he'd been. As Gordon got on top of him to detain him, sure enough he found a loyalty patch for The Scarecrow on his jacket. They may have been criminal organizations way back when, but villian association now served more gangs. These groups were very different to deal with, each of them. Organized crime, like the Falcone's had bloodlines, a hierarchy, and no less than half a dozen dirty cops on their worked on a twisted system of ethics, as well as a supply a demand for certain goods. Super villains on the other hand, they did as they damn well pleased, full autonomy to whatever morals they'd had in their previous life, and a new identity to the public. This, naturally, had invited thugs off the street, or beaten teens into their business, all looking to strike big on some over the top heist. Hell, the kid Gordon was pinning now couldn't have been over and unconscious, Gordon left the kid in the pavement, only to look up to see inside.
Amidst over a dozen similarly dressed gangsters, bullets were flying left and right. Ducking to the side, Gordon clicked the safety off his pistol.
"POLICE! STAND DOWN!" He shouted, but was drowned out by the gunfire.
"THERE! THERE HE IS!" Gordon cursed again, and condemned himself for what he was about to have to do here. Pivoting around the corner, he brought his gun up. He'd expected them to be swarming him, but far from it. Instead of a bullet storm, not a single one of them was even looking in his general direction. Instead,all their eyes were up, looking in the rafters. Each had an illegal firearm of some kind, shotguns, and fully automatic rifles.
Gordon saw it though, behind them all was a large metal device almost three feet high. On it was a green display, reading 2:38, and counting down. Less than three minutes to take out the goons and disarm the bomb.
"Where'd he go!" One of the thugs shouted. They were all trigger happy, so Gordon made himself scarce, trying to crouch into the shadows in an attempt to get closer to that ticking bomb. Didn't matter that his experience with this sort of thing was minimal, he had to do something.
"I'm tired of this man! I CAN'T TAKE IT!"
"Calm down! Just chill, man!"
"Are you kidding me?! They got Jack, man! Fucking fuck this bullshit!
"Can't quit on us now!" Gordon used this to army crawl right under the stairway that led to the second floor. He'd been a Marine after all, why waste the training.
A hand grabbed his mouth from behind, and Gordon instinctively went to struggle, but a familiar voice stopped him.
"Eh chief, it's me," he whispered.
"Bullock. What's the sitrep?"
"Shitshow, chief. Montoya's on the other side, but neither of us can get close to the damn thing." They kept their voices very low, as the goons kept complaining in the background.
"Probably for the best, wouldn't even know what to do if we did."
"Actually chief, Montoya says she got 'cperience in this department." This was news to Gordon, but he didn't want to waste time questioning it. Instead, he decided to make a tough call, but the inevitable one
"Alright, open fire on my mark." Gordon turned, and took aim.
"Hold on, chief," Bullock put a hand on Gordon's shoulder, only to have it be shaken off.
"It's them, or the City, Detective. They're not going to let us take it."
"No, chief. I mean-"
Bullock was cut off by a scream from one of the thugs. Turning, Gordon saw one of
them go flying into the air by his ankle. There was a barrage of bullets from the thugs, trying to hit their hidden attacker.
Three more of them flew off their feet, onto the ground for seemingly no reason at all. More screams, as Gordon noticed movement from across the room. It was Montoya, and she was making a mad dash for the bomb. 1:27 left.
An explosion of smoke went off in the center of the room, as a looming figure swept into it. BANG! A shotgun blast. Another. Then a series of grunts, a scattering of weapons falling to floor, then bodies, all one after the other. Not wanting to gawk like some on looker, Gordon made his way to Montoya to help out anyway he could.
"What do you need, Detective?" She'd already removed the front panel and was stripping wires. Dozens of them were interwoven, all looking like they were connected to a large vial of green liquid in the center.
"No clue, sir. Best I can figure it's a CS-450 system. Need to find the key signal cord and cut that off, but not until I disconnect the-"
"Gordon," a deep voice growled from behind him. Turning, the commissioner saw someone he thought had abandoned the city over a week ago.
"Batman? Where-"
"No time," He pulled out a small breathing mask from beneath his cape. "Put this on, and burn the chemical with your lighter. The bombs not an explosive, it's a dispersal unit. Boil what it's dispersing and it should be inoperable.
"Should?" Batman tossed him the mask.
"Just do it! Everyone else stand back, now." 0:19 left
Gordon put the mask over his face, and stuck his lighter inside the bomb. 0:15 left
He clicked his lighter on, igniting on the second flick. 0:17 left.
The liquid had a very low viscosity, which helped the boiling process considerably. The vial itself started to fog up as half the liquid was gone in a matter of seconds. Gordon dared not to look at the display now. Only a few drops left. Just a bit-
The vial shattered, and the final drops spilled over the stripped wires. Everything fizzled in front of him, as visibly green vapours clawed at his eyes. Taking a full breath through the rebreather, Gordon thanked God that Batman had showed up when he had.
He got up from his crouch, the gas fading into the wind. He looked inquisitively at Batman, and the Dark Knight nodded. Gordon took off the rebreather, and handed it off. Bullock and Montoya stood at Gordon's sides, all three amazed that he was actually back.
"I'll be taking that," Batman said, retrieving his equipment. There was something that Gordon noticed now, something he hadn't had when the bomb was still a threat. Batman, his voice was similar, but it wasn't quite right. The two had spent enough time on the GCPD roof to know each other's voices and speech patterns. Hell, the real Batman would have just silently taken the thing and disappeared. He put the thought aside for a moment though.
"You stay right there," Gordon said pointing directly at Batman. Jim pulled out a long distance radio from his duster, and switched it onto the frequency that the City Hall unit would have been using. Before even listening, Gordon spoke into it, keeping eye contact with Batman's white lensed cowl.
"City Hall. Sitrep." A half second of static, then a response.
"Ramirez, sir. We got him. Mayor's safe and Dent's on his way to holding."
"Good work, lieutenant."
"Actually sir...It wasn't us."
"Come again?"
"Umm, the uh Boy Wonder took down Dent, sir. Robin, I mean." Gordon cocked a look at Batman, a sly look of grudging respect. He switched the frequency again.
"Crime Alley, report."
"Shoulda seen it, chief. Some gal dressed as Batman swept right in and took care of him for us."
"Batgirl?"
"No way, sir. She was a lot more um...Well, more than Batgirl. Meaner, faster, and a red and black look to her."
"Ah, it's a new one Ryans. Batwoman."
"A new one?"
"Yep, try to keep up kid." Gordon turned his radio off, and began to stare Batman down.
"Really saved us tonight, I'll give you that. Just gotta ask though, why the dress up?"
"Sorry," Batman asked. Gordon pulled out his pipe, and filled it.
"Don't get me wrong, you're fast. Faster than him even. Smart too." Gordon lit his pipe, and looked at him through shining glasses. "But you are no Batman." The detectives around him looked at him in complete surprise.
"Jim, yer kiddin right? I mean, it's him," Bullock looked to Montoya, unsure. "Right?" Another voice interrupted the staredown between Gordon and this mystery Batman.
"No, Detective Harvey Bullock, he is not." All eyes turned to a stranger standing in open doorway of the warehouse, the shining light of sunrise coming in from behind him. He wore a long blue jacket over his white button up and black tie. A trilby sat squarely on his head, but most notable of all was his completely bare face. No eyes, nose, or even mouth, just a blank canvas of skin.
"And just who they hell are you," Montoya shouted. The man chuckled to himself.
"Now that...That is The Question. Think of me as a private investigator. Very private."
"I can vouch for him," the not Batman spoke. "He's with the League."
"Formerly," the faceless man responded. "Or, at least you would know that if you were the real Batman." He leaned his face up at this mystery Batman's daunting frame. The two shared a very bitter look, or at least Gordon guessed the faceless man was being bitter, a little hard to tell all things considered. "Doesn't really matter though," he continued, now so nonchalant he placed his hands in his pockets. "For now, you can play pretend that you're the Dark Knight. I mean hell, you really flew into the black and gray, son."
Gordon knew a code when he heard one, but didn't say anything. Instead, the faceless man just continued his speech.
"So how's about this: You get your family together at my place in say… six hours. We have a lot to discuss. Trust me." Without a word, the not Batman pulled his grapple gun from his belt and repelled to through the open sunlight window above. "Ah...So typically theatrical. Anyhoo," he turned his attention to the three GCPD officers. "You three have a nice day." His cheek muscles seemed to raise, almost like he was smiling.
"Better the three of you just don't include me in your reports. Better to not tell the police that a fake Batman is running loose in Gotham so soon after the last one disappeared. Might send a...Negative influence."
"You saying we lie, bub," Bullock grunted.
"No, no. Nothing of the sort. I'm saying you tell the truth. That you were saved by Batman. It's what happened isn't it?"
"But you said-" but Montoya was interrupted.
"Let your commissioner decide, please." The faceless man cocked his head to one side. "You're Renee Montoya aren't you? Fascinating that today of all days is how we officially meet." She lowered a single eyebrow.
"Officially? You saying I've met you before?"
"Um...No, no I don't think I would...We'll be seeing each other again very soon though. Farewell all," and with that he started to make his way out into the light.
"Come on chief, I say we bring him in for questioning, sounds like that crook knows something." Gordon stayed silent as Montoya continued commenting after Bullock.
"And what did he mean by "Batman saved us"? He just said that-" Gordon blew from a final breath from his pipe, then dumped it under his shoe.
"Exactly that."
"Oh chief, come on. You heard that nut, it wasn't really Batman." Gordon started to make his way out of the building.
"You're right. Some kook from off the street told us that the hero who told me to defuse a bomb that could have leveled a city with nothing, but my lighter, wasn't the real Batman." Bullock caught up to the commissioner.
"You telling us to believe that was the REAL Batman?!"
"I'm not telling you what to believe, detective. I'm telling you what to report. That Batman saved the city, same as he always does."