It was a cold and snowy Gotham night in the midst of November. People were crowding the streets, and in the rooftops stood a lone figure who dresses like a bat. The urban legend among the city known as Batman.
"Alfred, I'm at the Iceberg Lounge, Penguin has hostages there, I'm going to help and stop Cobblepot."
"Very well, Master Bruce, proceed with caution, Penguin is very dangerous."
"I know what I'm doing, Alfred, I'll be in touch when I stop Penguin." Batman stood high and a second later he jumps off the roof and glides to a window on the Iceberg Lounge. He opened the window to the lounge. He saw nobody there. Bruce was not much of a pessimist, but he had feelings something was not right. He drops down to the floor. He surveyed the lavish lounge for Penguin or any of the hostages. So far he found nothing, and then he drops down to the dance floor.
Then Batman heard a familiar sound of Mr Freeze's freeze gun. Batman dodged out of the way. He looked up to find the rich midget himself.
"Cobblepot." Batman said in the most sincere attitude.
"Hey Batman, like my new gun, sweet ain't she." Penguin kissed the freeze gun.
"Where are the hostages, and what did you do to Freeze?" Batman interrogated.
"Always angry, eh Batman." Penguin replied.
"Don't make me beat the answers out of you." Batman said angrily.
"The hostages, there weren't any hostages, Batman, you fallen right into my trap." The Penguin laughed as he pulled out the detonator from his pockets and pressed the button.
The dance floor exploded, and Batman fell on his feet. He loosened his joints and cracked his knuckles, getting ready for a fight.
"Boys, get down there and see who can kill the bat. Extra pay and more vacation to the one who does." The Penguin commanded. Batman counted twenty criminals jumping down the dance floor.
"You want some? Fine with me." Batman cracked his neck as the first thug charged at him. He pulled out and threw a batarang, and it struck the the thug in the head. The other henchmen walked towards him. A few of them surrounded him and tried to attack him. Batman grabbed one of them and swung his body towards the other two. Then Batman launched across the room and struck a guy who was going for a cattle rod. Then a thug with a baseball bat ran towards the Dark Knight and tried to hit him. Batman seized the bat and smashed the thug's legs and bashed his skull with it. Batman was pinballing across the room, and utterly wrecking all of Penguin's thugs in the room. There were only a few of them left. They were shaking in fear. It was getting easy from here. Batman lunged at the remaining thugs and beat them into unconsciousness. He gave the last one a backhand to the face. All of them were lying on floor with broken ribs, punctured lungs, and missing teeth. Along with a few splotches of blood and bruises on their faces.
"That wasn't how it was supposed to go, Batman. I have to do everything myself around here. Goodbye Batman." Penguin aimed the freeze gun at Batman and shot it. He dodged the first few bursts. Then Penguin got mad and was trying to fix the freeze ray. Batman pulled out his grapple and aimed it towards the ledge. But another burst hits Batman in the legs. Penguin laughed and he aimed the gun and said.
"It was nice seeing ya, hahaha." The projectiles encased Batman in ice. He could not move. The last thing Bruce saw was Penguin ordering his men around. Batman had been frozen at the bottom of the Iceberg Lounge for the years to come. When he was gone, the fate of Gotham now relied on the Bat Family. Alfred tried to contact Bruce for hours until he finally realized that he was gone. Years had gone by and Gotham was actually safe without the Batman.
Many years later, there was a disturbance in Batman's slumber. A futuristic looking soldier stumbled upon the large clump of ice. He noticed that someone was inside the ice. He started to chisel the ice to free the body. The soldier noticed that the figure looks like a bat. He finished revealing the entire body. Then he tried to unmask the man. But Batman grabbed the soldier's hand and broke his wrist. The soldier screamed in pain as he was holding his wrist. Then Batman picked him up and started to interrogate him.
"Where's Cobblepot, tell me or I'll break every bone in your body!"
"Cobblepot? I don't know who that is." Batman slammed the soldier into the ground.
"Don't lie to me, where is he?"
"Listen buddy, whoever you're talking about, he's probably dead for a long time."
"What year is it?"
"Twenty one ninety three!" Batman released the soldier and stepped back. He was breathing heavily. The soldier was on comms. In a moment's notice, a few armed soldiers entered the Lounge guns at the ready and trained on Batman.
"Stay where you are or we"ll shoot." The commander said
"Not today" Batman replied as he reached for his smoke pellet. He threw the smoke grenade down on the floor and the room bursted with smoke. The soldiers got scared and started to shoot in the position that Batman was. They turned on thermals and Batman disappeared.
"Where did he go?"
"We gotta find him now, alert all forces in the city." Batman was out of the Iceberg Lounge and Gotham was destroyed, decimated by something very powerful. The city was nearly empty, all that there was left was the smoldering ruins and many soldiers patrolling the streets and the rooftops. Batman was weeping at the sight of the fallen city. He had protected this city for years and now it has diminished to this.
"I need to find out how Gotham was destroyed, one of the soldiers might tell me what happened." Batman scanned the area for nearby soldiers. Then he saw a small group of them. They were on the rooftops, looking for something. One of them was armed. The rest have batons and shields on them. Batman strategized his attacks to quickly take them all down in a short amount of time. He glides over and waits for the armed soldier to walk just right below him. Then Batman dropped down and attacked the armed soldier.
"Look out, it's the person that Gamma Team warned us about." The soldier with a shield charged at him to attack. Batman had to attack from above. He swung his cape to confuse the soldier and Batman climbed and jumped off of him and landed back on top of him. He picked up the shield and broke it. There were three remaining soldiers, including the armed one. One of them ran towards Batman with a baton and tried to hit him. Batman countered that attack and disarmed is he soldier and hits him with that baton. Then he kicks the soldier going for the gun. He throws a rusty, old batarang at another to knock him down on the floor. Then he goes to the soldier trying to get up and he puts his knee on top of his back and knocked him out. The other two tried to attack Batman in harmony, but he countered both of them. He took one them out and he grabbed the one on the left by the neck and started to interrogate him.
"What happened to Gotham, answer me or I'll start with the fingers."
"It was destroyed by the Reapers a few years ago, that's all I know."
"What are the Reapers?" Batman was choking the soldier harder.
"They're a race of ancient, genocidal robots that got destroyed long ago, I swear that's all I know."
"Your kindness is much appreciated." Batman struck the right side of the soldier's carotid artery, knocking him out cold and threw him to the ground. Batman had nothing else to do but find information about everything that's going on.
Batman searched all of Gotham for answers and interrogated soldiers as well as he listened in his communications. He was sitting on top of the old Ace Chemicals building, and then he noticed something very interesting. He turned the volume up and started to listen.
"All units, be advised of a new threat looming this city, a man with a bat-like appearance, the Council and Alliance Navy has been informed of his presence, orders are to take him alive for questioning." The radio fell silent.
"Alliance? Citadel? I have to find answers, maybe it could lead to something I need to know." Batman noticed a few soldiers entering one of the apartments that was still intact. They closed the door, but Batman was already there. There was an open window. He turned on detective mode and scanned the floor below him. The soldiers were inside one of the rooms. One of them looked odd. Their bone structure was unusual to Batman.
"A bone deformation, or is it something entirely new. But before I break in, I need to eavesdrop on the conversation." Batman took out a device from his utility belt and dropped it near the soldiers far enough so that they didn't notice it. He turned on his audio recorder that still worked surprisingly and started to listen in.
"It's strange, this man was an urban legend in this city over one hundred and fifty years ago. No one knows his real name, but he appears every night to fight crime on the streets. If we could at least get some DNA samples, I could run the city's database for any aliases or the name of the resident." It was the person with the bone deformation who was talking. He spoke rather swiftly than normal humans. He paced around the room, searching for clues.
"It looks like they're trying to identify me, if they do that then I know what to do. I should drop in and take out the guards and interrogate the one with the strange structure. If I'm fast enough, I can take out the soldiers without them having time to react. The floor below me is weak enough for me to collapse on top of the soldier standing below. Time to introduce myself."
Batman studied the room and formulated a tactic that could take out all of the soldiers at once. He collapsed the weak ceiling on top of the guard. The others freaked out and tried to shoot him but he was too fast for them. He took the last soldier out and all that who was left was the researcher. He did not look human. He was an alien. Batman grabbed him, walked out of the apartment and took the researcher to the rooftop. Then Batman was holding him over the ledge.
"Tell me what you are."
"Me, my name is…"
"Not who you are, what you are." Batman interrupted.
"Ok, ok, I'm a salarian. Is that the answer you want?"
"Now tell me, what is the Citadel and what is the Alliance."
"The Citadel, it's an alliance of alien species that was created long ago, and the Systems Alliance is the human government in the Milky Way galaxy, do you want more?"
"No, I already have enough." Batman pulled the salarian up to the roof and threw him on the ground and struck his skull unconscious. He escaped the apartments before the reinforcements arrived. Batman had to become Bruce Wayne and leave Gotham whereas the city has fallen and it doesn't need his protection anymore. Batman made his way to Wayne Manor to become Bruce Wayne. He had to formulate a story to keep his identity as Batman secret. He made it off the islands and into the mainland Bristol in where Wayne Manor was to the northwest. The house was overgrown, but still untouched by the destruction. The city was occupied by Alliance forces and Batman had to leave. The manor was home and Bruce had opened the doors, but he saw a gravestone. It was Alfred, all these years and he still didn't leave the manor. Beside his grave was his double barreled shotgun he used to protect his home and his family with, and a few dead flowers on it too. He was buried next to Martha and Thomas Wayne, Bruce's parents.
Bruce had entered the manor. Inside it was a little overgrown, but with a little cleaning up, it would look as good as it was. But that was a task he would have to do later. He entered his room and took off the batsuit and stowed it somewhere. He didn't need it anymore. He was going to create a new one. One that is better suited for this era of technology. If he could get his money back, he would have a fresh new restart as Batman and Bruce Wayne. He changed into his suit and tie but there was an intrusion. He investigated the break in. He saw more soldiers and this time, they were alien but they were shaped differently from the salarians and they had natural hardened carapaces. They were scanning the entrance hall. Bruce Wayne had to resort to a different person.
He remembered his old League of Assassins uniform. He still had it in his wardrobe. Along with the old weapons like shurikens and a staff. He had to suit up quickly. He grabbed his grapnel gun from his utility belt and with his explosive gel and bat claw. He ran towards the main hall where the soldiers were still searching. Batman had to make the first move.
"Alpha target was last seen in Wayne Manor, search the area, if you find him, go for the non lethal shot." The commander said to his unit. There were old gargoyles that Bruce can use as a vantage point and survey the room. There were six of them inside. He locked down all of Wayne Manor so that the soldiers couldn't progress further. He grappled across gargoyles to find an opportunity to take one of the soldiers. They were paired up. It was going to be tougher than he thought. He couldn't glide across the room and detective mode was limited. He saw one of the pairs got separated. Bruce jumped towards the soldier on the left and silently choked him with his staff. The soldier was unconscious and Bruce grappled up to the vantage point. They had heartbeat monitors the commander could track. He notified his unit that one of them has fallen. One of the soldiers found the body and yelled "casualty". They continued their search. Bruce found two together and saw the opportunity to take them both out without being seen. He grabbed their heads and smashed them together. And so far, Bruce took out half of the unit. There were walkways and other pathways that led to different rooms throughout the manor. The rest of the soldiers were on those walkways. Bruce jumped down the gargoyle as the commander notified his soldiers. He pulled out the bat claw, shot it and pulled one of the soldiers off the walkway. He screamed, alerting the other soldiers nearby. Bruce Wayne escaped. The two remaining were still on alert. Usually when he was fighting armed criminals, the last few would be terrified. But these are soldiers, it would take a lot of fear to break them. They paired up, but Bruce dropped down from his vantage point and knocked them both to the ground. He instantly knocked one of them out and the other, he picked him up and asked him some questions.
"How did you find this place, what brought you here?"
"We saw Alpha Target fly in here, now where is he, assassin?"
"I'm afraid he's on shore leave." Bruce headbutted the soldier. Then the door opened again. About fifteen more soldiers poured in. They were all unarmed and it made it easy for Bruce.
"Isn't this a school night?" Bruce cracked his knuckles and popped his wrist. Fifteen soldiers, two armed with stun sticks, four with batons, three armed with knives, and the rest didn't have a weapon. Nine of them were human, four of them were the ones with a carapace, and two of them were salarians.
One of the soldiers with a knife charged Bruce. He swished the knife four times and faster than the normal thug does. Bruce grabbed his armed hand, hit him in the face, went behind him, and broke his arm.
"You're not gonna mess with this turian, not this time." One of them with the carapace said. Bruce had figured out who the aliens with the carapaces were. Then Bruce charged them and was battering the soldiers across the main hall. One of them charged Bruce with a stun stick. He tried to attack but Bruce stunned him and destroyed the stick. Then he continued to pummel and counter every soldier as they were dropping like flies. He punches one of the salarians and slams him on the ground. He took out his staff to take out the rest of them. As he trips them and slams them with the bat claw, a couple of them go for guns. Bruce reacted by stunning one of the soldiers and spraying a dose of explosive gel small enough to not kill him and kicked him to the armed soldiers. He pressed the button and detonated the gel. The soldiers went flying seven feet in the air.
"You're gonna die here, assassin, so I advise you to give up." One of the soldiers pulled out a shotgun. Bruce reached for the shurikens. He waited until the soldier was caught off guard.
"Put your hands in the ai…" The shuriken hits the soldier in the cheek of the face. Then Bruce ran towards him and took him out with a ground pound. The room was cleared and Bruce had to leave the manor before more came. He had to take the Batcave. He went outside to the old well that led to his cave. The cave was destroyed and trashed. It hasn't been used in one hundred and fifty years. Bruce changed back into his suit and tie. He disposed of his assassin's uniform and went back out to Gotham to turn himself in to the soldiers.
Bruce walked back outside the Batcave and found a checkpoint coming into the city. He walked towards the soldiers there.
"Hey, we got someone over here." The soldier ran towards Bruce and brought him to the checkpoint.
"Where are you from?" He asked. He puts a blanket over Bruce.
"Wayne Manor, just woke up from cryosleep." Bruce lied.
"Ok, get comfortable, we're sending someone to pick you up." He sets Bruce to a chair inside the outpost. Bruce looked around the room, it was empty and everyone was outside. He waited for two hours at most.