BATMAN: VENGEANCE

As the citizens of Gotham City slumbered under the soft darkness of the night, Batman watch over the city. From the rooftop and ornamental sanctuary that hung over the night draped streets, Batman was ever vigilant and alert for the slightest breach of the peace or threat against the citizenry of Gotham City.

However this night Batman would find the peace had not only been breached…It had been shattered by explosive fury set in place by the very personification of evil. It begins with a woman the caped crusader discovers bound and gagged, the remainder of her life measured by the clock counting down the seconds to the detonation of the bomb beside her.

Her name is Mary Flynn; the villain who left her for dead is the Joker, the twisted clown Prince of Crime with an explosive sense of humor. The Joker had taken her young son Toby hostage, holding him for a ransom the frightened mother could never hope to raise.

At least, that's the story Mary Flynn tells!

But the truth is far more insidious than even Batman can imagine, and before this night is done, the Dark Knight will find himself entangled in a plot that threatens far more than a single child. The Joker's scheme would light up the night with fiery death and destruction, leaving Gotham City a smoldering ruin that none would survive.

Marshalling his wits, strength and technology, Batman must save Gotham City from impending disaster by making sense of the massive crime wave that's swept through the city.

In the course of his investigations, Batman will encounter a host of thieves, thugs, and deadly costumed villains who must be stopped. Mind-twisting puzzles and deadly traps are thrown in his path to sabotage his efforts, but with his assemblage of high-tech weapons and devices, Batman must crack the most deadly and bizarre case of his crime fighting career.

Xxx

Characters

Batman: The Dark Knight detective has pledged his very to life to keeping Gotham City safe from the criminals who threaten it.

Batgirl: Once again, Batgirl is helping Batman on his mission. She is at the Batcave, always on standby.

The Joker: Is Batman's nemesis and the Clown Prince of Crime is once again on the loose. His plot: kill Batman and destroy Gotham City…Laughing all the way to Hell!

Mr. Freeze: Has taken control of Gotham Industrial and turned it into an icebox. He's also holding Isaac Evers, a scientist, hostage.

Poison Ivy: Is as dangerous as ever. She devices a special poison to take control of Gotham's most healthy and influential men, bring them down to their knees.

Harley Quinn: Is all ready to help out her Puddin when it comes to defeating Batman. This time, the Joker's main squeeze takes on an even bigger role.

Xxx

Tick-Tick-Tick-Tick

Tock

Tick-Tick-Tick-Tick

Tock

Tick-Tick-Tick-Tick

Tock

Smoke rose from the giant building that with red light illuminating the big sign that identified it as 'GOTHAM CHEMICAL'.

And just below this sign, on the roof of the building, a woman lied on the floor. Her arms and legs were bound and her mouth covered with duct tape as she struggled to move. Not very from her was something resembling a clock with a 'ticking' sound heard and a red light flashing. The woman was attempting to cry for help, terrified for her life as she struggled to move but her eyes remained firmly on the device.

With each tick her eyes grew wider as the feeling that she was going to die grew ever stronger…

Xxx

"HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!"

Perking up and narrowing his eyes at the sound of that familiar, haunting laughter the Dark Knight stood up. The audio sensors in his suit allowed him to trace the source of the laughter, coming from Gotham Chemical.

With a destination now in mind the Batman held out his grappling gun and swiftly he glided out across the streets.

Xxx

Following the foreboding cackle of Gotham's most psychotic criminal Batman landed on the rooftop of Gotham Chemical. The Dark Knight landed at the far edge, taking a moment to observe his surroundings before making his down. The top of the chemical factory was a series of alleys leading up to the giant red lit sign with barrels leaking toxins and broken pipes releasing harmful gas. Still the Dark Knight easily evaded these minor problems, coming up on a chain-link gate. Behind it was a woman bound and gagged. Batman opened the gate and slowly approached the struggling woman, kneeling down behind her and placed hand under her head to life her up, gently calming her as he removed the gag.

"Bomb." This was the first word to leave the woman's lips.

Eyes widening Batman looked up and saw what was indeed a bomb that was hooked up to a series of barrels, all of them leaking chemicals that were likely explosive. Picking up the woman Batman jumped over the barrels, landing down in the alley as the woman cried.

"We're going to die, Batman!"

Ignoring the woman's cries Batman ran to the end, seeing no escape aside from a ramp leading down to the edge of the roof. Just as he reached this slope the bomb's timer reached zero. Batman looked behind as he heard the explosion and saw a tidal wave of fire racing towards them. Immediately Batman bent his knees and slid down the ramp as the flames chased after him. Reaching the end Batman jumped over the edge as the chemical factory was lit on fire and fired a grappling hook.

The Dark Knight and the woman in his arms swung away as Gotham Chemical exploded into a massive pillar of fire, lighting up the night sky with a shower of falling flames and debris.

Xxx

From the fire, a man emerged with a wide and mad grin at the destruction he had wrought and happily disappeared into the night with a laugh.

Xxx

Upon landing on the ground Batman emerged from the smoke and carefully placed the woman down, untying her hands and feet, spotting a note that fell out of her pocket.

He immediately picked it up and read it.

Mary had a little lamb whose neck was in the noose. For every payment Mary misses Joker lights a fuse.

He could already hear the madman chuckling as he wrote his.

If you live through this you get one more chance. Five million or Toby takes a permanent nape. J.

Batman lowered the note, realizing this was a ransom and a very deadly on.

He also realized that the woman had disappeared while he had been reading.

Xxx

The Dark Knight had immediately returned home to make sense of the Joker's scheme. The woman he had rescued was named Mary and her son is being held for ransom by the Joker. Stepping out of the Batmobile Batman headed up to the main computer in the Bat Cave, seeing Batgirl was there, dutifully monitoring all channels for any sort of crime.

She stopped as Batman walked up to her, holding the ransom note. "Run a profile on this woman. Her name is Mary Flynn."

"Sure." Batgirl accepted the note. "Is she in some sort of trouble?"

"It's the Joker." That was all that needed to be said. "And maybe more. Something about this woman doesn't add up. I'm going to work on the obstacle course. Run Alfred's training program for me."

"Sure thing." Batgirl said, activating the program as Batman headed down to the training room.

While Alfred was absent the faithful butler had programmed his own brain algorithms into the Bat Computer to help create the perfect simulation to train his charge. Batman entered the training room and instantly his old friend and surrogate father's voice.

"Good evening, Master Bruce. I hope you are managing to scrape by despite my absence. I took the liberty of recording one of our training sessions. I trust you will find it useful. We will begin with a bit of grappling."

Batman started with his bat-grappler as he took off, finding appropriate points to use the grapple that pulled him off the ground and he jumped from one point to another, using his cape to glide gently down to the ground. As soon as he landed a series of training posts rose up from the ground, deploying targets.

"Good show, Master Bruce. We'll move right along now to the use of the batarang. To strike with enough precision to knock a weapon from a man's hand, you'll need to take careful aim. With a little practice you can strafe around your target without losing your aim. You can practice your aim on these posts, aim for the bull's eyes."

As soon as Alfred's voice was done Batman pulled out a handful of batarangs and began his run, throwing them at the targets on the nearest post before moving onto the next. In under a minute he was done and another post rose up.

"Very good, Master Bruce. Perhaps now we'll brush up on your fisticuffs, as it's so often the only common language between criminals and justice. Of course you have a wide variety of the martial arts at your disposal. Perhaps you could practice a few attacks on the training post. You may find your opponents a smidgen more clever than a metal post.

A healthy defense will make sure you're still standing after your opponent has been defeated. There are few men in the world as skilled in as wide a variety of martial arts as you, Master Bruce, but there is only so much you can practice at home."

Once Alfred's recording was done Batman approached the post and quickly begun his practice, staring with a few punches at first before adding a few high kicks. He then mixed it up with an uppercut and a spinning kick as the adrenaline kicked in and he continued for about thirty more seconds before the post sank back into the ground.

"Nicely done, Master Bruce, but fighting is not always the healthiest option. As you well know, with deep shadows and a little caution, you can slip past most opponents without resorting to your fists. If you hug the walls you'll have a better chance of staying in the shadows and out of sight. A little foresight and a batarang or two can be a striking combination."

The sentry post in the next room activated, emitting a fast spinning laser.

"Let's try a small test. Use your stealth skills to slip past this entry post. If you can turn it off by the switch on the opposite side of the room you'll have beaten the challenge."

Batman proceeded into the next room, seeing the laser spanning most of the room. He approached the wall near the post, stopping on just the edge of the laser. He pressed himself against the wall and slowly made his way around the post. Each movement was slow and calculated with the laser missing his body by mere inches.

Keeping himself calm and focused on reach the switch Batman reached the switch in the corner of the room and turned off the post. As soon as he did a ramp on the edge of the floor of the previous room was activated with the railing lifting up to allow access.

"Very good, sir. We'll move onto one final training sequence, this one to perfect your free fall. The challenge is to use your cape to slow or speed your fall as necessary. Trust yourself to grapple back to safety before you reach bottom."

Batman headed for the door, coming back into the previous room and rushed over the ramp, jumping off the edge and taking the plunge. As expected the target had been thrown off just before he had jumped. Angling down while bringing his arms to his sight and straightening his feet, Batman's fall accelerated. He was about halfway down when he caught the training sack that was being substituted for an actual falling person.

With the target in his hand Batman pulled out his grapple and fired it, aiming at a surface that it would stick too just before he fell into the river below. The grapple retracted, pulling Batman back up to the ramp with the sack in his arms.

"Wonderful, sir. That completes your training." Alfred's voice praised once Batman stepped off the ramp. "You've done splendidly, Master Bruce. You never cease to amaze. I pity the criminal who stands between you and justice. If you need any more assistance, you can always find Batgirl dutifully answering her communicator."

With the training course Batman exited the training room and came back up to the main computer where Batgirl was working. "Find anything?"

"Just questions with no answers." Batgirl said, glancing at her mentor.

"Try me." He said.

"Well, Toby was reported kidnapped to the police four days ago. Before that, nothing. Didn't go to school, wasn't even born." Batgirl explained, bringing up the files on the Bat-Computer. "Same goes for Mary. I got an address on the apartment she just moved into and that's it."

"That's impossible." Batman stated as a matter of fact. "Nothing else at all?"

"Not a thing. I don't know if you can save these people, Batman. They're already ghosts." Batgirl answered, looking at him.

Batman silently stared at the screen, seeing the address.

Xxx

An air vent fan was lazily spinning as a man walked down the hallway, muttering lazily to himself his words might as well have been whispers. What was interesting about this man was the purple colored suit he wore complete with a green dress shirt with a purple bow neatly tied around his neck with a yellow flower, complimenting his pale skin, blackish green hair that was slicked back and his white eyes and surprisingly blackish sclera, a side effect of his constant experimentation with dangerous chemicals.

This was the Joker, Gotham's Clown Prince of Crime and right now he was working on his latest scheme as he walked into a dressing room.

Sitting in front of a mirror with a few dressed on display was his sidekick and demented girlfriend, Harley Quinn who had just finished putting on her makeup and jester outfit.

As soon as she heard her boyfriend's laughter she started singing. "Take a break and play a while, doo-da. Doo-Da." She spun around and stood up, presenting herself to her beloved Joker. "Guarantee, I'll make you smile. Oh-doo-da-day!"

She made a dramatic pose with a smile, hoping she impressed him.

However Joker simply lowered the blueprints in his hand that he been staring at the while time, barely giving her a glance. "Not now, pooh. My audience awaits."

With that he turned and walked out, leaving Harley to sit back on her chair and pout.

Would kill him to even compliment her beauty?

Xxx

"After that, we're home free."

Joker's so-called audience was three thugs dressed as mimes, listening to their boss outlining his latest plan. They were all seated in the middle of a warehouse that happened to be the Joker's current base of operations and a front for the dummy corporation Joker has set up to have access to his resources, Funnybones Warehouse.

"Our friend in tights takes the bait, takes a dive and then we string him up and drop him in the drain." Joker finished with a laugh before staring at his listeners. "Any questions?"

The three seemed hesitant to speak.

Finally one had the courage to stand up and clear his throat. "Uh…Yeah, well boss. A couple of the guys and I were thinking…That since we're fighting the Bat and all that maybe we're not getting paid as much as we should."

As he spoke, Harley Quinn who had been nearby, leaning against a crate as she listened to Joker's plan, picked up her mallet and rushed at the idiot thug who dared to speak to her 'Puddin' with such disrespect.

"I mean, when we was working for the Penguin we were getting benefits and a 401 k-"

BONK!

Before he knew it, the idiot was on the ground after getting whacked on the head by Harley's mallet.

Joker flinched at seeing the thug fell before bringing his hands together with a pleased smile with a matching hum. "Hmm."

"Well, now you're working for Mr. J you chowder head." Harley said as the idiot slowly started to get back up. "You'll do what we says and take what he gives and hope it is not…a bullet!"

As the thug managed to sit up Joker walked past him, giving him a quick whack to the face to remind him of his place.

He then walked up to Harley, showing a pleased smile as he wrapped an arm around her waist. "Baby, you're the best."

"Ha!" Harley let out a high squeal at that, pleased that she made her Joker happy.

Xxx

"Any news on Mary?"

While training Batgirl had done some investigating on the mysterious woman and found Mary and her son did not exist until very recently. The one record of Mary that Batgirl could find was her address so Batman decided to pay her a visit.

"Bits and pieces. Nothing that adds up. She's either in a lot of trouble or the cause of it. The only way you'll be able to find out anything is through surveillance." Batgirl answered, still looking for any information on the strange woman.

Batman put the communicator away and then made his way across the rooftops towards Mary's apartment. It wasn't hard and sure enough Mary herself was sitting on a couch in her apartment, looking worried. From the way she was sitting she was either extremely worried…

Or was waiting.

Sure enough the door to Mary's apartment was knocked down and in came two hulking men dressed as mimes. Mary cried out in fear as she ran out the back door with the thugs right behind her. She made it up to the top before the lead thug grabbed her, threw her over his shoulder and took off with second thug staying behind as lookout.

Batman quickly pulled out his communicator. "Joker's men are attacking. Call Gordon and tell him I'll be leaving some handcuffed clowns."

"Sure thing." Batgirl answered.

Putting his communicator away Batman sprang into action, pulling his grappling hook out and fired it. As soon as it was connected to the next roof Batman was pulled off his feet towards the next building. Immediately he jumped up, throwing a batarang at the thug left behind, knocking his gun out of his hand. Batman immediately followed up slamming his foot into the thug's face, knocking him right onto his back. Batman quickly cuffed him and then moved to the end of the roof in the direction the lead thug took Mary.

Running over to the far left corner of the roof he grappled to the next building, landing on a balcony. He opened the door and immediately caught sight of the thug carrying Mary running down the hall. Batman followed after, exiting just in time to see the thug on the next building over jumping over the edge. Immediately the caped crusader grappled over and then headed to the open area of the fence.

He grappled over and hoisted himself up onto the unfinished rooftop of a building still under construction. He heard Mary's screams on the other side of the walls and carefully leapt across the gaps and came upon a corner with a small ledge leading to the other side. Pressing his back against the wall Batman moved carefully but as fast as he could to the other side. As soon as he reached the end he rushed to the edge to see the shadowed form of the thug on a smaller nearby building with Mary.

Batman jumped over the edge and spread his cape out, allowing him to glide over to the building, landing on the rooftop and then fired his grappling hook at a point of the neighboring skyscraper over him. Following the skyscraper's upper ledge to the gargoyle that overlooked the rooftop with two pyramids Batman spotted the thug still on the run and immediately jumped over the gargoyle statue, spreading out his cape to glide over. Once he was on the next rooftop he followed ledge to a bridge slope.

Jumping onto it Batman slide down the slope and just before reaching the end jumped up and glided across the gap. He spotted the kidnapper stopping, seeing a warning sign at the door to the interior of the building, showing that the structure was unstable. Turning around the kidnapper glared at Batman as the dark knight faced him.

"This isn't what you think, Batman." The thug said, placing Mary on the ground.

The kidnapper then charged straight at him, opting to use his bulk to try and knock the caped crusader down. Batman held both arms in front of him, bracing himself as the kidnapper slammed into him. He only slid back a few inches and retaliated with a few punches that dazed the kidnapper before he tried fighting back. The kidnapper was clearly tougher than the average thug but Batman's skills and experience had left him well prepared.

Blocking any punches coming his way Batman would patiently wait for the lull in the kidnapper's attacks and then immediately delivered several punches followed by an upper cut and even a kick that left the kidnapper stunned. Sensing his chance Batman shot forward, kneeing his opponent in the gut and then brought both hands together before slamming them into the thug's back. The thug hit the ground, coughing hard from the sheer strength Batman put into his attack. Not allowing him a chance to get up Batman immediately cuffed the kidnapper's hands behind his back.

The Dark Knight stood victorious.

Turning to the downed Mary Batman walked over to her and helped back up. "The Joker's after you."

"He's got…He took me…" Mary tearfully stuttered.

"Toby?" Batman finished for her.

"Yes, Toby! My son, he took my son! He says he'll kill him unless I can pay him five million. I don't have that kind of money!" Mary said, almost becoming hysterical in her grief.

"Are you sure he has the boy?" Batman asked.

Mary looked up at the dark knight and held up her hand, showing a pen knife. On it was a name inscribed into it.

TOBY

"He sent me this." Mary said as she handed Batman the knife. "Send if I didn't believe him he would send…would…" Mary couldn't finish as she was about to cry again.

Batman placed the penknife in his utility belt and held out something to Mary. "Take this."

Mary looked down, seeing a small bat like device in the palm of her hand.

"Press the button if you are ever in trouble."

When she looked up the Dark Knight had vanished.