Season 2 Episode 5: Dr. Elliot
My name is Bruce Wayne. When I was 8 years old, my parents were killed by an evil. And so I made a promise to fight that evil. I traveled the world for 18 years, and returned to Gotham City to protect it. Now I have new allies, helping me in my crusade, but I also have new enemies. New threats have arrived in my city, and I must stop them. I am vengeance. I am the night. I am the Batman.
Previously on the Batman...
The Mutant gang rules over Gotham City
Batman and Robin now have the location of the Mutant leader
The Mutant gang still has Venom
Batman is being stalked
Thomas Elliot says he wants to get back in touch with Batman. You remember, near the end of Season One?
Bruce Wayne's private jet lands on a runway. He steps out and sees his limo drive up. Dick hops out of the plane. They both walk into the limo.
"I really love how fancy limos are." Dick says.
The limo drives up to a penthouse and Bruce and Dick go inside. The penthouse is still being rebuilt a little.
"So what are we doing tonight?" Dick asks.
"A Venom storage. There's dozens of crates hidden somewhere in this city holding the Venom. The Mutant leader is strong enough even without Venom. If we don't get rid of the storage here, where they're getting the Venom from, then it might be impossible to stop the gang." Bruce says.
"So where do we find the Venom in this destroyed city?"
"A warehouse near the heart of the city. Hopefully after the earthquake, it's already destroyed."
"And we came here for nothing? Sure. Great."
They look out the window and see the city of Metropolis still being rebuilt.
The Batman
That night, Batman and Robin wait in what little shadows there are. Even when everything's broken, the lights make the city look like Times Square.
"Doesn't this city EVER get dark?" Robin asks.
"Doesn't matter. The Venom's just down there." Batman says and jumps off the tall building towards the warehouse.
He opens up his cape and glides, breaking through the window.
"Why did we even wait until nighttime?" Robin asks himself and jumps.
We must always wait until night to strike. No one will find the Batman as intimidating during the day.
Robin breaks through the window and lands.
"Did you miss us?!" Robin yells.
He looks around at the warehouse and it's empty.
"Oh. Where is everyone?" Robin asks.
"Probably fled back to Gotham after the earthquake." Batman explains as he places a bomb onto a crate.
"Kinda disappointed. I was expecting a fight."
"Don't be."
Robin starts placing bombs on the Venom as well. Batman looks in one of the crates and sees some pills.
"From the look of this, they've improved the drug. I'll have to analyze it." Batman says.
Batman puts the Venom into his belt.
"Now let's get ready to destroy this." Batman announces.
Batman and Robin grapple out of the warehouse and it blows up. Batman and Robin stand on the side of the building and look down at the fire.
"Just when things were being rebuilt, we had to come along. Do you feel bad?" Robin asks.
"...we have to make our way back to Gotham."
"HE DESTROYED THE VENOM?!" The leader yells.
"Yeah." The Mutant replies.
"GREAT. THAT'S GREAT! PERFECT EVEN! NOW ALL WE HAVE LEFT IS THE SHORT SUPPLY WE ALREADY OWN AND THAT STUPID DOCTOR WHO MAKES THE CRAP!"
"What do you want to do?"
"GET THE BASTARD! I WANT HIM HERE NOW! WE NEED THE VENOM!"
"...by bastard, do you mean-"
"YES! THE FUCKING DOCTOR! IT'S THAT SIMPLE, YOU IDIOT!"
The Mutant runs off. Watching this from afar is Batman and Robin.
"We can't let them get to the manufacturer. If they do, then we won't be able to destroy the full supply of Venom." Batman says.
"Why can't we just take down the Mutant gang?" Robin asks.
"Because they'll always be here. The Venom could move and get lost somewhere in this city. Or maybe even move to other places like Keystone or back to Metropolis. The Venom is more important."
"Why don't we just split up?"
"Do you think you could take on the leader?"
"...no."
"Not now anyways. We have to get to that manufacturer before they do."
The Mutants are losing. We're slowly taking everything they need away from them. Eventually, when nothing's left, we can take them down easily.
A car drives up to a small apartment building and two Mutants step out and run up the steps. They run inside with shotguns and find the manufacturer in his living room which he turned into a lab. They grab him and drag him out of the building and push him into the car.
The car starts to drive off. Batman jumps across the buildings after the car. He would reach up to ledges and runs across buildings. He jumps off and glides. He grapples to another building and glides to a smaller building. He runs towards the car as they turn a corner. He jumps to another building and chases after it on the left side of the road.
Batman climbs up to a taller building. He runs and sees a huge gap between a smaller building. He grapples to a taller building a block away and grapples across the road. As he grapples over an alley, the hook attached to the building starts getting loose.
He gets higher and the hook gets looser and looser until he falls all the way down from the taller building.
No. The hook! I'm not ready. I won't survive this fall if I don't slow it down.
Batman sees a gargoyle on a smaller building which he grabs onto. A cracking sound is heard and the gargoyle breaks.
My shoulder has just dislocated. I should've been able to hold onto that. Wasn't strong enough.
He falls down the alley and lands in a pile of trash. He lies there, unconscious, and blood spills from his cowl. A group of street thugs walk down the alley and see Batman lying there.
"Well, well, well. Look who fell into hell." One of the thugs say.
"Master Bruce? Master Bruce!" Alfred yells from the Batcave. He then calls Robin.
"Master Grayson, Bruce is hurt. He's in trouble and needs your help." Alfred says.
Robin dive bombs and lands on top of the car.
"Holy shit!" The Mutant yells.
"I'll be right there!" Robin yells.
He places a tracker on the car and grapples up to the tall building. When he gets up, he glides to the alley. He sees the thugs ganging up on the body of Batman.
Robin reaches for his belt and throws several shurikens at the thugs. He lands and beats the shit out of the thugs. After he does, he runs over to Batman's body.
"Alfred, Batman's bleeding out." Robin says.
He tries dragging him but he hears a bone crack.
"Dammit."
Then the Batmobile rolls up just outside of the alley.
"The Batmobile should be there right now." Alfred says.
"I see it." Robin says.
Robin pulls Batman into the Batmobile and he hops in after him. The Batmobile drives back to the Batcave and Robin drags Batman into the cave. Alfred runs out and helps Robin.
They put Bruce on the operating table and take off his cowl. Blood drips from his forehead. His shoulder is dislocated. His leg is bruised.
"I'll stitch him up." Alfred says.
Robin nods.
A few hours later, Dick sits in a chair, his chin in his hand, staring at the floor. Alfred ties the bandage around Bruce's head.
"He okay?" Dick asks.
"He'll live. For now. But he's in a coma. His skull was fractured and brain was slightly damaged. I can heal wounds, but I'm not sure if even I can help him." Alfred explains.
"If we can't help him, then he won't wake up. Alive, technically, but...he won't wake up from his coma."
Dick drops his head into his hands. That's when they hear tapping. He looks up and Alfred does too, and see Bruce's finger tapping.
"He's half conscious." Alfred says, finally understanding.
"Well, great, he can tap. But how's that supposed to help us?" Dick asks.
"...it's Morse code."
"How the hell does Bruce know Morse code?"
"He traveled the world for many years. Remember Dick?"
"Yeah, but why would he learn a code you would only need during the Civil War?"
"Well, maybe it's not JUST useful during the Civil War. I't also useful during situations today. Like this one."
"No way in hell anyone can be that prepared."
...
"What is he saying anyways?" Dick asks.
"...Thomas..."
"As in Thomas Wayne?"
"Oh no...wait...Elliot...Thomas Elliot..."
"Wasn't that his friend as a kid or something?"
"Exactly. He's a surgeon. Clever, Master Bruce."
Bruce is wheeled into the operation room at Gotham General. All the other surgeons stand and wait around when Thomas walks in.
"A car crash? Bruce sure does have to obey the rules of the road. Alright. What's the damage?" Tommy asks.
"Fractured skull. His butler tried to stitch it up as best he could but..." One of the surgeons explains.
"He's in a coma? Okay. Got it. Now let's get to work." Tommy says.
Alfred and Dick patiently wait outside the room. That's when Tommy walks out.
"The operation is done. Bruce is alive and well. He'll wake up in a few hours, and then he'll be ready to go." Tommy explains.
"Thank you, Mr. Elliot." Alfred says.
"You know, when I said I wanted to catch up with him, I wasn't expecting to have to perform brain surgery on him."
"Yes, but certainly after this, you two will have to catch up."
"Good. I'll be excited to. I'll see you guys, later."
Tommy walks off.
The next day, Bruce sits in his chair in the Batcave, thinking.
I wasn't strong enough. I fell from the grappling hook and fell. I wasn't strong enough to hold onto the gargoyle, and that itself dislocated my shoulder. And even with that, I wasn't strong enough to bear the fall. My skull fractured. I was nearly in a coma for life. I couldn't heal, I couldn't think fast enough to glide or fire the hook again. And that cost me. Now the Mutants have more Venom, and I can't even stop them with a recovering skull and injured arm.
Bruce checks on the Batcomputer again.
This new Venom is much stronger then the last one. They're perfecting it. It'll nearly be impossible to take down the Mutant leader while still recovering from injuries, and now he has a drug to make him even stronger, and an army to back him up. I have failed. I wasn't strong enough.
Bruce pulls out the bottle of pills.
Maybe it's time to even the playing field.
He opens up the bottle, and takes out one pill.
"Bruce!"
Bruce turns and sees Dick walking up to him.
"Me and Alfred were looking at the grappling hook, and we found something you should know." Dick says.
"And what's that?"
"We thought you fell because the hook wasn't strong enough and couldn't stay attached to the building, but that wasn't the case."
"Then what was?"
"I checked...and look."
Dick holds up the grappling hook, and shows the rope, only the hook isn't attached to the end.
"Where's the hook?" Bruce asks.
"It's still on the side of the building. It's the rope that snapped."
"Impossible. The rope was made strong. It couldn't just snap like that. It was made to support my body weight."
"I know. Which means it didn't just snap."
"...it was cut."
"But by who?"
The Batman
Next Time on the Batman: Shadow (2x6)
Batman struggles with Venom, as they try to solve the mystery of who cut the bat rope and why. This mystery slowly leads back to the stalker, stalking Batman and his team around the city, and Batman and Robin demand some answers.
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