BATMAN RETURNS
Within a flash, all the power to the building is cut, and pitch-black darkness consumes all the inside of the building.
As if the shadows have come to life themselves, Terry moves his right hand with a blur of motion and grabs the hilt of the gun, pressing his index finger between the cartridge of the bullet and the hammer from connecting, preventing the murder of an innocent security guard.
With his left, he delivers a knockout blow to the jaw of the first shooters.
Instantly the other thugs panic and begin to open fire upon Terry. Only to be in total disbelief, as the bullets have no effect.
They know that the energy weapons of today don't have the actual power enough to kill someone. But these old banned weapons are well known to have been built for only one thing. And that's to kill.
But to the horror of these criminals and the shock and awe of the security guard, this dark figure isn't falling. But instead, the dark shape has closed the distance and is now brutalizing those responsible for this crime.
The creature, moving like a beast within its element, moving around as it goes from man to man, breaking their bodies.
The sound of bones snapping and joints bending in ways they were never meant to.
One man is shot with a grappling hook through his shoulder, pulled through the air towards the black silhouette, and a right hook is connected to the criminal, shattering and dislocating his jaw.
A single bullet hits Terry's head, bouncing off the cowl.
Slowly, He turns his head, looking at the last man standing, holding a now empty gun that had fired his last bullet.
In a mad rage, Terry moves like a strong blast of wind, closing the distance between him and the thug.
Before even knowing what had transpired between the two of them, the criminal is already being held up by his neck and slammed down with brute force, almost knocking the man unconscious.
"What were you doing here?"
Terry speaks to the man in a deep brooding voice. Only to hear fear escape in a single question.
"What are you?"
Terry narrows his eyes, lifting this man with one arm by the neck, and speaks his answer.
"I'm Batman."
Batman brings the now mentally traumatized man close to himself, face to face with this man. He speaks to him in a whisper so the security guard can't even hear.
"If you don't tell me what you are doing here, I'm going to make sure that you'll never walk again."
The thugs' eyes begin to tear up in fear as he tries to speak an answer, only to have a high pitch squeak escape his mouth.
Fear.
Enrages that he's not getting the answer he's looking for, Terry slams the man against one of the supporting pillars and grabs the man's face with his free hand.
"Last chance. I'm ready to start taking parts of your body out if you don't cooperate. Either tell me what I want to know, or you're going to lose an eye. Tell me what you're doing here, or you can tell me which eyeball you would rather keep."
The man gasps at the seriousness of this situation.
When he had accepted this job in its birthing stages when he was recruited three months in the inception of this plan had been made, never in his life did he think that...
This... thing standing before him... would be the penalty for his actions.
Now the only way out of this in once peace... is surrendering himself to this dark and murderous rageful beast. To live another day... or rather... walk another day, he must give up all that they wanted within this place.
"Blackmail... it's all about getting blackmail on the private investors in the men who run this city. This building holds the private data of the financial interests of some of the richest men in this city. This place has blackmail, and we got hired by someone to come in here, destroy the data and bring back the hard copies to someone."
Financial dealings? All of the richest men in the city? They might have data even on Mr. Wayne. No matter how unlikely the situation is, knowing that Bruce is as clean as anyone can be. But that doesn't stop the impossible that something might be there that can hurt innocent people.
No matter what, he's going to have to dig into this much more profound. Someone that makes this type of effort, it's well known as a fact that whoever they are. They will try this again or try something else soon if he doesn't stop them.
"WHO HIRED YOU? What do they want with the hard copies?"
Closing his eyes in fear, no longer in control of his tears, he cries out in consumed horror.
"I don't know, I DON"T KNOW ANYTHING, THAT'S ALL I KNOW."
With a single brute force right hook, Batman renders the man unconscious.
He turns to the security guard and speaks to him.
"Call the police. Tell them what's happening here. I'm going to clear out the rest of the building. Find a safe place to hide and keep quiet until the lights come back on."
The security officer nods as his eyes are locked on the silhouette. He manages to speak a single question.
"Are... are you really, th- the Batman?"
Terry comes closer to the security guard and offers him his hand; the guard takes Batmans' hand as he helps him up to his feet and reads the man's name tag.
"Call the situation into the police and tell them everything, Security officer Kinderlyte."
Once the officer looks down to his side and pulls out his cell phone, no more than a few seconds pass, he looks back up and looks back to only discover that the Batman is gone.
"How in the?"
Scrutinizing around, he's baffled and confused, and he realizes that those stories about him vanishing into thin air are accurate. Everything, all those stories from the past, could it all be real? Is he able to fly? Bullets do not affect him, and he's just some strange, shadow figure of the night that only appears to feed on the fear of evil.
The dark and vengeful creature is fueled by rage against evil.
A silent protector that awakens when he's needed.
The dark knight.