"Why the hell am I doing this…?" Harvey Dent questioned himself as he drove down the street in darkness. "…this is ridiculous; I'm an idiot, why the hell am I doing this?" Harvey asked himself again. For the last few days he had been getting letters from "Batman" explaining all sorts of things; crime, social issues, the state of the corruption in the city and in the final letter, which he had only received early yesterday morning, explained that they should meet to discuss a possible teaming up of sorts to bring down crime more effectively. It all sounded well and nice except it didn't make any sense; The Batman didn't communicate with people via mail and he was most certainly not interested in having Harvey Dent as his sidekick. Nothing about this meeting made and kind of sense at all; but, if it was true Harvey had a good thing going on. He was district attorney now; but, if he teamed up with the Batman and brought down crime his name would go far, who knew where the buck would stop; A.G., Mayor, hell maybe even Governor. It was too good of an offer pass up; even if it was a crock of loose shit. As he was driving the sky seemed to open up into light, Harvey bent his head down to see upwards. The Bat signal had been turned on; Harvey looked at his watch: Two-Twenty Two. Harvey cursed, he was going to be late; but this was ridiculous it was too early in the morning to be driving around Gotham City to meet "the Batman" for a "chat". Harvey pressed his foot down on the pedal a little harder and the car roared a little louder and sped down the street. It wasn't long until Harvey car was parked outside of the Police Department secondary headquarters. The GCPDHQ2 as it was called by most officials was built as a way to spread the Police department across the entire city to process crimes quicker, more efficiently; but, in all actuality the only person whoever did work in the GCPDHQ2 was James Gordon. Harvey liked Gordon, he was a different kind of law official; one could tell that Gordon wasn't effected about the large amount of corruption ripping through the city. Harvey knew about Gordon's work in Chicago, which is where he had been transferred from, and his work there was phenomenal; he turned the entire city around. This one, older, man went out on the streets and brought crime to its knees. His attitude was something to admire as well, Harvey had lived in Gotham all his life and had seen it bad and worse and it effected his work from time to time; but, Gordon, who had been in Gotham for a decade now, never seemed to let the state of the city get to him each time a problem surfaced Gordon worked harder at the problem, and the G.C.P.D. was probably the most corrupt of all Gotham agencies. Everything Gordon did to make the city safer had to go through several people who's interest were effected by some form of payment they were getting from some criminal; but, Gordon knew that too and yet he never seemed to seemed to be phased by it. Gordon worked harder and harder and the results were showing, if only a little.
Harvey slammed the door of the car and walked over to the sidewalk before stopping and walking halfway back to the car door.
"Damn it!" Harvey yelled; quickly he dug his hand into his pocket and blindly rummaged through it until he pulled out a coin. For a moment Harvey looked at it and then flipped it, without blinking he caught it and placed it on the back of his left hand fist and removed his right hand.
Heads.
Visibly frustrated Harvey went back to the street, digging into his back pocket for the key. All the D.A.'s had the key to G.C.P.D.H.Q. so that they might view files whenever necessary. Harvey walked quickly inside the building and hurried to the elevator and pressed the button. A long pause and Harvey suddenly realized that the elevators were shut down for the night, which meant he had to walk.
"Shit!" Harvey yelled; he rushed to the stairs and began to jog upstairs to the roof. Around the third flight Harvey was sitting on the stairs breathing heavily, cursing himself. It took him five minutes of recuperation and then started back upstairs. Naturally the door to the roof was locked and Harvey had to search frustrated through the keys to find the right one to open the door. That took him another three minutes and finally he was on the roof. He stood there for a moment in the early morning air and the Bat signal light was blinding him slightly. Harvey looked at his watch: Two-Thirty.
"All right Bats, its Showtime." Harvey said impatiently as he leaned on a nearby wall and waited.
Coincidences were something that one could laugh at. Something so close together and yet far apart that they honestly couldn't be anything else aside from chance. The Bat Signal turning on whilst Batman was on route to the G.C.P.D.H.Q.2 was not coincidence, it was something more and Batman was more than willing to find out why these events were happening; but, the kidnapping of Bruce Wayne, the mentioning of Harvey Dent and everything else had to be connected somehow. The Batman landed on a roof and thought. What could this all be? Maybe it wasn't something sinister; maybe it was something that happened to involve all of them. They were the defenders of the city; but, if that was the case then he wouldn't have this gut feeling that something was going on. Batman aimed his grappling hook and soared to the next rooftop, still deep in thought. The fog from earlier was starting to wear off; but, not one hundred percent. The light from the Bat Signal was airy and a bit dreamlike. It was causing Batman to have somewhat of a small headache; but, nothing he would consider to be an issue. Finally Batman landed next to the Bat Signal.
Usually Gordon would be standing by the switch and turn it off when Batman landed; but, this time it stayed on. Batman looked around, he couldn't see much, the light from the signal was stifling, astoundingly so at that. Batman walked a little closer to the Bat signal to see if he could switch it off. The moment he found the switch he heard something not very far call out to him, Batman looked up and squinted in the glaring light, in the distance he could see someone, a man in a suit. The man was waving, Batman recognized him: Harvey Dent.
That's when it caught his eye, for a fraction of a second he saw it in the corner of his eye. The light flicked red and it took only a second for Batman to recognize the device; there wasn't anytime for an action other than gritting his teeth and brace for what was coming next.
Harvey Dent called out for Batman and the Batman looked up and seemed to grin; confused Harvey began closer to that Batman, he never saw it coming and never would see it end.
The light from the Bat signaled woke James Worthington Gordon, and as he reached for his glasses he angrily swore. Gordon peered out the window intently trying to see something, some kind of inclination that things were in order; but, there was nothing he could see from this far away. Gordon's apartment was directly across from G.C.P.D.H.Q.2 because it was convenient and he could clearly see the Bat signal from his house. Gordon kept his gun in the drawer next to his bed; quickly he took that out and rushed for his pants and keys. Silently his daughter, Barbra, slipped into his room.
"What's wrong daddy?" Barbra asked calmly; slightly annoyed. Gordon turned to his young daughter quickly and put his hand out.
"Nothing sweetie…" Gordon explained in a rushed hurry that contradicted the very words he spoke. "…did I wake you?" he asked.
"Yes." She tersely and sincerely answered. Gordon hopped into one leg of his pants and his glasses fell off his face.
"I'm sorry honey…" Gordon apologized reaching for his glasses. "…If you can't fall back asleep, we'll watch a movie when I get back; but, don't tell your brother alright?" Gordon smiled; but, there was still some worry in his voice. Barbra, staring unconvinced of the mock serenity her father was trying to convey, didn't answer immediately her face stared blankly, almost upset.
"Fine." She answered; Gordon smiled, his daughter was a hard ass, even he admitted it. Gordon sometimes felt embarrassed when he was caught in a lie or something of the like by her. Barbra had this face; this silent stare that said enough to quiet even Gordon. No one else ever gave him a stare so powerful, no one except The Batman…
"Good, alright…" Gordon slipped on the other leg. "…but you have to try to fall asleep or else it wouldn't be fair to James that you-" Before Gordon could finish there was a sound. It was quiet sound; but, one of those sounds where it was clearly an earth shattering sound from far away. Before Gordon could process the sound the sheer impact knocked Gordon flat on his face and then the windows exploded in a flash, Barbra fell backwards and the entire building shook. Quickly and with an adrenaline rush, Gordon jumped up and from instinct looked across out the window.
To his dismay he saw nothing but fire reaching up to the dark sky; the Bat signal was gone replace by falling debris and chaos. It was a stunning site to see, the sheer power of the explosion still had the air the electrical charge. Gordon turned to Barbra and picked her up.
"Go get your brother and go into the basement and do not move until I come back for you!" He demanded; Gordon knew that even though James Jr. was older Barbra was better mentally equipped to lead. Without a word she nodded and ran into her brother's room. Gordon checked his ammunition clip and saw it was full. He looked back once more and the fire was subsiding, he then turned and ran down stairs.
Raymond held the explosive device's trigger in his hand and smiled at his doings.
"Goodbye Batman and Harvey Dent" he said out loud; he then threw the trigger over the roof to the ground below that was now ravaged with debris. Raymond picked out his cellular phone and dialed, only a moment of waiting. "…it's done; send your crew over here to pick up the bodies." Raymond rung off and the chaos in front of him was like home. The second part of his job was done; Batman and Harvey Dent were both dead.
Let the change begin.