No Wayne Home

Chapter 4

Tuesday, October 31st, 2023

Earth-89

"Why is October 31st such an important date for me? Well, I'll tell you why. On this day, back in the year 1988, was the first time I ever donned the mantle of the Bat. It was the perfect time to do it because I could walk amongst all the other festive Gothamites, wearing this gruesome outfit, the likes of which nobody had ever seen before, and I would be able to fit in perfectly.

It was important to let people see me, not because of Halloween, but because of what I was planning on doing later that night. I knew the criminals and bystanders would describe what they saw, and I wanted others to remember seeing someone who fit the same description earlier that day; and to allow the word to spread.

You see, I had been studying the criminal element in Gotham for a few years before wearing the mask. I got to see the ugliest side of Gotham City; the dirty, gritty side; the side nobody wants to see. Killing; stealing; blackmail; extortion; you name it; it was all happening 24/7, and the police weren't doing anything about it… So I decided to do something about it myself.

I first wore regular disguises, hoping to fit in with the element. Some days I would dress up like a tough guy by putting on a rolled up ski mask and a fake goat-tee; it was easy to blend in with the thieves. Other days I would wear some punk outfit, looking like that main character from BeetleJuice; this made it a lot easier to fit in with the drug dealers who would hit up the raves.

After all my spying, I would anonymously report the activities to the police. But- it seemed like the more I reported a crime, the more the operations would switch it up and move locations, almost as if the police were in on the whole thing. It wasn't until I followed around one of GCPD's Lieutenants, named James Gordon, when I realized there actually were some good cops that you could count on.

I began anonymously informing him about everything. Night after night I would watch him make big busts. It didn't take long for him to become the Commissioner after that. Finally, the city had someone in charge of the police force who actually gave a damn.

Despite all the busts, criminals continued to flourish. Ten bad guys would go down and twenty new heads would pop back up. They weren't afraid. Even after spending time in jail, they would come back out and get right back into it again. It was going to take something more. Something that would make them become so afraid that they would never want to return to a life of crime ever again.

One person everyone did fear was Carl Grissom; the head mob boss of Gotham's underworld. Hell… even my parents were afraid of him. I still remember them saying, 'Gotham City wasn't so bad until Grissom took over.' I knew I had to become something people feared even more than him.

As I sat in my study and pondered what it would take to help stop major crime, the answer came crashing through my window, in the shape of a large menacing bat.

From that day on, I knew what I had to become… The Batman.

That night on Halloween I followed a drug operation, headed by Jimmy Atlas and Johnny Gobbs. They were receiving a large amount of Cocaine and guns, which were being shipped through the docks. Jimmy was one of Grissom's lower level operators and Johnny was mostly a stooge who followed Jimmy around. Jimmy took all of his instruction's from Grissom's number one guy, Jack Napier. Jack was really tough on anyone who didn't do what they were told, though, he was an A-1 nut-ball and Grissom knew it. But- Jack could keep people in line and that was good for business.

After watching them unload everything at the dock, I wanted to see where they were taking the new supply, so I waited in the shadows. I was hoping they would bring it directly to Grissom or Napier. That would have made for a huge bust. But Grissom was smart and he never had a shipment come anywhere close to his building.

Instead, the shipment went to an abandoned apartment complex, mostly housed by drug users and guarded by low level henchmen.

About ten minutes after they unloaded the merchandise I noticed Johnny heading to the rooftop. Apparently he wanted to get high from the new stash and didn't want anyone to notice what he was doing.

I was about to approach him, when suddenly- Jimmy and another guy walked out onto the roof and confronted Johnny.

'So, you're the one who has been stealing from our supplies,' Jimmy proclaimed, causing Johnny to back up towards the ledge of the building. 'You thought you could just come up to the roof and get ripped and nobody would notice?'

'I'm sorry. I'll never do it again,' Johnny begged for mercy, looking over the edge of the building, ten stories high, knowing there was no escape.

Jimmy pulled out his gun. 'Boss don't like nobody stealin' from him,' he declared, pointing the gun directly at Johnny's head.

I wanted to do something, but I was clumsy, and I hesitated. Johnny looked over and saw me in the shadows. He was so terribly frightened that he managed to stumble backwards over the ledge and fall to his death.

'Did he just jump?' Jimmy blurted. 'That was easy. I didn't even have to pop him.'

'It looked like he saw something that scared him.' The other guy replied. 'Something back there.'

They both turned to look. I was hiding in the shadows. They began squinting their eyes. They were both looking directly at me and they didn't even know it.

Finally Jimmy caught a glimpse of my silhouette and he pointed his gun in my direction.

'What is it Jimmy?' his pal asked.

'There's somethin' over there.' Jimmy quietly whispered.

That's when Jimmy's buddy finally realized what he was looking at. 'Holy shit! Is that a giant bat?' he blurted, also pointing his gun.

Just before the men could start shooting I moved laterally through the shadows.

BLAM-BLAM-BLAM-BLAM-BLAM

Within seconds a few other henchmen came to the rooftop to see what all the commotion was about.

'There's a giant bat hiding in the shadows behind that large air condition unit.' Jimmy informed them.

The men slowly walked over towards the unit. I was no longer standing there, but they were so scared, all it took was the toss of one small pebble to get them to empty their clips.

While they slowly crept around looking for me on the rooftop, I had already made my way into the building and found their drugs and ammo. I placed a bomb on the entire supply, and as soon as I made it out of sight, I blew it up. I could have left it for the cops to find, but it would have just ended up back on the streets.

Moments later, the entire block was surrounded by Gordon's men. Jimmy went to jail. However- he was found hanging in his jail cell not long after getting locked up. Grissom didn't like the fact that Jimmy lost his supply and he certainly didn't want Jimmy testifying in front of the new District Attorney Harvey Dent.

That's when all the rumors about a giant bat in Gotham City started circulating."

(Bruce got up from out of his chair and approached the thirteen year old boy sitting across from him.)

"You see, Terry, that's why I can't let you get involved… yet. You aren't ready. Sure… you were smart enough to figure out Batman's true identity, but you aren't smart enough to take on the newest criminal element you would have to face. They've gotten a lot smarter over the years."

"But I can help!" Terry McGinnis flailed his arms. "You are getting older. You need a new Robin!" he insisted.

"I might be seventy years old, but I bet I'm in better shape than most twenty year olds out there. I still have a few good years left. Besides... I've made a few upgrades to the suit, I hardly even have to use grappling hooks anymore. Though, the upgrades definitely had to be done... especially after that little Flash and Zod incident over the summer."

"I'm going to help whether you like it or not! I may not be fully ready, but you can help me figure it out!" Terry exclaimed.

"Fine. You want to help? You have to do something for me first."

"What is it? I'll do anything."

(Bruce pulled out a tube that resembled a lantern.)

"I want you to look directly into this light and tell me what you see."

(Bruce turned it on. When Terry looked into the bright green light he became hypnotized.)

"I guess you've never seen the movie Men in Black." Bruce teased. "I want you to forget all about your discovery of Bruce Wayne being Batman. You are going to go home and live your life as a regular teen. One day, maybe in a few years, you will start to wonder about who I might be again. Until then… we never had this conversation."

(Moments later, after Bruce had sent Terry on his way, Bruce got a distress call from Police Commissioner Barbara Gordon. He then pressed a button on his desk, allowing the floor to open up beneath the chair he was sitting in, revealing a tube-slide. The chair then tilted forward and down slid Bruce. After making it to the Batcave, Bruce began putting on... his other suit. The one with the red bat on his chest.)

"I've gotta go to work!"