BATMAN: GOTHAM CAMPAIGN OF CRIME
By Bruce Wayne
Batman created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger
DISCLAIMER: Most of the characters portrayed in this story are copyright by DC Comics, an AOL/Time/Warner company. They are used without permission for entertainment without profit by the author.
CHAPTER 12
The gunfire ceased for the briefest of instances as Batman charged into the midst of the raging battleground that had once been Two-Face's living room. Both sides lowered their weapons and stared at the Caped Crusader, but their astonishment was short-lived, and within seconds they had started shooting anew, this time aiming for Batman rather than each other.
Reaching to his utility belt as he dove for cover behind some furniture, Batman pulled out a smoke pellet and threw it to the middle of the floor. Almost in an instant, the entire room was consumed in a cloud of whitish smoke.
Unable to see what they were aiming for, the criminals' bullets drilled holes through the plaster all around Batman, but miraculously, the fast-moving Masked Avenger evaded them all.
Switching the lenses of his cowl to thermal-imaging, Batman was able to register the heat source of every thug in the room through the smoke.
He rammed into one feet first, sending the man toppling backward to the floor.
In the close quarters of the small hallway leading to the living room, the Penguin's men could not risk firing their weapons at Batman for fear of accidentally shooting one of their own number, so many reversed their guns to use as clubs. The Dark Knight of Gotham City ducked under a forcefully swung rifle butt, wrenching it from its owner's hands as he drove a foot into the man's belly.
He pivoted on the balls of his feet in time to bring the rifle up to block another blow from behind and then rammed the butt into his attacker's chin. Batman grabbed yet another gunman by his shirtfront and swung him to one side to take one of his comrade's punches intended for Batman.
As the smoke was beginning to dissipate, another man rushed toward the crimefighter, his hand holding a knife over his head. Batman kicked one man out of the way, spun and kicked the knife out of the hand of the approaching attacker. He spun again, delivering a vicious backhand slap to another thug's face, using his momentum on the return swing to knock still another charging man down and out for the count.
Batman stood now with his back braced against the wall, facing the four remaining gunmen. But by reducing the gang's numbers so drastically, the Masked Manhunter had cleared the way for them to use their guns against him once more. Batman propelled himself from the wall and landed on top of the quartet of closely grouped gunmen, his arms flailing seemingly without rhyme or reason. He immediately knocked aside one man, who fell with a low moan to the floor. Then he pushed another man in the chest and, arms windmilling in a desperate attempt to regain his balance, he tripped backward over his fallen comrade, cracking his skull loudly against the wall.
The remaining two men backed off quickly.
"Better say good-bye, freak," one of them muttered as they both leveled their pistols at him.
"Why? You punks planning to leave?"
They hadn't noticed a few seconds before when Batman had reached to his utility belt. His hand shot out before him as he hurled razor-sharp mini Bat-a-rangs at the thugs as they pulled the triggers. Their aim was thrown off as the projectiles became painfully embedded in their arms.
With a cry of pain and alarm, one man dropped his gun to the floor, clutching at the Bat-a-rangs sticking out of his chest and forearm. But his pain lasted only for a moment before Batman knocked him into unconsciousness even as his foot lashed out into the second gunman's face.
"Yeah," he muttered, "I guess you were planning to leave at that."
Batman quickly used flexi-cuffs to bind the unconscious and semi-conscious men scattered about the floor.
Touching the concealed button on his costume, Batman spoke into the air of the room. "O? Send the GCPD into the warehouse I'm at. Tell them they better bring some wagons."
A quick "roger" was all he heard over his comm-link from Oracle.
The gunmen in the living room had fallen silent in the half-minute of so it had taken Batman to defeat Two-Face's forces, and they waited tensely behind their antique sofa shield, all guns aimed at the doorway. The sounds of struggle in the vestibule beyond the door had ceased and they knew that the man they thought to be a comrade in costume would soon turn his wrath on them. But they, unlike the rival gang members, were prepared.
But no matter how prepared you may be for an attack that you know is coming, you can never adequately prepare yourself for a flash/bang pellet that explodes in the confine of a small enclosed space. The effect is usually devastating and temporarily debilitating to the eyes, ears and mind of the intended target.
The bang was loud. The flash was blinding.
They were unable to see the man-sized bat shape as it flew through the doorway. It didn't take long for the Caped Crusader to overcome the blinded criminals.
In his mind, he knew that this was just the warm-up act. He still had to face Two-Face, the Penguin, and the Penguin's mighty goon called Shark.
"Quack, squawk! Do not worry yourself about Two-Face, Batman!"
The Caped Crusader whirled suddenly at the sound of the voice which emanated from the doorway behind Harvey Dent's trussed-up thugs.
"What the ...?"
He faced the large, barrel-chested bodyguard of the Penguin who stood in the doorway, his clothes hanging in tatters from his vast body, covered by dust and dirt but looking as fierce, as powerful, as the day they met in the restaurant.
From behind the massive mound of humanity, the Penguin, looking as equally in disarray, called to his longtime foe, "I said, Batman, you need not concern yourself with that fool Dent. He'll be lucky to survive before he receives medical attention. I should've allowed Mister Shark, here, to crush the life out of him, but I wanted him to suffer in pain. Let him think about his mistakes before he died. But he still lives -- just barely -- in the basement. Now, it is just you and Mister Shark, hmmm?"
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Before confronting Batman, the Penguin could remember that the sudden silence after the explosion in the basement was in itself deafening.
For long moments after the roof of Two-Face's secret arsenal had collapsed around the heads of the rival criminal bosses in the aftermath of the exploding ammunition, not a sound could be heard in the artificially created underground cavern. Tons of rocks and dirt had fallen on top of the three men, burying them seemingly forever underneath it. Had anyone been there to see this disaster, they would have sworn that no man could live through it.
They would have been wrong.
Slowly at first, the rubble near the cavern's entrance stirred, sending a small avalanche of debris tumbling, echoing in the enclosed confines of the area. Then, as if a powerful digging machine was attacking the tons of rock from beneath, something gave way and there was a sudden, veritable geyser of rocks, big and small, flying upward into the air.
And with a roar of defiance to waiting death, the Shark was free!
The huge man helped his employer to his feet and the two men staggered from the cavern and into the tunnel that led to Two-Face's warehouse. They stumbled across a moaning Harvey Dent who looked like he was barely hanging on to life. They were torn and battered, yes, but the Penguin, his bodyguard Shark, and Two-Face were still alive.
Alive!
When at last the Penguin and Shark reentered Harvey Dent's study, the sounds of gunfire could still be heard emanating from the rooms beyond, but as far as they were concerned, the battle had ended with the blast in the cavern below. For, when Two-Face's hired gunmen realized their leader was going to do no more than lay in a hospital bed for a long time, they would suddenly lose their reason for fighting and, perhaps, join forces with this day's victor.
But then, the closely spaced shooting abruptly ceased and it was only then that the Penguin remembered what Two-Face had said just before the sky fell in on them: Batman was here!
The Penguin was weary. Shark was weary. The Penguin felt as though his whole body seemed to be a single, massive bruise that ached with his every step, but the battle was not yet done, after all -- not while the accursed Masked Moron still breathed!
But that could be easily remedied.
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Batman looked into the eyes of the battered Shark and then to the Penguin. In both men's eyes, he saw a fire of rage that burned brighter than any he had ever seen. In the past, he had always come out the winner in his battles with the Penguin, but now ... with this human battleship in his employ ... Penguin was trying to even up the odds, at the very least.
There's only one way to find out, isn't there?
"Quack, squawk! You have interfered with my plans for the final time, Batman." The Penguin's voice was barely audible, but there was no mistaking the menacing tone of his words.
I almost believe him.
"What plans, you Black Bird of Prey? Dan Foster's daughter is safely back to her family, and even as we speak, the police are on their way here. To tell the truth, I think you're finished."
"Then so are you, rodent!" spoke Shark for the first time.
The Shark stepped forward and grasped the bullet-ridden sofa, lifting it above his head with a grunt and heaving it at Batman. The Masked crimefighter leaped out of its path as it crashed into and through the wall behind him.
That could've been me instead of the wall.
Batman reached to his utility belt for some mini Bat-a-rangs. His hand came up empty.
Damn! I used up all my Bat-a-rangs fighting the hired help.
With a roar, the Shark charged across the room, his head down like an enraged bull. Batman side-stepped the mountain of flesh and bone at the last possible instant, bringing his left elbow down with all his might on the man's exposed neck. A wave of agony shot through his shoulder and the Caped Crusader gritted his teeth beneath his mask to keep from crying out.
Unnh! I forgot about that shoulder of mine! Hurts like hell!
But the Dark Knight's blow had driven the Shark to his knees, momentarily dazed, a vulnerable target for maybe another second until he regained his senses. He leaped onto the Shark's back, wrapping his legs around his thick torso and covering the huge man's eyes with his gloved hands.
With a growl of rage, the Shark reached behind his head and grasped Batman's shoulders in his meaty hands. The Masked Manhunter tightened his hold as the Shark pulled at him and rose, staggering slightly, to his feet. He dug his powerful fingers into Batman's upper arms, applying numbing pressure. Batman gasped as his arms loosened around the Shark and the big man bent forward suddenly at the waist, tearing the clinging hero loose and sending him flying through the air.
Batman twisted his body in midair and landed on his feet several yards away from the Shark and the Penguin, who was witnessing the entire battle.
Batman rubbed his numb arm, feeling sensation slowly returning.
The two men who were joined in combat circled each other, slowly making a circle in the middle of the floor.
"Quack, squawk! You fool!" Penguin spat. "The damage you have caused can never be repaired! You have destroyed my greatest plan!"
"That's my job, Penguin," Batman replied. His eyes shifted quickly behind the opaque lenses searching for an opening in his opponent's defenses. There was none. The Shark was well versed in the art of hand-to-hand combat.
The Shark's right arm shot out, almost too fast to be seen, but Batman was faster still. His fingers closed tightly around the thick wrist and he stepped in close to the huge man, tossing him in a single, fluid motion over his hip and into a table. The antique wooden coffee table gave way as the Shark slammed heavily into it.
Batman sprang at his fallen opponent but was stopped when the Shark's foot lashed out, catching him squarely in the chest and pushing him roughly back. Before he could recover, the Shark was on his feet, rushing toward him. He grabbed Gotham's Masked Avenger by the front of his costume and yanked him bodily into the air, lifting the struggling crimefighter over his dead like a child.
"It would have been perfect, damn you, perfect!" the Penguin growled through clenched teeth. "Those cretins believed every word I said! They believed I was actually trying to get our man into City Hall as our puppet-mayor so we could loot this city clean!"
Shark heaved Batman through the air, sending him tumbling out of control into a tall pole-lamp in one corner of the room. Batman landed on his left shoulder with a sickening crash, this time almost blacking out from pain that shot through his entire arm. He knew, through the haze of pain, that that arm would be useless for the duration of the fight.
"Their problem was they were too greedy," the Penguin continued. "I dangled the possibility of billions before their eyes in exchange for a paltry few million dollars a man, but in their greed they never realized the plan could not work! Foster would have been elected, yes, but there was no way to hold him after that, you see. He would have merely had to go to the federal authorities and they would have provided protection for his family!"
Batman groaned and tried to stagger to his feet. He fell back, clutching the pole-lamp.
What is he babbling about?
"Foster is no fool, you Costumed Cut-up," Penguin said. "Once his daughter was returned to him after the election, he would have figured it out before long. And all the dreams of untold riches would have died then and there."
"T-then what the hell was a-all this for?" Batman managed to ask.
Keep on talking, Penguin. Your flunky is listening to you as closely as I am. It just gives me more time to get my head on straight again.
"For me, you dolt." Penguin replied. "The money I had deceived my rather gullible colleagues into contributing for the execution of my plan would have been more than adequate to finance a new life abroad, where no one would know who or what I was. But now ..."
You said it, Pengy ... NOW!
Without warning, Batman used his good right arm to pull the pole-lamp free of the clamps that held it moored securely to ceiling and floor. He rammed it into the Shark's stomach and the henchman doubled over in pain as the air exploded from his lungs. In the same motion, the Caped Crusader brought the tip of the lamp up into the huge man's jaw, snapping his head back. Yet still the Shark stood, his eyes glazed. Batman dropped the lamp and followed his one-two punch with a right cross to the other's face. Grunting in pain, the Shark stumbled backward but did not fall.
"What are you, anyway?" Batman asked. "The second cousin to an oak tree? This is the part where you're supposed to fall down and get unconscious."
The big man shook his head violently, clearing the cobwebs from his muddled thoughts. He wanted nothing more than to do as the Dark Knight said, but he would not, could not, while the possibility of escape still existed.
The Penguin looked on nervously. Was it possible that the strongest man in Gotham City could succumb in battle with the Masked Has-Been?
Batman had not expected the master criminal's henchman to recover so swiftly. Thus, he was unprepared when the Shark threw all of his awesome strength into a final, desperate lunge. He could not get out of the way in time, and when the huge, enraged criminal landed fully on him, he could only roll with the man's bulk and hope he would not be crushed beneath it.
The Shark's sledgehammer-like fist thudded against the side of Batman's head as the two men went down in a churning pile of arms and legs. The Masked Avenger of Gotham City was pinned down to the floor by the Shark as his hands sought a hold around Batman's throat.
"Yes" -- the Penguin breathed as he looked on at the titanic struggle -- "it would have been the perfect crime ... a fitting finale for the finest criminal career of all time! Quack, squawk! I would have had over twenty million dollars with which to start a new life, and the true beauty of it all was my comrades in crime would never have pursued me to exact their revenge for my transgression!"
Shark's hands found purchase around Batman's throat and he began to squeeze, his eyes shining.
The Penguin continued explaining his misfortune to Batman as the life was being choked out of him. "They would have been too preoccupied fighting one another for control of my abandoned territory to concern themselves with me for many months, and by that time, I would have disappeared, seemingly off the face of the earth!"
Batman clawed desperately at the Shark's hands as the very breath was slowly wrung from his neck.
Got to do ... something ... real fast or I-I'm a ... a dead man!
"But you, Dynamic Dingbat -- you came along and ruined this one last chance I had for criminal stardom!" Penguin taunted.
Black spots floated before Batman's eyes as he felt consciousness slowly slipping away from him. It would all be over in another moment, unless ...
Batman wiggled his arms out from beneath the Shark, every move sending fresh waves of pain slicing through his wounded shoulder.
At ... at least with t-the pain I ... I know I'm still alive!
Gathering the last bits of strength in his tortured body, the Caped Crusader clapped his hands as hard as he could over the Shark's ears.
The giant man gasped in pain, relinquishing his hold just long enough to allow Batman to breathe again. Quickly, he gathered air in his aching lungs as his right fist connected solidly with the Shark's jaw. The Dark Knight pushed the Shark from him, sending the criminal crashing on his back to the floor, then leaped onto his enormous torso.
The tables are turned now, big man," he croaked angrily, sending blow after blow into the dazed man's face. The Shark struggled as the Penguin looked on in disbelief. But the events of the day had taken a horrible toll on Shark's awesome strength, and now he had none left with which to defend himself from Batman's savage attack.
The Penguin hadn't noticed until it was too late that Catwoman had slipped beside him. She was now able to take control of the little crime boss, if she had to. But she could see the Penguin's body sagging. The day had taken its toll on him as well.
Blow after blow continued to rain down on the Shark from the fists of Batman.
"Stop it, Batman! Please, you'll kill him!" a worried Catwoman said.
The pleading female voice cut through the red haze of anger that filled Batman's vision and thoughts, bringing him back to reality. He gazed down at the Shark's bloated, bleeding face and the ugly black and purple bruises that were already beginning to form there as a result of his countless blows.
"Batman!"
He turned to face the speaker as he rose, his arms hanging like lead weights at his side.
God, I'm tired.
"It's all right, Catwoman," he said softly to the woman by the door. "He's not dead."
Batman propped himself up against the wall, his right hand massaging his throbbing shoulder. It was all over now. Soon he would be able to get all the rest he wanted.
In the distance, he heard the whine of approaching sirens.
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It was a greatly invigorated Bruce Wayne who awoke the next day after almost eighteen hours of beautiful, uninterrupted sleep. He stood under a hot shower for a long time, letting the hot water wash away the last ache from his body, then put on his bathrobe and a sling for his still painful shoulder and sat down with a glass of chocolate milk to catch the evening news on television.
The television screen lit up, showing videotaped highlights from last night's police raid on Two-Face's warehouse hideout. Police were loading the two dozen hired guns from both mobs into separate paddy wagons.
"... arrested the members of the city's infamous Penguin and Two-Face gangs. Police believe that both criminal organizations have been completely wiped out, thanks to these arrests."
The scene on the television screen changed, showing three officers leading a handcuffed Penguin to a waiting patrol car. Reporters were shoving microphones into the little man's face, shouting questions at him, but the Black Bird of Prey said nothing, did not even take his hooded eyes from the ground under his feet as he docilely allowed the police to lead him to the car.
"Also arrested," the voice-over commentary continued, "was the so-called Penguin himself, Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot, leader of one of the routed gangs. Gotham County District Attorney David Reed said he was seeking charges of attempted murder in the first degree against the crime boss for trying to slay his rival, former District Attorney Harvey Dent, now known as Two-Face."
The tape shifted again to Dent's study, where two paramedics were carrying a stretcher from the entrance to the tunnel. "Dent was reportedly seriously injured by the Penguin and his hired hitman in a showdown in Two-Face's hideout."
Dan Foster and woman, who Bruce assumed was the man's wife, stood before the blazing lights of a press conference with their daughter between them. Foster was saying, "... of course, I am withdrawing from the mayoral primary now that my daughter has been safely returned to me." The veteran newsman looked into the television camera, his expression tired but smiling. "And I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the people responsible for saving her from the Penguin's clutches, ladies and gentlemen, Batman, if you and Catwoman are listening, I'd like you to know that the two of you have my family's deepest gratitude for what you've done for us. Thank you both, and God bless you."
The scene shifted back to the studio and anchorman Russ Majors. "Gotham District Attorney David Reed said his office was investigating the possibility of bringing charges of kidnapping and extortion, as well as the attempted murder charges, against the captured Penguin."
Bruce Wayne smiled in satisfaction and reached for the remote to shut off his set when a picture of Edmond Hamilton flashed on screen behind Majors. "And in a somewhat related story, with Dan Foster dropping out of the election, it looks as if Mayor Edmond Hamilton will be able to win in the upcoming primary election. When asked what he thought of Foster bowing out of the race, the mayor was quoted as saying 'You can't get good competition these days,' unquote. Nobody's quite sure what the mayor meant by that."
Bruce laughed as shut off the television.
Hamilton, you old crow!
The bedroom door opened. "My, my, my, you're laughing!" Selina Kyle observed with great interest.
"I just found something that the mayor said to be amusing," he replied.
"Strange, I don't find that man amusing whatsoever. He's a sourpuss as far as I'm concerned."
"Did you see the thanks we received from Foster?"
"Yes, I told him to make sure the press spelled my name right. That's C ... A ... T ..."
"I hope professional journalists can get that much right."
"Oh, now you're making jokes? Are you sure that Penguin's big gorilla didn't knock you in the head a little too hard?"
"He threw me out of thirty-story window and nearly choked the life out of me. I don't remember being knocked in the head."
"How's the arm, lover?"
"It hurts."
"You know with your arm in that sling, when we make ..."
"Selina! Don't go there now! I can't concentrate on that and the pain at the same time."
Pushing herself against him. Selina kissed him hard on the mouth. "Oh, you're Batman! You can do anything."
-- Finis --