Chapter Seven: Year Six (1944-1945)
"As the old saying goes, no man is an island. Oh, you can try to keep to yourself, maybe even succeed for a while. But you will need someone to be there to watch your back, to keep you safe and, most importantly, to keep you sane."
Author John Steed, writing in 'The Town of no Return', part of his famous 'Avengers' series, 1988
When stepping out in front of Dent and his gang, the Black Bat added herself to the legend of the Batman in the most dramatic way. Although never as celebrated as the Dark Knight himself, the Black Bat still defended the city and made her name alongside her partner. It was a shock to many to actually see that it was a woman who had taken on a similar mantle to Batman. Although Gotham was surprisingly forward-thinking in terms of opportunities for race and gender, the role of a female as a vigilante struck many as unbelievable, even sordid at first.
Despite any controversy that the Black Bat's gender may have caused, she proved herself worthy to bare the mantle of the Bat as she took on Dent and his remaining thugs. A thrown projectile saw Dent disarmed before being taken out with several blows directly to the torso and head. What fight remained in his gang left them after seeing their leader taken down so swiftly and the remainder surrendered, believing that Batman himself was not far behind. Before half past twelve, the hostages had been freed and the Black Bat had vanished.
Having made such an impact, the Black Bat would fade into the darkness afterwards, very rarely seen and even more elusive than the Batman. Her role over the next two years would be surrounded in as much mystery as much as anything else to do with the Dark Knight. Even when the Batman would have speculation over to his identity, to be addressed in a later chapter, the Black Bat had no such suspects that Batman had. Her identity will be a mystery that, barring any new evidence, shall remained unsolved.
It was a mystery that many sought an answer to right away with the press on the ground being the first to ask it. Speculation in the papers grew on a daily basis. Was she Batman's ally? His partner? Or even lover? The accusations and questions grew daily in the immediate aftermath of the Black Bat's first appearance, but the only thing that everyone could agree on was the name given to her be Alexander Knox. He had originally wanted 'Bat-Woman', but his editor, sceptical that a woman could do such acts, insisted on a more masculine name, the moniker chosen being a compromise.
The arrival of Black Bat didn't mean that things got smoother for Gotham. After all, although Dent had been brought in, the Joker and Crane were still at at large and Cobblepot had used the distractions of the last year to firmly cement his wealth and influence in Gotham. Nygma was also ready to strike, having convinced Dent to lay the blame for all his misfortunes on Batman, something that the latter happily did as he ranted to his hostages.
Actually arriving during the final stages of the hostage crisis, Nygma let his thoughts known as he demanded to talk to Dent, hoping to be seen to try and reason with him. The ploy worked as Dent had held several of Gotham's elite hostage and some of them were already sympathetic to Nygma due to earlier services rendered. While the vast majority of Gotham held Nygma and his views in contempt, the police consultant now had the resources and backing to continue his hunt for the Batman. Before he could continue his hunt though, he received an unexpected form of help in the shape of Jonathan Crane's return.
Having been hiding in a safehouse provided by Mayor Reeves since his escape, Crane had been working on creating another batch of his fear gas to unleash onto the populace,e ager to gain revenge on Batman and the city as a whole. The increasingly erratic and paranoid Mayor Reeves had given Crane all the resources he could want as he believed it was the only way left to take down Batman with the Joker vanished and Nygma seemingly distracted with other pursuits. Reeves' behaviour was starting to be noticed however as he feared an arrest for his crimes at any moment and used any excuse he could to avoid meeting with Commissioner Gordon.
When being told by Nygma that the consultant had a plan to take down the Batman then, Reeves eagerly welcomed him back into the fold, even telling Nygma about his plans with Crane. Astonished at such a revelation (Not so much at the actions themselves, but more that Reeves had been stupid enough to admit to them), Nygma decided to use it to his advantage, but not right away. Instead, he sat on the information until Crane actually struck to increase his own standing.
He didn't have to wait long. In his own sick mind, Crane was a scientist and felt the need to test his latest batch of fear gas before the true attack could take place. Looking to strike back at those he felt had oppressed him, Crane sought to attack the GCPD with a gas attack on a police station in Gotham's Coventry on the 20th June. The bomb that went through the station killed four people initially, while the gas which seeped out caused panic and hysteria in the building to increase the body count by fifteen. Officers, believing themselves to be amidst their worst fears, opened fire and otherwise panicked as the gas had its effect. It took the effort of numerous police units to bring down the riot and dozens had been injured by it.
It was at this point that Nygma made his appearance to the public in general, using several hired goons as he made his way to the safehouse Crane had been hiding. Using his goons to storm the apartment in Old Gotham, Nygma was happy to sit back as Crane had prepared for the Batman to arrive and had placed traps in his safehouse. Out of the twenty men that Nygma brought with him, eight died and three more were maimed before they eventually managed to break through to Crane himself.
Having secured their Prize, Nygma and his men called the police and ambulances in order to bring Crane in as well as tend to their wounded. These were, of course, soon followed by the press which Nygma used to his advantage. Claiming to have followed Crane's trail to this isolated apartment (Although not saying how), Nygma basked in the glow of the almost unanimous praise he received from the press for bringing Crane back into custody. A few voices spoke out against the consultant, most vocally James Gordon and Alexander Knox, both of whom saw Nygma as a glory seeker who risked too many lives rather than call in the proper authorities.
Nygma ploughed through such objections though, having the gratitude of Gotham's elite and had been redeemed in the eyes of others for bringing Crane in. The obvious exception was Mayor Reeves who now believed that everyone was conspiring against him as Nygma started to turn the screws on the Mayor, looking to blackmail him over the affair. Crane, surprisingly enough, remained quiet about Reeves' involvement in his hiding, having stored the majority of his fear gas in other properties of Reeves and not wanting to risk all his hard work being undone if he had the chance to escape once more.
Crane's hopes were to be dashed as an anonymous source dropped off deeds that proved Reeves' ownership of the property. When given this evidence, the police acted quickly on it, even though no one knew where the evidence had come from, the deeds and other files having been left on James Gordon's desk. While Batman was a suspect, it came out years later that Selina Kyle had been the one to send the evidence to the police, admitting to it after the statue of limitations on breaking and entering had fallen to the wayside. As to why she did it, Selina simply responded that she had heard rumours about Reeves and had done some digging herself. As to who she had heard the rumours from, she never stated.
On the 27th June, James Gordon, flanked by several officers, walked into Mayor Reeves' offices and arrested him on a list of offences. Reeves, having been on the brink for some time now, collapsed completely as he suffered a mental breakdown as he was taken in by police. Left a gibbering wreck, Reeves was sent to Arkham Asylum as he was obviously unfit to stand trial. Deputy Mayor Sebastian Hardy rose to the office of Mayor, but his own background was full of shady dealings and the scandal that had destroyed Reeves reflected on Hardy as well as people took a closer look at City Hall. With the election in November, it was obvious that it was going to be a cleansing that Gotham hadn't seen since the American Revolution.
As the back room deals started for the numerous candidates wanting to be Mayor vied for support, Nygma placed his own plans into action. He had not forgotten his earlier humiliation, believing that Batman had somehow 'cheated' in order to put Nygma off the trail of finding who was under the cowl. Believing that no one could be altruistic enough to become Batman without getting something in return, Nygma was willing to go to extremes in order to prove it. His machinations of the previous months had given him the backing and resources of Gotham's elite, which he put to good use. As if to further one up Batman, Nygma even hired an assistant to help him, taking on a young woman as his own Black Bat.
Jenna Duffy was a young, attractive woman that had been born and raised in Gotham. Under a flurry of publicity, Nygma announced her to the public, claiming that he had been in the market for a protégé and the Gotham born Duffy matched his own standards. In truth, it was just another way for Nygma to upstage Batman and he had no interest in Duffy as an intellectual equal. Instead, he was much more interested in her skills as a mechanic and carpenter, largely self taught in her father's workshop, along with a moral code that was easily swayed by large amounts of money.
As Nygma set Duffy to work on a secret project of his, the city had to contend with attention being brought onto black marketing as the war went on. With the limited supply of goods due to the demands of fighting the Axis powers, Oswald Cobblepot had made his move to corner the market in items that had were in high demand. Like prohibition did for the Falcone family, the war offered opportunities for criminals to expand their wealth by helping supply what people wanted.
As Cobblepot discovered though, he had little hope of ever returning to the glory days of the Falcone empire. Gotham had changed a great deal since the first appearance of the Batman and crime simply didn't pay as it had done. Many young men had either signed up for the war effort or had otherwise been enlisted. Corruption as a whole had diminished greatly as the Falcone family had been bankrupted with their efforts of fighting the police and Batman, with James Gordon having cleared out the GCPD of many of its worst elements. Along with the job programs put in place by the Wayne Foundation, working with Roosevelt's New Deal, many lower income families had opportunities that didn't include organised crime and took them.
Cobblepot's attempt to recreate the influence Carmine Falcone were doomed to failure then. What success he had in expanding his influence was greatly limited by the low levels of corruption and reinvigorated city that he now faced. When a raid took place on a van that was carrying ration booklets to Gotham, it was stopped short by the Black Bat taking down the gang before they could do too much damage.
Similar attempts be Cobblepot's gang were put down fast and hard by either the police or the Batman and Black Bat. The summer passed in relative peace as Cobblepot's operations were curbed until he simply decided to walk away in early August. What once would have been a lucrative source of revenue for organised crime instead turned out to be a dead end. Gotham had changed and was continuing to change for the better, even if it had to go through the chaos of the period.
As Cobblepot retreated to the few businesses he had managed to consolidate in the aftermath of killing Rupert Thorne, a special police unit was set up to tackle his crime syndicate in particular. As the last major bastion of organised crime in the city, Cobblepot's organisation became a major focus for the GCPD as the summer of 1944 remained relatively quiet. The largest event was the sentencing of David Cain for his attempt to murder James Gordon, along with numerous other offences.
Ever a professional, Cain had remained quiet about who had hired him. In fact, he hadn't given a word of testimony throughout his trial and had gone through it all stoically. As he was handed a life sentence, he barely even reacted and allowed himself to be led away. It was perhaps this submissive attitude which made people believe that he wasn't a threat, something that they came to regret later on.
Despite the war raging an ocean away, a calm had settled over Gotham City as the extreme crime which had plagued seemed to have gone. Those who had caused chaos and panic before were either vanished or all locked away and crime was at its lowest in the city's history. With the office of Mayor now open to someone who wasn't in the pocket of the mob, Gotham looked ready to turn over a new lead and head into a brighter future.
But, the time for the city to reach its heights had not yet arrived as people discovered when the Joker resurfaced in September. Having been in hiding for so long, even Gordon had come to believe that the Joker may have actually been dead and that the worst of the extreme crime had come to an end. This came crashing down on the 17th September as a corpse was found in Mayor Hardy's office, a note attached to it from the Joker promising that whoever stood to campaign against the 'real Mayor'. The body belonged to an aide of the Mayor, named Armand Krol, further striking at the institution as well as the fears of the populace.
The return of the Joker made the GCPD go on high alert as security tightened around Mayor Hardy and his upcoming challenger, Hamilton Hill. An attorney who had worked in numerous law firms in a long career, Hill had stepped up to be a candidate for Mayor, his honesty and experience with the various causes affecting the elite and common Gothamite both giving him a good chance. Campaigning on bringing honesty into City Hall and a continuation and expansion of the anti-poverty measures, Hill was all but certain to become the new Mayor after the November elections.
The death of Krol, signifying that the Joker had taken an interest in the election had thrown this all off balance however. Now, many were wondering if they'd even be safe by casting their vote and what plans that madman had in store for the city. They would get their answer as the Joker struck again, this time attacking a warehouse which was storing ballots for the upcoming election. After letting his gas seep through into the building, killing most inside, the Joker then left a box of his own ballots that only had his own name on them. Along the twelve corpses he left behind, the Joker had let everyone know of his true aims. In his own demented mind, he saw himself as the leader of a city that was fit to be turned into a chaotic wasteland.
Joker's claim to be the next Mayor made the panic over the election even worse. Those he had killed to simply drop off a box of ballot papers promised to grow as the election drew near, the threat of killing anyone who stood in his way loomed over the city once more. Commissioner Gordon once again had to focus the police on bringing in the Joker before even more damage could be done as special protection was placed around Hill and Mayor Hardy as the polling date loomed. The hunt for the Joker himself resumed rapidly, the city being turned upside down as the manhunt continued.
As this went on, it turned out Mayor Hardy shared some characteristics with his predecessor, namely, his paranoia. Believing that the police were using the Joker as an excuse to investigate previous corruption issues with him, Hardy refused as much protection as he reasonably could. He believed that Hill would be the next Mayor anyway, so the Joker would most likely go for him as a target. In this, Hardy vastly underestimated the Joker's ruthlessness and willingness to do anything to further his aims.
It was a grim three weeks as the Joker continued his attacks on buildings listed as polling stations for the next election, mostly settling for vandalism and fleeing before the police or Batman could arrive. Investigations into these attacks produced no pattern that could be discerned until it was the Batman himself who spotted it. After another attack on the 13th October, the police were called into an attack on a polling station in Coventry where the Joker once more managed to escape. As this happened however, the police were called to another polling station in Old Gotham where the Black Bat had been spotted in a fight with a group of men.
Arriving on the scene, the police found three men battered and tied along with the truth behind the Joker's plan. The attacks on buildings listed as polling stations had been a feint. While attacking some to draw in police attention, he had used hired men to infiltrate other polling stations while the attention was elsewhere. There, bombs had been planted in them which had been rigged with a trigger that could be set off at any time. It became apparent that the Joker's plan was to place as many explosives as he could in polling stations and set them off on election day. Even with a decreased turn out, the number of casualties could potentially have been in the hundreds.
The GCPD instantly went over every building set out for polling in a search for more explosives, discovering the true extent of the Joker's scheme. Each explosive device was destroyed safely and the scheme ruined, infuriating the Joker. With his attempt to cow the city of Gotham into submission and panic over the election failed, he decided to go for a more direct route. On a debate scheduled for 21st October between the two candidates, the Joker struck with the remains of his gang.
In a high school auditorium in Coventry, Hamilton Hill was making a reply to a question about his plans to protect the city in case of a plague outbreak similar to the Spanish Flu after the First World War when the Joker attacked. For once though, the Joker had proven himself to be predictable as the police protection had been ramped up over Hardy's objections. Not only that, but both the Batman and the Black Bat had been in the area, waiting for such an attack.
The Joker had hoped to use a van to crash through the doors of the auditorium, but instead crashed a barrier that had been erected by the police earlier. Having come at the police at such a speed, the Joker and the few men he had with him were already banged up as they left the van, only for the Dark Knights to descend upon him. Despite pulling out guns, the Joker's men were easily despatched by the Black Bat while Batman himself faced the Joker.
His plans frustrated and faced with failure as the police were quickly surrounding him, the Joker gave way to a full fledged rant. He attacked the Batman, saying that he was a coward who couldn't put on a policeman's badge and that, while he tried to put on the facade of a monster with his costume, the cowl still showed a part of his face, reminding everyone of the man underneath. Demanding to know why he did that, the Joker was driven to a fury by Batman's simple three word response.
"To mock you."
The Joker tried to kill the Batman on the spot, lunging in with a knife, but was disarmed by the Dark Knight as the police quickly moved to take him into custody. Their job done, the Batman and Black Bat faded into the night without anyone in the auditorium having realised what had happened. Only the crash had alerted people to anything that had gone amiss and it was quickly dismissed by some as a mere accident. When it was revealed what had happened, a fearful Mayor Hardy condemned Batman for putting lives in danger, earning himself several cat calls and boos from the crowd.
Hamilton Hill, although having criticised Batman in the past, must have sensed that this was his way to secure the election and instead praised the work of the GCPD and the Dark Knights, holding them up as defenders of the people against extreme criminals. The speech, as close to flip-flopping as one can get, nevertheless gave Hill a further boost at the polls, securing his election in November as Mayor of Gotham City.
This is not the time to go into Hill's administration, as transformative as it was for Gotham. His work managed to solidify the anti-poverty and anti-crime measures that had already been taken however and his is generally a positive legacy. Despite being a political animal at times, Hill managed to work on setting Gotham on the path to being the prosperous and functioning city it is today. What Gordon did in the police, the Batman did in the dark, Hill managed to do in City Hall.
With the capture of the Joker and the election having come and gone, peace had returned to Gotham once more. As ever though, it was not to last as Nygma put his long planned revenge into action. After completing his plans and setting up everything that was needed, he proceeded to kidnap three pro-Batman figures in the city on New Years Day, 1945. These were James Gordon, Alexander Knox, Lieutenant Crispus Allen, as well as kidnapping Selina Kyle. All were abducted from their homes, investigations into their houses showing that various drinks and foods had been spiked, allowing them to be carried away while the rest of the city was still celebrating the new year.
The first three had connections with Batman, Gordon having fought against the corruption of the city with the Dark Knight. Crispus Allen, the first African-American to rise to the rank of Liutenant in the GCPD and one of Gordon's key men in the department. And Knox, whose articles praising Batman had help shift the city's opinion on the man Nygma had deemed his rival. As his diaries revealed, Nygma had taken Kyle simply due to her comments about him, his petty jealousy having made her a target as well. At the scene of each kidnapping, a note with a riddle was found, as well as a bat drawn onto each note. The police were understandably perplexed at first, with the Bat-Signal being lit up as Lieutenant Harvey Bullock, temporarily taking command of the GCPD, reluctantly called in the Batman.
Despite being close to Gordon, Bullock's constant criticisms of the Batman was almost certainly the reason to not be among the four victims. It was enough to set him on edge to actually call the Dark Knight in to deal with the riddles dealt with in the notes. Even those who had spent the time since the discovery of the kidnappings and the arrival of Batman were confused by their meaning:
"If you look at the numbers on my face, you won't find thirteen any place."
"Tear one off and scratch my head; what was once red is black instead."
"The eight of us go forth, not back, to protect our king from a foe's attack."
"We're five little items of an everyday sort; you'll find us all in 'a tennis court'."
The answers to each riddle (Clock, match, pawn and vowels) gave no clue as to where any of the victims were held or who had taken them. Testimony from the victims and Nygma himself afterwards led to the solution being in the riddles themselves. Each riddle had a number (Thirteen, one, eight and five) that corresponded to a letter of the alphabet (M, A, H and E) which was where the solution was supposed to reside. By putting the second and third number/letter together, the letter 'R' would be used instead leading to the final message of 'MRE'. This would lead to the culprit by separating the letters into Mr. E or 'mystery' and another word for that being enigma. Or, E. Nygma.
Needless to say, when Nygma was put in front of a court, his insanity plea defence rested greatly on his actions surrounding these riddles.
With the clues given to his identity, Nygma then waited in the warehouse he had modified by Jenna Duffy. Bought using the money given to him by the elite of Gotham, Nygma had left a clear paper trail for anyone who had found the link between him and the kidnappings to follow. Each of the victims had been placed in a modified death trap that was not only meant for them, but for the Batman when he arrived. Nygma's reasoning was that the Batman would show up, to prove his intellect against Nygma if nothing else, attempt to rescue one of those trapped and then die in the attempt. Nygma would then kill the remaining three and spin the tale that Batman had been behind the kidnappings and Nygma had arrived too late to stop the heinous actions of an obvious madman.
It took until the 3rd January before the Batman had managed to solve the riddles and track Nygma down to his warehouse along Port Adams. Proving himself capable of some foresight, Nygma had rigged each entrance to the building so that he would know when the Batman would arrive, and the task that lay ahead of him. With the threat of all the hostages being killed if the Black Bat also made her way into the warehouse, it was just Batman who had to face Nygma's challenge. Having to take on Nygma's challenges alone, the Batman was told that he would have to brave through four death-traps to rescue each hostage, dying if he failed to rescue them in time.
With little time to spare, the Batman went to help James Gordon first, entering a specially built chamber that began to flood the instant the door was sealed tight. Nygma stopped to watch and taunt from a safe place, leading to his downfall as he lost focus on the other hostages. Selina Kyle was, by her own admission, a woman who hated to be ignored. In this case, it was a blessing as she was finally free to try and escape her bonds without Nygma noticing the attempt. Not only versed in breaking into buildings with high security, she had also trained herself in escaping from a large host of situations, including bondage.
As soon as Nygma's attention had turned to the Batman entering the warehouse, Selina Kyle finally had her chance to escape without being noticed. Taking it fully, she went on to pull herself free and, showing more nobility than someone would expect from a self-confessed thief, rescued both Crispin Allen and Alexander Knox from their own traps. They managed to get free in time to witness Nygma having a break down as his carefully orchestrated plans came crashing down in front of him.
It says a lot about Edward Nygma as a person that he honestly believed Batman would see what was happening as an intellectual challenge, a contest of egos even if lives were on the line. Nygma had expected Batman to free Gordon, or abandon him to pick the intricate locking system on the door to free himself. Instead, Batman freed Gordon and then used the table he had been bound to as cover before blowing a hole through the wall.
For Nygma, this was an affront and proof that Batman was nothing more than an over-glorified cheater that couldn't match his level. Screaming that Batman wasn't up to his level, Nygma was completely oblivious to Crispus Allen until the police officer slammed him against a wall and placed him under arrest. Taken in, Nygma spent the entire time practically screaming that nothing had been proven and that Batman wasn't close to being his equal.
Over the next week, all of Nygma's secrets and dirty deeds were displayed as the police and press investigated him, Jenna Duffy quickly fleeing the state once she realised just how bad things were looking. His crimes were put on display and he was taken to court on multiple counts, including from endangerment of life, obstruction of justice, attempted murder and kidnapping. His rich 'friends' having deserted him, Nygma was now on his own to face trial for his actions.
For her part, Selina Kyle enjoyed a great amount of publicity for saving Knox and Allen, her previous crimes all but forgotten as she basked in the glow of the limelight and enjoying it thoroughly. Her later marriage to Bruce Wayne could be seen as starting at this period, after being invited to a charity ball that saw the two meet for the first time.
Once again, the New Year had brought strain, but also hope for Gotham. Five months passed with the trials of the extreme criminals being the only major incidents within the city itself. The Joker was given a quick trial and handed the death sentence, as was Jonathan Crane. A sense of relief passed over the city, many starting to believe that with the worst of the criminal element about to get what they deserved and that Gotham had finally turned the page.
Winter had passed and Gotham was into spring when, on the 13th May, Arkham Asylum reported the death of former Mayor Reeves due to heart complications. For many, this wasn't a great surprise as Reeves' downfall had led to a complete mental and physical collapse for the man. Behind the announcement though were more sinister actions, as Doctor Hugo Strange had started his own plan that would ensure the downfall of the Batman.
Bit slower on getting this one done but seemed to have turned out well.:
Opin: Yes, Cassandra Cain's one of my favourites as well and doesn't really seem to get much interest, which is a shame. Glad you enjoyed her appearance.
Once again, thanks to all those who've favourited and commented. Hope you enjoy this latest chapter as well.