Hi, everyone. I'm just letting our viewers know that this chapter will be heavily inspired by the scene in Batman Begins when the Dark Knight busts one of Carmine Falcone's drug smuggling operations, so unlike my fanfiction on Superman's origin, this hero's first night on the town may be a tad darker than usual. Please let me know if I was too dark here. If not, enjoy!


Chapter 5: I Am the Night

GOTHAM HARBOR
MAY 7, 21:00 EDT

It was an unexpectedly cold night for the month of May, but it was not a problem for Detective Arnold Flass. He was glad to be working for Commissioner Loeb if it meant getting the extra pay for running the drug traffic in Gotham in return for his efforts to keep Loeb's affiliation with Carmine Falcone a secret. Plus, working in the narcotics department of Gotham City P.D. meant that he could confirm the goods with Commissioner Loeb and still smuggle them into Gotham.

Tonight, Flass was at Gotham Harbor with instructions from Loeb to meet with smugglers of Falcone's crime ring and get illegal substances into the city through means of the most devious in nature. He drove his police car to the docks with the lights on but the sirens off, and once he reached a dock where a single ship was being unloaded, the corrupt cop immediately approached the masked men who were prying open wooden crates with crowbars in a typical fashion. When they saw Flass approaching, one of the men aimed a Tommy gun at his chest.

"Not another step, copper!" the thug snapped.

"Easy there, Bruiser. It's me."

"Flass? Well, I'm glad it's just you and not your little partner."

"I know, right? Little Jimmy Gordon's been a bleeding-heart punk wanting to kick crime to the curb ever since his first wife left Gotham eight years ago," sneered Flass. "Well, let him look to his own affairs. Are those the drugs Falcone wants sold?"

"You bet, Flass," said a bigger thug. "And we're gonna get 'em past the cops like so."

The brute took an object from the crates and held it up for Flass to see. The crooked cop smirked and said, "You're gonna get it past the cops using stuffed bears?"

"That's right," said a third smuggler who had a number of teeth missing in his smile. "And we're gonna get 'em sold through every toy store in Gotham and Falcone will rake in millions. Nobody'll testify against him or they will answer to him."

Arnold Flass then asked curiously, "And if any children are affected by this operation?"

"Just more medical bills to run up Gotham's debt to the Roman, and all the mommies and daddies will be begging for the Roman's help," answered a heavyset goon who was holding a sledgehammer. "And he'll make 'em pay more if they want protection from it happening again."

The curiosity turned to a smirk on Flass's face and he said, "If it's more money we're bringing in for this job, I'll report to Loeb and see that the goods get through."

As part of the plan, Flass offered a handful of bills to the goons and then filled an evidence bag with several of the toys that had been stuffed with Falcone's illegal substances. Slinging it over his shoulder, he went to help Falcone's goons lift the boxes filled with the substance-packed toys into the delivery trucks that had been parked there. But as the criminals worked, they had no idea that tonight, they would face a force of justice far more frightening than any judge.

As two of Falcone's goons were walking among the shipping crates, ready to shoot any unsuspecting soul who stumbled upon their operation, the taller of the two seemed to disappear. The shorter goon looked around for his companion, saying, "Uh… Chucky?"

A split second later, he too was gone. This attracted the attention of Bruiser and the bigger thug Rhino, who primed their Tommy guns and went over to the shipping crates to find who or what had appeared there. They looked around and saw nothing and were about to resume their illegal operation when something shot out of the air and took out each streetlight that illuminated the pier. Hearing a metallic clang, Rhino looked around when he saw something curious on the ground. It was some kind of throwing star, but it wasn't shaped like a star. It was shaped like a bat in flight.

A sudden whistle of wind made him whirl around with his firearm ready, but when he turned around, Bruiser was gone. At the delivery truck, Carmine Falcone's goons could see that their group members seemed to be disappearing each time they wandered into the aisles between cargo boxes.

"Come out, you guys! We know you're in here!" shouted one mugger.

"Dan, I don't think we should look here," shuddered another.

Suddenly, another thug shouted in panic. Bruiser and Rhino had been beaten until their faces were bruised and were tied to the ceiling with some kind of dark rope, while Chucky and Buzz were tied hand and foot with steel cables that bore the same metallic bat symbol on the grapples. Then another of the thugs felt himself being pulled into a dark space between two supply boxes and disappeared with a yelp of fear. The other four thugs ran for the delivery truck in a desperate attempt to escape, firing their Tommy guns behind them recklessly. It did them no good: whatever it was, the thing that was after them seemed to jump out of the shadows, grabbing one criminal and then another, moving so quickly that one would have a hard time seeing where it was coming from.

"It's a ghost!"

"It's a shadow man!

"I don't care what it is! Just… AAAAUUUUGGGGHHHH!"

Arnold Flass didn't even bother firing his handgun. He ran for his police car with the drug-stuffed toys in his bag. He was going to get the merchandise to Mr. Falcone and then make a good thousand bucks once the hospital bills in Gotham skyrocketed. But the minute he locked the door and had the engine turned on, a great black hand punched through the window and dragged Flass out of his seat.

When the clouds began to part, Flass saw a nightmarish apparition towering over him in the moonlight. A powerfully muscled man, clad all in gray, was standing before him with his arms held rigidly at his sides. The crooked policeman tried to run and take the illegal substances with him, but the shadowy man leapt at him and pinned him to the ground. In the brief seconds the figure was in the air, Flass nearly wet himself when he saw that the figure's arms were not merely muscular arms. They were like wings; great, black wings like a huge bat.

Flass was knocked to the ground when four sharp, rapidly spinning objects clouted him in the back. He didn't have time to see what they were, for the bat-like man who had taken down his criminal companions had his loaded bag in hand.

"H-hey! That's for Mr. Falcone!" spluttered Flass. "I-I need that to get my pay!"

The bat-man merely took a glass vial from somewhere within his shadowy form and poured what looked like a drop of oil onto the ground. Then before the conniving Arnold Flass could say anything, the bat-man held the bag over the oil and then tossed something onto the ground. Instantly, the oil burst into flame and burned the bag, the stuffed bear, and Falcone's drugs into ashes.

Flass could only stare in horror at this bat-like being, who stared back with blank, white eyes that turned his blood to ice in his veins. Then before he knew what was happening, the bat-man had Flass by the throat and pinned him to the door of his police car. Flass tried to break free, but the bat-man's grip on his throat was like a vise of iron.

"Where is Loeb?!" the mysterious being said in a deep voice that was nearly a snarl.

"Leave me alone!" Flass panicked. "Let me go, you freak! I'll never…"

The bat-man only slammed the corrupt cop once against his car door and spat, "You want me gone?! Then answer me! And I've got all night, so don't bother pleading!"

It was just as well the other goons were not able to see him now because Flass was nearly sobbing in fear. He managed to mutter, "Can't… tell… Do you know what he'll do to me if I tell? Do you know what Falcone will do to me?"

The shadowy form drew back his right arm like he was going to stab Flass with his fingers and replied in a dangerous voice, "The question you should be asking is… DO YOU KNOW WHAT I'LL DO TO YOU IF YOU DON'T?!"

That was all it took.

"AAAAAHHH! All right! I'll talk! I'll talk already! He's at Falcone Mansion! Falcone's meeting with his associates over a dinner party tonight! This drug ring was gonna be the crowning jewel of his operations!"

The bat-man dropped Flass like a sack of potatoes and then bound him to a streetlight with the same cables he had used to tie up Chucky and Buzz. When the coward dared to look again, the horrible creature was gone, and he was left alone as the clouds shrouded the moon once more. His troubles were not over yet, though, as Captain James Gordon of Gotham P.D. had received an anonymous tip about Falcone's drug smuggling plan and was on his way at that moment.

...

Carmine Falcone had not received word from his gangsters down at the docks, but he wasn't too concerned about it. He would have the drugs he had smuggled into Gotham distributed, and then he would control the wealth of every average citizen of Gotham City. With enough lawyers to weasel him out of being incarcerated, he would be able to oust Hamilton with enough ballot box stuffing and make himself mayor of Gotham inside a year. But for tonight, he had a criminal empire to celebrate.

Falcone sat in his personal armchair with a glass of champagne in hand, watching his guests chat about the various ways their breaking the law was making them rich. Falcone's guests were all unscrupulous socialites, fellow gangsters, and even a handful of corrupt city officials. Among this unsavory crowd, the worst among them was Gillian Loeb, police commissioner of Gotham City. Loeb was a stocky, balding man who was famous among the mob for paying lackeys in the Gotham Police Department to let the mob continue to operate and for even sending officers under his sway to aid Falcone's mob while sending small squads of officers to handle the problems plaguing Gotham's streets.

Loeb came to speak with Falcone, who said, "Commissioner, I can't thank you enough for letting my boys off the hook. My business is more profitable than ever now that the cops aren't breathing down my neck every minute."

"Better to please the mob than to let the commoner scum walk all over me with complaints," Loeb smirked. "Besides, working with you is so profitable, I dunno why I even bothered to try locking you up. It's a racketeer's dream."

"And that's how it's gonna stay," added Falcone with a sneer.

However, none of them had any idea that their celebration of crime was about to come to a terrifying end. The power suddenly went out in Falcone's entire mansion and everyone in Falcone's living room looked around in confusion and unease. Falcone had his goons light the candles on the buffet table and pressed the security button on his armchair, but a chilling feeling told him that none of his goons were coming to help him. From the floors above, the gathered criminals heard screams of fright mingled with gunfire and heavy thumps.

Suddenly, there came a great pounding on the double doors of the living room. It came once, then twice, and then there came a small explosion that blew the doors open and sent the right door falling off its hinges. At the same time, the candles were blown out, and then a female socialite screamed in terror and pointed to the doorway. Standing there, nearly invisible in the utter darkness, was a bat-like figure staring at the crowd of lawbreakers with a glare of boiling wrath that would put a vampire to shame.

The bat-man pounced on Commissioner Loeb first and had him strung up by his ankles in seconds. He tossed metallic ropes at some of Falcone's goons and dragged the rest into the shadows kicking and screaming in horror while the other criminal guests ran from the room. Falcone was now sitting in his armchair with Commissioner Loeb, his best partner in crime, tied up and unconscious while his goons and mobsters were beaten into unconsciousness or too scared to talk. Now the bat-man turned his attention to Falcone himself and swept toward him like a winter wind.

"Help? Somebody?! HELP ME!" shrieked Falcone, who was now pressing the call button for his guards in a panic.

The bat-like man grabbed the crime boss by his collar and spoke in a chilling voice, "Your lap dogs are all out cold, Falcone. We need to talk."

He was shuddering and shivering with awful fear as he looked into the staring, white eyes of the bat-man, but Falcone managed to say, "P-p-please, l-leave me alone. Just let me go! I'll give you anything you want!"

The bat-man snarled, "What I want is for you to pay your multiple debts to society, Falcone!"

His voice became calm and chilling again and he said, "Your agents attempting to bring you illegal substances to sell discreetly have been found by me, and Loeb's doormat Flass is being visited by Captain Jim Gordon, who is one of the only officers of the law who isn't swayed by your lies. He practically led me to you, and by the time the good police of Gotham find you, I'll be gone."

Falcone had not noticed it, but the bat-man had tied him in his armchair with a metallic cable that was weighted down to the floor. He struggled and kicked, but the rope only seemed to tighten like a deadly snake each time he tried. Now all Falcone could do was watch as the mysterious bat-man seemed to melt into the shadows of the room until only his eyes could be seen.

"I will give you this one warning, Falcone," came the voice again. "You've chosen a magnificent way to waste your life, but it is a waste nonetheless. Put one innocent child in a hospital bed, one unarmed civilian under a gravestone, and you're mine."

The bat-man's eyes vanished in the gloom, leaving the unconscious mobsters and a very frightened and miserable Carmine Falcone strapped in his chair.


A/N: I hope the first appearance of Batman was enough to excite and chill you, my readers. Next chapter, news will reach Gotham of its mysterious protector and more developments in Gotham's benefit will follow. And don't you detective fans worry: the detective side of Batman comes a bit later in this fanfiction.