Batman Solo Movie FanFiction 2: Set Fire To The Bat
This new story here is the second part to my own Batman movie universe where I give my own take on Batman's journey. In my last story, I wrote the basic stuff about Batman getting his start and fighting Mr. Freeze just as a refresher. As I stated before, I would like to include villains that haven't made it in movies yet or giving redoes to ones that were portrayed terribly such as Freeze. Seeing as how Firefly was supposed to appear in the cancelled Batgirl movie, he never had a shot in a movie, and I want to do that in this story. This story takes place about 6 or 7 months after my last one and will show Batman continuing doing his best to make Gotham a safer place while making new allies along the way such as his old friend, District Attorney Harvey Dent and training a newly orphaned Dick Grayson into becoming Robin. Of course, a new threat will present itself to Gotham as it always does as the pyromaniac Firefly makes his debut and plans to burn the city down until it's nothing but ashes. This leads the introduction of the Dynamic Duo as they fight to save Gotham. Batman is in his Arkham City look as well as the fireproof suit from the "Torch Song" episode of The New Batman Adventures with the late great Kevin Conroy reprising his definitive role. Firefly is in his Arkham Origins look with Crispin Freeman reprising his role from the Arkham Games Enjoy!
Set Fire To The Bat
Synopsis: Gotham City has really begun to see a change in its crime rate ever since the Batman had come along as criminals had begun running scared and felt more safe when the sun was up. Nevertheless, crime doesn't quit as Batman continues to fight for Gotham's well being and protect it from the hearts of evil men. At the same time, Bruce Wayne's best friend, Harvey Dent, has become the new District Attorney and is more than glad to help Batman along with Jim Gordon to make Gotham a better place. After forming this alliance, the circus has come to Gotham and tragedy strikes when a group of acrobats are killed by a mobster with only the youngest son surviving. Seeing a mirror image of what happened to his family, Bruce Wayne takes in the youth, Dick Grayson, to stay at Wayne Manor and eventually winds up training him to become his new partner, Robin. Another horrific thing that happened at the circus was pyrotechnics expert, Garfield Lynns, was horribly burnt and disfigured by the criminals, and becomes the psychotic Firefly who plans to burn Gotham City down to the ground. With this new threat emerging, Batman and Robin fully form their new partnership along with the help of Alfred, Jim, Harvey, Lucius, and the GCPD to save the city from the pyromaniac.
Chapter 1: Day Of Reckoning
The weather was partly cloudy with just the right amount of both sun and clouds outside of Wayne Manor where a young Bruce Wayne was playing a game of hide and seek with his best friend Harvey Dent. Harvey's mother was a good old friend of Bruce's mother, Martha and thought it would be good for her son to bond with Martha's. It was also an opportunity to get away from Harvey's abusive, alcoholic father who physically and verbally abused both of them, which the Waynes and everyone else were unaware of. Bruce was currently looking for Harvey in his mom's greenhouse, but could not see him anywhere. He then heard a light sneeze that seemed to come from behind a table in the corner. Bruce had a slight smirk as he knew he had found him. Bruce went over to the table and sure enough, there was Harvey who was rubbing his eyes due to his allergies he was suffering from due to hiding in the greenhouse. "Found you, Harvey!", Bruce said victoriously. "It's not fair! You would have left if I hadn't sneezed! I was so close to not being found!", Harvey said as he was still itching his eyes. "Well, you shouldn't have had hid in the greenhouse then. Now, it's your turn to seek and I'll hide.", Bruce said. "Okay, I'll start counting.", Harvey said as he covered his face with his hands. "One...two...three...", Harvey began to count. Bruce then took this opportunity to find a good space to hide. He ran out of the greenhouse and looked around for somewhere he didn't think Harvey would find him. His eyes then landed on a spot behind some bushes that he thought would be great. After Harvey was done counting, he shouted, "Ready or not, here I come!". Harvey then began to search for his friend who was hiding behind the thick bush. Unbeknownst to Bruce, he wasn't aware he was standing right over a weak spot in the ground that could not hold his weight anymore. The weak earth gave out and collapsed under his weight and Bruce fell down a hole. Bruce was yelling all the way down until he hit the ground. Harvey heard his friend screaming and went over to the hole. "Bruce? Bruce, are you okay?", Harvey asked. Bruce didn't respond as the hard landing knocked the wind out of him. Harvey ran towards the manor yelling for help. "Mom! Mr. Wayne! Help!", Harvey yelled. Bruce was in pain from having fallen so far down and hitting the ground so hard, but was trying to raise himself up with his hands while still lying down. He was now dirty and covered with scrapes and bruises. He looked around the dark hole and heard nothing but silence. That was until, he heard a light screeching noise coming from what seemed like a cave that the hole led to. The screeching only continued and seemed like it was getting louder and closer. All of a sudden, a hundred bats came flying out of the cave and towards Bruce. The bats all flapped violently around him and he tried to cover himself with his arms so they wouldn't get at his face. At first he was scared, but soon began to feel a strange sort of calmness as the bats continued to flap around him as he lied on the ground. He then snapped back to reality as it turns out he was just reliving a memory in his head. In present day Gotham City, Bruce Wayne had grown to become the very thing that had attacked him in that hole which was a bat. He had become the Batman 6 months ago as a way to take back the city from the criminals that had claimed it as theirs and to strike fear into their hearts and minds. He had started this war on crime ever since he put away a crime lord named Rupert Thorne which began a ripple effect through organized crime in Gotham. He wouldn't have had made it this far with his crusade if it wasn't for his allies such as his faithful butler and surrogate father, Alfred Pennyworth, his head of Applied Sciences at Wayne Enterprise, Lucius Fox, and his one true ally in the police force, Captain Jim Gordon. "Master Bruce? Master Bruce, can you hear me? Are you alright?", he heard Alfred say to him through the earpiece in his mask. "Yeah, Alfred. I'm here. What is it?", Batman asked his butler. "I just wanted to be sure you made it to your destination. You said you figured out where you think the serial killer might be hiding?", Alfred said. For a while now, Batman had been on the trail of a killer with a unique gimmick and that was he killed people only on certain holidays or special dates on the calendar and murdered them in a unique way based on the holiday it is. Gothamites nicknamed him the Calendar Man and Batman believes he may have found a link that could lead to the capture of the killer. It was Valentine's Day and no doubt that he would strike today. "Yes. The calendars that were left at each crime scene were all made from a paper manufacturing company in the Diamond District that has been out of business for 10 years. The building's still standing and it's supposed to be abandoned. It might be a thin lead, but I think it's a good bet the killer might be hiding out in there.", Batman said. "Seeing the detective you have become ever since you first donned your cowl, I have no doubt you are correct about that assumption, Master Bruce.", Alfred said. "I'll check back with you later, Alfred. I'm going in.", Batman said as he got off the line with Alfred. He then proceeded towards the factory where the killer was in fact hiding out and currently had hostages. He had abducted a lesbian couple that were out on their Valentine's Day date and they were both being bound and gagged. The killer himself was slightly overweight and bald with the first three letters of the twelve months of the year tattooed around his head. He wore an orange jumpsuit that he still had when he was imprisoned at Blackgate years ago. "Thirty days hath September, April, June, and November. All the rest have thirty-one, except for February alone, which has twenty-eight most of the time, but on leap year, twenty-nine.", Calendar Man said to himself. The two girls were screaming, or at least were trying to but couldn't due to them being gagged. "Forgive me for not being a more courteous host, but how you are right now is the only way I can make sure you don't run away or scream so someone could hear you.", Calendar Man said. Calendar Man looked at one of the girls who had brown hair and it reminded him of a girl he was once in love with. "You know, you remind me of my high school crush. She was the standard popular girl in school who was always stuck up and dating the head of the football team. I was mainly attracted to her because of her beauty and I honestly thought she liked me, especially after she broke up with her boyfriend. I thought I was hitting it off with her after having friendly conversations with her a few times. Then, come Valentine's Day, I asked her to be my Valentine and she just made a fool out of me by rejecting me and revealing that she and her boyfriend never broke up. It was all just a ploy to build up my hopes and shoot me down. Just another miserable holiday for me just like every single day is. I waited a whole year to try to get her to be my Valentine again, but instead of smothering her with love, I simply smothered her and dumped the body in the river.", Calendar Man said as he told his grisly Valentine's Day story. The two girls had continuous streams of tears down their faces as they feared the worst was gonna happen to them. "If I can't have love on Valentine's Day, then neither can two young ladies such as yourselves. I'm sorry to say you won't live to see another day!", Calendar Man threatened as he grabbed a knife from a desk. Before he could use the weapon, the ceiling crashed with Batman falling through and landing right in front of the villain and his two hostages. Everyone was startled and frightened by the menacing figure that stood tall and cloaked in black. "It's you! I have heard about you, but I wasn't sure if you were real or not.", Calendar Man said. "Your holiday crime spree has come to an end!", Batman told the killer. "What makes you say that?", Calendar Man asked. "Because I'm here to stop you and bring you to justice.", Batman told the killer. "I will not be taken down so easily. Looks like I will add three more victims to my list this day instead of just two.", Calendar Man said. He then started to come at Batman with the knife, but Batman had no fear of this man whatsoever and allowed him to charge at him with the knife. The two bound women watched in horror and suspense as he thought he was going to stab him. Just as the killer was about to plunge his knife into the hero's body, Batman grabbed his wrist and held it in place in the air. He then began to tightly grip the psycho's wrist to the point the pain was unbearable and he dropped the knife. Calendar Man screamed in pain and fell to his knees. "Owwwww! Stop! Please!", he screamed. "You're done!", Batman told him. Calendar Man looked up at him and said, "If today's the day I get caught, so be it. I guess there's nothing I can do about it.", he said. Batman delivered a punch right to his face which knocked him out. He then went over to the couple and untied them and removed the cloths in their mouths. "You're safe now. The police will be here soon.", Batman told them. "Thank you! Thank God you came when you did! He was just about to kill us!", one of the girls said. The couple then embraced one another while still sobbing from terror while Batman got in touch with Alfred again. "The killer's apprehended. Send Gordon my location and tell him to get here right away.", Batman instructed. "Consider it done, sir.", Alfred said. Later on, police and news cars arrived on the scene about 10 minutes later. Calendar Man was placed in handcuffs and the two girls were getting an escort home. "This is Vicki Vale coming to you live from Gotham's Diamond District where the infamous Calendar Man has finally been caught just as he was about to kill an innocent young couple who were on their Valentine's Day date. Police have identified the killer as 39 year old Julian Gregory Day who used to be a prisoner at Blackgate Penitentiary before he was released just around the time his holiday-themed killing spree began. It's unclear whether he will be taken to Blackgate once again or to Arkham Asylum where he can receive proper psychological evaluation and treatment. Captain James Gordon of the GCPD gives full credit for the arrest to the Batman who has made quite a name for himself in this city the last several months. We'll be back in an hour with more on info on the story. I'm Vicki Vale.", Vicki Vale reported. Meanwhile, Batman and Captain Gordon were conversing privately away from everyone else. "That's something how you were able to crack down on his identity within the 10 minutes between when I got the anonymous tip and went we got here. How did you do that?", Gordon asked. "I have my resources. Day was sent to Blackgate on numerous charges of stalking and criminal harassment, but I think putting him in there only damaged his fractured psyche even further. It turns out he had a pretty rough childhood as well with an abusive, alcoholic family.", Batman said. "I take it you think if we put him right back in Blackgate, it might make him even more unstable?", Gordon said. "I think the best course of action is to put him in Arkham.", Batman said. "I guess you're right. You know, after you came along, more and more criminals have been going there rather than straight to Blackgate.", Gordon said. "Because not all the criminals in this city are bad to the bone, some are just emotionally and psychologically disturbed and need more helpful and compassionate care. Besides, I want to pay a visit to an old friend there too. I'll follow behind you.", Batman said. "Okay. I was just want to say thank you again, Batman. You really did Gotham a favor by finding this son of a bitch before he...", Gordon trailed off as he looked away for a second and turned back to see he was already gone. "I'm still working on getting used to that.", Gordon said to himself. Police escorted Day to Arkham with Batman in the Batmobile following close behind.