Metal Gear Solid: Shadows of Gotham

Chapter 2: Prelude to a personal war

Laughing filled the air of uptown Gotham. The Joker was laid out on the ground, beaten and broken once more beneath the boot of the Batman.

The Joker goons that haven't been killed by the arrival of the GCPD, have either surrendered or been subdued by others of the Batfamily. With the exception of Nightwing, who was still managing Bludhaven.

Jim Gordon approaches Batman, "Well, at least tonight's over. Since Arkham can't hold anyone right now, let alone this madman. I'll try to get some reserves to provide extra security at Blackgate."

Approaching the both of them stood The Red Hood, seeing only the half conscious Joker writhing in the grip of the GCPD. It filled the young man with a deep kind of rage, the kind that could flood this city if it became water instead of determination.

Renee Montoya, one of the officers overseeing Joker's restraints. She watches The Red Hood raise his gun to the Joker's chest.

"Stop there Red!" She exclaimed, putting her own firearm up to the head of Jason.

Batman lunges and lifts the wrist that held the weapon. He twisted him in a way that caused their cowl and helmet to meet. "Let's not do this Jason." Batman said evenly.

"When will it be done? After everything he's done. There are 30 officers here and they're pointing their guns at us. Not him." Red hood responds, spitting disdain from his lips.

"We will not argue here." Batman responds.

Jason scoffs and pulls his hand away, holstering his weapon. "You don't have much of an argument anyway."

He turns and starts towards the edge of the street, grappling away. Frustrated, Jason moves through Gotham toward his hideout. His frustration suppressed itself when he heard the sounds of absolutely terrified screams resounded through the streets. Jason perched himself on a ledge overlooking the subway entrance. He watched people sprint away, many of them panicked out of their minds, a green gas floating up from the terminal.

He immediately recognized this as Scarecrow's Fear Toxin. Jason repelled himself down the building and worked to contain the frightened people until an ambulance arrived. He slipped away when they finally did, by then the toxin dispersed enough that his helmet would easily filter out the air.

Jason discovered disconnected train cars, three out of the ten of the cars have been detached and redirected. Through the Ar feature on his helmet he begins following the redirected rail, whoever did this was smart, but not smart enough. They had redirected the cars to an unused maintenance tunnel. They also made the smart move of switching it back to the normal track, however, doing that loosened enough rust and provided enough scrape marks to alert Jason to the fact it had been switched at all.

Following this would take time, it did give Jason time to clear their head a bit. The thought of putting Crane back in the hole excited him. Crane was among the few who could relive that fateful moment that started everything for him, the moment before death and the moment waking up in the Lazarus pit. To battle fear, perhaps even to put down an embodiment of fear would be an immense amount of catharsis that Jason needs today.

A few hours would pass before he finds the train cars at an abandoned station, though not abandoned by Gotham's criminals, or by dogs of Gothams proverbial war. The station was nearly pitch black, with only lanterns and the light of the train cars to illuminate the station.

Standing among boxes, cleaning supplies and mechanical equipment were four armed men. Mercenaries, likely hired by Crane, the bags under their eyes and nigh permanent look of horror in their gaze gave away how uncomfortable they were.

One man, the leader it seemed like, was standing over a suitcase counting money. The other three were preparing the other three train cars, scrubbing it of any forensic data people could pick up.

Jason stuck to the shadows and climbed up the ledge, they stayed low and followed the edge of the wall. Through the darkness they lurked around, watching the three men clean and keeping an eye on the man counting and checking his money. Jason waited for his moment where the man concluded his work, at the moment he turned to speak to his men. Jason would grab him, putting the barrel of his pistol to the mercs head. The gasp of the merc caused his men to jolt and look over, they pulled their weapons and pointed it at Jason.

Jason intentionally turned on the illumination feature on the eyewear part of his helmet. He had pulled the man back to the edge of the light where the other mercs could see only two white eyes, the vague shape of a person, and a pistol to the head of their boss.

Batman had taught his children well, the methods of intimidating the moraless dogs of Gotham by embracing the shadows that the city casts.

"Now, now gentlemen, its late. I'm sure you all want to finish your job and go home. Where is the Scarecrow?" Jason asks, even in a moderate tone the echo carried his voice perfectly.

It's clear they were still jumpy from their dealings with Crane, the looks on their faces turn to a look of horror.

"An old warehouse just outside town!" Their boss exclaims.

"That was quick, what else can you tell me? Got any directions." Jason grinned internally, dragging the barrel across the temple of the man, pushing his hair to the side.

"The bastard knocked us out and stole one of our trucks. I got a map in my chest pocket, we were going to pay him a visit for pissing us off!" He continues to explain.

"Well its what you get for siding with someone like him." Jason replies, pulling the road map from the pocket.

Jason sighed and used his helmet's feature to dampen outside sound. "You've been very helpful, but there are train cars of people who would argue otherwise. Lives traumatized, all because you wanted a suitcase of money."

They start to panic as Jason continues. "Take this moment to remember their faces. You won't be able to afterward."

Shots echoed beneath Gotham, in its inner workings this common sound resounded much louder. Those that dwell beneath Gotham would find no safety in its shadows, not with the Red Hood also living in those shadows.

Jason alone walked out of the station, taking in the sights around him before taking their other truck to follow the marked map.

Another few hours passed as Jason reached the warehouse in question, rain came down hard as Jason stepped out of the truck, the main door was open and the inside was dimly lit. Most likely by a generator.

Quietly he approached, bodies on the floor came into view and Jason's heart sank. But when his helmet analyzed the closest body, it revealed that their heart was still beating. He could hear a voice off in that crowd of sleeping people, the noise coming from a discarded cell phone.
"Hello? Sir? Are you still there? The police and medical services are on their way." The voice of the 911 operator resounded in the night.

Jason cursed himself, if he's caught alone with these bodies, things might not go over well. People of this city already see him as an unhinged asshole, but no one can see his vision for the city but him. They would all thank him one day.

Jason turned, finally noticing Scarecrow, the object of his ire tonight. He lay with his neck snapped, having been dead maybe a few hours or so. His body was slumped to the ground in front of a camera, a camera still rolling.

"Damn." Jason cursed himself, his helmet scanning his surroundings while he investigated.

There were signs of forensic data on the broken chair among the crowd, whoever killed Crane was less affected by the agent keeping these people mostly asleep. They had enough strength to break out and kill Crane before they noticed.

The footage was easy to download, as well as the data from Cranes computer. Jason made sure to disconnect his helmet from the Batcomputer, if he was going to solve this. He was going to solve this himself.

Jason could hear sirens getting closer, so he sprinted outside. It was clear that the person who killed crane had a few hours head start on him. Jason looked at the map he got off the mercenaries and noticed a bus stop not too far away. He jumped in the mercs truck and followed the road.

It was only a 10 minute drive for Jason to reach the bus stop, no one was there but it was clear a bus hadn't been here in a while. Jason stepped out to look for signs of life. Two cigarette butts lay in the mud and footprints lead off the path.

Jason takes out one of his pistols and follows the tracks down to a storm drain maintenance entrance. It could be a little while before he locates this person, so Jason decides to double back to the truck, he moves the truck to view the storm drain. If the rain gets worse, the killer would either die or have to get out of there quickly.

While Jason waited, he had footage to view. He scrolled through Scarecrow's inane speech until he noticed the man waking up behind him. He wore a deep green rain cloak, the hood obscured his face, that was until Crane pulled it back. He saw the weathered face of a soldier, a veteran of some forgotten war. There was no telling how the sleeping agent got through his system so quickly. But just as Crane sprayed him with his new formula of Fear Toxin, Jason understood how Crane had no chance.
The man's strength was amplified by his fear and panic, the chair broke under the weight of his thrashing and the fall. To Jason, Crane seemingly thought he would just writhe around in fear and agony and would provide a poignant point to the video he was filming for Gotham, and for Batman.

But little did Crane suspect, and to Jason's surprise, the man rose a minute into Scarecrow's renewed speech. Only to expertly and brutally snap the neck of Johnathan Crane.

Jason watched the man run about, gently laying the other would-be hostages on the floor and gathering his things. It was difficult to tell if he was still under the effects of the Fear Toxin, but his movement and decisions said otherwise, especially when he called the police. However the thought isn't completely out the window, sometimes Crane's toxin can linger and provide echoes of illusions, trigger trauma or trap a victim in an entirely new reality of their own making if they aren't treated properly.

What Jason couldn't understand was, why did he leave? Why leave the phone next to the little girl? Why the rush and why escape down a storm drain?

Could he be having a delusion? Or is he escaping something? Perhaps he's wanted in some way.

Jason considered reconnecting to the bat computer only to realize that the rain had stopped. If he wanted to find the man, this may be his only chance to pick up another trail before it completely disappeared.

He left the truck and followed the maintenance tunnel into the darkness, he swapped his helmet's vision to a night mode. Mentally he felt relief that it worked. All this advanced tech inside the helmet made Jason worry it wasn't going to function the way he wanted it to while still being bulletproof.

"I'll have to thank Fox when I get back." he sighed to himself and followed the walkway.

His foot met something small, cylindrical and made of metal. Jason looked down to see bullet casings.

Jason's knowledge of weapons revealed the casings to be .45 ACP, three rounds fired. Laying maybe 3 meters away were the rest of the bullets. The remainder of these bullets appear like they've ricocheted off bulletproof material. Unless Superman is hanging out in Gothams sewer system, this man is having a very bad night.

The walk became almost frustrating as he continued, that was when something finally picked up on his visor. A lump of something laying in the way, Jason noticed the claw marks as he turned off the night vision and turned on a light.

Laying before him was the viscera of some kind of reptilian creature, the pattern of blood and guts show that they may have been blown apart from the inside. Jason investigated further, scanning with his helmet to find fragments of metal. Most likely from a grenade.
Jason moved down the path, locating a humanoid arm attached to a familiar claw. Jason recognized this claw anywhere… Killer Croc. Also along the raised walkway were smatterings of dried blood, croc got at least one shot in before being blown apart.

Joker had decimated the defenses at Arkham, it seems Crocs good luck turned to bad luck when he came across this man.

"In one night this man has killed two of arkhams high profile criminals. I think I'm starting to like this guy!" Jason chuckles to himself.

Jason continued, it would be hours back toward the city following the blood trail until it stopped beneath a manhole cover.

He lifted it off and expertly climbed up and found himself in a more slummy part of Gotham. The trail of blood stops near a building, the back door of the building was broken opening, the trail leads up a maintenance ladder to the top of the building.

Judging by the lights being out and no alarm going off, the man must have cut the power before breaking in. Smart, and not out of character for the guy so far.

Jason quietly leans up on the frame and pushes open the door as quickly as possible. The building was dark, only the street lights pouring in the opportunity to see without assistance from the helmet.

He immediately recognized the inside of a pharmacy, the man was incredibly careful to make it look like a burglary of opportunity. Which it is, but there is something much more calculated.

Off near the side entrance to the pharmacy stood a figure. A deep verdant green cloak cutting a dark silhouette against the street lights. They were speaking in a low tone, an old flip phone held up to their ear.
"I see it across the way, I can hide out for tonight-" The man spoke in a low distinct tone, obviously changed due to smoking and years of existing.

Jason stepped closer, as quiet as Batman taught him. However, not silent enough as suddenly the silenced barrel of a gun is pointed at Jason's head. The phone is immediately snapped and tossed into the duffle bag on his shoulder.

Immediately Jason put his hands up, empty. If the man was still having toxin laden delusions, he at least wanted to attempt to diffuse first.

"Who are we hiding from?" Jason initiated, trying to keep his tone low and even.

The man squeezes the trigger without hesitation.

End of Chapter-

Next- Chapter 3: Solid Snake vs Red Hood