It was a dark and stormy night. A normal night in the ever-bleak city of Gotham. A heavy rain poured down on the city and its citizens.
Deep within the bowels of the Batcave, the endless darkness was illuminated by a sole computer screen as Charles Wayne sat in his father's chair drinking a cup of coffee as he stared at the large monitor.
Charles had been at the computer for hours. Searching for any traces of crimes to go out and solve. So far, his efforts had been fruitless. Like they often were these days.
Ever since Superman had unleashed his 'anti-evil' ray as he called it. The ray in question didn't actually somehow cure evil. Well, it kind of depended on how one looked at it. The ray forced a realignment of morals on people. One that forced people to more deeply re-examine their plans to commit violence. It was easier to say it drastically strengthened everyone's inner conscious. As a result, crime all over the world had plummeted, or in some cases flat out stopped. Pre-meditated murder, pre-meditated-rape, planed robbery, even wars, all now seemed to be a thing of the past.
But not all crimes were planned. There were still many crimes done in the heat of the moment. Crimes where the conscious had no say in what happened. A decision made in an instant due to either fear, rage, stupidity, neglect, inebriation, or sometimes a combination of them. Those crimes still happened. And it was those crimes Charles was searching for to try and solve. To carry on what he, and the few remaining un-retired heroes had been doing before the ray. Saving lives.
Suddenly there was a ping, and Charles bolted up in his chair as he listened to an incoming police message. "Vehicle collision involving a pedestrian and an unknown black SUV reported at 5th and main. Any available units please respond."
"A politician. Great. God, I hate getting involved with politicians. They're the closest thing we have to villains anymore at times."
"I'll handle it," came a voice that nearly shocked Charles out of his skin. Whirling around in his chair he found his father Bruce Wayne standing right behind him. 'How the hell does he do that?' thought Charles.
Charles shook his head. "No, it's fine father, I'll go. I've been itching to get out of the cave and go do something."
Getting up from the chair Charles walked to the costume vault to don his Knightshade costume. He slipped on the black bodysuit, so similar to his fathers. The only difference between the two was the symbol. He then slipped on his deep green boots, his gold and black gloves, his gold utility belt, and his green and gold cape and finally his black domino mask.
He walked over to his own costume made deep green and gold motorcycle and mounted it. The engine roared to life as he flipped the hood of his costume up and then rode off into the night.
It only took about 10 minutes for him to reach the site of the crash. Arriving before even the paramedics had. The scene was unlike any he had ever seen. The black SUV was completely totaled. The front was completely caved in as it sat smashed. What stood out was that it was smashed into a tree that was jutting out of the middle of the road. As though it had simply popped into existence.
Not far from the wreck was a red middle-aged headed woman, lying unconscious in a heap. From where he stood from the woman, there was no blood splatter but she looked deathly pale."
As he approached the unconscious woman, he realized she wasn't pale. She was light green. Fear gripped Charles' chest as he rushed over to the woman. 'No, please no.'
Turning the woman over Charles' stomach felt like it had fallen out as he looked into the half open eyes of his mother, Pamala Wayne. "Mom! Mom! Are you ok!?"
The former supervillain groaned as she squinted to adjust her vision. Looking through blurry eyes at her son's costumed face. "Hi, little sunflower. What are you doing here?" she spoke in a low weak voice.
Charles began to panic but his father's training snapped him out of it as he turned his mother onto her back and checked her vitals. Her breathing was shallow but steady. Her heartbeat was slightly slow but also steady. There were no signs of extremal bleeding but Charles knew that didn't mean she wasn't bleeding internally. He began to hear the approaching sounds of sirens and put his mother in the recovery position as they arrived.
Charles watched every action the paramedics made with close eyes as they rolled his mother onto a gurney. He then followed them to the black SUV and chastised himself when he saw there people still inside the vehicle. In that instant he realized he had broken his fathers' rule of letting his emotions override his judgement. He had been so preoccupied with his mother he hadn't bothered to check the other victims of the crash.
The car had two passengers in it. A young man who was buckled into the driver seat while an older man was seated in the passenger side. Knightshade took stock of their physical condition. Both were awake and seemed to be lucid, if simply a bit shaken up. The younger man had a gash across his forehead but it didn't appear to be life-threatening.
Part of Knightshade wanted to strangle the man for hitting his mother but his father's words echoed inside his head. 'We don't kill. Ever. Not under any circumstance.'
"Which one of you was driving?" He was barely able to put the fact that he'd just run over his mother, resisting the urge to punch one of them in the face.
"I…I was," said the younger man in the driver seat. "Please. My head hurts. I think I have a concussion.
Knightshade stepped aside as a second paramedic team arrived and opened the doors and escorted the two onto gurneys to be sent to the hospital and be examined.
With the men out of the car Knightshade began to examine the interior, looking for signs of what had caused the wreck. Within the glove box he found the vehicle's registration. Nathanael Hall. It was then that Knightshade realized that he recognized the man in the passenger seat. Nathanael Hall. A local Gotham City congressman. But who was the man who was in the driver's seat? A friend of Hall's maybe.
Knightshade inspected the car from top to bottom but found no drugs or alcohol or anything that might have caused the driver to crash. He found various sets of prints in the car and uploaded them to the bat computer to cross reference them with Hall and all other government officials.
As he left the car the police finally arrived and Commissioner James Gordan stepped out of the squad car and approached him. "I heard over the radio that Pamela was hit, is she ok?" asked Gordan.
Knightshade nodded, "Yeah, she's not likely, but she's still in bad shape. I had to resist punching Hall in the face."
Gordon patted Knightshade on his back to comfort him, "Don't worry, nobody is above the law. If he's responsible for this, he'll pay for it."
Knightshade smiled and said, "Thanks Jim, I gotta get going."
Leaving the car, Knightshade hopped onto his motorcycle and raced to the Gotham City hospital to figure out exactly what had happened.
As he drove, he called his father over the Bat-team communication line. "Dad, meet me at Gotham Med. Mom was the pedestrian in that accident."
'Time is always against you. Once the civilians are out of immediate harm's way your first priority is the crime.'
"I'll be there immediately," came his father's cold response before the line went dead. Most who heard him would think his father didn't care with how unemotional his tone had been. But Charles could tell. He could hear the slight waver in his father's voice. His dad was scared.
Despite having left long before his father by the time he arrived at the ER he saw his father's black 66 Corvette in the parking lot.
He found his father in room 5E sitting by his mother's bedside who was already awake.
Pamala looked over at Charlies and smiled. "Hey sunflower. What took you so long?' she joked.
Charles smiled as his heart calmed down a bit. His mother being lucid enough to joke was a good sign. "What happened mom?"
Pamala groaned and placed her hand over her head. "Uh. Not you too. Your father already grilled me."
Bruce looked up from his spot at his son and spoke using his deeper Batman voice. "Your mother said she was out running errands when a car ran a red light. She summoned a tree to try and stop the car but the impact of the car against the tree still threw her back. The doctors said she will be fine. Nothing but a few minor sprain from being thrown back."
Charles nodded. Taking in what his father had said. 'That explains the tree in the middle of the street.'
"The car was registered to Nathan Hall, but he wasn't the one driving. He had a passenger with him who was in the driver's seat."
"Have you interviewed them yet?" asked Bruce.
Charles shook his head. "No. I wanted to check on mom first."
Bruce glared at his son. "Charles. What had I told you about investigating a crime?"
Charles bowed his head as his father's words rang in his head. Time is always against you.' "Sorry dad. I'll go and interview the two right now."
Leaving his mother and father alone Charles brought up the hospital records and quickly found the room where the two suspects had been taken two. By the time he arrived Gordan was already outside the room.
"Have the suspects given any statements?"
Gordan nodded. "They have. Hall claims his assistant was driving, and his assistant is backing his story."
"Anything in their system?"
Gordan nodded. "Hall's assistant was sober, but Hall himself came back at .09, but right now, there's no evidence as to who was driving. It's a matter of she-said, he-said."
"I already searched the car. No sign of drugs or alcohol inside. When I searched for DNA I found both Hall's and White's prints on both of the doors, but the prints on the steering wheel weren't good enough to match to anyone, let alone White or Hall. But I did find saliva on the driver's side airbag. Just waiting for the results." When his wrist communicator beeped, he said, "Speak of the devil and he shall appear. The saliva is Hall's."
Gordan nodded. "The two were probably leaving one of Hall's speeches. Hall likely drove and when they got into an accident panicked and forced his assistant to switch seats with him. Send the result to the GCPD lab. I'll go in and make the arrest."
Knightshade knitted his eyes. "With all due respect Mr. Gordan. I'd like to handle this one myself.
Gordan raised an eyebrow at the odd requests but stepped aside to allow the young hero into the hospital room.
Knightshade wrapped his cape around him and entered the room with a quiet but confident step.
He approached Hall's bed who didn't even realize he was there until he was right next to him. Hall nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw the black and dark green vigilante standing next to his bed like some kind of reaper. Glaring at him as though he was trying to burn his soul.
"Nathan Hall, you're under arrest for vehicular assault and driving while intoxicated."
Hall gasped for words in the pretense of the figure before finally finding his voice. "I…I told you-
"You lied," barked Knightshade, cutting the man off. "Your DNA was found on the driver's side airbag. You were over the legal limit, your breathalyzer results prove that. But when you crashed, you were in a panic, your assistant agreed to take the blame to shield you from the press. But when the airbags activated, your mouth was pressed against them, and your saliva was left behind."
Nathan Hall grumbled, "Do you know who I am?"
Knightshade's hand moved in a flash as he grabbed Hall's wrist and squeezed it at an angle. Causing the man to yelp in pain "I don't give a damn who you are. You put innocent lives in danger tonight. You nearly killed an innocent woman."
"Innocent, please. Don't make me laugh. Pamala Wayne. Aka: Poison Ivy. Just because she reformed and bagged a billionaire doesn't make up for all the people she killed before then. The woman is a murderer. I'm not going to shed a tear over her
Charles' blood boiled over and with a single motion pressed hard and heard the man's wrist snap. Hall screamed in pain. Knightshade dropped his wrist and exited the room. He turned toward Gordan. "Inform the nurse that Mr. Hall now has a fractured wrist to add to his injuries."
Gordan simply nodded. "This will certainly make the papers, Congressman Hall Drives Drunk, Injures Pamela Wayne. It's going to be a PR nightmare."
A ghost of a smile tugged at Knightshade's lip. "That's your problem Mr. Gordan. I have other things I need to take care of tonight."
Walking away from the room Knightshade exited the hospital and walked to his fathers parked Corvette. Opening the trunk, he found various civilian clothes folded and neatly pressed. Making sure no one was around Charles quickly changed into one of the available suites and then slid a small panel hidden in the dark of the trunk to the side and pressed a button. The bottom of the trunk popped open to reveal a second trunk with his father's Batsuit in it. He placed his suit next to his fathers and then closed both trunks and returned to the hospital.
Returning to his mothers' room his father was in the same place he had been when he left. Looking as though he hadn't even moved an inch. Taking a seat on the other side of his mother Charles looked over to his father and nodded. Silently letting him know the case was closed.
Bruce returned the nod as both simply watched the light green woman sleep. Within the stillness of the room Charles's communicator going off was like an alarm blaring. Fumbling and quickly grabbing it Charles saw that the call was from Superman-Blue. "Hello?"
"Charles, I'm afraid I need your help with something. I've been analyzing some strange cosmic events, and what I'm seeing tells me the Multiverse may be in danger. Since you're one of the best heroes who is still active, I'd like you to help lead a squad to take care of this."
Charles nodded, "I'll be there as soon as I can." before telling his parents, "Something came up. I can't stay long, but I'll be in touch," he said before racing out of the room to head towards Metropolis.