AUTHOR'S NOTE: As we're into the second chapter of this series I'm going to be expanding on the characters and base situation whilst hopefully addressing any unanswered questions from the first chapter. Any feedback is welcome through the reviews feature and by e-mail on sam@sgcharrison.freeserve.co.uk. Batman or any other DC trademarks that I have unwittingly infringed do not belong to me and I am only using them in a non-profit sense.
BATMAN: LEGACYPART TWO: DOMESTIC DISTURBANCE
It was only a small house really, little more than a bungalow that sat on a neglected back alley behind a monorail station in New Gotham. There were only six rooms in the house all told, four on the ground and two on the top floor. The goings on inside the house where a complete secret to the rest of the city as only about six people knew the place was there. The little house had only had two neighbours, one of which being the station which masked any noises coming from within, and an empty shop. Nobody on the station heard the cries and even if they had nobody would have cared, the slums of New Gotham were just one step up from the lawless No Man's Land of Old Gotham. The cries of pain stopped after a short time, the cries replaced by the sound of a woman sobbing. The back door of the house was flung open and slammed shut. A man stood in the snow of the cold New Gotham winter and lit a cigarette. It was snowing.
"You know what I can't understand boy?" the man's son was huddled with his arms wrapped around his knees in the corner of the small neglected garden, "why they can't use their fancy weather control to keep it warm all year round 'stead of making it cold."
"I don't know why either daddy," the boy said from the corner, he was only seven years old.
"That's because we're a lot alike boy, when you grow up I bet you're going to be just like me."
40 years later
"I would like to thank you all for voting me in as police commissioner, I like to think that I've served Gotham well during my time at central and for my first four years I vow to deliver on the promises I made during my campaign." The man at the podium paused in his speech for a moment to survey the large crowd assembled outside New Gotham's police station. "I promise an end to the days when a high crime rate plagued New Gotham and I also promise to expand the policing boundaries to take in all of New Gotham, even the sections that border Old Gotham."
A reporter from the crowd stood up and shouted out a question, "Ian Vance Gotham News. The viewers want to know what you're going to be doing about the recent upsurge in vigilante activity in the city?"
"I'm sorry but I'm not permitted to answer any questions on the Batman at this time," he said without showing the annoyance he felt, he began to get even more annoyed when the reporters all turned to leave, "I will however be addressing this problem in a press conference later in the week, when I have the Batman in custody."
Hands shot up and the commissioner resisted the urge to smile, "John Kane Gotham Times Online."
"I'm sorry, where did you say you were from?"
"Gotham Times Online, we're just starting up. So are you saying that you will arrest the Batman by the end of the week? That sounds awfully like one of those campaign promises you political types tend to forget about."
"You forget Mr. Kane, the campaign is over now. I promise that if the Batman is not in my cells at twelve midnight this Friday I will resign as commissioner of police in Gotham city." He paused again with a smile on his face as he looked for the face of the reporter in the crowd, but he couldn't see him, "Thank you ladies and gentlemen for your kind congratulations, I'll see you in the funny pages."
"This could be a problem Master John," David said as he watched the Batman get into his costume, "my previous masters all had a somewhat mythic status within the police department, but this new commissioner has already shut down the Bat-Signal and pledged to have you in jail by Friday."
"Don't worry David, I'll be paying commissioner James a visit tonight before I start my patrols," the Batman said before activating the suit's circuitry, when he spoke again it was with the digitally modified voice of the Batman. The Batman's voice was deep and rough, specifically modified so that it was always the same, even if the Batman himself was different.
"Sir, I have to admit to not showing you all of the technology at your disposal," David said as he pressed a small button on the main console, then a large circular platform in the middle of the cave tilted so that it was at an angle pointing up, then a tunnel opened up in the cave ceiling, "there is a vehicle built into the suit's system, formed in a similar way as the fabric of the costume. Its pretty simple to activate, just press down on that module on your control belt," David pointed to the module at the Batman's left hip.
The Batman moved to stand just behind the tilted take off platform and pressed down on the module. Suddenly the black symbiotic material of his suit began to change form into a long thin vehicle and a chair moulded itself under him and as the windscreen formed in front of him he saluted quickly to David, a smile of excitement hidden by his cowl.
He sat at his desk, tan coat hanging from the antique hat-stand in the corner next to the room. It was like a scene from a film noir, purposefully so as James had always felt an affinity with the put-upon detectives of the mid twentieth century. The only light source came from the computer built into his mahogany desk, it cast shadows all about the room and its reflection was cast in the lenses of his spectacles. James took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose at the point where the pads made contact, and then he let out a long slow breath.
"Long day commissioner?" a voice came from the shadows of the corner.
"Who's there?" James said loudly, putting his glasses on quickly and flicking his gaze around the room, "my God."
"Batman will suffice," the figure said and moved from the shadows, the Batman's cape was drawn completely around him and so it looked as though his cowl continued down to the ground. The Batman's cape hid every human feature from the neck down when in this particular position and at the bottom of the cape were lots of thin black tendrils that moved and weaved as though with minds of their own. The entire image was quite imposing and the commissioner was doing his best not to show the fearful thoughts that were slipping into his brain.
"All I have to do is shout and you'll have the entire Gotham police department on your back," the Batman nodded and James knew that the nod signalled that it wouldn't matter, "I'm kidding myself aren't I? You'd be gone before I'd even finished the word," another nod, "so why are you here?"
"We need to talk."
"We need to talk? I guess you saw my press conference," James replied.
"I was there."
"I didn't see you."
"I didn't want you to."
"So what do we need to talk about?" James said, changing topic, "you want to discuss the wallpaper in your cell?"
"You can catch me, but you won't be able to keep me."
"You want to bet on that?"
"You already have. The odds are not in your favour." James could swear he heard the Batman's voice change slightly but he put it to one side.
"Thanks, its nice to know you're concerned. I already made my bed, so I'll lie in it.'
"Make sure the bedbugs don't bite."
"Very funny, I was told the Batman didn't have a sense of humour."
"Urban legend," the Batman replied then turned away, "you're not going to catch me so stop trying, don't get in my way or I'll be forced to get in yours."
"Hey! Wait," James said as the Batman stepped towards the window, "you can't just say that sort of thing and then-" the Batman leapt from the window and his cape billowed out and away to reveal momentarily that there was a man's body under all that black. Suddenly the commissioner was hit in the face with what seemed to be a gust of air accompanied by the sound of hundreds of little bat wings flapping in unison and when James looked again there was no sign of the Batman, or that he had ever been there in the first place.
"This is going to be an interesting week," the commissioner said to himself as he stared out the window, he walked over to his desk and activating the intercom, "Tracy, could you get me the mayor's office please? Thank you."
The Batman had finished his patrol of New Gotham and was now taking the rooftop express through the decaying streets of Old Gotham. He was about to cross the main street of Old Gotham, using the collapsed Wayne-Powers Corporation building as a bridge. The building was one of the major reasons the city refused to rebuild Old Gotham, it was thirty or forty stories high and had fallen over onto the rest of the street in one of the air raids of the war. Now it was an improvised shelter for much of Old Gotham's homeless citizens, the hundreds of cubicle offices making good shelter as the small areas were easy to keep warm. The Batman had picked up some food from the back of a restaurant in New Gotham and now carried it under his left arm as he dropped into the building through a window. When he landed he switched his cowl lenses to night-vision, scouring the environment for signs of squatters.
He switched again to infrared and saw the heat signatures of a few huddled figures in a bigger office down the hall. He walked quite quickly yet still silently down the corridor and tapped on the door even though it was horizontal and it fell open, there were five people sat huddled around a small fire made from office paper warming themselves. They all turned round to see the Batman climb into the little room and their eyes opened wide. He held out the package of food to them but they didn't move.
"Its food," he said, "take it, I promise I won't hurt you."
"Are you? Him?" Batman nodded, "The Batman?"
"Yes," he replied and turned to leave.
"I don't know how to say-"
"No thanks required," he said as he stepped up to climb out of the door.
"Wait!" an older man in the group said and stood up, "I wanted to ask you something," the Batman turned back and nodded for him to continue, "our daughter's gone missing, she went out for a walk two days ago and she hasn't come back. I've got a picture," the man pulled a crumpled photograph from his coat pocket and the Batman took it, putting it into a hidden pocket in his utility belt.
"Don't worry, I'll find her," he said and walked up to the smashed window opposite the door and leapt through, his cape billowing behind him then whipping back to turn the Batman into an aerodynamic human missile as his thrusters fired off and launched him into the air and away from the building.
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Hope you liked this chapter all you stubborn readers, I only got a couple of reviews this time but quite a few e-mails (which are very welcome if you've got the urge to send along your criticism/ideas) so I decided to go easy on you lot this time and write a second chapter. I'm starting a third chapter and I will write it but I'm not posting it until the reviews on this story rise to AT LEAST six. I only say this because I once wrote a fifteen chapter story that took months only to find out I had about five readers. I figure if six people take the time to review then at least ten will have read it, as long as I've got at least ten readers then I'll happily finish the first story arc. I hope you've all enjoyed this so far and look forward to reading your reviews and e-mails.
By the way my website address is www.anotherworld.gq.nu
