The Dark Knight Initiative
A/N: Hey guys, sorry about the long wait. I deeply apologize it took this long, aside from the day job I've come up with so many ideas for another fic and trying to finish this fic that I couldn't even begin typing this chapter. Not even watching some comic book movies like Deadpool, which was AWESOME! And watching trailers for upcoming movies, none of them helped me past my writer's block. That was until last month when I went on vacation that I finally got time and silence to actually get my thoughts together to finish this chapter.
Now, let's move on to the next chapter:
JumpingToaster – Yeah, I didn't like Arkham Knight either, the gameplay was cool, but there were no boss battles, none of Batman's villains showed themselves other than Joker who is already dead and spoilerJasonspoiler. Plus, the ending sucked.
spiderman1fan – We'll see.
Miss Singing in the Rain – Hey there, sorry I haven't updated sooner, now that I have after a long while I wanna let you know I like reviews like yours. They really help me keep the story concise, characters in character and motivate me to keep going with the story, even though sometimes it takes time between each chapter.
Superfan44 – Thanks! Though I must say it was hard to keep a balance between comic book style fight and realistic as possible. Thanks again for the review, if there's anything you think should be improved let me know.
vanderwall – We'll see if this story goes into AOU.
newboy – Wow, that was an awesome review, and you called it! Bane isn't the type of person to just brawl with the Avengers, he would manipulate them. Also, your review gave me some information and tidbits I could use for the story as well, thanks!
motharusha92 – I'm pretty sure I received the batglare several times over by this point, lol!
Sympathy4lucifer – Thank you so much!
AcelinWolf – I know it takes a while to update sometimes, but don't worry! I finally updated!
Disclaimer: I don't own either of these movies or franchises, if I did, or rather if anyone did, they wouldn't be putting it on the internet but rather make the crossover happen in reality right now. Lol
Ch6: Broken
After the battle with Batman…
As SHIELD agents were loading the unconscious bodies of Thor, Barton and Natasha unto the quinjets, Tony's armor finally came back on. Steve on the other hand, still had a firm look in his eyes, as if his battle with the Batman wasn't over yet.
"What's got you in a tizzy?" Tony asked.
"…Don't worry about it," Rogers replied.
"Suit yourself," Tony answers back as he flies upwards to the helicarrier, leaving the rest to take the quinjet back.
Once everyone is onboard Agent Hill addresses them to take a few hours to recover and straighten themselves out before debriefing.
Tony took himself to his cabin and slept rather easily, seemingly not bothered that much by the loss, though his subconscious says something different.
Rogers didn't sleep a wink, he decided to read up on the files SHIELD has on the Batman before they have to debrief.
A couple hours later, Barton wakes up rather groggily before he recovers and tries to lend a hand on Natasha's injuries. Natasha in turn woke up a few hours later, still having whiplash and a mild concussion, the medical team performed their best to make sure one of their top agents isn't compromised.
A few more hours later, Fury himself pays each of them a visit and tells them that debriefing will commence in a couple hours before coming into the infirmary to check up on Thor.
"How is he?" Nick asks the only other person in the room, Bruce Banner.
"He seems to be recovering quite well actually, his body has pretty much flushed out almost everything he got injected with."
"Will he be able to wake up in time for debriefing?"
"Fury, I don't think he know what debriefing means," Banner answers sardonically.
"Either way, if he wakes, bring him in the meeting room," Just like that, Fury walks out and waits for them.
A couple hours later
*Gaaaassspsss* Awaking violently from his slumber, Thor found his condition ill, his vision hazy, head aching, ears ringing and mouth dry. Struggling to his feet, the God of Thunder found himself in an infirmary, his surroundings completely dressed in a blinding white.
"Hey buddy…" A voice whispered nearby, catching his attention. Turning his head towards the source to find Banner sitting by his bedside, "You're up pretty quick. How are you feeling?"
"Give me a moment," Thor replies, taking a few minutes for his senses to adjust and clear, "What happened? Where are we?"
"Well for one, you guys lost. Second, you're on board the SHIELD Helicarier, Fury had you guys picked up after pretty much all of you were beaten."
"We were beaten by the Man of Bats?" Thor asked in surprise.
"Yup. Tony's suit got shut down, he's fine though, just a few scratches but mostly wounded pride. Natasha got beaten up then got knocked out with a misfire from Barton, who in turn was put to sleep with his own sleeping agent, while you…" Banner says with a slight smirk, "were injected with a chemical composite that would pretty much kill any human being from serious drug overdose."
"What does that mean?"
"It means that you were really, really high," Banner said with an amused look on his face.
"…I still don't understand…" Thor replies, not knowing what being high means.
"It means that it was very hard to synthesize an antidote for whatever he injected into you, especially considering we have no idea about the physiology of an Asgardian, so we waited and hoped for your own antibodies to fight back, and I must say, you shook that drug off in half a day."
"So, what do we do now?" The Thunder God asks, not even batting an eye about his overdose.
"Now? Now we have to answer to Fury," Banner replies, helping Thor walk by having him lean on his shoulder for support.
Meeting Room
As they waited for Banner and Thor, the rest of the Avengers have taken their seats around the table for debriefing. Each of them did not say a word, until Fury was the first to speak up, "Do any of you mind telling me what the hell happened to you all out there?" His tone was serious, but not angry.
Clint was the first to answer, still a bit groggy but the least injured of the team bar Banner, he simply had his legs resting against the table as he leaned back, "We underestimated him."
"Underestimated?! He clearly had home field advantage!" Tony interjected; his face covered with a couple bruises from being blown back a couple times including a cut lip.
"Well, that was what we signed up for isn't it?" Clint retorted back while handing Natasha a fresh hot towel, "No matter the mission, we are always put at some kind of disadvantage."
Turning his head towards the archer, Tony sent him a quip, "You know Barton your little man crush on the Batman is starting to get on my nerves."
"I don't have a man crush on the guy! What's your deal?!"
"Well other than you seem to be defending and praising the guy ever since we started talking about him."
"What, can't face the truth Stark? That we can get defeated, that the Avengers can't always win all the time?" Clint seemed to hit a bit of a nerve because the look on the ever-joking Tony changed to a more serious tone.
"Oh, buddy I know we can't get always get what we want, and that's not what ticks me. What ticks me, is that we managed to defend the world from an alien invasion AND we stopped them from coming back, but the fact that we got our ass beat by just one guy who thinks he's Count Dracula! What will that look like for us?" The billionaire snapped.
"Seriously? Public view is what you're concerned about?" Natasha said, holding the hot towel to her still aching neck, while voicing her disdain about Tony's concerns.
"Nah, I think he's actually pissed that his suit got easily shut down," Clint backed her up.
"Enough," Fury ordered, but it fell on deaf ears when it came to the Stark prodigy.
"Don't you get it? If we have problems containing just one individual, and that said individual can take down the Avengers, what do you think the rest of the world will say? That we're pushovers? That the battle of New York was a fluke? As the Avengers, we should be able to end the fight before the opposition even thinks for a second, that they have a chance of winning," Tony argued back, not caring about the technical faults of his suit being pointed out.
"ENOUGH!" Fury bellowed. Finally, after a few seconds of silence he sighs, eyeing the other person in the room who hasn't said anything yet, "Care to add your two cents, Cap?"
All eyes turn to the Legendary Super Soldier, who looked deep in thought, leaning against the table with his chin resting on his enclosed hands. His gaze pointing nowhere until he snapped to attention as he got called out. Looking at each of his teammates, he recollected on how the Batman impaired or immobilized them, and that's including the whole Bane situation that seems to be happening in Gotham. As far as he knew too many things were happening at the same time.
"Tony was right about one thing," Steve started, "the Batman had a huge home field advantage, he knew where to lead us, how to escape from us, and he most certainly knew how to incapacitate each and every single one of us."
"Good observation, though I would say that much was obvious," Fury agreed, "Gotham is obviously the Bat's home turf, he hasn't ever left the city as far as we know."
"There was that one time he was spotted in Hong Kong and kidnapped a Chinese businessman," Maria Hill interrupted.
"A Chinese businessman that was handling the entire Gotham mob's money," Fury countered.
"Wait, what do you mean he knew how to incapacitate each of us?" Tony asked, his face taking more a look of bemusement now, "When he used his little EMP gun on me my suit was short-circuited for a good six minutes so I couldn't witness all the details. So, come on, spill the deets."
Heaving a sigh, Fury glanced at Hill to explain to them all the details, "You all remember that hyper sonic device he used on Thor?" she began, "Well judging from the decibel and frequency when the device was on, we found that it's been set to a point where anyone within a certain range will be unable to move due to their auditory nerves being violently assaulted, hence their balance and movement are rendered immobile."
"This device could've been used on anyone human, and it would have knocked them unconscious and on a long enough timeline would've been fatal, but the Batman decided to use it against Thor," Fury finished, "why do you think that is?"
"Because Thor was the biggest threat," Natasha answered.
"Close, but because the Bat knew he could never hope to go toe to toe with Thor," Fury corrected her, "he knew that the Thunder God is far superior to him physically and can wield magic and lightning in his fingertips, what other way can you take someone like that down other than make sure he can't even lift up his hammer?"
"Ok, but that doesn't explain the syringe he used on him though," Nat asked.
"-That, is because the syringe was not meant for him Agent Romanoff," everyone turns to see Banner and Thor entering the room, "It was meant for me."
"Glad to have you with us Dr. Banner, Thor," Fury motioned for them to take their seat, "now, as you were saying?"
Having everyone's attention, Banner uncomfortably shifted in his chair before informing them, "The compounds we analyzed within Thor's bloodstream are basically a concentrated combination of several drugs designed to repress an individual's cortisol down to nothing and heighten their serotonin levels to an insane degree."
"So, he was high?!" Clint and Tony both exclaimed.
"He was lucky that was all there is, the number of drugs there were, the concentration and amount that's in his system, it could have killed a normal human being!"
"But a guy who has extreme anger management issues and turns into a rampaging monster when pushed too far…" Steve expressed his worry, hearing how the Batman seems to have plan after plan for them.
"What exactly would happen to you if he used it on you instead?" Fury asks.
"To be honest," Banner rubs his chin, "it depends."
"What?"
"It means," Tony interrupts, "if he were already in Jolly Green Giant mode the effects of the drug probably wouldn't affect him, right?"
"It's just a theory, but yeah," Banner nods his head once, "the way it looks it seems this concoction has a catch, it has to be administered before I turn, otherwise the 'other guy' would be too high with adrenaline, gamma radiation and healing factor that the drug would just dissipate in my blood."
"Do any of you understand now?" Nick asked the team, hoping they would get the hint. Gradually, each of the Avengers began to realize what other advantages the Batman had over them.
"Time," Tony was the first to call it out, "He had time to analyze all of us, our strengths, weaknesses and he came up with methods to stop us."
"Exactly," Fury said, "The Batman made us fight on his turf and his rules, came up with plans for each of you and he somehow gathered information on the team, including SHIELD, not something I'm just going to let slide."
"Well, that's cool and all," Tony compliments the situation, actually impressed about the amount of research the Bat has done on them, "so Dracula has a happy drug for the Hulk, a hyper sonic auditory disruptor for the Thunder God and an EMP for lil' ol' me. What did he have up his sleeve for the rest of you guys?" He looks towards Natasha, Clint and Steve.
"He uhh.." Clint hesitated to answer, he knew what Tony wanted and he wasn't going to give him that satisfaction. Too bad neither Steve nor Natasha cares about their rep.
"He beat me in hand-to-hand combat, thoroughly," Natasha confessed, "but not without taking of few hits of his own."
"True, and he even blocked and dodged Agent Barton's arrows and then put him to sleep with his own sleeping agent," Maria Hill added.
"Thanks ladies, let them know how we got beat," Clint snorted.
"Oh, what's the matter? A little miffed that the Bat has all these plans to take down the big boys while you and Romanov here aren't worth planning for, so he just uses good old fisticuffs on you?" Tony looks at them smugly, "Not only that, the two of you are trained veteran SHIELD agents!" he continues as he taunts the duo, "and as for you Mr. Perfect," he looks at Steve, "he-…uhh..huh, come to think of it, he wasn't able to bring you down was he? why is that?"
"If you actually paid attention to the live footage when they were fighting you would have noticed the two of them were practically equal in terms of physical prowess," Nick reprimanded the billionaire.
"Seriously? What was he, another Super Solider experiment gone rogue? Or in this case vigilante?" Tony amused himself with the theory.
"He isn't," Steve spoke.
"How're you sure?" Banner asked.
"Because when we fought, every time I landed a blow on him, I could feel his armor is thicker than mine. I can still feel the plates of armor on my knuckles, though I could feel some of those plates shatter after taking several hits from my fists," the Super Soldier softly rubbed his knuckles, "If he was enhanced as you say, he wouldn't have to wear that much protection."
"So, he's as regular a human as me and Tasha then," Clint repeated what was said to confirm the statement.
"Define regular?" Tony antagonized, "Guy's dressed up as a bat, has hand-to-hand skills to match up with Cap, the knowledge and strategic capabilities to go against SHIELD and its best agents," Fury, Hill, Barton and Romanov almost rolled their eyes on that comment, "plus tech and tools to almost be on par with me, almost, I was being modest there."
"Speaking of his tech, how would you compare them to yours?"
"No comparison, mine's leagues above his," Tony said with utter confidence.
"Still took you down with his EMP rifle," Clint reminded him.
"Probably, but that's the only thing he's got to counter me with. If you read any of the files SHIELD has even managed to collect about him, the guy has an assortment of gadgets. Sure, he has a tank that drives like a sports car, a badass bike with cannons mounted on it, and recently on the news they showed him with some new batcopter that silently flies."
"And where are you going with this?" Banner eggs him on.
"He may have all these cool equipment, but I've got everything I need right in my suit already and more! Made from gold titanium mind you, with enough weapons equipped to take out an entire army, flying capabilities—oh look it up on Fury's files, it'll make it much easier for all of us."
"And yet, he still beat us," Thor decided to speak up after having not said anything for a while.
"Exactly, it's not his skills or his tech that makes him who he is, it's how he uses them that makes him a very formidable opponent," Fury comments.
"Or a formidable ally," Natasha glances at Fury.
"Ally?" This piqued Steve and Thor's interest.
Tony slaps his hands together then point accusingly at Fury, "I knew it! You are trying to recruit Dracula! And you two!" he points at Nat and Clint, "Shame on you for not telling your teammates!"
"Tony," Banner tries to calm Tony before he gets too full of himself.
"Recruit the Man of Bats?" Thor repeated.
"Fury, I don't think he's the type to join our little group," Steve looked at the Director of SHIELD sternly.
"Yeah, as if he'd want to join a team where everyone's at each other's throat every time we get together," Natasha sardonically claims.
"Pft, please," Clint was offended by that comment, "Sure we argue and hardly ever get along, but we're still a team that kicks ass."
"A team that still needs a lot of work," Fury ends the argument before it escalates.
Those words struck a chord with Steve, "That's exactly what he said."
"What did who say?"
"Batman, before he escaped, he told me pretty much those exact words."
"Hmph. Well Nick, looks like someone has nearly the same mindset you have, no wonder you want this guy on the team," Tony gives a backhanded compliment.
"He also told me," Steve stared straight at Fury with a serious look in his eyes, "that there's a man named Bane in Gotham."
While this caused some of his team to raise an eyebrow and have a confused look on their face, those who work for SHIELD know the details a whole lot different.
"What did you say?" Fury's voice was low, making sure he heard the name right.
"Bane, Batman and a couple of detectives I've met said a man calling himself Bane is in Gotham," Steve repeats one more time. Looking at his second in command, Fury nods his head at Maria, who nods back and hurries out the room.
"What the hell was that about?" Banner asks bewildered.
"Captain Rogers, you and I need to have a talk about this information later. As for the person of interest, the one they call Bane is a notoriously known global terrorist. He's wanted in several countries by SHIELD, ARGUS, CIA, Interpol, SAS, Mossad- you name it he's on the top of the list. The man is as dangerous as he is shrouded in mystery," Nick continued, "No one knows who he is or where he came from."
"Sounds kinda familiar, doesn't he?" Tony mused, "Looks like Batman's got a little competition, except for the whole wanted terrorist part, of course."
"There is a rumor surrounding about him though," Nick kept going as if Tony never spoke, "That there is a prison, in a more ancient part of the world, a pit where men are thrown in to suffer and die. Until one day, a man emerges from the darkness, because sometimes the pit sends something back out."
"And you're saying that that's him, Bane," said Steve.
"Born and raised in hell on earth, so they say."
"Makes him sound like the bogeyman if you ask me," Clint comments.
"More like a monster," Thor said in a sullen voice as he gazes at everyone in the room, everyone turns to the Thunder God, "Have any of you wondered exactly why I'm here?"
"It's crossed my mind," Fury was the only one who spoke while the others remained silent, none of them really wondered why the Asgardian came back to earth.
"My friend, Heimdall, he gave me a foreboding warning. That there was a Midgardian here in the city of Gotham, more monster than man who is willing to burn down one of its greatest cities along with the twelve million people living in it."
"The whole city along with the twelve million populace?!" Fury shouted, "And I'm just hearing this now?!" he quickly called in for Maria, "Hill, I need the entire city of Gotham under full surveillance, report to me as soon as you see anything suspicious."
"Yes, sir," Maria answered over the comm.
Just like his last name, Fury looked furious, glaring down at the Living Legend and the Thunder God, "Is there anything else you may have forgotten to mention to me about the situation?"
The Avengers looked among themselves, wondering why the sudden switch in interest. "Chief, I thought our mission was to bring in the Batman?" Natasha spoke.
"I actually agree with Romanoff on this one," Tony contemplated, "SHIELD is here to bring in the Batman… while the rest of us can have the honor of bringing in this Bane character."
"It's not as easy as you may think," Thor was not finished relaying what he heard, "Heimdall also states that this Bane character has ties with the Dark Knight, and that a seductress will cause the Knight to lower his guard before she stabs him in the back, and the Dark Knight will fall."
"Dark Knight? Seductress?" Fury sighed, "Damn Asgardians and your thirst for the dramatic."
"What's the course of action?" Steve wasn't one to stall.
"You all stay here until we have a lead on Bane, the Bat can wait."
"Sir!" Maria suddenly called in via comm, "You need to look at this!"
The surveillance pulled up on screen, and just as it did everyone in the room saw what was happening, a live broadcast of thousands of policemen storming into the sewers. "Hill, what's the situation?" Fury inquired.
"It seems that the mayor of Gotham has announced that the GCPD are going in for some training exercise, sir," Hill answered over the comm as everyone listened in.
"Who the hell would believe something as ridiculous as that?!"
"It's what they announ- wait a minute, sir we're picking up a radio signal, someone is calling something in, I'm patching it through."
"*bzzt* Foley," someone who they assumed was named Foley answered a distress call.
"*bzzt* It's a trap! Pull everyone out!" another person shouted through the hacked police signal, Steve recognizes the voice as Detective Blake's, "Bane's been pouring concrete laced with explosives!"
"*bzzt* Where?!"
"*bzzt* There's a ring around the tunnels, they're gonna blow it and trap the cops underground!"
"*bzzt* Pull 'em out! Pull 'em out! NOW!"
And that's when it started, several locations in Gotham blowing up in massive explosions. The bridges and roads leading in and out of the city, all crumbling down into the river, screams of citizens heard everywhere as the chaos continues.
Hurling out of their seats and getting ready to go down there, the Avengers stopped in their tracks as Fury called out, "Wait!"
"What for?!" Tony shouted as he ran to get his suit.
"This is no time to be waiting!" Thor yelled as he and the rest of the team ran to the hangar.
"Shit!" Fury cursed at their impatience, "Hill, broadcast the whole incident throughout the entire ship, got it!?" Without another word Hill made sure the entire helicarrier could hear what was going on down there.
Before Stark could get in his armor; before Rogers, Banner, Barton and Romanov could hop in a quinjet, and before Thor could fly out of the ship, they all heard his voice, Bane's. It was dark, raspy, metallic, yet still sophisticated and intellectual.
"Gotham! Take control… take control of your city," Bane began.
All the SHIELD agents stared at the image of the mercenary on the screen, some instantly grew cold feet while some felt fear as their hands shook. The Avengers, Fury and Hill, though they didn't show it, they felt some shivers down their spine as they saw Bane's visage.
"This! This is the instrument of your liberation!" Bane said as he gestures towards a large round shaped object being brought out into what's left of the football field.
"Colonel Fury!" one of the SHIELD agents called into the comm, "our satellite shows a radiation spike! Whatever that thing is, it's nuclear!"
Before anyone could react to that realization, Bane's men dragged an old man out into the field and pushing him to his knees. "Identify yourself to the world," Bane puts the mic near the man's mouth.
"Dr. Leonid Pavel," the old man utters, "nuclear physicist."
Inside the helicarrier, Banner and Fury both recognize the man. "Dr. Pavel? I heard he died six months ago," Banner said, having previous consultations with the physicist about radiation, particularly about gamma radiation.
"He was declared dead six months ago via plane crash on a CIA agency pull," Fury told them via speakers, "Obviously the CIA likes to hide their mistakes."
"And what… what is this?" Bane asks Dr. Pavel.
"It's a… fully primed neutron bomb, with a blast radius of six miles," Dr. Pavel explains with exasperation.
"And who is capable of disarming such a device?" Bane asks. Everyone watching, wondering just what Bane's game is and why he's asking such question instead of making a threat and demand like other terrorists and mercenaries.
"…Only me," Dr. Pavel slowly nods his head.
"Only you… thank you good doctor," Suddenly, Bane breaks the good doctor's neck in a second in front of the entire stadium of witnesses and anyone watching the live broadcast. Screams of terror are filled throughout the air as fear grasps the people's hearts.
"Now! This bomb is armed! This bomb is mobile! And the identity of the triggerman, is a mystery. For one of you, holds the detonator! And we come here not as conquerors, but as liberators, to return control of this city to the people. And at the first sign of interference from the outside world… or for those people attempting to flee… especially if any of these individuals make their presence known," The football screen shows the faces of the Avengers as Bane's eyes dart upward, as if he can see the helicarrier itself,"this anonymous Gothamite, this unsung hero, will trigger the bomb. Now martial law is in effect, return to your homes, hold your families close, and wait. For tomorrow you will claim what is rightfully yours… And if anyone is expecting the Batman to come…" Bane lifts up in his hand a bloody, broken piece of Batman's cowl that he took from his previous fight with the Caped Crusader, finishing as he drops the mic, he walks away confidently, knowing full well no one, not even the likes of SHIELD or the Avengers would dare try anything.
Watching from above, Fury is focusing his attention on the screenshot he paused of Bane holding Batman's cowl in his hand. One thing going through the SHIELD Director's mind, 'Damn.'
Meanwhile, Thor violently punches the hangar wall of the helicarrier in frustration, leaving a large dent where his fist landed. Tony hesitates getting in his Ironman suit, not sure what he should be doing as of the moment. Steve is already thinking of plans to infiltrate the city, but with so many restrictions and unknowns it would take some time. Banner is trying to reign in his anger by clenching his fists, while Romanoff and Barton are silently waiting for their orders to go in and take Bane out. All of them having the same thought, 'If Bane took out the Batman, then how dangerous is Bane really?'
All of them watched silently as the once great city became covered in smoke and flames, as if watching hell on earth itself…
To Be Continued…
Obviously, there was a scene straight from TDKR in this chapter, and I tweaked very minor dialogues and events that happened in the film to make it work with this fic.
Also, for anyone who might be asking why Fury did not mention about the League of Shadows/Assassins, that's because I feel like aside from being more mystical in nature, Ra's al Ghul and the League aren't the type to let themselves be known to anyone at all unless they decide they want to be noticed. That also explains why SHIELD only knows Bane's background as a mercenary instead of being trained by the League.
A/N: Once again, I deeply apologize to everyone for taking too long in this chapter. Also, lemme know if there is anything I could do to improve.
Now that that apology is out of my chest, I just wanna say even though I'm anxious for its release, I can't wait for Batman v Superman!