I am a ghost. Drifting listlessly through the Gotham streets staring at what was my doom: Gotham Police Headquarters. I stare at my body and the other bodies lined up near mine. Ambulances pull in like a stampede of gazelles. One of them spots an unconscious Jim Gordon and they take him to Gotham Hospital. Just one of the few to survive. I feel emo just looking at it all that I try to stare away. The fire is what draws me, like some sorta proverbial television program.

Something draws me from the destruction to a different scene all together. I don't know what drew me, some larger hand in the grander scheme of things, but this grand hand had to show me a "conversation" between Batman and some guy. Wait, the name just came into my head, The Penny Plunderer. He's smiling at Batman and apparently has an ace in hand…as well as a switch. A remote detonator really…the one that destroyed Gotham Police Headquarters. I should feel angry here but all I can feel is indifference. So? I'm dead. It is not like Batman strangling the life out of the guy will make me miraculously come back with Captain Taylor, Elvis, and all those other poor worm ridden suckers. I watch.

"How do you know my name?" Batman says very lightly.

"You know that Giant Penny in your cave? The one you thought belonged to Two-Face for so long…you forgot that encounter we had? I had it to trap you and then you came in…"

"Cut to the chase."

"Well, let's just say, that penny had something so small you, the great omniscient Batman, would never notice. Just like the pennies I left at every crime scene. A camera."

"Why put a camera in it when you were trying to crush me with that coin?"

"Because I heard on the grapevine that you were collecting items from various crime scenes either it is Scarface or costumes of ex-partners…"

Batman tosses the Penny Plunderer onto his car like a ragdoll. He gets up laughing it off.

"Touched a nerve, huh? I wonder how you will react when I show you what I just did…"

He tosses the detonator to Batman and he examines it.

"What did you use this for?"

"Just find the nearest TV set."

Batman walks towards the nearest department store to see it all on the screen. Gotham Police Headquarters ablaze. The monitor speaks.

"It is not clear what caused these multiple explosions but word coming in says that hundreds of brave policemen are feared dead…"

Batman stares on in horror like I did with the last image I saw…the burning building falling on me.

"Wait, we are getting reports that Police Commissioner Gordon has been taken to St. Mary's Hospital. He is in critical condition…"

"Jim…"

The Penny Plunderer stares at the screen in distress. Apparently he did want Gordon dead.

"My work is not finished, not finished!"

Batman spins around in an intense rage I have never seen any mortal man consumed with. He lifts his fist only to be met with a dart in his neck. The Penny Plunderer runs off in hot pursuit.

I wish I could tell Batman to wake up but my apparition form denies me that. Batman takes something out of his utility belt to slow the tranquilizer. He gets up with a new resolve and runs in hot pursuit.

I am drawn away again to somewhere. A chaotic place where pandemonium reigns supreme: an emergency room. Jim Gordon is lying there while dozens of doctors arguing what is the best approach to his condition. They apply to him so many things to make sure he stays out and safe that I lose track in the chaos. I do not know at what time I came here but it seems so fast. But, then, in this orgy of misdirection I see a single glint of silver. A gun aimed by The Penny Plunderer. He appears to aim so he can avoid the doctors. I try to warn them all but realize my place in this great cauldron. I am only a spectator. He sees a clear opening but something comes from behind to tussle with him. A dark visage of vengeance smacks his face to the ground, knocking him out. He stands up and everyone turns to behold the sight of Batman.

"What were you trying to accomplish, Joe? What was your goal?"

"Don't you see, Batman! I am helping you!"

"Helping? You call killing innocent people helping!"

"None of them are innocent! They only hinder your crusade on crime. That's what they never realized. In the grand scheme of things, they are all worthless!"

"That's where you are wrong, Joe. The only worthless people of Gotham are the ones that cause harm to it. People like you. You are the dregs of Gotham."

The Penny Plunderer looks visibly shaken.

"You are right, Batman. I am worthless."

He reaches into his pocket to take out what appears to be a revolver but Batman doesn't do anything to stop him. He puts the gun to his temple.

"But at least I will know that when I'm dead."

CLICK! The Penny Plunderer stares at the barrel. CLICK! CLICK!

"IT'S NOT FAIR! IT'S NOT FAIR!"

He throws the gun aside like a child's worn out toy.

"You shot too many rounds today, Joe. That gun could not hold more over the ones you used. I knew you would not be able to do it even if you wanted desperately to. I can help you. You don't need to live like this."

"But that's what you will never understand, Batman. You can never cure us. We are terminal in madness."

A shot goes right through me and right into Batman's leg. He collapses. The Penny Plunderer scurries off as I see the shooter behind me: Harvey Bullock.

"Not another move, Bat freak. You are not going to harm the Commish tonight."

Batman spins around and grabs Bullock's gun. Bullock tries to maneuver but, even when shot in the leg, Batman still has the upper hand. He knocks Bullock down with a twist of his elbow and Bullock's nose bleeds like a geyser.

"You just let the man who put Gordon here go free, Bullock. And the man who killed over a hundred people at police headquarters. And the man who has been killing the rogues and the homeless. And the man who just made you the biggest fool in Gotham."

Bullock stares blankly towards the ground, knowing that in his blindness of hatred that he lost his eyes on what was really target. They are all blind there it seems. Each man consumed by their obsessions and by their unwillingness to see beyond them. I feel less tangible, I feel like I am floating away. Some greater hand is drawing me somewhere that I do not know. This is the end for me. Goodbye.