Chapter 12

Considering everything that had happened in Gotham City over the years, it was surprising that not until three years ago someone had begun the process of taking down the history of the city's seamy underbelly. For that matter, the only reason that an official record of events had occurred was because of another in a long line of tragic events in the city's history--- the shooting of Barbara Gordon, then known as Batgirl. Once the change of her role had been thrust upon her, she had begun to keep records not only of what was happening but of what had happened before--- though her information was based more on her own research and experiences rather than the material she had received from Batman.

Bruce Wayne had been keeping logs of his actions in Gotham almost since the beginning of taking the mantle of Batman, but most of those records were sparse and textbook like with little color or horror that actually came with these terrifying events. Part of this was because his incredible memory and intellect made knowing only the bare bones essential for his work; his mind could easily fill in the rest, but most of this was for the sake of his own sanity. To look too deeply into the abyss that his city would be enough to drive a man to madness--- a place that he was close to on a regular basis anyway. For the sake of being able to maintain the stoic face that he needed to protect Gotham City, he did all that he could to keep this to himself.

That had all changed five years ago when a chemically-enhanced madman known as Bane had attempted to destroy him--- and had come damn close to doing it. By arranging a prison break at Arkham and releasing nearly all of the horrible men and women that the asylum had stored, Bane had managed to slowly and efficiently wear down as well as physically and mentally exhaust the considerable energy and fortitude that Batman possessed. Then, when he was at his weakest, the criminal, fueled by a powerful substance known as Venom, had attacked, fought, and left Bruce Wayne paralyzed.

Had Gotham City known what had happened to him that night everything that Bruce had worked for almost fifteen years would have fallen apart. The only reason it did not was because he had taken a huge risk and given the mantle to another man—Jean-Paul Valley and told him to continue his work.

Even though he had no choice, it was a huge error. Though physically up to the challenge, Valley was not capable of restraining his violent impulses. As he would later hear second- hand through Barbara Gordon and Tim Drake, Valley had suffered the equivalent of a mental breakdown, believing that he--- and he alone--- was Batman. By the time Bruce had recuperated from his injuries, Valley had become so ensconced in his role that he refused to relinquish it. It had taken a lot of time and energy for Bruce to defeat Jean-Paul--- so much so that after he emerged victorious, he had briefly--- but seriously--- considered giving up the mantle of Batman. Eventually he did, but only after a serious realization about how much he was truly drawn to the kind of violence that he had told himself he deplored.

He had since made himself more open to help--- he had given Tim more responsibility and allowed greater access than he had the two other men who had borne the Robin's outfit. He had managed to work out an understanding with Dick even though they rarely saw eye to eye, and even after Barbara had been shot, she continued to provide an invaluable service as Oracle. He valued the intelligence that she gathered from the city tremendously, but to a certain extent he was more grateful for her agreeing to begin keeping longer and more in-depth records of what had happened before, during, and after her coming on to the scene as Batgirl. The more he reflected on it, he was beginning to realize the truth behind a statement Eugene O'Neill had made long ago: "There is no present or future—only the past happening over and over again now."

Despite everything that had happened over his long experience as Batman, he still believed the only time he had ever felt overwhelmed by the situation in Gotham had been after the asylum break five years ago. Now as he looked at his screen over the city of Gotham as he rode in the Batmobile towards Crime Alley, it was with genuine concern that he was beginning to feel that it was going to happen again.

"Have you made any progress as to what's happening on Third?" Batman was talking to Oracle as she monitored the city from the clock tower. The small tremor in his voice would have been unnoticeable even to those who knew him very closely, but for someone whose iron-clad stoicism was his trademark, it was a very big sign as to how unsettled he was becoming.

Barbara must have noted it, but there was no sign in her voice. "It appears that two of the low-level gangs are involved in a firefight."

"Where are the police?"

"They tried getting over there ten minutes ago but nearly got shot to pieces."

"Who seems to have the advantage?"

"That's just it," said Oracle unbelievingly. "I don't think either of them does. According to my source, they've been shooting at each other for an hour but nobody's dropped yet. So either they're really bad shots or---"

"We've got two undead street gangs," Batman shook his head. "Where the hell is Faith?" The level of disdain in his voice was a lot more marked than his earlier fright.

"According to Andrew, she's trying to handle a nest near WayneTech. "

"She hasn't been in contact with you?" he asked, now sounding openly hostile.

"We've had this discussion about keeping in contact before," Barbara was starting to sound pissed as well. "According to her, slaying is not something that can be interrupted by constantly phoning home."

The familiar mixture of irritation and fury that Batman felt towards the Slayer was beginning to arise again. "That's her attitude even when innocent people's lives are at stake?"

Oracle's tone abruptly became more sympathetic. "According to her, innocent lives are always at stake, and sometimes you have to pick and choose no matter what the consequences may be."

This was close enough to home that Batman felt some of his hostility subside. "Have the gangs changed their targets to the other building yet?" he asked abruptly.

"Not yet but I can't imagine that remaining the status quo," said Barbara. "How far out are you?"

"Less than five minutes," he answered. "But these two incidents aren't our only problems."

"I'll get in touch with Robin and Nightwing," Barbara said. "But they're pretty busy too. Gotham City's becoming hotter every day. We can't keep putting out fires."

"I know that," said Batman. "We have to figure this out." He paused. "All of us."

Batman wasn't happy about having to ask for outside help when he contacted the Watchers Council, and when he heard how Faith had beaten up five criminals in order to introduce herself, he became even less enthusiastic about doing so. The only person less pleased about what had happened was Jim. Indeed, if you had asked Gordon what bothered him more--- the fact that his city was now being menaced by vampires or the fact that he had to rely on an ex-felon for help destroying the menace--- Bruce wasn't sure what the answer would be.

The others in the small circle of crime-fighters were far less distraught about the idea. Dick had been sold on Faith after seeing her take out a gang of vampires who had been terrorizing part of his neighborhood. Tim— Bruce wasn't sure, but he thought that his young ward was halfway in love with her. He had certainly been more than willing to fill her in on some of the more obvious ugliness in Gotham.

Barbara was initially impressed by her work—but when she did some high level hackings to find out just why she had been arrested, she became nearly as upset as her father. They were even less happy to find that Andrew Grusynzski, the 'Watcher' that they had sent with Faith, had a rap sheet as well. However, Faith had been adamant in saying she was going to 'handle the vamp problem in Gotham with or without the caped ones help".

Dick, who had seen her in action and had sparred with her, was convinced that she could fight him to a draw. Batman, who hadn't wanted to make contact with this woman until he absolutely had to, now realized that he would have to size her up himself before determining how to handle her.

To see that the meeting didn't go well would have been like calling Gettysburg a minor skirmish. Batman could tell right away that Faith was itching for a fight. He decided that he would keep this conversation direct and to the point.

"Gotham City has a vampire problem," he had stated when they met on the rooftop of an abandoned warehouse that the Penguin had once considered his territory.

"Gee, what gave it away?" The dark-haired women had asked sarcastically. "The fact that dead people kept showing up with puncture marks on their necks or that corpses kept vanishing from the morgue?"

The conversation went downhill from there. Even though they agreed on the basic problem--- that Gotham City was teaming with undead and someone needed to handle it--- they were absolutely divided on the approach. Batman had wanted an organized plan of attack so that he and his people could keep the vampire menace in check. Faith clearly wanted their assistance in handling the criminal end of the enterprise but as to handling the vampires themselves, she preferred to fly solo. Batman was astonished by her nerve.

"This is my city," he said. "These creatures are violating it and the last thing I need is some loose cannon creating more chaos."

Faith had looked at him as if he had to be joking. "First of all, you've got a problem with a lone vigilante fighting evil in this city? They didn't tell me you were funny." Before he had a chance to react to this, she hurried on: "I understand that Gotham is your territory. I also think that if any normal person on this earth is capable of handling this vampire threat on his own, it is you."

Batman hadn't been (and still wasn't) sure if he had been complimented or insulted. "I've been handling crime in this city for nearly twenty years," he said brusquely.

"Yes, and for that you should be commended," Faith's voice had taken a condescending tone that Batman did not care for at all. "But let me make this absolutely clear. You are human. Vampires are not. They are very capable of outthinking, outwitting and outlasting anybody who has a pulse. Even if they weren't, my guess is that there are hundreds in Gotham City right now. You go in against a big enough group of them unprepared---" Faith trailed off. "If you're lucky, they will only kill you."

"And if I'm not?"

She fixed him with a stare. "I think you know what will happen if you're not."

Batman knew what she was implying and had decided to try a different tack. "I've done a bit of reading about vampires and vampire Slayers. "

Faith looked surprised. "That's strange considering that most of the books on it have been destroyed or are out of the reach of most people."

Batman knew this too but wasn't about to tell her that Bruce Wayne's wealth and prestige had managed to ferret out some of the more obscure books from some of the darkest corners of the earth. "I understand that the Slayer is imbued with some kind of superhuman power."

"That's one way of putting it," Faith had spoken with a wryness that Bruce figured only a Slayer could understand.

"I also read that even with this power, they don't live for very long."

She had been quiet for a moment. "One can only fight the armies of the undead for so long before you eventually get beaten."

"What are the odds that you won't get killed before you're finished here?"

"I don't know," said Faith. "What are the odds that one of the hundreds of criminals in Gotham won't manage to kill you?" Before Batman could respond, she had added. "The numbers are lousy but----" She fumbled for a word for a moment, "people like us can't think about what might happen. We have to fight in the now." She had looked at Batman. "You don't like me. You don't trust me. That's alright. I don't like or trust you much either, but right now we are fighting against the same enemy and that's all that matters. So the choice is simple: we live together or we die apart."

Having it stated so plainly; Batman realized that Faith was right, but he also knew that she wasn't telling him everything. Therefore, he couldn't completely trust her and her friends; and therefore, he couldn't let her in all the way. So he had asked her to demonstrate her skills on some real vampires and help tell him and his colleagues what they needed to know.

Watching her fight was impressive. Her basic technique was unplanned and rough, but she moved and fought with a grace and swiftness that Batman had only seen from the highest ranked martial arts masters. He had used a miniature camera to film her in action and was, after several hours of intense viewing, able to comprehend the power and energy required to kill a vampire. Combined with research he had been doing since he had identified the problem and a few minor adjustments to his utility belt, three days after Faith had arrived in town Batman knew how to kill a vampire.

Actually being able to do it was another story. Despite the fact that he knew vampires were already dead and that they would kill him if he did not kill them first, all his years of training made it difficult to overcome what had been the most important principle of his life as a superhero: I will not take a life. Furthermore, after seeing Faith in action for just a few minutes, he knew something for a certainty: she got off on it. Only a little but it was obvious that she did. Considering how close the darkness in him was to the surface, he was very reluctant to cross this particular threshold. In the end, he had no choice. There was no such thing as incapacitated vampire.

The first one had been the hardest. Using a thermal imaging device, he had gone locating a particularly mean one in Crime Alley. The vampire was clearly impressed with his own abilities and had gone right at him. Batman had incapacitated him with a flash grenade then hit him with a test tube filled with water from one of the biggest churches in Gotham. The vamp had been down but not out. He had made one more run at Batman, at which point Batman had pulled out a stake and stabbed the vamp in the heart. The look of surprise on the vamp's face was something that he didn't think he would ever forget. For the barest of instants he thought that he was going to be sick but it quickly passed. The fact that the vampire turned to dust helped a great deal. He didn't know if he would have been able to do this if he had climb over the bodies of vamps he had taken out.

In the six days since then Batman had staked forty-five vampires. During the same week Tim and Dick had become nearly as efficient at staking vampires as Faith was. They had become so effective that Bruce didn't think that they required the services of Faith and her team any longer. However, he had gotten a good read on Faith and he knew that unless he challenged her to a fight and defeated her, she was not going anywhere. For that matter, he wasn't certain that if he beat her in a fight that she'd go. He had seen the look of determination in her eyes. It was the look of someone who did not accept defeat—no matter whose hands it came by.

So Batman had accepted that Faith and her people were going to be in Gotham for awhile and that he and his friends were going to have to work with them. It did not, however, mean that he was going to let Faith, Andrew, and the mysterious character known as William (who Batman had only heard about second-hand and wasn't sure that he trusted) in all the way. None of them had even a hint of what Bruce Wayne's relationship to Batman was--- they had only met with him in locations pre-picked by him. When Faith went on one of her 'patrols' she was always followed from a discreet distance by Robin or Nightwing. Similarly, Oracle had not given Andrew (who Bruce assumed was Faith's Watcher) access to the technology and resources that she had assembled. She had also not revealed the reach that Barbara Gordon had in the city.

Unfortunately, this part of Oracle's plan had backfired when Andrew had realized her masquerade three days before. The problem was magnified tenfold when nearly simultaneously Faith had told Nightwing that she did not like being followed while she worked. The young man had shown a righteous indignation that neither Barbara nor Bruce had thought he was capable of. He had then made a demand so outrageous that (even as she was paying lip service to it) she was tremendously tempted to call him on it. She was only stymied when Faith had told Dick that she agreed with Andrew's demand one hundred percent. When Batman heard it, he was just as astonished. However, having done some research on the company that they worked for, he believed that Angel-Slayer was capable of carrying it out.

"Do you know what will happen to this city if it comes out that we gave in to blatant extortion?" Barbara had asked incredulously.

"I know that," Bruce had then said the next words with great reluctance. "But I also know what will happen to this city if it gets out that we are unable to handle Gotham by ourselves."

"So you're going to give them what they want?"

Batman had thought for a few seconds before answering. "Not all of it." He had then laid it out for Barbara. They would allow the Angel-Slayer people more access to Oracle's records then they had been given. They would also allow Faith to patrol the city by herself while the other major crime fighters in the city were in different sectors of Gotham. However, Faith would keep in touch with Batman through a scrambler phone designed by WayneTech--- which also had a tracking device Batman had designed. Similarly, Andrew's searches through the communications of law breakers ad law enforcers alike would be monitored by Bruce through a trapdoor program that he and Barbara had designed years before.

"Isn't there a chance that they'll figure out that we've been playing with them and they'll get even more pissed?" Tim had asked.

"Both of these safeguards are so well disguised that it'll be a while before they figure out something's amiss." Bruce had said. "Hopefully, by the time that they do we will have figured a way to work around them."

"That's a big risk to take."

"Right now, we have much bigger problems than offending the people we're working with." Bruce had grimly countered. "We need to get a handle on Gotham. They know how to do it. Anything else has to be secondary."

In the past week everything had been working efficiently. Vampire activity in Gotham had slowed dramatically. The 'vampire like slayings' that had been filling the papers for weeks became less and less of a story as the general vampire population got under control.

Unfortunately, the problems with the vampire-related syndicate activities had been getting noticeably worse. The deaths of the gangsters and enforcers in the city had fallen almost to nothing over the past couple of weeks, but Batman was sure that this was because the man in charge of those murders--- whoever he was --- had finished with that part of his plan and was now on to far more subtle manipulations.

Efforts to gain any further information about this vampire kingpin --- Nicholae--- were not going well. William had made contact through Andrew, before he had set up shop with Oracle, and had told him that he had managed to get in with one of the lower-downs on the food chain. However, that was the last time anyone had heard from him in a week. Andrew had told the others that William was in deep cover and had to maintain silence. Tim had asked Andrew if William was reliable who had answered by saying that 'cloak and dagger was something he had perfected.' No one had been comfortable with that but Bruce realized they had no choice, at least for now.

Worse still, they couldn't afford to give this their full attention. The break at Arkham had brought back unpleasant memories for a lot of people. The search for the seven inmates had procured a mixed degree of success. Four of the inmates--- including the Holiday Killer and the Ventriloquist--- had been recaptured, but two of the ones still free--- Two-Face and Maxie Zeus--- were making a lot of trouble.

The one who everybody was most afraid of--- the Joker--- had been very quiet. In fact, no one had even seen the man since his escape. This did not allay Batman's fear in the slightest. If the city was a tinderbox, the Joker could very likely be the match that set it off.

Everyone in the small circle of crime fighters/vampire killers was sure that the break from Arkham had been arranged by Nicholae, but whether it was part of his larger plan or merely a distraction no one was sure. Having gone through something like this five years ago, Batman was pretty sure that it was more the former than the latter. What he didn't know (and was very concerned about) was whether he was the one Nicholae was trying to keep occupied or if he was trying to flush out Faith and Angel-Slayer.

The problem was, Batman thought to himself as he parked the Batmobile and prepared to wade into the undead street fight that was taking place in front of him, Nicholae was doing a brilliant job of keeping everybody so busy that they had almost no time to think, and being in that state nearly twenty-four seven was dangerous for everybody concerned.

Upon the arrival of Batman, both street gangs looked up from the rampage of violence they were currently raining down on Third Avenue. Batman did a quick head count--- eleven vampire gang-bangers were shooting at each other. In the ten seconds it took for them to realize that they were no longer alone, they fired off eight shots, three of which hit flesh. It was clear that they had moved beyond attacking each other and were taking their violence out on the neighborhood.

A tall man with dyed red hair and a tattoo of a skull on the back of his leather jacket was the first to react. "Well, if it ain't the Batmunch!" He laughed scornfully as he began to walk over. "I'm betting that he's come to break up our little get-together."

"Well, guess we better do what every skell in this sinkhole town does," said a Hispanic gang-banger with a huge rip in his shirt, "and get the fuck out of his way! Otherwise we'd be setting a bad example for the kiddies!"

As was his way Bruce gave no sign that he had heard anything the gang members had said; he merely continued his silent approach. He felt the coolness of the Batman flow through him as he prepared to fight.

"Uh-oh!" said the first gang-banger. "Looks like he's pissed off at us!" He clapped his hands together. "How 'bout we show this wannabe what a real Batman is ----"

Suddenly he and three of the gang members closest to Batman gave a scream of pain. In the time they had spent mocking him, Batman had hurtled a flash grenade. The four of them had caught the brunt of the fire. This didn't kill any of them but it hurt them enough so that their faces had changed.

Batman preferred killing vampires when their evil was obvious.

Upset that their party was being spoiled, the vampires began firing at Batman. Unfortunately for them, it took ten seconds and twenty bullets to realize the Kevlar part of his suit made their shots as useless on him as they were on them. Even more unfortunately, in those ten seconds Batman unclipped two test tubes filled with holy water from his utility belt and threw them at the vamps. Three of the vampires took the brunt of the liquid in the face and began to howl in agony. One took so much fluid that his face was nearly burned off.

"Get--- that---- bast---" the vamp managed to yell before the Batarang that Bruce had thrown cut the rest of his head off his neck. He dissolved into dust.

Some of the smarter vampires began to run away. Batman had no intention of letting any more of them do so. He went to his belt one more time and removed the customized weapon he had made a week earlier--- a combination stake-stiletto.

Suddenly he was moving swiftly and fluidly (almost Slayer-like, in point of fact). Four of the remaining vampires had been so badly burned and scarred by the first two assaults that they were almost defenseless. They fought hard nevertheless, but in five minutes he and his stiletto had turned them into dust in the wind.

Batman looked up to see that only three vampires remained. They all charged him, trying to make a wall of bodies that not even the Bat could penetrate.

He leapt at the vampire, and with a series of jujitsu punches and kicks had managed to separate them into individual vamps. He then drove his stiletto through their chests: one, two, three.

Batman looked around to find himself alone which was probably for the best. Fighting and killing seven vampires in ten minutes is a difficult task if you're a Slayer and can reduce even the most finely conditioned superhero to near exhaustion.

As he exhaled, he suddenly heard the sound of sarcastic applause. "Well done, old man," said a heavily accented voice. "The way you handled those blokes it almost looked as if you knew what you were doing."

For a split second Batman was sure that this was the Joker using one of the fake foreign accents he would sometimes affect, but even before he turned around he knew this was not the case.

It was a tall, young man in his twenties with bleached blond hair and a long (almost cape-like) leather duster. He wasn't the Joker but Batman didn't drop his fighting stance--- there was something not quite right about him.

"Of course, your technique is fundamentally flawed," the blond-vamp said briskly. "Against those two-bit thugs your box of tricks 'ill work alright but a real vampire," he shook his head, "you're gonna come up a bit short."

"Who are you?" Batman asked forcefully.

"Who are you?" the blond vamp countered. Before Batman could respond, he held up his hands and said: "I know, I know; secret Identity rule. Lone Ranger never takes off his mask."

A very plausible idea had just occurred to Batman. "Are you Nicholae?"

The vampire let out a cackle that was just a little too Joker-like for Bruce's taste. "Oh, I'm flattered you think I'm so capable, guv' but I'm not the man you're looking for." Suddenly he grew serious. "Even when I was a big bad, I was never that ambitious."

Batman was started to get a little sick of this dance. "What is your name?" he hissed.

"My name? It used to be William the Bloody. Now it's just Spike," The vampire took out a cigarette and put in his mouth. "And you and I need to have a chat."