So from now on there will be three chapters per new post instead of two! Also, I've gotten a question or two about where the GOT characters are. I promise there will be much more GOT crossover but I wanted to keep the birth of Batman its own event and have Westoros react to his advent, not so much be there for its start. Thanks for all of the positive reviews from those that like the story as well!
Bruce: Chapter 5
The largest one on the right walked with the ever slightest limp in his right leg, most likely an injured ankle that never fully healed. The one on the left was the first one to step forward with a cautious left foot pulling up, clearly better with his right fist than his left. The leader Bruce had just injured looked angry, and puffed up his broad chest to show his followers he was in charge still. The man behind the woman though, his eyes were wide with fear. Good.
Bruce could feel his cape draped around him, engulfing him in its shadows. He felt the men's eyes on him, the woman's as well. He felt stronger in his armor, more powerful and menacing. He felt the symbol of a bat on his chest, as if it were burning into him, lighting a fire of determination in his soul.
"Marcus, grab him! I want to have some entertainment outta him before we dice him up for the crows," the leader shouted at the leftmost thug. The man charged Bruce, Bruce could only wryly smirk. As the man neared, he wound his right arm back for a punch, but never got to land it. As the large thug threw his punch, Bruce ducked inside of it easily, and delivered some blows of his own. First the middle of his arm, in between the muscles, stunning them and preventing him from throwing another punch with it for the time being. Next Bruce elbowed the man's thigh to cause it to spasm, preventing the man from standing again. Then three quick blows to the man's gut which effectively knocked his air from him, all of this before landing a final uppercut to Marcus' jaw. As Bruce heard the man's teeth collide as bone hit bone, Bruce knew he would not be getting back up. And as quickly as the man had charged him, he fell to the ground contorting in pain.
Bruce looked back to the remaining three bruisers through the small slits in his helm for sight. They had stopped their laughing, knowing that it was not some drunken fool they were dealing with. Fear has found them, good. Bruce slowly paced forward, head at a downward angle to look even more menacing. The woman's face he could not see in fullness however, the hood shrouded her upper face in darkness. Her mouth however was gaping, as if she was watching a ghost slowly coming to rob her of her soul.
"R-Rosly…you handle him!," the less then fearless leader shouted to the man to his right. The man reluctantly stepped forward, drawing a crudely molded dagger from his belt. He stabbed the blade forward, and Bruce simply ducked inside again but this time brought his heel down squarely on the man's right ankle. The man screamed in pain as if he had lost the entire foot from a bladed edge, and fell to the ground clutching it. Two versus one now, Bruce thought as he continued his slow stride forward.
The leader drew his sword, a mediocrely smithed cutlass with a broken hilt. The throwing knife that Bruce had lodged in the man's shoulder was clearly taking effect. It had buried itself between the thug's shoulder and chest muscles. The man winced in pain as he tried to lift the sword above his head.
"Ugh, what did you do to me…I will kill you!," he roared as he charged Bruce. Bruce did not even bother stepping to the side of this attack, catching the man's downward slashing motion halfway at the hands. Bruce twisted the man's wrists, hearing a bone or two snap, and then kicked the man to the ground. The leader was whimpering on the ground like a scared child as Bruce came upon the last man, standing behind the hooded woman with a knife at her throat.
"Le-leave me alone, or the lady here gets a kiss of steel!," he shouted, attempting to sound threatening from the safety of his position behind the woman. Bruce stopped his advance, his hand hidden beneath his cape digging into one of his belt's pockets. Before the man could blink again, Bruce threw another throwing knife, landing it directly in the middle of the thug's exposed, knife wielding hand. The deviant screamed and fell back, tripping over an uneven street stone behind him and thudding to the ground. The woman collapsed, still reeling from her blow to the stomach no doubt.
Bruce stepped over to her assaulter and lifted him from the ground and threw him against the stone wall beside them. The man's eyes were wide and white with terror. His lips slowly pursed together trying to form words but finding great difficulty to do so.
"Wh-who are you?," he managed to get out of his throat.
"I am vengeance, I am the night, I am Batman!," Bruce growled, mirroring his family's words in the deep, gravelly voice he had been practicing since leaving the Palace of Whispers. He threw a hard punch to the man's chin and sent him flying to the ground. He turned back to the woman on the ground, paralyzed with awe and fear. He slowly walked over to her, and offered a hand to lift her up.
"So…uhhh…thanks," was all that she managed to say as she stood and met his gaze. Bruce lifted up the golden necklace in his hand.
"I'm guessing this does not belong to you," he asked already knowing the answer.
"Oh, ha…yes that. Well a girl has to eat somehow right?" Bruce could tell she had sweet-talked her way out of situations before with less willful men.
"I cannot let you keep it my lady, and I am afraid I'm going to have to turn you over to the city guard as well."
"Well if we are being literal ser, you did not see me stealing any such necklace. You merely found it in my possession after I had tried to liberate it from these scum, and you came in bravely to my rescue when they had caught me in the act," she said with a coy smile.
Bruce liked this woman, whoever she was, but he could not let her know that. "Very well, this will be your one and only free wave from justice. If I catch you again however…"
She cut him off, "I'll end up like this lot? Ohh you wouldn't do that to poor, little, defenseless me would you?" She smiled and slowly batted her eye lashes.
"No, but I hear the cells of the city's jails have lovely areas for climbing and napping for a cat burglar as lovely as yourself," he replied apathetically.
"Ohh so you think me lovely eh-?" She could not continue as they heard the sound of metal clattering as a handful of city guardsmen ran into the alley. Bruce felt a kiss on his cheek and a whisper in his ear, "See you soon, Batman." When Bruce turned to face her, she had already disappeared down the nearest adjacent alley.
"Halt! Who goes there!," one of the guards shouted, a trickle of fear in his voice. Bruce turned to face them, and they all took a slow step back in unison.
"From this night on, this city is under my watch and protection. You are free to assist me, but if you brand me a criminal like the others it will not stop me and my duty," he shouted in the same low-toned voice. He threw a smoke bomb from his belt, and disappeared into the night in a cloud of smoke as if her were nothing more than an apparition.
James: Chapter 3
"I swear to the gods new and old Barken, if this is another tale of this Batman you'll be on wall duty for months!," James shouted as he rounded the corner of the alley. The day before Wayne's grand feast with nobles coming into the city in extravagance and flair, and all James had done the entire morning and better part of the afternoon was clean up the mess this new stranger had caused.
"My apologies Ser, but four more smugglers have just been found tied in the alley behind one of the baker's steads," the rookie replied. "Three broken arms, one with a broken leg, a broken ankle, and another paralyzed with some form of poison off one of these."
James swiped the small piece of metal from the boy's hand for a closer inspection. It was sharp on every edge, and was unlike any throwing knife James had ever seen. It was shaped like a bat, with the middle of the blade being edged with two pointed ears and an equally sharp tail. The blades were shaped like bat wings with two sharp points on each side, the entire piece of metal no thicker than a coin. What in the name of the Seven is this? Two days ago James had only his city and his family to worry about. Now, he had to worry about this damn caped crusader leaping around his city pummeling criminals where they lay.
He had heard tales from some witnesses, even his own men, of this terrifying monster of the night. He had heard recounting of it being a direbat, coming forth from the black pits of the afterlife to avenge the fallen Waynes. It had black wings that made it glide across the street stone without a sound, eyes as white and terrifying as looking into an Other's face, and movements as quick as a strike of lightning. With small claws flying out from its wings to inflict pain on those who had inflicted pain on the city. Well now James had one of these claws in his hand and it looked like nothing more than a simple, albeit odd, throwing knife.
I suppose I should thank him to some small degree, but I never much cared for a man taking the law into his own hands. As James came upon the scene, he was shocked by what he saw. Four men were chained before him, rather large and well-built with chests broader than a barrel. How did one man take these four brutes down so easily? One had a broken ankle, another a broken arm, one had a busted jaw and stab wound in his hand, while the last was left with what the local healer said was two broken ribs and a direly wounded sense of pride. James had come to know this man quite closely, Ralgen Hortens, a smuggler that had set up camp in Gotham. James had been trying to track them since they first came to the city over a year ago, but here this Batman had served them up on a silver platter for him like a pig roasted over the fire.
"So Hortens, I am told you were the first man to lay eyes on this Batman. Care to tell us what you saw?," James smirked. He had never seen a criminal with such a shade of pale white in his face.
"It was terrifying, and let out a screech like a shadow cat about to leap onto its prey. It glided to us, no sound on the stone, no legs moving, just a black shroud built of the shadows. The thing took each of us down so quickly, we could not even touch him! For he was never there! It was a ghost, of that I am sure. No man moves like that. You cannot stop him or it or whatever that creature was Gordon! For you cannot catch what does exist!," the smuggler replied with terror in his voice.
Who is this man…James wondered as the four were carted away to their jail cells. Despite the confusing and completely unprecedented appearance of this shadow in the night, James knew his main duty was to assure the visiting nobles' safety. Protecting a city with boys greener than summer grass, the wonders of serving in the City Watch.
"Bullock! Are those new men we brought on with Wayne's gold ready yet?," he shouted for his second in command.
"As ready as they will be Ser. They know how to swing a sword and to stand still for hours. All four hundred of em'," the man responded as he approached James.
"Good, that is our main priority lads! Making sure the people of this city both commoners and nobles, residents and guests, are safe! Not this Batman who wants to fight crime for some shits and laughs! Now get moving to your assigned posts and tell whoever you see to follow suit! The guests have started shipping in and it is only going to get more crowded from here!," James shouted to all of his men within earshot.
Whoever this Batman is, I will deal with him after Bruce Wayne's big night…when I don't have quite as many problems to keep me up at night.
Richard: Chapter 3
They had set up quickly once they arrived in Gotham the day before Bruce Wayne's welcoming festival. First the support poles were hoisted up into the air, towering over the buildings and trees. Then the tent was hoisted, a splendid red and white striped monster growing ever taller as the circus men pulled the long lines of rope out. The rafters were lifted up into the tent's canopy. Once the tent was secured, the benches for the city folk were set-up and the ropes and lines for the Flying Graysons' performance were tied up from the rafters. Dick always loved this part of the set-up, when he had to climb around the wooden rafters high above the ground and tie down the ropes he would use later to fly through the air.
The process took from afternoon until well into the dark of night. By that time the people of Gotham were beginning to return to their homes after a long day of watching the queer circus-folk work. Most of these people had likely never seen striped horses or elephants or dancing bears before. Dick remembered his first time riding an elephant, or having a staring match with a lion, or even sneaking into the striped horses' cage and trying to mount one.
Dick ran to meet his father outside the tent when he had finished with the last tight rope, but saw he was already engaged in a conversation. There was a group of them, four strangers all wearing black overcoats and trousers. Dick snuck up behind them and hid behind a stack of crates a dozen or so paces away.
"Listen ser, we are not here to harm you or your performers. Just here to help protect ya is all," he heard the strange man in the front say to his father. The man had a flat nose, and small, queer eyes, and he had an ugly scar on his left cheek. His hair thinned on the top of his head, and the legs of his trousers were speckled with mud.
"Uh-huh, protection from what exactly?," his father asked skeptically. Dick dared not look, but he imagined his father had his bushy eyebrow cocked like he always did when Dick had tried lying to him.
"Gotham is a scary place ser, and with so many nobles visiting…who knows how many nefarious persons may come crawling out from their holes," the stranger snickered.
"Well you have my thanks for your concern ser, but I'm fairly certain we can handle our own should any pickpockets come snooping about," his father replied adamantly.
"Ah very well, but don't say Anthony Zucco didn't warn ya! I'm a very generous and kind person, yes you'd find that for yourself if you were willing to lend an ear."
"Mhm, and I am sure this generosity would come at a cost no doubt." Dick knew his father wasn't going to fall for this stranger's tricks.
"Only a meager few gold pieces for our troubles ser, but we'd stay with you day and night," he answered. The man sounded like a street market vender trying to sell week-old fish.
"Well you have my gratitude but no thank you ser Zucco, I think we will get by just fine." Good, now leave, Dick thought.
Dick saw his mother leaving the entrance of the tent fifty feet away as she turned to walk towards her husband. Dick walked out from behind the crate to his father's side, doubting any of them saw him sneak out from behind the crates since they were so focused on each other.
"Oh Dick, you're done with your chores that quick eh? These gents were just leaving," his father said, not making it sound as if it were up for debate.
"You got a lovely family here ser," Zucco said with a crooked smile as he lead his gang away.
"Who were they John?," his mother asked concerned.
"Ah no one sweetling, just some dogs looking for a bone. Now Dick, what say you we get ready for tomorrow night! My son, flying in front of thousands of awe-struck people! Ah a father could not be more proud!" He laid a hand on his son's head and ruffled his thick, black hair. Dick felt happier than he could ever remember himself being.