Chapter 11: The Riddle of the Bat

While he was cruising through the streets of Gotham, Batman received a message from Alfred. He had locked onto the triangulation signal Batman had sent out from the Batmobile and was using it to establish a trace to the Riddler's escape helicopter. When the triangulation calculation had established a trace, Batman was intrigued to find that the Riddler was apparently taking Daggett to his own company's headquarters. He stepped on the pedal, and the Batmobile streaked through the streets of Gotham toward the headquarters of Daggett Industries.

Upon his arrival, Batman jumped out and rushed inside the building, finding it surprisingly deserted. Suddenly, the television monitors in the lobby clicked on, revealing the smirking, masked face of the Riddler. The villain said, "Well, well, Batman. Only our first encounter with each other and you find me twice in the same night."

"Where's John Daggett, Riddler?!" demanded Batman, his glare so sharp now that it could surely cut stone.

"On the top floor of his own tower, with little time on his hands," the criminal mastermind chuckled.

A change in the channel showed Batman that Dagget had been tied to the hands of the clock that overlooked the skyline of Gotham City from the exterior of his tower, and though the time was ten o'clock at night, Batman could see that Daggett was looking around with fear written on his face. Then the Riddler added, "Looks comfortable, doesn't he? But not for long. At ten fifteen on the dot, the hands of that clock will separate at just the right point, and he'll be torn apart like a handkerchief, which gives you only fifteen minutes to get to the top of the tower and free him."

Batman answered, "And I'm going to get him away from you if I have to dismantle that clock piece by piece."

He started up the stairs of the tower, knowing that the Riddler had either shut down the elevator or rigged it with a trap. As he did so, Batman then heard Riddler's voice over the intercom, and the villain told him, "And it's only fair to warn you that I took the liberty of preparing some risky riddles which you'll have to solve if you want to get to the clock fast enough, so be prepared."

Batman ran further up the stairs of Daggett Industries without saying a word. He encountered none of Riddler's goons on his way up, but he soon ran into the first riddle that the villain had in store for him. On the television monitor above the door to the fifteenth floor, a message flickered on that read "Everyone has one, but you can't see it. One of many parts; it's what keeps us together."

"This is simple, Riddler. The answer is the human skeleton," Batman called up to the monitor. "It's a structure composed of two-hundred and six bones, is contained by skin and muscle, and provides the body with its natural shape."

The Riddler's voice returned over the intercom and he said, "Well, that seemed easy for you to figure out. And you're lucky you got it right, Batman. If you hadn't, time would be running out for you and Daggett."

"What do you mean, Riddler?!" demanded the Dark Knight as he ran further up the tower.

"If you had gotten the answer wrong, I would have pulled a lever to set the clock ahead by one minute, thus shortening the time you have," the villain chuckled. "Now you have only ten minutes before Daggett becomes the only good corporate miser: a dead one."

Now more determined to prove to Riddler that he wouldn't get away with it, Batman ran faster up the stairs of Daggett's tower until he was stopped by another riddle on a television screen. This one read "I speak with no mouth and hear with no ears. I have no body, but come alive with wind. What am I?"

Batman answered, "An echo. It occurs when soundwaves bounce between physical structures and bounce back to the speaker's ears."

The answer was correct as Riddler hadn't warned Batman that he was running out of time to free John Daggett, but there was no time to think about it. Batman continued his run up toward the top of Daggett Industries headquarters and was beginning to feel the strain of it in his legs. But he was trained to deal with aches and continue fighting no matter the risk, and by the time he had reached the forty-fifth floor, he was only one riddle away from the top floor. This time, the television monitor read "An engineer would often need a crazy incentive to go from Point A to Point B."

Batman thought the riddle over for a few seconds and then spoke to the open air once more. He said, "Your riddle this time is an obvious play on words, Riddler. The clue is that the answer is tied to an engineer, which means that one combines a synonym for incentive and another word for crazy. Therefore, an engineer would need a loco-motive."

With that riddle solved, Batman continued running up the stairs of Daggett Industries until he decided to cut to the chase and used his grappling hook to go higher. He made it to the fiftieth floor, which his handheld scanner told him was where the clock was positioned. There was John Daggett, now with his limbs fully stretched out as the hands of the clock read ten minutes after ten. Batman ran to the clock and hurled a batarang at the glass face to clear a way. Then he used the razor blades on his gloves to cut the ropes holding Daggett to the clock and dragged the businessman inside his tower to safety. But even as he helped Daggett free of the ropes, Batman turned around sharply and saw the Riddler walking out of the shadows in a mood of mock applause.

"Bravo, Dark Knight. Bravo," the green-clad villain drawled. "But it matters not that you managed to solve my riddles quickly enough to free Daggett. I still intend to make him pay for robbing me of my life's work."

Riddler snapped his fingers and several of his thugs entered the room. Then the Riddler ordered, "Take care of Batman. I'll deal with Daggett as soon as his rescuer is out of the way."

The thugs all charged Batman with spiked baseball bats, crowbars, wooden boards, and metal pipes. But even though there were more of them than Batman could count, their crude methods of hand-to-hand combat were of little use against the hardened training of their opponent. Batman tossed one thug aside, then used flying kicks and hammer fist blows and roundhouse punches to subdue the next several goons that stood in his way. He hurled batarangs to disarm more of his opponents and even used nerve attacks to stop the others. Once the goons were taken down, Batman used his Bat-grapple to swing across the room and then he stood between the Riddler and Daggett.

"You're all through, Riddler!" he growled.

"Not yet, Batman," answered the villain. "I still intend to have my revenge on Daggett, and I will have it if I have to get rid of both of you."

Batman said to his antagonist, "Daggett may be unscrupulous and cold, but you breaking the law and threatening his life doesn't put you in the right either."

At that, the Riddler took a question mark-shaped object from his right pocket and pressed a button that extended it, revealing the object to be a cane. Then he angled it at Batman and began firing it like a rifle. Using his cape to deflect the shots, Batman jumped into the air and hurled several batarangs at the Riddler, who had to deflect them fast. He prepared to fire again, but the Dark Knight was instantly upon him.

Batman and the Riddler fought fiercely together, with Riddler trying to strike at his opponent with his cane and Batman using his knowledge of unarmed combat to block Riddler's cane attacks and force him backward. After ten minutes of struggling together, Batman finally landed a blow to the jaw that sent Riddler into the wall behind him and he slumped over unconscious. As Batman slapped the cuffs on the green-clad menace, John Daggett called the police and managed to tell them what had happened. But by the time the police arrived, Batman had disappeared and left the Riddler and his goons waiting to be taken away. Needless to say, the police were quite happy about that, and even Detective Bullock had a smile on his face as the crooks were brought down from the tower.

…

SEPTEMBER 24, 10:15 EDT

The Riddler's trial was less chaotic than the Joker's, but it wasn't any easier on him. While his goons ended up sentenced to Blackgate Penitentiary, the Riddler was deemed a public menace for his attempt on John Daggett's life and became the second Arkham inmate to be declared a super-criminal. When Bruce Wayne heard of it, he was glad to know that fighting crime in the role of Batman was making a difference in Gotham, but he had no idea how many more criminals would prove a threat to match the Joker as Edward Nigma had.

A/N: Hope you all enjoyed the Riddler's first appearance in Gotham. Stay tuned, 'cause Chapter 12 will bring yet another Batman rogue into the spotlight, and then we draw near to the climax. Enjoy!