"Bombs are almost ready boss!" A thug calls out as he moves some tnt into place.

"Good, this should go off without a hitch! If Batman were half the genius this city

believes he is then he'd have solved my riddle and been here by now." Riddler says with

overconfidence in his voice. He glances over to see one of his henchmen completely

frozen in fear.

"What do you think you're doing? Keep moving the tnt!" Riddler shouts at his frozen

henchmen.

"I-I think I heard something…." He says clearly shaken.

"No that's impossible, Batman would've been here by-" Riddler's interrupted by the wall

erupting and his henchman disappearing into the smoke of the destroyed wall.

Riddler's henchmen open fire where the hole was formed. They move in closer as the

smoke clears to find the body of their fallen comrade littered with bullet holes. Their

eyes widen as Batman throws the body at them and one by one takes them down.

Riddler tries to make his escape but as he grabs the door handle to try and escape a

batarang stabs his hand into the door. He desperately claws at the batarang to try and

rip it out of his now bloodied hand as Batman finishes off his last henchmen and

approaches him. He grabs him by the neck and rips his hand away from the door

causing a massive tear in his hand to gush blood. Riddler screams in agony as Batman

slams him into the wall next to the door.

"Do you know how many innocent people you would've killed Nigma? And for what, a

couple dollars?"

"No…" Riddler says in a fearful voice, "it was to-"

Batman cuts him off by slamming a steaming hot brand mark onto his neck flesh.

"QUICK THEY'RE IN HERE!" Batman hears a voice call from outside the room they're

in. He quickly ties up the Riddler who is near unconscious from blood loss and leaves

the room promptly.

Commissioner James Gordon along with a small squad of GCPD enter the room to find

the bodies of all of Riddler's henchmen and Riddler himself.

"Quick make sure they're all still breathing!" Gordon calls out to his squad. He

approaches Riddler who is now unconscious and notices the brand on his neck.

"Oh no, he's branded just like the others." Gordon says to himself in a whisper.

"Commissioner, these men all seem to be alive… well except one. However, they're

barely breathing. Some of them have potentially irreparable damage to their insides. I

fear most of them won't ever be able to live a normal life again."

A look of frustration takes over Gordon's face. "I don't know what's snapped in Batman

these last three years but he used to stand for something good Commissioner, and I

know he was your buddy for a long time but you must see this just ain't right. I mean

he's got little disregard for-"

"I KNOW!" Gordon quickly snaps at his officer. "I know."

Gordon takes one last look at Riddler, "let's just take care of this mess he left us and get

back to the office. We are gonna have one big report to file."