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Chapter 5: Pulling the Trigger

Falcone Penthouse, Gotham City - 10:45 PM

Among Gotham's tallest buildings sat one that was rivaled only by Wayne Tower in sheer size and dominating presence, the Falcone Penthouse. The penthouse was one of the many residences owned by Anthony Falcone, the grandson of Carmine Falcone. It was where Falcone ran his illegal operations, under the guise of a company known as Falcone Imports.

On the balcony near the top floor, one of the many men who worked under the Falcone Crime Family was standing for a cigarette break. He took the cigarette out of his mouth and blew out some smoke before looking over the edge. In a split second, all he saw was the white eyes of the Batman staring up at him, before he was grabbed and thrown over the edge to his death.

Batman climbed over the edge of the balcony and walked into the penthouse with no attempt at sneaking around. He headed towards the staircase leading up to Falcone's main office but was stopped by the sound of one of Falcone's men to the left of him.

"HEY! What the hell are you doing in here?" he asked, holding his pistol aimed at Batman.

Batman grabbed a Batarang off of his belt and tossed it at the hand the goon held his pistol with, puncturing it. The goon fell to his knees, screaming in pain. Batman continued his path to the staircase and ascended it, where four of Falcone's men were standing at the top, conversing. The four stopped once they saw the Batman approach. One of them uneasily placed a finger to his ear.

"Uh…boss? I think…I think the Bat is here to see you," the goon said, voice dripping with fear.

On the inside of the office, Anthony Falcone sat at his desk, watching the security footage of what was happening outside on his computer. He adjusted the collar of his black suit and chuckled.

"I can see that. Get rid of him."

The goons descended the staircase at a slow pace, at first. Once they moved in closer, one of them moved in to throw a punch at Batman, which he blocked and responded with a right hook, sending the goon off to the side. Two of them drew knives and attempted to slash at Batman, but he brought his arms up to block. The knives clashed against the armored gauntlets, which allowed Batman to quickly respond. He fired a hard kick at the goons leg to the left of him, followed by a backhand punch to the one to the right. He fired a headbutt to the goon on his left before ducking under a left hook from the other goon. He grabbed the goon by the face and slammed the back of his head onto the railing.

Behind him, the second goon wrapped his arm under Batman's neck and attempted to pull him into a chokehold. Batman jerked his head back for a reverse headbutt, causing the goon to release the hold and turn away from Batman, holding his nose. With this opening, Batman charged at him and jumped through the air to grab the goon by the back of his head and slam him face-first into the railing. Of Falcone's goons, only one remained at the head of the stairs, completely petrified by what he had just seen. With no other option, he drew a pistol and aimed it at Batman with an evident shaky aim. Batman simply stared at him, his eyes doing all of the talking.

In a quick motion, Batman pulled his grappling gun from his belt and shot a line around the goon's arm. Before the goon could even think to pull the trigger, an electric current was sent through the line, shocking him. Batman walked up to the goon, who fell to his knees as the electric current continued to affect his body. He retracted the line back into the grappling gun and launched a roundhouse kick right to the side of the goon's head to knock him unconscious.

With Falcone's men down, Batman ascended the stairs once again. Upon reaching the door to his office, the door swung open right into Batman's face. Before he could recover, he was kicked square in the chest and sent tumbling down the stairs.

Standing at the top of the stairs was a large, muscle-bound bald man in a black tank top and dress pants. The man stood at about 7 feet tall, completely dwarfing Batman.

At the bottom of the stands, Batman pulled himself to his feet, placing a hand on his back. He looked up at the hulking figure with challenging eyes. He slowly made his way up the stairs, holding his fists up in a combative stance. Upon closing the distance, Batman threw a punch right at the man's chest, which appeared to do nothing. He followed up with two quick strikes to the face and a push kick to the chest, neither of which did any visible damage. The futile nature of the kick caused Batman to briefly lose his balance, only for him to be pulled forward by the large goon by the throat. Using his strength, the goon tightened his grip around Batman's throat and lifted him a few inches off of the ground. Now being left completely wide open, a hard gut punch was thrown, causing Batman to drop onto the stairs face first, holding his stomach in pain.

It had been a while since Damian found himself face down, with any amount of pain coursing through his body. In his time as Batman, he'd had yet to face any considerable physical threat. This guy may not have been a Solomon Grundy or a Bane, but he still hit like a brick.

Once the goon closed in to finish the job, Batman threw a hard punch to the side of his leg, just below the knee. The large man let out a grunt but found himself unable to recover in time to block the uppercut and left hook that came his way. Batman launched a roundhouse kick at the side of his head, however, it didn't connect.

In fact, the goon had caught Batman's leg and shoved him towards the railing, taking the vigilante off of his feet as he fell back. He connected with the iron railing and slid down onto his side. With little to no time to recover, the goon grabbed Batman by the shoulders, hoisted him up, and tossed him into the opposite railing with even more force than before. For whatever reason, out of all of Falcone's men, this one was smarter than most. Others may have taken their time to revel in manhandling the Dark Knight, but not this one. Like a predator in the wild, he stayed on his prey.

He grabbed Batman by his coat and forced him up to his feet, preparing to do more damage. Before he could make another move, Batman elbowed him in the gut, causing the goon to release his hold on the coat.

Batman took a beat to think of his next move.

Once he had decided on a way to slow down the larger man, he took a step forward and launched a kick right between the legs. The goon let out a sharp grunt and doubled over, placing both hands on his ground. Batman brought a knee up to the goon's face, and would swiftly jump off of the railing to throw a leaping kick to the side of the head. The kick connected flush, causing the goon to tumble down the stairs face first.

It was a rarity for Batman to find himself winded, but that's exactly what he was at that moment. Whoever that goon actually was, he needed a raise…and likely a concussion test. Batman continued up the stairs until he was in front of the door, which he would aggressively kick open.

Anthony Falcone, called Tony only by his friends, turned around in his chair to face the now open door. He let out a small chuckle and raised a glass of liquor in the air towards Batman. One would expect him to be concerned, but he didn't appear to be in the slightest.

"That was a good show you put on there Bat-Freak," Tony leaned his head back as he downed the remainder of his drink. He placed the now empty glass on his desk and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "Have you thought about fighting as a pro? You got the moves, you got the skills. You'd be one hell of a uh…middleweight, I'm guessing?"

Batman kept his eyes narrowed on Falcone the entire time he closed in on his desk. It was safe to say that he hated Falcone even more than he did Maroni, and if he had his way, the Trigger would've had his head removed from his shoulders years ago.

"Dr. Matthew Thorne, what do you know of his death?" he asked, cutting right to the chase.

Tony raised an eyebrow at the question. "I know what they've said on the news."

"Did you have something to do with it?" Batman asked, coming to a stop in front of Falcone's desk. He stared at the mobster with the same cold eyes he had on Maroni.

Tony blinked once. A few seconds of silence passed between the two of them.

"What did you just ask me?" Tony replied, tilting his head to the side with a puzzled expression on his face.

"Did you have something to do with it? Batman asked once again, this time adding an extra amount of anger to his voice. It wasn't just for an intimidating effect, he legitimately became irate.

"So I'm not hearing you wrong, or it's not just because of you talking so damn low—you really asked me that," Tony said, scoffing. "Are you outta ya damn mind?"

In one swift motion, Batman placed his hand on the side of the desk and tossed it to the side. The table crashed into the wall and fell over onto its side. Despite being completely human, sometimes it was easy to forget just how strong he was, having pushed himself to his absolute physical limits.

"What I am, is losing my patience. I want answers, and nothing less. Did you have Matthew Thorne killed?" Batman asked more directly.

Falcone held his hands up in defense, at first. The initial throwing of the desk appeared to frighten him on some level. Once he seemed to fully grasp what had just been asked, a look of offense formed over his face. "Did I have—are you kidding me? What kind of question is that? Tell me Bat-Freak, what do I get out of killing a damn surgeon?"

Damian could tell from the look on Falcone's face, and the lack of subtle motions he learned were congruent to that of a liar, that the mobster was likely telling the truth. Regardless, he had to press him further to make sure.

"Thorne worked closely with Maroni. Whenever his men needed medical attention, Thorne was there. Perhaps you're looking to take Maroni out of the game, get all of Gotham to yourself instead of sharing it with him. Taking out Thorne would be the first step in messing with Maroni's structure. Instead of getting your hands dirty, you paid an assassin to do so," Batman responded. "That's what Maroni appears to believe, anyway."

Falcone raised both of his eyebrows this time. He tilted his head to the side and chuckled. "Is that what he told you? Well shit…I always said Maroni was a dumb son of a bitch but…no, no buts…he is. Little does he know, Thorne patches up my guys too. Hell," he paused and placed a hand to his chest underneath his jacket. "Matty saved my life…when I got shot right here. To get rid of him would hurt me too. Hell, attacking Maroni in any way would do more damage than good. You think I want a gang war? That type of shit is costly. Besides…if I want somebody out of the picture, the police ain't finding a body."

He hated to admit it, but everything Falcone said made logical sense to Damian. There was no falter in his facial features either; not even a single drop of sweat. This left Damian in a puzzling position. Neither crime boss had reason to take out Thorne. There had to be something missing. There had to be something he wasn't seeing.

Suddenly, Damian's mind honed in on the latter part of Falcone's comment. There was no longer a body at the crime scene, but that didn't mean there wasn't something left to uncover. Batman turned around sharply and marched towards the door with determination in every step.

"What, that's it? You're just gonna leave now?" Falcone questioned.

"I have all the information I need. You didn't do it," Batman responded without looking back.

Falcone squinted at the response. "And how do you figure that?"

Batman came to a stop in the doorway. He turned his head just enough to look over his shoulder at Falcone. "I know a liar when I see one. You weren't lying, not about that." He paused before continuing. "Don't misconstrue this in any way. When the time comes, you and Maroni both will be gone from this city by my doing. Nothing will ever change that."

Batman walked through the doorway, leaving Falcone alone to focus on his words. Tony stared at the doorway with a scowl etched onto his face. He grumbled and turned his attention towards his overturned desk and the papers that were on the floor because of it. Kneeling down, he picked a few of them up and began the process of sorting them out. The bulk of it was contracts and statements regarding Falcone Imports; the kind of paperwork he normally left to his secretary, if he still had one.

One of the papers however, was not like the others. Tony furrowed his eyebrows in confusion at the piece of paper in his hands, which had a picture pasted onto it. The picture in question was from a high angle and showed the Burnley Freight Yards located in the Burnley district. Below the picture were the words "SHHHHH" painted in red.


Thorne Family Clinic, Coventry District - 11:10 PM

Batman approached the office once belonging to Matthew Thorne. The location was no longer taped off with yellow crime scene tape, meaning that all possible evidence had been collected.

All that was possible for the police anyway.

"Julia, I'm at Dr. Thorne's office. Are you recording?"

"Yes yes, of course. I'm watching everything," the voice of Julia Pennyworth came through the built-in communicator in his cowl.

Back at the Batcave under Wayne Manor, Julia sat at the Bat Computer with a cup of coffee in hand. On the screen was a first person point of view of what Damian was seeing through his eyes.

"What exactly do you hope to find here?" she asked.

"Anything that can point me in a direction. Falcone and Maroni are clear, so the shooter likely acted on his own," he responded while moving further into the clinic. He stepped into Thorne's office, which had the door still wide open, and gazed around. "Activate forensic mode."

The contacts in Damian's eyes glowed a bright blue. From his point of view, the entire world became covered in the blue hue as a result. He took a few steps around the office, training his eyesight on every little thing he could.

"I'm not quite sure there's much left to find after the police have been through this place," Julia remarked.

"There's always something they miss, or something they…" he trailed off for a moment as his eyes focused on the chair that Thorne had been sitting in when he was killed. In the chair was a single bullet hole.

"Something they…what?" Julia asked.

Batman stared at the bullet hole for a few seconds, and would slowly turn his head to look towards the door. He was thinking of the trajectory of the bullet when compared to Thorne having been in a seated position. He turned his head back to the bullet hole and moved a bit closer.

"Activate the ballistic scanner," he directed.

Julia took a sip from her cup, placed it down and turned a nob near the top of the keyboard. In Batman's vision, a scanner would pop up in his contacts and focus on the hole. The scanner evaluated the size of the hole and matched it with the several known rounds stored in the Bat Computer's database. In the lower left corner of Batman's left contact, an image of a .45 ACP cartridge appeared.

"Hm…so we're looking for a handgun using the most popular cartridge for it. Lovely," Julia said in a sarcastic tone.

"Won't be hard for us, we'll have it done in twice the time ballistics at GCPD can manage," Batman responded.

"Have what done?" a feminine voice asked from behind Batman.

The Caped Crusader froze in place. With the effect his contact had on his eyes it was hard to tell just from looking at him, but his eyes had widened. He recognized the voice without a shadow of a doubt. It was a voice belonging to a woman he'd been actively avoiding, and yet here she was.

"...Deactivate forensic mode."

The blue coloring in the contacts dissipated; now allowing for Damian's normal eyes to be visible. After taking time to adjust to what was to come, he turned around to face the woman behind him.

Leaning against the doorframe was a woman shorter than Damian, dressed in a tactical Bat-Suit with a mixture of dark purple, black and yellow. The bulk of her chest piece was purple, while the bat insignia at the center was yellow. It was much more armored than Damian's suit, but of course when one was unable to die, who needed armor? Her cape was black with yellow trimming on the inside, and her cowl was quite similar to Damian's, except it allowed for a bit of her blonde hair to fall out the back.

"Melanie…" he said, with no attempt at hiding the disappointment in his voice.

She scoffed and pushed off of the door frame with a bit of a smirk on her face.

"We're in the field. You could at least refer to me as Batwoman."


Burnley Freight Yards, Burnley District - 11:10 PM

The Burnley Freight Yards were the primary freight yards in Gotham; a chief location for importing and exporting material from the city. As such, it had long come under the corrupt control of the aligning Falcone and Maroni crime families. A few men working for Falcone were in the process of moving boxes from shipping containers and into a truck.

"So what's exactly in these things again?" one of them asked as another helped him with lifting it.

"We don't get paid to ask questions, we get paid to move Trigger's stuff," he replied with a tired sigh.

The two placed the box into the truck and pushed it further towards the back. The truck had already been filled with about 8 boxes to that point.

"Look I'm just making conversation, you don't have to be an asshole about it."

"This ain't the time to be making conversation, we're on a strict timeline," the other man said with a scowl. He wiped his hands on his pants and nodded towards the shipping container, which had two boxes left.

Another one of Falcone's men passed by the two with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. "You're doing good, boys—just fine. Keep it up."

"Oh screw you Jackson," the first replied as he bent down to pick up the box with the second man's help.

Jackson took a turn to the left and walked down a walkway between two shipping containers. With his head down, he furiously attempted to get his lighter to work. Much to his annoyance, he could only manage to get a few sparks.

"Come on! Don't go out on me now-"

He came to a stop once he finally managed to flick on a small flame from the lighter. Jackson smiled in success, and would light the cigarette. Upon looking up again, he saw a figure in a brown trench coat standing about 10 feet away. Jackson narrowed his eyes, to which he then was able to see the distinguishing feature of a man with bandages wrapped around his head.

"...Who the hell are you?" he asked in both confusion and assertion.

The bandaged man took out two pistols and fired one shot from each at Jackson. One tore through his left shoulder, and the second hit him in the right side of his stomach. Jackson fell to the ground, clutching his stomach wound at first.

The gunshots caused the two men carrying one of the boxes into the truck to pause and look up.

"You heard that?"

"They were gunshots you idiot, of course I heard it," the second retorted.

"Sounds like it came over from where Jackson went. Oh crap…what if the Bat's here?" the other said with a shakiness to his voice.

The two dropped the box and walked to the direction in which Jackson had previously gone.

"If it's him…you got a gun on you?"

"No I don't have a gun on me, I didn't know it was gonna be that type of night!"

The second Falcone goon sighed and shook his head in disappointment.

"You're real useless you know that-"

He cut himself off and stopped in place, as did the other man at the sight before them. Jackson was crawling on his stomach, with one hand to his stomach and the other being used to claw further onto the ground. His body came out about halfway past a shipping container, and he would stop once he saw the two.

"You gotta help me…you gotta-"

Before he could continue, a gunshot to the head silenced him. The two Falcone goons stared at Jackson in horror.

"Oh screw this!"

The first goon turned around and ran back the way they came from with no hesitation whatsoever. The second looked back at him with anger in his eyes.

"Where the hell are you going?!" he shouted. He took his gun out from behind him and gestured back towards Jackson's body. "You can't just leave me with whoever did this!"

He turned around, only to come face to face with the bandaged man.

Another gunshot rang out, causing the running goon to wince. He quickly hopped into the truck, shut the door and went to place the keys into the ignition…only to realize that he didn't have them.

Frantically, he looked around the inside of the truck; checking the dashboard, the floor and in between the seats. He looked up at the dashboard one more time, and caught sight of the bandaged man standing in front of the truck. The man held the keys up in one hand, and a pistol in the other.

"Oh God…"

The bandaged man fired six shots into the windshield; with one impacting the goon in the head while the rest of the bullets varied in their impact points. He let out a relaxed sigh and slowly lowered his gun to the ground. The gun itself was a heavily modified M1911 pistol with a tactical light, painted silver and red. Engraved on the pistol's slide was a red bat insignia.


Next Chapter 6: Family Matters

A/N: She's been name-dropped and teased a few times here and there, and now we finally get to see Melanie, the current Batwoman. What's the tension between her and Damian? We'll definitely dive into that with the next chapter, as well what that red bat insignia means.