Chapter 18: "Well, How Did I Get Here?"
THE STAPLETON BUILDING - EIGHT YEARS AGO
This was the third time that Batman had crossed the path of Talia al Ghul.
The first was during the great schism in the League of Assassins four years ago, when Ebeneezer Darrk, one of Ra's al Ghul's most trusted lieutenants, had turned on Ra's, and it meant war. Batman had rescued Talia from Darrk's kidnapping attempt, and in the ensuing struggle, Talia had shot Darrk in the back of the head to save Batman's life.
The second was when both Talia and his ward, Robin, Dick Grayson had been kidnapped three years ago. Ra's and his manservant Ubu had even shown up in the Batcave to enlist Batman's help in finding them. Only for it to turn out that the kidnapping had been a ruse set in motion by Ra's to test Batman's suitability as his successor.
For Talia al Ghul had fallen in love with Batman from the first moment she had laid eyes on him.
And tonight was the third. Talia and a small detachment of her female honor guard had been sent into Gotham City to kill someone named David Cain, who was an assassin that had somehow crossed the League. The only intel that Batman could gather was that Cain was looking for his daughter, who had vanished a year ago and had been rumored to be in Gotham.
Cain had torn through the members of Talia's guard, and had managed to drive a knife into Talia's left shoulder before he escaped from Batman, who had been monitoring the situation from the top of an old factory across the street from the rooftop where the fight had gone down.
Amid the scattered dead bodies of Talia's guard, Batman helped her to her feet, and took her to the closest place where she could be helped: The cache in the safehouse in the Stapleton Building in the East End, four floors above a dive bar called The Stacked Deck.
They said nothing as they entered the empty and spacious fifth floor. Batman stood Talia against the wall as he pressed the right combination of bricks that would cause them to slide back and reveal a cache full of weapon resupplies for his utility belt, as well as first aid items.
Batman gently peeled the black leather jacket off of Talia, revealing that she was wearing nothing but a forest green brassiere underneath that was, in his estimation, rather flattering.
Which struck Batman as odd. He had always assumed that the women in this game, from Catwoman on down, wore something like a sports bra beneath their costumes. It would have been more practical after all. And here was Talia al Ghul with not even a shirt on under her leather jacket.
Batman suddenly had a multitude of questions, and no one to ask.
He swabbed away sweat from around the wound in Talia's shoulder, and then applied a special compound Lucius had cooked up: a disinfectant that snap died and served double duty as a bandage to stop the bleeding. Nonporous, so no chance for infection.
Talia grunted in pain as he used the tube to apply it, sweat and a strand of hair distorting a usually composed, beautiful, and regal face.
Their eyes locked.
They still said nothing.
Looking back on this moment in the years to come, Batman considered this a moment of weakness.
Talia quickly leaned in and kissed him. Their teeth clicked together with the needy force of it.
Batman closed his eyes and felt himself dissolve.
Talia's clothes landed on the floor with a soft flutter. Batman's armor with heavy and hollow thuds.
She took Bruce to the floor, her thighs wrapping around his waist. Her fingers alternated between gentle caresses on his shoulders and ragged scratches down his chest as she rocked back and forth.
His hands moved from her rib cage down the dip of warm flesh to her weaving hips, and as he tried to vanish into the slick warmth of her, Bruce Wayne closed his eyes.
He remembered every time Talia had ever looked at him. Every time those bottomless brown eyes radiated warmth or desire.
Talia looked at him as though he was the pinnacle of all mankind. As though he were the ideal to which everyone else should aspire to. And having a woman like Talia look at him made him believe it, however intermittently, however fleetingly.
She and her father wanted him to head the League of Assassins one day, and in this moment, right now, Bruce saw an opportunity there. He could change it from the inside, dispense with their credo on killing, and he would have at his hands an entire army of operatives in every major urban center on the planet, stopping criminals dead in their tracks.
And he would have a wife. He would have the child that wife so desperately wanted to give him. He hadn't been a part of a real family since he was eight years old, and the opportunity was right here, if he reached out and took it.
And isn't that what his parents would have wanted for him? To be surrounded by people who loved him? To do good in a world that so often bent bad?
A thought sounded itself within the recesses of his mind: I deserve this.
Bruce opened his eyes.
Talia was weaving in and out of the light through the window. The residual light illuminated the beads of sweat rolling down her bare breasts as she shifted repeatedly into the darkness. As though whatever hand guided the universe painted a starry night in miniature on Talia al Ghul's nude form.
And seeing this, Bruce found the core.
It's a lie…
Talia al Ghul was a murderer in a long line of murderers, and she wanted Bruce to join her in a plan for conquest that would claim the lives of billions. She had never wavered from this goal in the years he had known her, and the certainty came to him that she would never look at him the way she looked at him if she were convinced at all that he could change her mind.
She looked at him with love and lust, but what did that mean? What did it say about Bruce Wayne and Batman that a killer bent on near-total genocide wanted him so badly that she parted with all grace and dignity and decided to screw him on a dirty floor in a bad neighborhood?
He remembered every look, every glance that Talia had given him, and he could almost see rot pulsating beneath their surfaces. She loved what she saw, but what did she see? A blunt instrument? A force of destruction? A killer yet to wet his blade with innocent blood? Batman, after all, had to bide the line every night in order to avoid taking a life.
And maybe, just maybe, she was right. His wish to be a force for good danced on a knife's edge, and here was Talia al Ghul, waiting for him to fall- hoping he would fall- so he could be fully welcomed into her family's embrace.
A thought sounded itself within the recesses of his mind: I deserve this.
Talia's soft grunts gave way to a cry as she arched her back and ceased her motion on top of him, sweat from her chest falling onto his. She held this way, her soft thighs tightening around his waist, until she collapsed on top of him. The heady mixture of lilac and sweat filled his nostrils. Her soft, spent panting carried traces of her voice directly to his ear.
She took his left earlobe into his mouth and bit down for an instant, before she let her breathing carry into his ear.
Talia whispered a word.
"Beloved…"
THE STAPLETON BUILDING - NOW
"Why Hill?" Bruce asked.
Talia put her hands on her hips. "Hamilton Hill is a man of deep grudges, Beloved. Against you for stopping him. Against the city itself for abandoning him and cheering his downfall."
"And a crooked mayor fits the profile for becoming a killer?"
"Oh, please," Talia said. "The League of Assassins is built upon its eye for talent. Its ability to sate the needs of all who join. Anyone can be anything we want them to be with the right motivation."
"And the fact that exposure to Lazarus Pits can lead to insanity has nothing to do with it?" Bruce asked.
Talia shrugged her shoulders.
"Well…"
THE GOTHAM CENTRAL PRESS ROOM - NOW
"Yes," Hill said to all in attendance. "The last. I was removed from my office under unacceptable circumstances, and I will have my hand on the wheel when this city sells its soul."
Silence.
"What?" Hill asked the stunned members of the press. "Did the fact that I called myself 'The Undying' not give it away?"
Vicki Vale could see from her vantage point that Hill was fighting the urge to laugh at his own joke.
Hill drummed his gloved fingers on the podium.
"Upon my suffering," Hill said, "Batman made his name." He looked at Vicki. "Weren't you the one who called me Batman's first success story? He's the one who got me impeached after all. He's the one who got me charged with corruption. Corruption in Gotham City? That's… that's like charging someone with being wet in a swimming pool."
Hill actually had the gall to wait for a laugh before he continued.
"I spent… so many years hating Batman for what he did to me. For ruining my career. For destroying my family's name. For putting me into seclusion from the shame of it all. But… I had to literally come back from the dead to realize something. I shouldn't have blamed Batman at all. In fact, looking back on it, I have to respect Batman. So no…"
Hill leaned forward on the podium.
"I should have blamed all of you."
THE 1898 TUNNELS - TWO YEARS AGO
There were four Lazarus Pits left in Gotham City. One of them was located in a series of subway tunnels that had begun construction in 1898, and had to be abandoned because the tunnels were three feet too small to accommodate the train cars of the time.
The Pit was located behind the tunnel of the F Line. Talia had had Kasha and three of her lieutenants take the wall down with sledgehammers, revealing the pit of green, life giving liquid within. That was two nights ago.
Last Night, Talia had had Kasha abscond from the Gotham City morgue with the body of Gotham's late mayor, fifty-eight-year-old Hamilton Hill. The body was replaced with another of similar age and build. Post-mortem plastic surgery had been performed, as well as extensive organic modifications to make the faces match. This was an art that The League of Assassins had perfected over the span of centuries, and it was well-used here.
They had dropped Hill's corpse into the Pit, and as the fluid in the Pit turned from a vibrant green to a dull yellow, spent from its function giving life back to the lifeless, Hamilton Hill, the gray already having vanished from his hair, emerged naked from the pit with madness in his eyes and screams in his throat.
Talia had had Kasha on standby with a tranquilizer gun, ready to subdue Hill, should he have proven to be unpliable.
He had, as it turned out.
Now, eighteen hours after his resurrection, Hamilton Hill sat in black robes at a table in one of the cafes in this network of subway tunnels that had been built a hundred twenty years ago, but had been abandoned before they had ever served a diner.
His arms were wrapped around himself. He was staring at the floor. He was muttering something so softly that Talia could not hear him.
He is insane, Talia thought. I hope he is controllable.
"How do you feel?" Talia asked.
Hill looked up at him. His brown eyes were wet. His jaw moved up and down as he tried to find words.
"I… I was dead," Hill said.
"Yes."
"And now I'm not."
"Yes."
Hill hugged himself again, and lowered his head.
"I'm sorry, Miss," Hill said. "But I am possessed… of a great rage. It... It makes my fingers tingle."
Talia readied herself. If he made a move, she could destroy him with her bare hands. She would have wasted a Lazarus Pit and blown her entire plan, but uncontrollable was uncontrollable.
"Why?" Talia asked.
Hill looked at her again.
"I died," he said. "I felt myself pass, so I know this isn't a dream, and… I did it before I could…"
He clenched his eyes shut. "They hated me."
"Who?"
"Them. Always them. When I died, how many laughed? How many smiled? Was I so bad that I deserved that? I wasn't a monster, I wasn't…"
"No," Talia said softly. "No, you weren't."
"They hated me," Hill said again. "I had to die before I could hate them back."
Talia knew she had to be very careful. This man was unstable, and any carelessness on her part could spell disaster.
Softness still in her voice, Talia asked "Would you like revenge?"
Hill's eyes shot open as he looked at her. Tears were falling down his cheeks.
"Against them?"
"I have brought you back from death itself," Talia said, "so you know the power which I wield. Yes, against them."
Talia leaned down until she hovered just over his face.
"Against Batman."
Hill blinked.
"Batman's gone," he said.
"But if he sees them suffer, he will come back. And I will give you the power to feel his life in the palm of your hand before you snuff it out."
Hill examined her face. "Do you know who he is?"
And Talia examined his face in turn. Hill was unstable, though he could prove useful.
She needed to know whether or not she could trust him.
And she knew.
"No."
THE GOTHAM CENTRAL PRESS ROOM - NOW
Hill stared into the camera closest to him.
"Every single one of you is responsible for what happened to me."
He stood up straight. "People like to make theories and conjecture about how Batman single-handedly swooped in and cleaned up Gotham before the clowns and the penguins and cats started to contend with him. But the fact of the matter is, there was nothing single-handed about it."
Hill spread his arms wide to accentuate his point. "Batman was summoned!"
He let his arms fall back to his sides. "He's not just one man. He's an act of collective will. He was summoned by all of you, because you cried out, begging that someone would save you from the dirty cops, and the crooked politicians, and the mob, when all we ever did was KEEP… YOU… SAFE!"
The echoes of his yell reverberated off the sides of the room.
"Whose money did I take that wasn't giving it away?" Hill asked. "Who died except people who didn't matter and weren't gonna be missed? I brought order to this place, and you threw it all away! You looked at your betters, who moved and shook so far above you that couldn't even see them, and you asked for what wasn't yours. And you summoned a man dressed as a bat, who destroyed that order, and let Hell in after him! Hell like The Joker and Two-Face, who racked up more bodies that the mob and the cops ever could!"
Hill took a deep breath. "So I can't blame Batman at all."
GLOUCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS - ONE YEAR AGO
Talia found David "Black Manta" Hyde in a graveyard standing over a gravestone with nothing on it. He turned to look at her, and he seemed to know who she was.
"I must compliment this place," Talia said. "It is quite beautiful."
"It's Alabama with clam chowder," Hyde said, and the subject died off.
As they tried to find a place to sit and converse in the New England twilight, Hyde told Talia that he had been standing at the grave of his father, who had been murdered by Aquaman. The headstone had to be left blank, for if the people of this town knew that the father of Black Manta was buried within its city limits, then that grave would be defaced.
They found a place to sit at the unlikeliest of locations. On this evening in June, the Daughter of the Demon and the sworn enemy to the King of Atlantis sat at a picnic table outside of a Dairy Queen.
"So let me get this straight," Hyde said after Talia had finished explaining herself. "You brought some politician back to life, and you're hatching some plan in Gotham to bring Batman back."
Talia felt a slight bit of anger rise within her at so curt an assessment, but she extinguished it.
"Yes."
"And you want me to help?"
"Yes."
"This is nuts. You know that, right?"
Talia tilted her head to the side. "Is that a problem?"
"Not from where I'm sitting," Hyde said. "I fail to see what I get out of it, though."
Talia smiled, and said:
" Atlantis…"
Hyde squinted his eyes in interest.
"I see I have your attention," Talia said. "How long have you tried to take Atlantis, to kill its king, with nothing but pirates and mercenaries at your back? You need organization. You need skill. You need the League of Assassins."
Hyde smiled.
"And the League will help me out?"
"Why would we not?" Talia asked. "My father currently holds no plans on the siege of Atlantis, and I think this is a mistake. Atlantis is a treasure trove of technology and weaponry that could be better used in hands that aren't Aquaman's. If this world is to be conquered, it is to be conquered from beneath."
Hyde folded his arms. "I'd heard that Ra's al Ghul's little girl was all hot and bothered over Batman. I didn't know she was 'Overthrow Atlantis' hot for the guy. He doesn't know what he has, does he?"
He laughed. Talia said nothing.
When he calmed down, he said "But that's where I'm getting caught up. See, you're bringing me into this under the impression that I'll fight Batman and lose. The question I have, is… What if I win? What if I turn Batman to ash?"
Talia sighed, and said "If Batman dies at your hand, he was not worthy of me to begin with."
Hyde laughed again. "Oh, man," he said. "I look at you, you know what I see?"
"Enlighten me," Talia said.
"I see a beautiful woman in an ugly kind of love," Hyde said. "I see a willful woman who doesn't like being ignored, and will move heaven and earth to make that lucky guy pay attention to her again… And I see a woman who's gonna find out way too late that this guy really wasn't worth it."
Talia narrowed her eyes at him. "I will crush this world beneath my feet, and he will be at my side when I do so."
"Okay," Hyde said, smiling. "Then where is he?"
Talia said nothing. Hyde folded his arms.
"I'll help," Hyde said. "If it gets me Atlantis, I'll help. One thing, though."
"Yes?"
Hyde seemed to hesitate before he spoke. "If you know how Batman's gonna act before he does it, then you must know him well. You must know who he is under the mask."
Talia scanned Hyde's face. It was beautiful, save for the scars that ran down the side from one of his many fights with Aquaman. But even those lent him a dangerous allure that gave her pause. He was impudent… and confident… and bold… and even a little terrifying.
She needed to know whether or not she could trust him.
And she knew.
"Yes."
Hyde shrugged his shoulders. "Don't tell me," he said. "If I go into this knowing he's been Ted the Insurance Man this whole time, I don't think anyone's ego would ever recover."
THE STAPLETON BUILDING - NOW
"What next?" asked Bruce.
"For you?" Talia asked. "Quite a bit. We've tested your intellect, and now we must test your endurance. But for myself? Nothing. My quest is complete. I needed Batman to return, and Batman has returned. I will find a place to watch the rest of these events. I trust you will oblige in making them entertaining."
Bruce hung his head, took a deep breath, and asked:
"Why?"
She said nothing. Without even looking at her, he could sense a small gust of rage building up.
"'Why?'" Talia asked. "My father gave up on you. He told me he would never let his daughter lower herself by marrying a simple billionaire whom life itself had defeated. Without you, who else shall I be paired with? A mercenary? Some despot? One of the simple warriors that I myself had a hand in training? Is that what you would wish of me, Beloved?"
"That's just it," Bruce said, finally meeting her gaze again. "That word. Why do you love me?"
Talia blinked. "Your will is unmatched."
"What else?"
"Your mind is unparallelled."
"What… else?"
Talia blinked again, and that smirk came across her face. "If you are fishing for compliments about how beautiful I think you are…"
Bruce felt his own flash of rage rise up within him, veined by the darkest kind of sadness.
"All you've done," Bruce said, "is list things that I have. Things I can pass onto a hypothetical child one day. What is it about me, you love?"
Talia sighed. "Everything else is…"
Bruce cut her off. "Am I a good man?"
"What?"
"Am I a good man?" Bruce asked, and in doing so he felt Batman and Bruce Wayne merging into each other. He'd spent his entire adult life avoiding this moment. As the smartest person in any room he was in, Bruce had never felt the urge to question himself, not in a haughty or elitist way, but in a kind of fear. As though he himself wouldn't live up to his own scrutiny. And now that he needed outside validation from someone who genuinely loved him, his mouth and his body and his essence exuded need.
He took a step toward her. "If my father saw me across the street, would he recognize me as his son..? Or would he see what you see, and feel shame?"
Talia seemed to be at a loss. "Bruce, what-"
"I know you'll never change," Bruce said. "I know that there will always be a part of me that loves you. And I know you love me too. But if all those things are true, then… Then I can't be a good man at all, can I?"
With his head down, Bruce walked to the window.
THE 1898 TUNNELS - TEN DAYS AGO
In a small chamber spattered with dried blood that would have been a men's bathroom, had the builders of these tunnels had ever gotten around to finishing them, Talia al Ghul stood over a chained Harvey Dent.
Eighteen months ago, a member of Talia's guard caught wind of the rumor that Two-Face was seen in a small shack in Slaughter Swamp outside of Gotham, planning his big comeback now that Batman had left the field. Talia sent six of her soldiers to investigate.
The rumors were true. All twenty of Two-Face's men were slaughtered, and Two-Face himself had been abducted, and brought to these tunnels.
Talia had spent every day of the last eighteen months personally torturing Harvey Dent until his mind was as soft and as pliable as bread dough. He was no longer a threat to her plans, and would now even be the first salvo in The Undying's war against Gotham City, provided David was as good as he said he was.
Dent had his fingers in his mouth now, wondering where his teeth went.
There was a knock on the door. Talia answered it and saw Kasha waiting outside.
"Black Manta has taken the magician," Kasha said. "He's here with her now."
Talia smiled, and left the room.
With Kasha at her side, Talia walked down a long hallway, dotted with some of the members of her guard, as well as the male henchmen that they picked up here in Gotham.
Degenerates all. All they'd needed was to have The Undying reveal himself as Hamilton Hill and promise them the same lease on eternal life that he'd apparently gained, and they fell right in line, almost to a religious degree. The rank and file of Gotham's underworld had no idea what a Lazarus Pit was, so coming back to life was all new to them. This promise of everlasting life was something that neither Talia nor Hill had any intention whatsoever of honoring, but she didn't feel she needed to share that with them. They were untrained, but they were easily controlled, and made for good shock troops.
As they walked, Talia asked Kasha "What is your opinion on our friend The Undying?"
"He is insane," Kasha said. "And a fool."
Normally, Talia would have removed the tongue of anyone who dared question her plans, but Kasha was correct.
"And what of Black Manta?" Talia asked.
Kasha's footsteps stopped. Talia turned to look at her.
Her head was lowered a little, and her shoulders up. She wouldn't look at Talia.
"I fear him," Kasha said.
Talia smiled. "Come along, Kasha."
The two entered the central terminal of the tunnels where, amidst the milling underlings and The Broker's contacts continuing their work on a small five car train that would actually fit in these cramped tunnels, Black Manta and The Undying were standing over a beautiful and shabbily dressed woman in a wheelchair. She was wearing the mind-control hat that she'd had Julius liberate from the inventory room at Arkham.
"Zatanna," Talia said.
Kasha kept her distance from them as Talia stepped in between Black Manta and The Undying to look at their prize.
"How did you get that close to Miss Sparkle-Fingers here," The Undying asked. "She could have turned you into a toad."
"You know these magic types aren't worth a shit with hand-to-hand," Black Manta said. "You just have to get close enough to them to knock them out. And this one gets all her power from talking backwards, so it's even easier. You just gotta get close enough to them to punch their lights out, and you're done. Hell, you dress up like the UPS guy and hold a box in front of you, and they'll actually open the door and let you in."
"Where'd you get a UPS uniform?" The Undying asked.
"From the UPS man I killed."
Talia took in Zatanna some more. With her power under their control, they could fire the first shot, sending Harvey Dent to burn alive in Selina Kyle's apartment. That would be a message that would get to Batman most quickly.
She turned to Black Manta. "My contacts inside LexCorp tell me that the prototype targeting system is on its way into Gotham City. It will be ferried inside an ice cream truck to hide its route. Can you retrieve it?"
Black Manta stood up straight in his armor, and if Talia didn't know any better, it was as though he wanted to make himself more imposing for her.
"Yeah," Black Manta said. "I'm pretty sure I can manage."
THE GOTHAM CENTRAL PRESS ROOM - NOW
Hill picked his silver mask up off the podium.
"I can't blame Batman," Hill said, "because I wore the mask too. I didn't wear it as long as he did, but… I know what it's like to be a force of will. I know what sacrifices it takes to be a symbol. I know that you have to purify yourself. Set all of the comforts upon the altar and light it ablaze. Anything that weakens you must be slashed off and set aflame."
He set the mask back down on the podium. Vicki Vale saw (or thought she saw) a tear beginning to form in Hill's right eye.
"Everything you love in this life," Hill said, "has to burn."
HAMILTON HILL JR'S BEDROOM - LAST NIGHT
Hill had used Zatanna to open a portal into his son's bedroom. Hill bad been keeping up with his son in the papers over the last two years, knew he wasn't married.
So he'd be alone.
He had portaled in, saw his son standing there in light blue pajamas. He saw his son turn toward him, and Hill used the butt of the pistol he was carrying to knock him to the floor.
Hill descended upon him and covered his mouth. He could hear his son crying out beneath his hand, seeing his dead father's face, but not believing it.
Hamilton Hill put the gun to his son's head and pulled the trigger, evacuating blood and brain onto a Persian rug.
He stood over him, tears in his eyes. He knew this had to be done, but the weight of the act dragged him down from within. He put his hand to his face, accidentally smearing his mouth with his own son's blood.
Hill had violated nature. His one and only son was dead by his own hand, and there was no redemption to be had. Any loving God that may have existed in this universe had turned the warmth of HIs gaze elsewhere, leaving him forever in the cold of his own sin.
Within the shrieking of his own mind, Hill knew he had done something unforgivable. But he wouldn't be forgiven for anything that came after this, and he needed to murder his child to prove to himself he could do what needed to be done.
He stepped through the still-open portal, back to the tunnels.
THE GOTHAM CENTRAL PRESS ROOM - NOW
"I murdered my boy," Hill said. "When I took all that dirty money from Rupert Thorne, I told myself that he was who I was doing it for. To provide for his future. I loved him… so much. And even after all this, he was trying to get a museum built in my honor. You all disgraced me, and he still loved his father!"
Hill wiped his eyes. "But I needed to do it… So I could do what comes next. Everything you love in this life has to burn, and by God, even after all that you did to me… I love Gotham City."
He walked back to Zatanna's wheelchair. He took the targeting system back out of the pouch in the back and held it out for the reporters and the cameras to see.
"This right here," Hill said, "is a prototype to the best weapons targeting system known to man. It can track by DNA, but the vector most germane to us right now... is heartbeat."
He held his hands in front of the numerous blooms of red on the targeting display's map of Gotham City.
"This device tells me that Gotham City has nine million two-hundred-forty-eight thousand six-hundred seventeen beating hearts within it. Now, this targeting system is supposed to be hooked up to an orbital laser, but why use one of those when we have our dear friend Zatanna?"
Hill pressed the screen and zoomed the map out, revealing a circle around Gotham City. In real world distance, it spread out a mile after the city ended on any side, be it mainland or the Atlantic Ocean.
"See that circle?" Hill asked "If any of those nine point two million heartbeats passes that circle attempting to leave the city… This will happen to them."
Hill snapped his fingers… and pointed directly at Commissioner Troy Clotworthy, who had been standing three feet away from the podium this entire time.
Zatanna perked up in her chair. Her eyes focused, and she said:
"Etarenicni."
A green light bloomed within Clotworthy's ribs, visible through his shirt. He looked at Hill already beginning to sweat. A few in the press started to squeal, to get up and move away from him.
"No," Clotworthy said with pain in hIs voice through gritted teeth. "NOO-"
Clotworthy burst into flames, his screams filling the air along with the stench of burnt popcorn. The reporters started screaming and, and milling to the back of the room, until:
"SHUT UUUUUUUUP!"
The power of Hill's scream overrode even the basic flight responses in all gathered.
"You're gonna miss the best part," Hill said as Clotworthy's screams stilled, his body smoldering into nothing.
"Not only," Hill said, "does this device track the heartbeats of people leaving Gotham City, it also picks up on the heartbeats of people entering Gotham City. So if any Kryptonian… any Amazon… any Atlantean… any Speedster of any kind, any Lantern of any color, any of those Goddamned Hawkpeople decide to enter this city to save the day, then five thousand people will die. At random. From this ittiest bitty baby to the oldest old fart. Just like our last two dear departed police commissioners. You want equality? Here it is.
"But there's a catch," Hill said. "One of the things we managed to work out in this mind control hat Zatanna's wearing is that we've programmed it so it works as a dead man's switch. Simply speaking, if she dies, so do all nine point two million souls in Gotham City. It'll happen if I die too, so don't get any funny ideas. Now normally that wouldn't matter to any of you, except we kinda… sorta… forgot to feed Zatanna today. Tomorrow's not looking good for her either. Neither does any day after that. I haven't done any research on how long it takes for someone to starve to death. But when she does, you all burn."
Hill walked over to Zatanna and put the targeting system back into the pouch on her wheelchair.
"Is there a way to save Gotham City?" Hill asked as he walked to the podium. "Yes. I can unhook Zatanna and destroy the targeting system without any further loss of life. Under one condition. The collective will of Gotham City must commit suicide."
Hill looked directly into the camera.
"One of you… must kill Batman."
He placed his hands on the side of the podium.
"And if you listen closely, you'll hear the sound of this whole situation getting more and more interesting."
ARKHAM ASYLUM - NOW
"And if you listen closely, you'll hear the sound of this whole situation getting more and more interesting."
Watching the press conference on the TV inside the central security station, Harold heard his cue from The Undying.
Julius Everdeen was not the only person The Undying had working in Arkham.
Harold To was working central security tonight, in the high tech computer station that controlled everything from the outside watchlights… to the cells themselves.
His task was simple. Once he heard the cue, execute the program he'd installed that opened every cell in Arkham, and then trigger the bomb that would destroy the entire central security station, himself included.
In normal circumstances of such catastrophic failure, they could remotely access security protocols from another terminal, but the program he was supposed to execute consolidated all of the cell controls to one location. They'd have to bring in new computers to undo the damage, and with all of the crazies overrunning the Arkham personnel (and eventually the city), stopping at Best Buy was not going to be high on anyone's list of priorities.
Harold had the utmost faith in The Undying. He knew he would be rewarded for his sacrifice with everlasting life.
And he hoped that the mole they had in Blackgate performing the same function, letting all of their inmates out, would succeed.
Harold closed his eyes.
"For The Undying…"
He executed the program on the keyboard in front of him, releasing every patient in Arkham from their cells.
Then he triggered the bomb, destroying the computers.
And himself.
BLACKGATE PENITENTIARY - NOW
The inmates heard the explosion coming from somewhere, and saw their cells open. The men and the women on either side of Blackgate stood, flummoxed, that freedom was just a few steps away.
All of them except David Hyde.
He'd known this was coming.
While everyone else was just standing there, Hyde immediately left his cell…
...and went straight for Quincy Feldon.
Feldon, who was still pretending to sleep, looked up when he heard the door open. He only saw Hyde when he was already up to his cell.
"No," Feldon said. "I-ACK!"
Hyde grabbed Feldon by the throat. As he dragged him back to his cell, he could see the rest of the inmates in the block emerge from their cells. He could hear the guards way down on the other end of the wing discharge their firearms. He heard their screams moments later.
Once he got Feldon to the cell Hyde moved his hand from the disgraced cop's throat to the back of his neck, standing him up.
"Please!" said Feldon. I never-"
WHANG!
Hyde slammed Feldon's face into the walls of the open cell.
What he pulled back barely resembled a face, The nose was squashed flat, the eyes were rolling back into his head, and blood poured from a mouth that had a few less teeth. From what Hyde could both smell and hear, not only was Quincy Feldon bleeding everywhere, he was dousing the front of his prison scrubs with piss.
But Feldon was still twitching.
That meant he was still alive.
Hyde readied himself for one more go.
The WHANG! That came the first time was now accompanied by a thick, low crunch. And what he pulled back wasn't a face at all. It was a narrow cavern of flowing blood and warped skin. The damage was so bad that both of Feldon's dead brown eyes were now staring at each other.
Hyde dropped Feldon's corpse into the puddle of its own refuse, and stared at the chaos slowly consuming this cell block.
"Now," Hyde said. "Where did my armor run off to?"
SELINA KYLE'S HARLOW STREET APARTMENT - NOW
Selina had been sitting on the couch in her bathrobe, trying to reckon with how she would respond after three of her employees had been murdered that day.
She had been watching the press conference on TV.
And she had heard the booms off in the distance through her open window.
She knew here they came from, and she knew things had gotten a lot more complicated.
Gotham had been through No-Man's-Land scenarios like this, but then the city could be evacuated. The National Guard could be brought in. Superman could stop by and help out.
But according to that press conference, none of those were options now.
Selina knew how this city operated. It would protect its biggest assets first. That meant Founder's Island and Miagani Island, where all the money was. If those two went, then there wouldn't be a Gotham City anymore.
Which meant the more run down and interesting parts of the city, and all the innocent people therein, would be utterly defenseless.
That meant the East End.
Well… not entirely defenseless.
Selina stood up, shooing Isis off of her lap.
This is utterly foolish, she thought to herself as she went into the bedroom.
There's no percentage in anyone doing something stupid, she thought to herself when she opened the bag she'd brought from Chinatown that contained her whip.
You should just hole up here. No one's gonna bust down an apartment door in Harlow Street at a time like this when there are perfectly good rich targets to hit, she thought as she entered the closet and found one of her Catwoman costumes.
She was still trying to talk herself out of what she knew good and Goddamned well was sheer idiocy, when a thought, clear as a bell and totally unwanted, just popped up out of the ether within her mind.
You're gonna be out there in this, aren't you Sailor?
Selina hated herself for thinking this, now of all times.
But we can forgive her, can't we?
Yeah, just this once.
THE GOTHAM CENTRAL PRESS ROOM - NOW
No one in the room heard the explosions from Blackgate and Arkham Island, but Hill knew they had gone off.
"Now then,' Hill said. "Because I am so sporting, I will give everyone… forty-five minutes to leave the city."
He looked at Zatanna. "Honeybunch, if you please?"
Zatanna stiffened in her wheelchair, and said "Latrop."
A swirling silver portal appeared behind them, and as the reporters begam a mad loud dash to leave, Hill, Zatanna, and the henchwoman walked right through.
Nightwing got to Gotham Central too late, coming to the front of the building just as the reporters fled screaming.
THE STAPLETON BUILDING - NOW
Bruce heard the Blackgate and Arkham explosions as he was staring out the window.
And like Selina, he knew where they came from.
Talia walked up behind him.
"Your city is in chaos," Talia said. "Its people in turmoil. Violence and death will come. And they will cry out in the night, hoping for Batman to save them."
Talia was beside him now. She took his left earlobe into her mouth and bit down. Her teeth let him go and she breathed in his ear before she said:
"Welcome back, Beloved."