The large steel door stood there like a silver behemoth and Clark stood in front of it unaffected.
"This is it…?" Clark asked. "…I'm sure you have some kind of device that could have opened this door for you." Clark said; he looked around and could, honestly, not see where Batman was.
"Those devices cost money…" Batman's voice echoed; indicating he was inside the building. "…I'm trying to be cost efficient." Clark chuckled.
"Are you sure you want me to go…?" Clark asked. "…Lois and I are in the city for a couple days, I could do some back up for you." Clark suggested.
"Trust me…" Batman said; his voice was further away. "…you'll want to stay away from this." Clark knew that he was now out of ear shot; but, what Batman just said worried him. Clark had no choice though and so he walked away, unsure of what was coming next for his friend.
Fixing up the building was going to take a while; but, getting it to be operational didn't have to take forever. Brummer was working his men to their fullest potential. Soon there would be city hall and here. The heads of the city would all come here to ask him for support and advice. The plan had worked far better than he could have expected. The politicians fell in line and the people of Gotham willingly surrendered their city to him. Within a couple of weeks he would be one of the most powerful men in the country and there was nothing anyone could do about it.
It didn't matter what was going to come next; what he had now was priceless.
"Mr. Brummer…" A man's voice came from behind Brummer as he looked over the edge of the building; Brummer turned around to see Elliot standing there with papers in his hand. "..There's a few things I need to go over with you." He said.
"Of course…" Brummer answered.
"Well it's about time we discussed the payments and payoffs." Elliot suggested; Brummer nodded in agreement.
"I pay you to do those things." He said.
"Yes; but, I like you to know what I'm doing with your money" Elliot answered; Brummer smiled widely and put his arm on Elliot's shoulder.
"That is why I pay you."
"Well; first off is Raymond; he's here, his initial payment was to be nine hundred thousand upon agreeing to take the job and seven million upon completing it, with a chance of a bonus for a job very well done." Elliot explained.
"…and that he has done…" Brummer said. "…put in another five million for him." Brummer suggested.
"Fine; he wants a direct deposit in a safe account not in the country…" Elliot explained.
"Swiss…?" Brummer asked.
"Either that or Japanese, we have a slightly better relation with our Japanese friends and might be able to lower the interest considerably more than their Swiss counterparts." Elliot explained.
"The Japanese it is."
"The next is the commissioner; he's claiming he's going to need a bigger incentive to keep the G.C.P.D. under your control…" Elliot flipped through some papers. "…he says he has mounting pressure from the media and that he can't make everything look…" Elliot cleared his throat. "…'fine and dandy' while things are falling apart."
"Fine give him more money, it doesn't matter, he'll soon be out the door." Brummer waved off the subject with his hand.
"The next is the new D.A. being put in office; he claims the since he's been rumored to become chief D.A. he's gotten everything from death threats to large sums of money to keep certain criminals out of prison." Elliot explained.
"What does he want?" Brummer asked; confused.
"Protection and a bigger incentive." Elliot simply answered; Brummer nodded.
"Everyone wants a bigger incentive" Brummer said with a smile.
"It's human nature…" Elliot said. "…You give an inch and they all want a mile."
"Indeed; how important is it that we have this guy?" Brummer asked.
"It depends if Harvey Dent is cleared for work again." Elliot answered.
"What are the chances of that?" Brummer walked over to a desk that had been put in the building so he could sit and do work while construction continued below.
"Slim to none, even if he's physically fit, his mental capacity will be shot or he won't want to even continue as D.A." Elliot said.
"If that's the case then we'll need him won't we?"
"For the time being; just to hold together the system we're helping to create." Elliot explained blandly.
"So give him what he wants and when he's not needed anymore take it all back." Brummer said sitting down; looking at his computer screen.
"There's also the cleanup fee…" Elliot walked over to the desk. "…Do you want the building condemned?" Elliot asked.
"No, I want it fixed…" Brummer looked up from the computer. "…the people are going to need something to believe in and as soon as the G.C.P.D. seems workable again the people will rally behind anything we say, giving us more power." Brummer explained.
"The other thing has to do with Bruce Wayne…" Elliot started.
Bruce Wayne was the one thorn in Brummer's side; when Brummer returned and found his guard dead and Bruce Wayne gone, he did his best to keep his temper; But, now the man had been gone for a couple of weeks, and at the cell there was blood the seemingly couldn't have come from the guard because he had no wounds. So in Brummer's estimation Bruce Wayne was probably dead; but, if he was not, then that meant problems for him.
"What's wrong?" Brummer explained.
"Nothing; but, we're going to have to address his disappearance sooner or later…" Elliot explained. "…you can't just have the richest most powerful man in Gotham vanish and not explain whether he's alive or dead."
"Right; but, we don't know if he's alive or dead." Brummer said.
"Indeed; but, we need to say something." Elliot insisted.
"We'll hold a press conference and declare that we found D.N.A. of Wayne's and a body and that we're not sure if Bruce Wayne is alive or dead but the investigation is taking a turn to more information…" Brummer explained. "…That way if he does come back, we can take credit and if he doesn't we'll claim we've done all we could." Brummer explained.
"Sounds wonderful sir…" Elliot said; Elliot's phone rang and he picked it up. There was a quick set of answers and a very worried look from Elliot. "…That was one of our men down at the morgue" Elliot explained to Brummer with a concerned face.
"Yes; what is it?" Brummer asked; now worried himself from the look on Elliot's face.
"…They said no body came through; that it was all a fix up from James Gordon…" Elliot explained.
"What?!" Brummer stood up.
"…They're saying that they never got a body for the Batman." Elliot fully answered.
"If they didn't find a body then that means…" Brummer slightly panicked. "…that means that the Batman is still alive."
And then all the lights went out.
The portable radios on every man's hip blared 'full scale red alert!' and for a minute and a half all the lights were off until the auxiliary power came on. The auxiliary lights were all orange and dimmer set than the other lights. The eerie glow the lights caused made for a chaotic and confusing scene on all floors. All the men were armed with semi-automatic guns and getting into interceptive positions lining up at every stair case and by the elevator. On the first floor the men stood next to the edge of the building holding guns out to the entrance seeing that it was the only place someone could come from. The men stood there with no fear holding their guns right out ready to fire. What they couldn't see was Batman standing on the steel bar above them; watching every move, calculating his attack. With careful silence Batman jumped from the beam and landed on one of the guards. In surprise the guard yelped and shot his gun, hitting two of the guards in front of him and wounding a third. All the guards instantly turned to the gunfire; but, when they all turned to see what happened the Batman was gone. From the darkness two batarangs shot out and forced two guns out of two guard's hands and, no sooner than the guns were hit the Batman was there to knock their heads together. At that moment he was spotted, the guards rushed him guns blazing; but, Batman was too fast and too clever. Within moments most of the men were disarmed, one guard came charging with a knife in his hand. Without effort Batman twisted the man's arm back and used his own arm to stab the man in his own back, the man yelled loudly and slumped over. Batman then took the knife out of his back and swung it strongly; slashing the guard's, in front of him, neck. More guards attacked and one came with a strong left hand punch; but, Batman caught the arm and twisted it back, snapping the arm like a toothpick under pressure. Before the man could hit the ground Batman picked his body up and held it like a shield protecting himself from the hailing bullets. Now there were only three men left; Batman shot off the grappling hook and disappeared into the darkness. Instinctively the men shot towards the direction; but, there was no sign of anything. The three men all shot until they used their entire magazines and at the very moment that they all ran out of ammo they knew that was what the Batman was waiting for. Quickly they all tried to reload their weapons; but, one man was faster had the others and had his magazine in quickly; he would be the first to fall.
The man never noticed Batman standing directly behind him, until Batman kicked him behind the left kneecap causing him to fall to one knee. Batman held his arm upright and when the man squeezed the trigger out of pure surprise the two other men suffered gunshots two the neck and the head and fell to the ground like rag dolls. The last man hit the ground and Batman turned him over.
"Where is Brummer…?" The Batman asked; stone faced, his eyes were like slits in the dark night sky looking down at the guard as if he was an ant. The guard mumbled and stuttered his words together, prompting Batman to break three of his fingers with a single twist. The man screamed; but, also told Batman what he wanted to know.
"He's on the sixteenth floor!" The man yelled; Batman took the man's gun and dismantled it and threw the barrel out of a window.
"Tell them I'm coming up" The Batman demanded as he handed the man his portable radio and turned away towards the elevator.
On floor ten the guards stood tense when they heard the radio blare "Its Batman he's coming up for Brummer by the elevator he's-" his voice crackled off. That didn't help the mood; the elevator had started to move and was coming up to their floor. The elevator was part of the original building which only went to the tenth floor; the remaining floors had been built after the building was decommissioned, from the tenth floor the only way to any other floors were a small staircase and a moving platform. The elevator has also been stripped down and was only separated from the floor by a metal gate. Essentially you could see the elevator and all its contents from wherever, so when the elevator was in eye view of the floor everyone could see that the Batman was, in fact, not on it. The elevator did; however, stop on the tenth floor and the gate opened like usual; but, nothing happened. Several of the men approached the elevator with their guns ready, they walked up to the quiet elevator with a silence that conveyed their cautiousness. Three of the men walked into the elevator and inspected the inside from top to bottom. They couldn't see anything; despite what was normally an elevator there was nothing out of the blue. But then who set up the elevator? The men made sure they checked the elevator several times before one of the men turned to the rest.
"There's nothing…" He said; looking back up to make sure his statement was correct. "…it's all clear." No sooner than he finished saying that a snap sounded with a loud echo and the entire elevator careened downwards to the basement; several of the men standing near the elevator fell backwards at the sudden jolt of velocity that came from the sudden falling of the elevator. That was the last the ever saw; Batman's boots came crashing down on two of the men's chest and the others suffered several kicks to the face. Several men tried to shoot at Batman; but, found themselves disarmed before long. One man tried to hit Batman with the butt of his rifle; but, Batman blocked with his arm and took the man's head and twisted it, unnaturally to the side causing a louder than normal crack. The man's body fell very slowly to the ground and Batman stood over the many broken men. That's when Batman saw the one guard trying to escape; Batman didn't move instead he took out his grappling hook and shot. The hook entered the man's body through the left side of his lower back. The man screamed loudly at the impact of the hook; but, began to yell more energetically when Batman decided to retract the hook. The man's body dragged slowly as Batman retracted the hook and when the man was a couple of feet away from Batman the hook suddenly exited the man's body in a bloody mess.
Completely unaffected by blood and ear piercing screaming coming from the man, Batman took his boot and pushed it down on the wound.
"You thought you could take this city that easily?" Batman asked as he pressed harder; the man yelled for another few moments and then fell silently. Apparently falling unconscious from the wound or the fear and, when that happened Batman kicked his body away and stood up straight.
The punch blindsided him and lifted his body clean off the ground and the impact from hitting the floor again knocked the wind out of him so hard that Batman coughed a dry body shaking dry heave. Standing in the spot that Batman was standing was the muscular and dangerous Raymond Hernandez. Raymond stood there in a black leather vest equipped with all sorts of weapons and matching fatigue pants equipped with even more weapons. Muscles bulging at every point and eyes set to kill. Batman looked up quick enough to see Raymond take out a large automatic weapon; before a shot could be taken the grappling hook was ejected and Batman was soaring up away from the gunfire. Batman's boot hit Raymond in the face, sending the large man stumbling back slightly. A back handed punch followed Batman's kick; but, Raymond caught the arm with ease and tossed Batman into a wall. The sheer force of the throw caused Batman's vision to blur when he hit the wall. Batman breathed, trying to regain some composure; but, before he could Raymond had landed a hard punch into Batman's gut. Blood erupted from Batman's mouth and his body was lifted up and tossed towards the center of the floor. Batman managed to get up to intercept a hard punch from Raymond, Batman was able to use Raymond's force to overshoot the punch and kick Raymond's back ankle. This threw the, behemoth, man off balance and opened up the opportunity for Batman to knee him in the gut with as much force as possible; but, to Batman's surprise Raymond's gut was like steel and did very little to faze Raymond so he followed it up with a knee to the face. Raymond's body swung to the left from the force of the hit; but, instead of falling over the body gained momentum and spun three hundred sixty degrees and Raymond's backhand landed squarely on Batman's cheek. Totally unprepared for a counter that fast, Batman's body rolled backwards and stopped in front of a broken steel pipe. Batman struggled to stand up straight; but, managed to keep his eyes centered on the pipe. Batman knelt picked up the pipe; with a quick spin Batman hit Raymond in the center of his back causing him to fall straight on his face; Raymond didn't waste time thinking of his pain; he rolled over quickly; but, Batman smashed the pipe on his fingers with a brute force that couldn't match anything; but, a wild beast. Raymond yelled out loud and his other hand reached out and snatched the pipe from Batman's hands causing it to suddenly smack against his chin. Batman's body lifted off the ground and his back hit the floor like a brick onto steel. Batman felt his teeth smash together and his lip exploded sending out blood and bits of teeth. Raymond's monstrous body came flying towards Batman; but, a quick lifting of a leg sent Raymond flying over Batman and onto the ground behind him. Raymond managed to break the ground and he fell through the floor to the ground below on floor nine. As quickly as he could Batman got up and followed Raymond by jumping through the hole. Batman's cape helped slow the fall; however, Raymond was on top of the situation and shoulder tackled Batman and sent his body hurling into a wall. The impact caused the wall to smash and the electrical wiring shocked Batman's body and brought him to his knees. The sheer shock the electrocution made Batman's body shake and tremble; his hands shook violently for a moment; but, Batman closed his eyes and gained control. Raymond must've been taking the same time to keep his body in check as well because an attack didn't come. In a flash Batman took out a batarang and tossed it; but, without much moment Raymond caught the batarang and crushed it with his hands.
Batman felt his heart sink briefly.
Breathing heavily and, seemingly, bleeding from every point on their bodies, Batman and Raymond stared at each other trying to recover their bearings. At that moment the two men were equals; both knew that they had an equal chance of defeating the other and both knew that in order to win they would both have to be as ruthless as possible. Batman stood up straight; suit smoking from the brief electrocution, wiped the blood from his face and watched Raymond.
Batman rushed forward towards Raymond and Raymond stood defensively. Batman took three punches and missed the first two; but, the third landed its mark on Raymond's chest, some counters came from Raymond; but, Batman was quick enough to dodge them. A hard straight forward kick came from Raymond and Batman caught the kick and brought his elbow down on the kneecap as hard as he could; Batman could feel the crunch of the bone suddenly snapping out of place; Raymond yelled louder than he had ever yelled before in his entire life. Dealing with the pain Raymond picked his body off the ground and brought his other foot across Batman's face. Both men, once again, ended up on the floor and Raymond was almost incapable of standing, so while sitting up Raymond snapped his leg back into place with a crack that even Batman could hear. Batman stood up just as Raymond rushed him, pulling a knife from one of his pouches. A quick stab missed its target and Batman was able to pry the knife from Raymond's hands and take three quick stabs to his chest that landed perfectly causing blood to spill again. After the third stab Raymond was strong enough to smack Batman's chest so hard that the knife flew out of his hands like a bullet out of a gun. Fist pounded Batman's face and he was suddenly unable to defend himself, Raymond's hands clutched over Batman's neck and squeezed.
This was the end; there was nothing Batman could do to escape this man, his grip was immense. Batman could feel his lungs collapsing, he felt his eyes starting to lose focus and then he felt the terrible crash of Raymond's fist against his cheek. Batman felt himself fall in such a slow speed. The ground came politely up to him and then with a rude crack rocked his skull so hard that he bounced off the ground and landed again.
Was he dead? Was this just some kind of dream you had in the midst of dying? Some sort of free form dreaming that the body went though as it shut down; a way for the body to explain the pain it was feeling or, was this real? Was Batman actually suffering this much? Was this man actually destroying what was left of his body?
As if to answer Raymond's breath came on Batman's face; Batman couldn't say anything, his voice was gone.
Then…
There was no way for Batman to be sure what Raymond did to him; but, pain shot through his body like no other. Everything was a blur, one moment he was on the ground, the next flying through the air; then again back on the ground. The pain was so immense that he couldn't even tell it all apart from each other anymore. Somehow Batman's eyes centered on Raymond and again, somehow he managed to stand. His whole body couldn't stand still, every nerve, muscle and bone was begging for him to die. Every cell in his body was praying for a heart attack or a seizure or a stroke of some sort to end the pain; but, somehow he stood. Raymond stood up right and seemed fine, despite the wreckage of a body he had.
In the sea of thoughts going through his brain one thought seemed to repeat over and over. The loss of blood was beginning to take his toll; his chest was beginning to go cold. Suddenly a thought came to mind, something he hadn't thought of in what seemed to be a long time.
Selena.
He wasn't sure why all of a sudden he thought of her; but, he face appeared in front of his face. Maybe it was a hallucination from the pain, maybe it wasn't; but, at that moment he knew he had to live. Batman's body stood up straight all of a sudden and he didn't do anything; but, reach slowly for a batarang. Raymond smirked; Batman leaned his arm back and tossed the batarang at full force. With all of Batman's hope, the batarang flew through the air at Raymond; but, again he caught it in his bare hands. Raymond's body jerked up and down and a laugh bellowed from his body. His body hurt from the laughing; but, it continued.
"Don't you learn?" Raymond asked; there was a long pause and Batman opened his mouth.
"Don't you?" Batman responded; that's when the batarang beeped and suddenly exploded in his hand. The sheer force of the explosion sent Raymond's body hurling back and his hand was completely blown off. The bloody stub bled crazily as Raymond squirmed on his back; suddenly he was on his knees, swearing loudly as his right hand bled. That's when he felt the second batarang pierce his chest. Raymond's eyes focused on Batman and in that one moment he could plainly see that there was no remorse in Batman's eyes. There was no hint that this second batarang was a mistake; in that moment Raymond Fernandez knew he was going to die.
The second explosion was, seemingly, more powerful. It caused his cape to billow and he had to close his eyes from the flash. Raymond's body stood no more, now it was destroyed in a pool of blood and bone. What was left of Raymond Hernandez could not even be identified as human. There was no head, no arms and a large whole where one would assume a chest to be. The body moved a little though as the nerves and muscles settled into their states. The site was eerie; but, Batman felt nothing. Instead he just turned away from the bloody wreckage and continued on his way.
Brummer hurriedly packed papers and files into a briefcase; he had to get out of here in time. His mind was racing, in his desperation he had shot Elliot. Brummer knew that no one could expose him for what he had done, if that happened he would have absolutely nothing to hold onto in his life. He'd be outed, he'd be ruined for life, all the power and money would be lost within moments and he couldn't allow that to happen. The wind blew, the floor he was on was one of the floors missing a western wall, he could see out to Gotham from here. Even at this time of night the city was bright; to think he owned all of that and it could all end in a moment was mind boggling. Brummer packed some of the last few papers in his briefcase and then began to go to the exit; but, as he began to leave the Batman appeared, bloodied bruised and broken; however, Batman seemed horridly scary and deadly. Brummer stumbled over himself for a moment and then ran to the elevator and pressed the button; but, there was no response. Brummer, shocked at the lack of response, turned to see Batman face to face with him. Batman's arms grabbed Brummer and picked him up, then tossed him over to the other side.
"No don't!" Brummer begged; but Batman seemed not to hear a thing, instead he walked over to Brummer and picked him up again and took him over to the missing wall, looking deep into his eyes Batman opened his mouth.
"You should never underestimate the power of a city trying to save itself." Batman said; his voice was stern; but, at the same time cracked.
"You can have the city back; just let me go." Brummer pleaded.
"Forgiveness is not up to the judge; but rather to the criminal." Batman said; walking closer to the missing wall. Suddenly anger filled Brummer.
"You won't kill me you can't…" Brummer explained. "…It's against everything in your nature." Brummer said with a bit of a laugh. When said, Batman released Brummer slightly.
"You're right…" Batman said; but something in his eyes reverted. "…but then again, you killed Batman." And with that Batman pushed Brummer through the gaping missing wall and his body fell from the sixteenth floor down to the ground below. Batman didn't watch, he turned way and forgot everything.