[Flashback]

[YOUNGER WOMAN and OLDER WOMAN are in the same expensive, high-end looking lounge, with men and sexily dressed women about. OLDER WOMAN is accompanying a young man in a suit.]

OLDER WOMAN: No money. Not here. That's not how it works. You're a friend, we treat our friends well here.

[They walk to YOUNGER WOMAN, who is sitting on a sofa, looking very sexy.]

OLDER WOMAN: This is Vanessa, she is one of our most highly recommended girls. I promise you, no night with her is every forgotten.

MAN: She's...gorgeous.

But I was kind of hoping for the, um, extra special special treatment?

OLDER WOMAN: Very well then. Right this way.

[They walk up stairs]

MAN: Thanks, uh, maam.

OLDER WOMAN: Excuse me, that's madam.

[As they reach the top of the stairs, OLDER WOMAN locks his head between the handles of two whips and forces him into a kneeling position. Behind her, we see that this is a fully equipped bondage room.]

OLDER WOMAN: And you will pledge allegiance to Madam Fury!


[BRUCE is on a TV screen, railing from a podium.]

BRUCE: Complete and utter fake news. Do you need any more proof that I'm threatening the power structure of Gotham? They are so desperate they're trying to push this phony, trumped-up charge, this complete nonsense-

[BATMAN, scowling, watches his batcave monitor. The page is once again filled with tweet-like messages. I'm envisioning this as a splash page, although if it can fill a two-page spread that might work too. The messages are as follows:]

Candidate Wayne Implicated In Docks Sweetheart Deal [link]
Gazette: Wayne Traded Policemen's Endorsement For Docks Deal [link]
McCaskill Lead Widens Following Wayne Quid Pro Quo Revelations
Why do I ever let Gotham get my hopes up?
So it turns out Gotham politicians are Gotham politicians? I'm so shocked.
Another rich white man thinks rules apply to everyone but him.
LOL those docks are a dump.
So he plays the political game, so what? He's still cleaner than all the rest of them.
Here in Gotham we've got kind of a low threshold for our heroes.
Seriously, # %$ Wayne
This must be some mistake, there's no way Wayne would do that.
I know everyone on here is so cynical but I really thought Wayne was different.
In Gotham if the papers are after you, you must be doing something right.
I don't care what he does to get elected, Wayne still has the best message.
What have I been knocking on doors for? I missed my daughter's recital!
Just canceled my Gazette subscription.
They sell all of our jobs down the river, sometimes literally.
So I'm supposed to believe that *McCaskill* is the honest one in this race?
Click here for your latest Gotham Mayor campaign news. ***This message has been identified as containing potentially harmful material, do not click on any links or attachments.***
Ugh, I think I'm just going to stay away from political news today.


SHRECK, ROANER and GIARDINO are talking outside GCPD.

ROANER: I'm getting calls at my home. My wife is getting calls at work.

SHRECK: This is a storm, we can weather it.

ROANER: Tell that to my sobbing kids!

I'm sorry, I can't endorse Wayne. I can't get within 10,000 miles of him now. I'm not one of you guys, I need this job!

SHRECK: [To GIARDINO as ROANER walks away] You gettin' frozen feet too?

GIARDINO: No, man, I got first-class tickets on this cruise and I'm on till it hits the Atlantic floor.


[Back in the Batcave, BRUCE is still watching the monitor. BATGIRL arrives.]

BATGIRL: [in a rage] We need to talk about your patrols!

[BRUCE turns around in his chair to face her.]

BATGIRL: I don't know who Madam Fury is or why she's picking off city officials. But it has something to do with Carol James.

You told me to ignore James. You said it was my duty.

BRUCE: You got lucky.

BATGIRL: So what? I'm tired of letting the John and Jane Does just disappear. I don't care if it's in the greater good or not.

BRUCE: The greater good is your mission! You would understand that if you listened to me about what it means to be a bat.

BATGIRL: I still don't care! This is what I have to offer. If that's not good enough, fine, I'll go home and do my homework.

BRUCE: You have more to offer.

BATGIRL: You know, you keep telling me to use what happened four years ago. To channel it.

You've got all of our AI software analyzing Joker's personality. You've spent how many hours researching every little bit of his background.

But really, I know him better than you ever will. And I have precisely one thought about the Joker.

#*%& him.

I don't judge you, Bruce, and what gets you out there every night. You save people. Saved me. But I am not you. I wasn't before that creep and I'm not after.

I can't control what he does, and I can't control the world. What I can do is accept that.

Joker has perfectly fine accomodations at Arkham. He doesn't need to live rent-free in my head.

I put on this cowl because of what it means to me, Bruce. And whether you like it or not, that symbol doesn't belong to you anymore. You gave up that right when you blasted it across the sky. It belongs to everyone, and to me it means hope. It means that everyone has the capacity to do good.

I wear that bat not because I need to, but because I want to. And what gets me out there every night is…

I love it.

[BATGIRL throws her pearl necklace across the side of the Batcave, into the bottomless cave below]


[ROANER opens his house door. Two men wearing spherical masks shaped like Shreck's cat are standing outside.]

CAT #1: We need to talk to you.

CAT #2: About your endorsement.


[BRUCE gears up while talking on his helmet earphone to SHRECK.]

SHRECK: From one billionaire to another, you really don't want to miss this donor meeting, Bruce.

BRUCE: I'm out for the next 24 hours. Talk to Schrein about clearing my schedule.

[Puts on Batsuit, grimly.]

[ROANER is now dead, fully clothed, impaled on an American flag at his house's front door. BATGIRL and GORDON watch.]

GORDON: I'm not even surprised anymore.

[to BATGIRL] Do you talk?

BATGIRL: No [flies away.]


[BATMAN walks up to a Gotham skyscraper, uses a grappling hook to fly up on its side, busts into a room. We see the lounge we've seen before with OLDER WOMAN/FURY.]

BATMAN: FURY!

FURY: [off-panel] You finally figured it out.

BATMAN: This will end. Tonight.

FURY: This will never end.

[BATMAN and FURY circle around the lounge while talking.]

BATMAN: I heard the rumors about this place.

City Secrets. An elite escort service for Gotham's top officials. No questions asked, no records.

But it was another lie. The mob, the bosses, used you to keep tabs on city leaders. Blackmail when needed.

Secrets on secrets.

FURY: And what do you know about me?

BATMAN: Enough. Suzanne Johnson, born in Burnside, went to St. Follower's. Scholarship to Metropolis State on gymnastics, after graduating started dancing at Masks, which I guess lead you here.

FURY: So I'm not the starving hooker with the heart of gold? If that was the only way you'd respect me, that's not really respect at all.

BATMAN: I don't care that you became a prostitute and madam. I care that you became a murderer.

FURY: I thought the Batman fought to uphold all the laws? Sounds like you really want to make them. Well, don't we all.

BATMAN: But this is really all about a 24-year-old from Gotham Heights named Carol James.

FURY: [silence]

BATMAN: That was the one part I couldn't figure out. Why kill her? Why cover it up?

But I was an idiot-you didn't kill her. She was one of you.

FURY: Do you know how many of my girls have just disappeared, over the years? No missing person reports, no investigations, just gone?

24. 24 women.

No one asked. No one cared.

BATMAN: I care.

FURY: Well I've never seen you before.

BATMAN: This city has 30 million people.

FURY: A dead councilman sure got your attention.

BATMAN: And it was him, wasn't it?

FURY: He had such particular tastes. Most of the clients, they love to sample. With him, it was always her. Always.

BATMAN: He defied the powers that be by pushing hard on Firefly. And then he ran for council president. It was only a matter of time before they used her against him.

FURY: She knew all his secrets. So many secrets. She was expendable. He couldn't have any loose ends.

And the worst part is, she wanted out. I talked her out of it.

I'm complicit. And with the others, by my silence. This is my shame.

BATMAN: And she was the last straw. For you. The Uncle Sam killings-they were all for revenge.

FURY: Of course the papers thought it was some man.

We're awfully alike, really.

BATMAN: I don't do this for revenge.

FURY: No, it's something darker. Revenge at least ends.

But we've both been spinning our wheels. Taking out one victim after another, thinking it somehow matters.

It's not enough. None of it is enough.

It's not just the state senator who beats one of my girls to death because she asked about his wife. And it's not just the coroner's deputy who marks it as accidental. Or the detective who buries the report. It's everything. It's everyone. It's the whole system.

The mob's muscle is gone. The enforcers who used to keep us in line, they're all gone. It's time for the equilibrium to shift.

We will bring this whole structure crashing down. The police, the courts. Mayor Anderson. Gordon. McClintock. Wayne. McCaskill. Tonight, they go down.

I will break this city's bones and suck out its rotten marrow.

It's the only way to make things right.

Join me.

BATMAN: I will stop you.

FURY: You can't.

[She jumps out of the room, BATMAN looks for her and can't find her.]

BATMAN: [as he jumps down the side of the building] BG, come in.

BATGIRL: [on the communicator] So you're saying this brothel is Uncle Sam, and they're about to strike out on all the city leaders tonight?

BATMAN: She's an expert gymnast who spent 10 years dancing at Masks and at least 7 years as a dominatrix. She handpicked and trained all of City Secrets' women, who've killed nine people so far.

This isn't a brothel. It's an army.