Protector in the Shadows

Disclaimer: I do not own Batman or any version of Batman.

Chapter 3

III

"People need dramatic examples to shake them out of apathy, and I can't do that as Bruce Wayne. As a man, I am flesh and blood, I can be ignored, I can be destroyed; but as a symbol . . . as a symbol I can be incorruptible, I can be everlasting."

-Batman Begins

III

"I'm looking for a job, you wouldn't happen to have something here would you?"

The store owner looked over the younger man, seeming to be around twenty five but still young to the eighty-six year old, with a raised eyebrow. The cloths that the man wore appeared to be from a charity bin but the man himself was not scruffy. To tell the truth, the store owner had not expected someone like the young man to apply for a job here, "You do know that this is the Narrows, right kid?" he asked gruffly.

The young man nodded, "I wouldn't be here if I didn't. Where else do you think I'm going to get a job looking like this?"

He had a fair point, the store owner conceded, the boy's appearance wouldn't get him passed the bridge into the higher levels of society. He felt kind of sorry for the young man.

Course, in the Narrows one could never be too careful. With all the insane semi-humans running around there were few who could be trusted in these dark times. A boy with no one too look after him trying to find a job here was slightly suspicious. Most of those living in the Narrows turned to crime instead of trying to make an honest living.

But they do say that the eyes were the windows to the soul and he could only see honesty in the young man's eyes. He might as well give the boy a chance.

"One week. If you're a good worker then you stay. If not . . . well, you know the drill."

The young man nodded again, "Thank you. When do I start?"

The store owner considered him for a moment before grunting, "Right now."

0~o~0

"Darcy! I want a full report, anything we have on this . . . being. Doctor Howl, come with me," Gordon commanded as he strode purposefully down the darkened hallway toward his temporary office, as his old one had been blown up just two weeks before.

Jackson Howl swallowed nervously as he followed the aggravated commissioner. How was he supposed to know that they were just going to get another masked . . . thing? At least the machine had worked at all.

Though, maybe that wasn't such a good thing.

Jackson sat down in the seat across from Gordon, fidgeting with a pencil he always kept with him. Gordon focused his eyes on the younger man with a fierce glare.

"What happened," Gordon said, his voice calm though the storm behind his eyes showed that he was at the end of his patients.

Jackson twisted the pencil, "It . . . it seems as if the alternate time line was . . . drastically changed from our own. Maybe an important event, something that happened differently, created the . . . bat?"

Gordon's cheek twitched, "Doctor . . ."

"I don't know, ok?! Whatever we saw on that roof is not something found in this world!" Jackson cried, the pencil snapping in his hands with a loud crack.

Sighing, Gordon rubbed the bridge of his nose, "Yes, I know. The fact that . . . the bat, as you referred to him, got away so easily worries me."

'Even the Joker gets slightly nervous around a full force of police officers but this guy didn't,' went unsaid.

Gordon focused his eyes back on Jackson, "We need to find him, and fast," he paused, considering, "In your opinion, Doctor, if you were a bat where would you go?"

"Um," Jackson blinked, "A . . . cave?"

Gordon laced his fingers together, thoughtful, "Previous experience shows that people like him who wear masks will often try to find a place that most closely resembles what they represent. In this case, a cave."

Jackson nodded. He didn't know why he was still here. He had already done his part in operating the machine, but he guessed the commissioner was just bouncing his ideas off of someone else.

"Now, where in Gotham will we find a cave suitable for a human sized bat?" Gordon muttered.

Biting his lip and wondering if he should input his ideas Jackson interrupted, "What about the sewers? They are kind of like caves."

Gordon frowned before shaking his head, "No. The being that came through the portal was clean, something that the sewers are not. That and the cold and water are more suited for Croc, not a bat. There must be somewhere else, somewhere we are forgetting."

At that moment the door opened and Darcy walked in, a scowl on her face as she placed an extremely thin file down on Gordon's desk.

"Nothing. There is absolutely nothing on this guy! He simply doesn't exist on this world!" she growled in frustration.

Gordon raised on eyebrow, "Any hint of who he is under the mask?" he asked as he flipped the folder open. Inside was a blurry picture taken from one of the security cameras that had been on the roof with them. There was also a short description of what he looked and sounded like.

Darcy shook her head, throwing her hands in the air, "He comes, he goes, he vanishes. If I hadn't seen him with my own eyes I wouldn't have believed that he was real! There's no fingerprints, no DNA, no facial recognition, nothing! It's driving me batty!" she winced, "Ah, sorry, wrong thing to say in this circumstance."

"He's a professional, than," Gordon stated, reading through a report on the injuries cause to his men in the Bat's escape. There was nothing that could put an officer out of commission for more than a couple of hours. Even the hits to the head would only leave bruises and a massive headache, "Someone with resources and training."

Darcy's eyes lit up, "A former cop, maybe?"

Gordon nodded, still frowning, "It still wouldn't explain why he goes around dressed as a bat. What is his motivation, why was he like that when we pulled him through?"

Jackson glanced between the two before sighing, "May I be excused, now?"

Gordon glanced in his direction briefly and nodded sharply to him. Jackson quickly left, breathing a sigh of relief as the door closed behind him. After seeing the . . . being come from the portal he had no desire to stay here anymore. The Joker was bad, but he had a feeling that the Bat was going to be terrifying. The device that he had used was meant to pull someone stronger, better, and more intelligent than the Joker.

Which mean that the Bat would either help take down the crazy clown . . . or destroy Gotham when he realized where, exactly, he had been sent.

He planned to be long gone before the Bat found out he'd had any involvement in what had happened.

0~o~0

Night fell over the city like a suffocating blanket. Silence spread through the streets, even the criminals weary of drawing attention. In a city like Gotham anything could happen. Those that lived within its boarders had long since learned that if you drew attention you were asking for a death sentence. No one in power remained there for long.

The city had suffered for so long. Rot, chaos, and corruption was growing faster than it ever had. Through it all, anyone willing to help had been taken down swiftly and brutally, leaving their successors wary and scared.

It was on one of the tallest spires in the city that Bruce found refuge to think. His black cloak wrapped around him silently, hiding him in the darkness of night from prying eyes.

The moment that he had been forced through that portal he knew that something was wrong, something was different. A quick search through the internet as well as the differences in the city itself only confirmed his theory.

Rachel Dawes was killed by Dr. Crane when he dosed her with a high concentration of his fear gas. There was no antidote at that time and no one could save her.

Harvey Dent never became the White Knight of Gotham. He was killed when visiting his cousin who lived in the narrows at the time the League of Shadows had come through.

Bruce Wayne never grew up. He was killed along with his parents that night in the ally. The Wayne empire crumbled, leaving only the company to carry on the legacy.

Weeks ago the Wayne Manor, untouched for more than ten years, crumbled to dust under a raging inferno. The police couldn't be bothered to find out the cause.

Bruce, looking out over the darkened buildings and towering skyscrapers, felt his heart clench.

This was Gotham City alright, but it wasn't his Gotham. His Gotham was protected by their shadowed Knight, shielded from most of the horror by his interference, but this Gotham had never heard of Batman.

Bruce had heard that it was theoretically possibly to travel to other dimensions. He had even heard talk about it around Wayne Enterprises and the possibility of building something like that could do it.

He'd never thought he'd be on the other end of things, being summoned instead of being sent.

Even if they looked similar this was not his Gotham. His Gotham needed him and he needed to get home.

But first he needed to get some answers from the person who had created the machine that had pulled him from his home.

He needed to find Jackson Howl.

III

I hope all of you that read this like this chapter. Just so you know, the next few chapters will be better and you'll see some 'Batman Action and Intimidation'.

If you have time, please leave a review. Thank you.