Chapter Five
"Once the National Guard came in to help police everything, it gave the rest of us time to focus on other things. Sleep, a good meal, whatever was needed. During the next three or four months, things calmed down and we were regulated to the background. The elevated security around Gotham kept conflicts to a minimum.
"Naturally, this kind of peace couldn't last.
"Several construction sites started to become the targets of saboteurs. They would strike at random, setting off small charges to collapse ongoing constructs, disabling machines or flat out stealing supplies, setting everything back a day or two each time. There were so many sites and the attacks were so random that no pattern was readily noticeable. The background noise of destruction also made it hard to find any trace evidence to point out our bad guy. To make it even worse, whoever was doing it seemed to be doing it mainly for sport. They didn't seem to be any reason for the attacks other than to be annoying.
"The security around most of the sites was tightened but it did nothing to stop the attacks. Finally, we stepped in to lend a hand. We each took a different section of town to watch and made regular patrols. What the Guard failed to do in full view we hoped to accomplish in the shadows. It took a while but eventually it paid off and I was the lucky one who found them.
"Two figures were sneaking around a small building holding supplies for the site. They were planting small explosives but when I radioed Batman, he told me to follow them instead of capturing them. The plan was to cut off the problem at its source, including any and all who might be helping them.
"They finished quickly. I followed behind them as they made their way to the south docks. They kept to the shadows as much as I did and we avoided almost all contact with other people. When we go to the docks, our path took us underneath the rubble of an old warehouse. The basement floor had collapsed into an underground cavern that lead to other caverns, some manmade, some not.
"It was like navigating a maze. To get to where we were going, you had to go from natural cave formations to part of the old subway system to a section of the sewer back to another underground cave to what looked like a man-made bunker. Because of all the damage the earthquake caused, some areas were blocked by cave-ins, which in turn opened other. At one point, we dropped straight down almost thirty feet before having to climb back up by twenty. It was tough to follow them without being seen, but I managed. I also had to use the infrared spray paint in my utility belt to mark the passage so I would be able to find my way out.
"It took almost half an hour to reach our destination. I tried to picture how far we had traveled back under Gotham, but the amount of up, down and sideways movement made it almost impossible.
"What I saw when we did arrive scared me more than anything I'd experienced before.
"The passageway opened into a large cavern. The cavern was a natural formation but it had clearly been shaped and formed by someone into a small underground city, complete with buildings and a common area. If it were above ground I'd say it was a city park surrounded by small office buildings. Some scaffolding, stolen from the sites, was set up around the central area. How they got it down there through the path I'd just taken I couldn't figure, unless there was another way in but I couldn't see one from my vantage point. There were crates of different sizes stacked in the corners of the cavern. Sounds of construction echoed loudly.
"What scared me, though, were the people I saw. Standing in the middle of the cavern, by one of the larger crates, was the Joker. I also saw Two-Face off to one side, talking to a group of men. Killer Croc, the Riddler and the Penguin were there as well, with all of their henchmen in tow. All in all, they had a small army hidden underneath Gotham. I tried to get an accurate count but stopped after eighty. I took in as much as I could before putting on my infrared visor and making my way back to the surface.
""They must be planning to try and retake Gotham by force," Batman said, after I'd reported everything back to him. I'd sketched a diagram of the cavern and everything I'd remembered about it. He then came up with a plan.
"A small group would storm the cavern and do as much damage as possible while a larger group, consisting mostly of GCPD and National Guard soldiers, would remain topside to pick off any who made it back up the passage. It was a good plan and probably would have worked if Batman's assessment of the threat had been more accurate. As it turned out, his accuracy was way off and the whole thing quickly turned into a disaster."
