Late at night in the Gotham Harbour in the shipping yard, a group of criminals with about 9 members were all lined up waiting. Their leader, a skinny Caucasian man with a dark green tank top, black hair and a tattoo of what appeared to be fire going up his arm to his shoulder, was playing with a lighter that he flicked on and off.
He stared at the little dancing fire, almost like he was mesmerised by it. "Don't you just love to look at fire? It's almost hypnotic isn't it." There was silence from his crew as they all stared at him with no opinion. "It's almost like it represents life. The way it dances like it is conscious and living. Until…" He closes the lighter lid. "…The light goes out." He turned to his crew who all just looked at him with blank stares. "Aren't you going to say anything? I don't like awkward silence either but I would appreciate a little conversation."
They were currently waiting for a client whom was supposedly coming tonight and right now, some of the crew were getting impatient with how long they were taking while their leader was very patient.
"How long are we going to be here?" Asked one of the goons. Specifically, an African American man with a bald head.
"Patient, Walker." The leader said. "She'll be here."
"And what if she isn't?" Walker asked the leader looking more spooked.
"What if she isn't?" The leader huffed in annoyance. "What's gotten you so spooked?"
"I just…Don't like being out at night." Walker replied nervously.
The goons just groaned in annoyance. "What's gotten into you?"
"Come on, man!"
Then, the leader looked ahead to see a speedboat coming in from the distance. It parked without tying a knot on to the cleat.
The mysterious person was wearing a hood and a jacket. As they walked up towards them, the streetlights, landing lights and lights that lit up the shipping yard all began to flicker.
Walker became startled by the flickering lights that he almost screamed. "Oh please…"
"Sorry for startling ya…" The woman removed her hood to reveal herself as Leslie Willis AKA Livewire. "…But I just needed a bit of a recharge."
The leader smiled. "Leslie Willis? Or was it Livewire?"
"Just for the record, call me Livewire and I'll burn you to a crisp and the deal is off." Leslie said aggressively.
The leader approached her. "So, I assume we won't be shaking hands? Think I might get a shock." He laughed which caused his goons to laugh back.
"Okay pal, I just wish to speak to a Garfield Lynns." Leslie requested.
"Well, he's standing in front of you." Garfield said while gesturing to himself.
Livewire instead looked over the guy's shoulder and grinned. "Is it the big muscular guy with grills in his teeth?"
"No, it's me." Garfield responded both confused and insulted.
"Really?" Leslie grinned. "I thought you would have been a bit taller and more manly."
The goons laughed at her insult while Lynns looked mildly insulted. He narrowed his eyes at her and clenched his fists. "Just for the record, I have committed twelve acts of arson in the span of a week."
"Really?" Leslie laughed. "That doesn't impress me. I wish you were made of hotter stuff."
Garfield narrowed his eyes at Livewire and was about to punch her. But before he did, she emitted a spark of electricity from her index finger and thumb just to intimidate him. "Ah. Ah. Ah. Hasn't anyone told it's dangerous to touch electricity?"
Walker, was shaking throughout the confrontation until he couldn't hold it in. "Garfield! Can we please just get the deal started?!"
Garfield and Leslie looked to the man with anxiety issues with baffled looks. "What's his problem?" She asked.
"He's a little jittery." Garfield explained.
"For good reason!" Walker argued. "The Batman."
Leslie groaned in disbelief. "The Batman? Oh give me a break! I don't know what those morons told you, but he doesn't exist!"
Walker looked confused by that statement. "You don't believe in the Batman?! What sense does that make?! You fought Superman and he is something out of a comic book! So, why can't you take the time to think that Batman might exist?!"
Leslie sighed. "Is he always like this?"
"He can't seem to fathom that the Batman doesn't exist." Garfield explained. "You've heard of him and his little buddy right?"
"I'm familiar." Leslie replied. "But I think I'll need some context."
"Uh, Batman is this supposed ghoul who takes out people like us." He explained. "He's this person who beats the snot out of dealers, thieves, killers, that sort of thing. And apparently, he flies with his wings. And he also has this sidekick supposedly. A Bat Boy."
"Robin." Walker corrected him.
Leslie laughed. "Robin? Sure, that strikes fear into the hearts of people like us. A bird." She laughed. "Boy, that story gets more unbelievable the more I hear it."
"What about the signal the police use to alert him?" Walker asked.
Garfield rolled his eyes. "Drury Walker, how many times do I have to repeat myself? There is no Batman. Besides, that signal is just used to scare us not summon him."
"Alright, I have a Superman problem in Metropolis I need to get back to so are we doing this or not?" Leslie asked with impatience.
"Yes, let's begin."
Just as the weapons deal was about to begin, Walker was looking upwards as if he heard something move through the shadows. He looked around the area to catch any sign of anything, but couldn't find anything.
Except, Walker thinks he could see something standing on one of the shipping crates. Some sort of man shaped silhouette. Like one of those shadow apparitions people claim to see in their haunted homes. That was until, one of his buddies broke him out of his terrified trance.
"Hey Walker, come on man. Pay attention."
Walker shuddered. "Yeah…Yeah…Sure Matt."
Leslie walked towards the boat she came on and pulled out a crate with a familiar 'W' logo. Garfield is surprised by the logo being on this crate.
"Wayne Enterprises?" He remarked. "Big guys to steal from."
"Actually, I stole this from Bane." Leslie replied. "Well, some of his goons. Hey, you small pathetic little bug, 'he' is real. Bane."
Garfield looked impressed. "You stole from Bane? That's gutsy. I like guts."
"I don't know what Wayne Enterprises has to do with this." Leslie explained. "Maybe Bruce Wayne needs a bit of extra cash." She opened the ginormous crate to reveal a flamethrower, a batch of grenades, a wing shaped jet pack and what looked to be an oxygen mask. "Oooh, I like the look of this."
He removed the flamethrower from the polyester and strapped it on his back. He aimed it at the ocean and pulled the trigger, causing a stream of fire to shoot out.
As the fire shot out, it emitted a bright light that briefly revealed a cloaked silhouette jumping through the air with their fist raised.
This sight caused Walker to stumble to the ground with fear. "I saw him!"
"Oh there he goes again." One of the goons groaned.
"I'm telling you I saw him!" Walker screamed.
Garfield groaned. "Walker for the last time, there is no Batman!"
"I'm out of here!" Walker raised his hands high. "I'm going to my crib."
"Alright, see ya." Livewire said while Walker began walking back home. "But wouldn't you be bait for that Batman."
"Shut up!" Walker screamed. "I'm going home!"
"You know moths are common prey for bats?" Livewire asked. "You're essentially selling yourself out to be the moth."
Garfield laughed. "For a man who was very paranoid about this Batman guy, you sure are being stupid enough to be his prey."
"I'm going before he gets me. Good luck to the rest of you!" Walker began running away from the shipping yard while Gar, Leslie and Gar's men stayed behind.
"What a wuss." Matt remarked. "I believe in the Bat but I ain't afraid of him. I could take him on."
Livewire shook her head. "No way you can't. Not even when you're just a slab of clay. You'll lose."
"So, how much for this?" Garfield asked.
"About 27K." Livewire replied.
Meanwhile, Walker was race walking through the dock to avoid the Batman just in case he comes out to get him. "Okay Drury, here's what you gotta do: Get out of the dock, go home, leave Gotham and start a new life." As he walked to his car, a dark and muscular figure was just above him watching him.
But unfortunately, Walker couldn't see him as he was more focused on getting out. But his focus on getting out stopped when he noticed something on the floor. He noticed some sort of metallic bat shaped object with eight sharped sides.
Walker looked at the object a little bit closely and knew instantly that it belonged to the Batman. "No! I'm going! Leave me alone!"
Suddenly, another bat shaped object flew past him and stuck to one of the ginormous crates. Walker shook with fear as he looked around the dock for any sign of Batman. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his gun.
"I'm warning you, I'm loaded!" He aimed his gun upwards, left side, right side, behind him and in front of him, all while shaking. "WHERE ARE YOU?!"
He turned around again and then began shaking. He shook so badly that his gun fell out of his hand as he raised his hands high.
Meanwhile, Garfield and Leslie were still discussing their deal. "How about, 200 for the grenades, 700 for the flamethrower 80 for the oxygen mask and 8K for the jet pack."
"You get the amount you want for the former two and 10K for the latter." Livewire motioned him to hand her, her money.
"Nine thousand for the jet pack and we're done!" Garfield suggested.
"Deal!" Livewire and Garfield shook hands with each other.
All of a sudden, they heard a horrified scream coming from Walker, startling everyone. Then, the lights that lit up the dock all of a sudden all burst, leaving the dock in dim light.
"What was that?!" Matt asked.
"That better not have been you!" Garfield aimed his flamethrower right at her.
Livewire raised her jolted hands high. "I can lie about a lot of things, but that wasn't me."
"Maybe the lights just went out." Matt theorised.
"Well investigate the disturbance just in case that isn't Walker messing about!" Garfield demanded.
The seven criminals all began to split up with their pistols, rifles and knuckle dusters at the ready just in case they have a flying rodent problem while Garfield and Leslie stayed behind to finish the deal.
"Hmm, mind if I consider my decision?" Livewire asked.
"Don't mind if you do." Garfield replied as he picked up one of the grenades and chuckled. "Gives me plenty of time to consider our deal."
Meanwhile, the seven goons were all patrolling the shipping yard to catch any signs of Batman or Drury Walker and so far, nothing to report.
"Find anything?" Matt asked the goons.
"Negative, Hagen." One of them replied.
"Alright, split up." Hagen commanded. "We'll find them faster. Three of you take the left, three of you turn right while I go my way."
"You got it!" Three goons with rifles turned left while others with pistols turned right and Hagen with his brass knuckles walked forward.
"Alright, alright, alright…Show yourself."
As this went on, Garfield had attached the flamethrower to his back to test it out. "It's a little heavy."
"What did you think it wouldn't be?" Livewire asked. "So, you going to pay me?"
"I will, don't worry." Garfield assured her. "Until I find out if these grenades work." He threw the grenade towards the boat she came in. Then, in seven seconds, it blew up.
Livewire looked angered and annoyed by the betrayal of her client. "You weren't going to pay me were you?" She asked angrily as she began to emit electricity.
Garfield put on his helmet and the jet pack. "I was intending to have my boys kill you. But now, I wanna see you burn." The pyro loving maniac activated the jet pack, causing him to ascend fast until he got control. "Tonight's forecast, an incoming heatwave." He aimed his flamethrower at Livewire and pulled the trigger, causing some fire to shoot out while Livewire got behind a small hut to cover herself.
Meanwhile, three of the seven crooks who split up were walking down a narrow corridor of shipping crates with their rifles aimed at all locations.
The one in the front lead the other two in the front briefly raised his hand high to stop them which they followed as he though he heard something. "Twelve O'clock." He motioned the crew to aim their guns straight forward where they saw movement.
They fired a few rounds and stopped when they saw that it was just a regular bat. "False alarm, just a bat. Get in front of me." But there was no response from the rest of his men. "I said get in front of…" He turned around to see that both of them were gone from his sight. "…Me." They vanished from thin air, without a single trace of them.
All gone, except for their rifles. The goon began shaking as he began looking around the area for any sign of his men. "This isn't funny guys! What are you playing at?!" All of a sudden, a boot fell right in front of him.
He analysed it and realised it looked like one of the boots his guys were wearing. He looked up and saw that they were hanging from a rope on a railing. They appeared to have someone sort of gag on their mouths that suppressed their screams. All they could do was make muffles as they were suspended up high in the air.
And above them, was a mysterious silhouette with sinister glowing eyes staring back at him. The man began shaking with fear as the mysterious man jumped down to grab him.
Meanwhile, Livewire performed a role and shot a bolt of electricity in the direction of Lynns but he somehow avoided it. Then, he fired a stream of fire straight towards her that she quickly dodged, causing it to set her jacket on fire.
She quickly took it off to reveal her black turtle neck and rubbed her hands before firing another blast of electricity straight up at him again.
He descended, avoiding the blast and gave a laugh. "It's a shame you can't fly. Would make an interesting chase."
Livewire narrowed her eyes at the man and began charging towards him as she readied her hands to release an electric shock. Garfield began shooting fire towards the direction of her but before it could hit her, she fired electricity from her hands that she had aimed on the ground, using it as a booster so she could tackle him to the ground.
With a might crash, he landed on the ground as Livewire gritted her teeth in anger. She began to punch him in the face repeatedly, causing a bit of a crack in his bug eye like visor. Then, he managed to take off. As he did, he kicked Livewire right in her face.
He ascended in the air and revved up his jet pack and aimed it right at her. He began flying over her while firing a stream of fire and tried to burn her. Livewire quickly jumped out of the way to hide from the fire but Lynns was close.
Meanwhile, the three other goons were all looking around the area. Up, down, high, low, left, right, they couldn't see any signs of Batman or anything else.
As they walked as slowly as they can, one of the goons felt something attached to his ankle. He looked down and saw that a hook had been attached to the hem of his jeans. And with a scream, he was pulled up.
"Connor!" One of the goons screamed as they saw their friend being dragged up into the dark.
The goons began shaking with fear as they aimed their weapons up into the night sky. "Come on! Show yourself!"
All of a sudden, a silhouette dived down and grabbed his buddy right next to with his cape as if he was devouring him before dragging him back up.
"Nooo!" He tried shooting the bat with every round he had in his gun but unfortunately, he missed. He began shaking with fear as he looked into the darkness that creature came from and devoured his comrades. He shuddered with fear as tears began to drip down his face.
And, from the dark came a voice that was rough and chilling. "Run." It said.
The man listened to whoever it was and dropped his gun and began running to the right. But as he ran, he suddenly tripped over a wire that caused a net to shoot out from his left and stick him to one of the shipping containers.
The man screamed as he struggled to escape the bat shaped net. But unfortunately, he couldn't. Then, from the shadows he was hearing footsteps that were slowly approaching him. He tried getting out with every struggle as the footsteps got closer and closer.
Then, from the shadows came a man. A man wearing black boots, dark grey armour around his body, a distinct black bat symbol on his chest, a pair of bat shaped gauntlets on his wrist, a bat shaped mask and a black cape. This man was real. A legend. A boogeyman for the criminals. He was, the Batman.
The man shuddered as Batman closed in on him not knowing what he will do with him. But when he stopped, he just stared at him with a hard glare.
"P-P-Please don't kill me." The man pleaded. "Don't kill me like you did with Walker. I-"
"Walker isn't dead." Batman said. "He's conscious. Petrified. But conscious. If you ask me, I think he is going to need a heavy dose of psychological evaluating." Batman walked closer to the terrified man. "Tell me, Mr Brown, who is in charge of this meeting?"
Brown shook with fear. "I…I…I…I don't know!"
"You're lying." Batman said. "How about I free you so I can make you experience gravity?"
Brown shuddered. "Okay! Okay! Garfield Lynns. He's buying weapons from that static chick from Metropolis."
"Leslie Willis." Batman said.
"Yeah!" As he began glancing to his side.
"I wasn't asking." He retorted. "I know who you're on about."
"Yeah…Look, I can give you some information regarding what they have." He said as he continued to glance to the side. "They stole it from that terrorist. Bane. Ya know, the one who blew up that football stadium?" Batman stared at the man as he continued to stutter. "I…I…I…Well, he has…"
All of a sudden, Matt came rushing in with his fist raised high and tried to punch Batman, who just dodged the punch. The muscle bound criminal narrowed his eyes at Batman.
"So, you are real?" Matt laughed while Batman stood up not even threatened by the man. "Well, I guess I was stupid into discrediting Walker. "Come on Batman, if you're as tough as they say, then take me down."
Batman raised his fists and clenched them hard. Matt walked up to Batman and tried to punch him. But he just ducked and punched him in the abdomen and then an uppercut to the chin. Then, a few punches to the chest, face and then face again, causing him some discombobulation. Just as Matt was about to perform another punch, Batman grabbed him by the wrist and tossed him over his shoulder, slamming him to the ground.
Then, he punched him in the face repeatedly, knocking him out. "How was that?" Batman asked smugly.
Matt groaned in pain while Batman picked him up and forced him up against a container. "Where are Lynns and Willis now?"
Hagen spat in the symbol. "Everywhere!"
"Wrong answer!" Batman tossed Hagen towards the container behind him, causing Hagen a painful groan. "Now, let's do this again." He cracked his knuckles as he walked toward Matt.
Meanwhile, Garfield and Livewire were continuing their fight. Livewire was shooting some electric bolts towards him, but all he was doing was flying about.
But Livewire due to fighting Garfield for too long and the fire from Lynns' weapon, she was exhausted. Garfield laughed as he cocked his weapon.
"You put up a good fight, Willis." Garfield said. "But it's about time that you experience a lovely slow burn. Maximum heat." He began diving down towards her and began shooting the fire straight towards her.
But when he got closer, Livewire grinned and fired a bolt of electricity that hit the wing of his jet pack, causing him to crash on the ground and to skid across the harbour and into a streetlight.
Garfield tried standing up, but Livewire quickly tore it off of his back and began pulling him with a barrage of electrified punches. Garfield groaned in pain as he felt the electricity jolt through his system.
Livewire then tore off his helmet so she could punch him even harder. Garfield, despite the pain passing through his body, narrowed his eyes at the electrifying merchant whom he had just betrayed.
"So, I assume the deal is off?" Garfield asked.
"Off?" Livewire laughed. "It's more than off, it's been powered down, it's been eviscerated, it's been decimated!"
"A lot of words to describe how screwed the deal is." Garfield remarked.
"Very much." She raised her hand to emit a ball of electricity. "Now, you wanted me to burn, yes?" Garfield nodded his head. "Well, I'm curious as to how bad the burns would have been. Would they have been like this?" She placed her jolted up hand on his chest which caused a serious powerful giga watt of electricity to travel all around his body, causing him to scream in pain.
Meanwhile, Batman, whom had just cuffed Hagen to a pole; Heard the sound of screams coming from the harbour.
He began running toward the source of the scream to investigate it. When he got there, he saw a boat on fire and on the ground was a man covered in severe burns all over his body. Blisters both pulsating and not, smoke emitting from his body hair and twitching fingers.
Batman ran towards the man and began to check up on him. He could hear faint breathing coming from him despite the fact that he should have been dead from burns like these. "She….She…She…Got…."
"Save your breath." Batman said.
Garfield looked at the man standing over him and gave a faint terrified breath once he saw Batman standing over him. In his horror, he realised that all the rumours and eyewitness reports were true. He was real.
Batman placed his finger on his mask to communicate with someone. "Contact the police. I have eight suspects secured. And contact an ambulance, the ninth is lying in the harbour with third degree burns all over his body."
"Right away." Said a soft spoken man with an English accent somewhere from the North side. "What of the weapons?"
"Leslie Willis AKA Livewire is the merchant." Batman said.
"Oh dear. Shouldn't she be in Metropolis?"
"Perhaps he tired her out." Batman theorised. "But that's not all. The weapons she was selling were stolen from Bane."
"Oh dear. Well I guess that means we might be getting a few visitors from Santa Prisca crossing our boarders soon. This could be our chance put that madman behind bars once and for all."
"I'll try to be optimistic. But make sure you and Robin keep an eye out for any signs of Livewire." Batman said. "Her way out has been destroyed. So she could be hiding out somewhere in Gotham."
"Of course sir. What was she selling if I'm allowed to inquire?"
Batman looked to the crate Livewire was selling from where he noticed a familiar logo in the front. This caused him to look surprised, rendering him speechless.
"Sir, what were in those crates?" But Batman didn't say anything. "Sir, is everything okay? Answer me sir, silence is not going to help." Batman knew that he had a new mystery right now. Why did Bane have his hands on a bunch of weapons with Wayne Enterprise written all over it? Was he stealing from the company? Or was there someone in the company that was selling them?