Chapter 4

The Watcher

Hope is coming and in the form of a man in a costume who goes out at night making a mess of the bandits, but they don't know it yet; they're not afraid yet; they'll retaliate and they'll realize that it's no use, the man will remain standing and then the bandits will run away from him and they'll feel what it's like to lose all hope, but that day hasn't come yet:

- What happened? – asked Carmine Falcone to his subordinates; his subordinates, those who were trembling with fear before him and were unable to answer at that moment – If you don't answer, I'll have your tongues ripped out!

Immediately his subordinates began to respond at the same time and this tested Falcone's patience:

- Andreani responds! – said Carmine Falcone:

- Sir, we were caught by surprise! - said Andreani - He came and destroyed all our boys, our trucks and warehouses and left us all wrapped up for the police!

- How many were there? – Falcone asked calmly:

- Just one! – Andreani replied:

- You tell me that a guy has ruined our monthly drug shipment, not only to Gotham, but also the shipment I would send to neighboring cities and some to the interior? - asks Falcone:

- Actually, he turned everything over to the police! – Andreani replied – The police will apparently take credit for this! He's a vigilante, sir!

Carmine Falcone sighed:

- Someone call me with Loeb! Start formulating a plan to recover the drugs if it doesn't work and find and kill this crazy guy who can interfere with our business! - Falcone said giving his orders and then he saw his subordinates standing still - Go!

Falcone's scream scared them and they quickly left. Falcone poured his whiskey and thought about what happened and how it all unfolded.

In his first month as a vigilante, Bruce discovered that he could balance the life of a billionaire and a crime fighter. Over the next few days, in his first appearance, he continued to hit petty crimes, drug dealing points, illegal gambling houses, clandestine fights, and more. However, he wasn't just focused on the Falcone Family. He attacked other families and gangs. He knew that after his first night, security was increased in the biggest businesses. That's why he would go to the small businesses that the mafia had to make them run from one side to the other trying to stop him. With them disoriented and at their peak, Batman would attack the big businesses, drug and weapons shipments, drug factories, the big points of sale, and also hit the safe houses of mobsters and gang members.

The police were running wild trying to stop him too, so,They were taking the glory of the big businesses that Batman ruined and it was soon realized that they were putting the smaller crimes in police statistics, but, of course, in the second month of operation, the newspaper covers and local television had pictures from afar, showing only his form with a cape and sharp circles under his eyes, the closest one showed the bat symbol on his chest, and so they started calling him "The Bat"; later they were calling him "Batman"; the irony; Bruce didn't care to correct or affirm this, he was just doing the right thing, monitoring the police conversation, Bruce knew that they had suffered a big blow by being called a liarto takethe credits for the actions of this last month when in fact it was the security guard who was doing it and for the first responded to a call from Carmine Falcone after a long time of ignoring him; Loeb was reprimanded by Falcone in their first conversation; something Bruce can only imagine happening; Loeb had avoided Carmine for a while, but there was little he could do to test a mob boss's patience; now,Bruce tina chance to record this conversation.

It was a calm night when Batman arrived at the Falcone Family mansion, up in a tree and using the darkness to hide from the guards who were constantly patrolling the area, but Batman had already seen a pattern and began to move without attracting attention reaching the pool area, the closest he could get, since there were guards on the roof of the mansion and Batman could not afford to knock them out and alert all the guards in the mansion, but there was no guard on the roof of the pool house,his suit would serve as an antenna; with all his equipment connected to his satellites, he could make use of thecomputer on his right gauntlet and Detective Vision as Lucius Fox calls the adjustments made, Batman had the audio of the meeting:

- "How is this happening"?– asked Falcone:

- "It's not my fault!" – Loeb replied – "I do what I'm told! This makes the police practically an extension of the mafia and it has reached the point where someone has wanted to take justice into their own hands!"

- "So it's the mafia's fault?" – asked Carmine:

- "The police are never seen doing their job, sir!" Loeb replied in an apologetic tone of voice. "We wouldn't have a problem if it was all done behind the scenes, but the state of the police is out in the open for all to see!"

- "I never imagined that anyone would challenge my power"! – said Carmine Falcone – "I am the owner of this city, everyone must do my will, the law, the councilors, the city hall; they are all in my pocket and they do what I say and a hooded guy comes along and challenges that! In addition to you taking credit for the damage he is causing"!

- "I couldn't reveal the existence of a vigilante"! – Loeb justified – "It's bad for everyone, especially if that vigilantegetthe support of the population"!

- "They're a bunch of sheep!" – shouted Carmine Falcone, throwing the glass of whiskey he was holding against the wall – "I don't care about them! I want that security guard dead! If you want the support of the city hall? You'll get it! If you want the support of the council? You'll get it! If you want the support of the magistrates? You'll get it!"

- "Yes sir!" – said Loeb, extremely intimate with Falcone – "But, because of those sheep,I had to destroy it immediately the drug and weapons shipmentsafter being apprehended"!

- "Another loss that Loeb brought me and thank any god that I don't cover your losses directly"! – said Falcone – "Go out and bring me results"!

Loeb left the room leaving Falcone alone and Batman had enough as well and left Falcone's estate without raising any alarm:

- "So the city is against Batman"! - said Base:

- Yes! - Batman confirmed - I have to stay one step ahead of them while I land some blows on organized crime!

- "Having the criminals and the city against Batman, maybe it's too much, sir"! - said Base – "Especially alone"!

- I'm not alone, especially when I'm talking to you Base! - said Batman:

- "Alone on the field"! - said Base:

- You're right, but we have to plan and be careful with every step we take! - said Batman.

Batman knew he couldn't plant bugs in the police station, they would certainly monitor it now, accessing the servers would mean physically going to the police station to install a door to gain access, but he wasn't that desperate for that, for now he would only be left with monitoring the police's communications and many of its departments and he went on to the third month of his work as Batman, evading the police's traps and as if that wasn't enough he had to evade the criminals' traps, for now he was achieving victory in taking down the points of sale, distribution and manufacture of drugs, stopping the trafficking of arms and people, also of organs, large and small robberies and destroying warehouses of pirated and contraband products; now he was in a house of drug users, this house offered police protection and he was attacking many houses like this, which are actually small buildings, driving away the consumers and putting more losses in the criminals' pockets; he had jumped out of his Batjet and landed on the roof and advanced floor by floor. He was now on the second floor after clearing the third.

With agility he grabbed the gun and pressed it against the wall, deflecting the shot that would certainly hit him. Then he applied a right blow to the bandit's stomach, who doubled over in pain. Then he applied a left blow, knocking out the enemy. With him on the ground, he threw two batarangs, hitting two bandits, who screamed in pain. Batman advanced, jumping, hitting the first bandit with a knee, then grabbing the second and throwing him hard against the wooden wall, breaking through it and falling into a room. Batman entered and clearly saw several users huddled in a corner. Then he saw enough to jump away from the shots that a bandit was firing with his gun:

- Die, you bastard! - shouted the bandit, unloading his gun, which ran out of ammunition and he didn't have time to reload when Batman advanced, grabbing his left hand and twisting it, breaking the bones, and the bandit screamed in pure pain. With his right hand, Batman grabbed his neck, squeezing his trachea tightly, and then headbutted him, knocking him out; with that, he knew he had ended up on the second floor.

Batman took out a pipe bomb, stuck it on the ground and pressed the red button, moving away. Then the explosion opened a hole in the ground, and Batman fell in front of two bandits, taking the weapons from their hands and then with both hands applying the blow to their throats, making them choke, passing by them and immediately hitting another bandit in the temple with his right hand and again with his right fist, hitting another bandit in the head; Batman turned to grab the back of the two bandits' necks and forcefully slammed their heads into the ground; activating his Detective Mode, he saw only people cowering in fear, possibly users, they would stay with the police, it seems that the rest of the bandits had fled; well, he was finished; deactivating Detective Mode, he approached the window, seeing the sirens of the police cars approaching; not being able to afford to wait for them, he left.

Another interesting thing happened in this third month, a gang had just robbed a bank, successfully and they were managing to escape from the police and what makes them interesting is that they are called the Red Hood Gang, each leader of this gang wears a red hood which is said to bring luck, especially in robberies, they were active in their adolescence and had been stopped, but this year it seems they are back and Batman saw themthat in some robberies, they managed to escape; Batman has the points of interest monitored to find out where the gang's next robbery would happen and follow them so that they are stopped, in this, Batman is in his batjet:
- "The Red Hood Gang, that's a name I wouldn't expect to hear again"! – said Base:

- You shouldn't be surprised, Base, the mysticism about the leader's hood makes it attractive to the bad guys! - said Batman - Especially if this is the original!

- "It doesn't matter"! – said Doctor; name used by Leslie in the communication; that day she was also accompanying Batman – "There will always be imitations of the Red Hood and they will appear once again after today"!

- We'll take care of that when the time comes! – said Batman.

It is at this moment that he launches himself from his jet, falling at speed and then opens the hood and descends, gliding towards the street and landing on top of a moving van; this van that was carrying the gang fleeing from the police could be heard their screams of surprise when Batman landed on top of the van and Batman quickly moved forward, falling on top of the hood and then delivering a punch that went through the glass and hitting the driver, more screams of surprise especially when the van turned sharply to the left and hit a barrier; the van turned sideways and crawled away, Batman jumped and fell to the ground, rolling several times and the van only stopped when it hit the pole, it took a short time, but Batman got up and headed towards the van, activating his Detective Vision:

- The occupants are unconscious! - Batman said, approaching and looking inside the van through the windshield that had completely broken. Looking better, he realized that something was missing and quickly activated his Detective Vision - The Red Hood is not here!

Looking closer, he could see the back doors of the van open, Batman walked quickly towards them and saw that the footprints were heading towards a place that was currently empty and this could be a blessing, he knew that desperate men could do desperate things:

- I know where he went! – said Batman:

- "Where"? – asked Base:

- Ace Chemicals! – replied Batman, heading there immediately – Look to see if there's anyone there!

- "Wait!" – said Base and at that moment Batman had crossed a hole in the fence and was heading towards the door that Red Hood had opened – "There is no one inside the building, there are no guards either"!

- What do you mean? – asked Batman, passing through the door and entering the facility:

- "It's time for the shift change!" – replied Base:

- Simply perfect! – Batman grumbled.

Red Hood was desperate,limping,he was running away from the monster that prevented his escape, he was counting on the luck that the hood brought to whoever used it to escape, but, since that giant bat overturned the getaway car, he didn't feel as lucky as before and now he was climbing as high as he could to escape it, but, with each step he felt that it was on his back, because his body was heavy and now his right eye was covered in blood, he had cut his eyebrow when the van was overturned,limping,he had reached the edge where the tanks with chemicals were stored, there was nowhere left to go up, only down, desperate, he had to find a place to hide, he turned around, but then he saw the figure mixed in the darkness, white eyes that stared at him and that made him retreat while the Bat approached in decisive steps, the Red Hood just wanted to stay away from that monster:

- Don't come any closer! Stay away! - Red Hood shouted, but Batman remained silent - Stay away!

The scream in despair fell on Batman's deaf ears:

- I surrender! Have mercy! - said the Red Hood, taking off his hood and throwing it on the ground - I surrender! I was desperate! I won't do it again! I swear! Just spare me!

Even as he spoke, the hood retreated in fear and now he was reduced to a man crying for his life and for everything that had gone wrong, but then Batman advanced at the same time that the Red Hood took a false step and fell off the edge, screaming, into the chemical tank, Batman had only reached the edge in time to see him being covered by all those chemicals in the tank and disappear, Batman just stood there, looking at what happened:

- Base, he fell, Red Hood fell into a tank of chemicals! – said Batman:

- "And so ends the Red Hood Gang!" – said Base:

- "Nobody survives this!" said the Doctor. Batman turned around and picked up the hood he had thrown:

- I got your hood! – said Batman turning once more to the place where it had fallen – I'm going to call it a night for today!

- "That's a good idea sir!" – said Base.

Batman left the place as quickly as possible, he could already hear the police sirens; moments later he landed his jet in the Batcave and got out of it heading towards Leslie:

- Leslie, he bled on the hood, do the tests, please! – Batman asked, handing the hood to Leslie and then he took off his helmet, returning to being Bruce Wayne:

- A long night, sir? – asked Alfred:

- It's just begun! – Bruce replied, leaving the helmet on the work a wireless connection to the computer to obtainthe night's video recordings and looked at the screen – Did you see your face?

- Yes sir! – replied Alfred:

- Can you identify it? – Bruce asked:

- Just waiting for the results! – replied Alfred.

It was after some time analyzing the data it had collected from the criminals it faced that the computer beeped:

- We have facial recognition! – said Alfred, placing the face of the Red Hood that Batman saw on the screen and on the right side appearing the man's file – Joseph Kerr, chemist, unemployed, married to Jeannie Kerr, pregnant with their first child!

- It says here that he tried to be a stand-up comedian and failed! – said Bruce:

- With his first son arriving and needing to support the family, he found himself committing robberies! – said Alfred:

- He tried to pursue his dream, failed and became desperate! – said Bruce – And now he left a widow and a child to be born!

- It is not your fault, sir, for the paths that others choose! – said Alfred immediately – As a vigilante you must show how wrong this path chosen by them isand when you have the chance, show them the best path, but even so, you must let them choose the path they want to follow.!

- At least Joseph got his insurance up to date, his family will get it! - said Bruce, Alfred went back to the keyboard typing something else when his wife's file appeared:

- The wife is a chemist too, on maternity leave! – said Alfred – Ironically at Ace Chemicals!

- Then there's a chance she'll quit her job or get fired! - Bruce said - If that happens, make sure she gets a job at Wayne Chemicals!

- Bruce! Alfred! – shouted Leslie who was rushing towards them – I have the results of the DNA test!

- We know it's Joseph Kerr! – said Alfred:

- That wasn't the result! – said Leslie typing on the keyboard, making another file appear; Bruce and Alfred were surprised to see it:

- It can't be! – said Alfred:

- It's impossible! – said Bruce.

In front of them, they were seeing Jerome Valeska's file, memories came to Bruce's mind that he had preferred to forget, but now, seeing the results of the DNA test done, he now had to come up with an answer:

- How is this possible? - asked Alfred:

- Indian Hill! - Leslie replied:

- Of course! - said Bruce - Indian Hill worked for several medical experiments, including to achievethe resurrection, it's not too hard to see them taking over Jerome's body and experimenting on him!

- Why him? - asked Alfred:

- His madness makes him a candidate for experimentation, especially if they had effective methods of erasing the test subjects' memories! - Leslie replied:

- They did this and put new memories into Valeska and gave her a new life! - said Alfred - And he spent those years being a guinea pig; being monitored and waiting for the moment when he would recover his memory!

- He's dead now! - said Leslie - I can't say I'm sorry he's dead!

The Indian Hill Program;Gathering resources from many members of Gotham's elite and especially Wayne Enterprises, this program was dedicated to seeking scientific and medical improvement, but it was under the command of Dr. Hugo Strange who saw no limits in testing on human beings and what can now be classified as metahuman; Dr. Strange, intelligent, never gave the impression that he was in charge of the program, appearing randomly while he had others to cover the facade of leader of the program:

- The Indian Hill Program, a real headacheeven with the project finished! – said Bruce – Even though we have a photo of my father next to Dr. Strange, we can never actually prove that he was the leader of the project, so much so that he was not arrested!

- Indeed, sir, but now that we have brought ghosts from the past to the surface, we can keep a watch on Dr. Strange and catch him at the right time! – said Alfred:

- I agree! – said Bruce – We should also look at the plastic surgery that Jerome underwent, an intervention like that and leave him as perfect as he was; so natural; of course I couldn't say that I saw the scars, but, it would be clear, signs of such an extensive intervention like that!

- That, I can answer! – said Leslie typing on the keyboard – Dr. Francis Dulmacher, also known as The Dollmaker!

A photo of the man appeared on the screen:

- He came after me, two years apart, but he has the intelligence and the steadiest hand I've ever heard of, his precision is legendary among the medical community, equal or more precise only than his father, Bruce! - said Leslie - Detective Gordon at the time dismantled his business of kidnapping people for the removal of organs in exchange for payments from the rich, his plastic techniques leave almost no noticeable scars and his notes on his work revolutionized medical techniques, yes, what he did was terrible, but he achieved feats in some areas that we would possibly see in thirty years!

- Is he still around? – Bruce asked:

- Yes! – Leslie replied – Detective Gordon can't catch him, recently, he still caters to the wealthy class and goes by the name of The Dollmaker; he is the only capable person I know who can perform an intervention of that magnitude on Jerome with such precision of detail and without any sign of noticeable scarring!

- Yes, I read the files, they make references to a Dollmaker, until now I never knew who it was! – said Bruce.

At this point Bruce knows he has to keep an eye on Dr. Strange,After Indian Hill, Strange remained in the shadows; Dollmaker too, after all, he served Gotham's rich who have the money and power to have their own private clinics with state-of-the-art equipment; Bruce knows that it must be Batman who expels these two figures from the shadows:

- Jerome is dead, let's move on! – said Bruce, ending the subject.

The months went by with Batman and both Bruce Wayne doing their jobs, especially with Batman watching the newspaper headlines talking about Gotham's Vigilante and what he was doing around the city, he spent those months escaping traps from the mafia and the police, the mafia especially came with the simulation of a robbery to which he was then surrounded by well-armed bandits.,in which he beat everyone and sent them to the hospital and then they went to jail, other times they appeared randomly surprising him, but they didn't show up with enough men and had a poor execution of their plans, but then something changed; in this sixth month of work as Batman he had to face yet another mafia trap and this time it seemed like it was being done by professionals.

Batman had arrived at yet another warehouse used by the mafia for the various shipments that came to be distributed or sent out, once again in a discreet and precise manner Batman had finished them off, it was in one of the many residential buildings in the port area that he found himself surrounded by heavily equipped mercenaries, all of them carried a symbol on their chest, a white coat of arms with a black sword pointing upwards and a red snake wrapped around the sword, The Cobras, a clandestine mercenary group that only works for criminals and sometimes commits crimes for themselves, soon Batman sees night vision goggles and realizes that he can't use the smoke bomb, but he can use something else and he had to be quick, his weapons are army standard and would certainly take him down; Batman throws a flash grenade hitting the mercenaries with night vision hard and so he gets to work.

The mercenaries put their arms up to protect their eyes from the intense light while Batman advances with his right arm, applies a blow from above, knocking down the mercenary's weapon and raises his arm in a blow, hitting the mercenary soldier. Very quickly he advanced against another mercenary with his right elbow, hitting his head, which fell to the ground and spinning around, applied a kick to the head of another mercenary. Then he took out two batarangs and shot, taking the weapons of two mercenaries who screamed in pain and quickly advanced, landing a right punch on another mercenary and then jumped, spinning in the air horizontally and hitting a kick on one of the mercenaries who was disarmed in his chest and immediately upon landing he hit an elbow in the face of the other unarmed mercenary, but then the shots started, they did not go through his armor, but Batman felt the impact that forced him to flee and seek shelter behind a crate while the bullets crossed the air near him.

Batman returned to the darkness with his Detective Vision activated, there were five left; he had a plan to devise to finish them off before they could bring reinforcements. The mercenaries realized that Batman was missing:

- He ran away! – said a mercenary:

-Falcone said we'll only get the rest of the money if we show the body. - said the second mercenary:

- He's still here! - said another mercenary - We must split up and look for him!

- Negative! – said another mercenary – This way we give him a chance to take us out one by one, we must stay together!

- Stay alert! – said the first mercenary:

- We must call for reinforcements! – said the fifth mercenary.

It was at that moment that a hook came out of the darkness and hit the leg of the first mercenary, piercing his leg. The scream of pain was immediately replaced by a scream of fear as the hook pulled him into the darkness and the other mercenaries, in fear, began to shoot. It was while they were unloading their ammunition that Batman appeared from the other side and punched the third mercenary, knocking him to the ground. Then he grabbed the head of the second mercenary and forced it against his knee. Batman quickly got behind the fifth mercenary while his colleague, the second mercenary, unloaded his weapon against his companion. The ammunition ran out and Batman advanced with a strong punch to his stomach and a blow to the back of his neck, knocking him out.

Batman knew the police were coming and so he left; moments later he arrived at the Batcave taking off his helmet and heading to the Batcomputer where he was being watched by Alfred:

- Another difficult night, sir? – asked Alfred:

- You know I do, Alfred! – Bruce replied – I need a low-power explosive device to destroy weapons!

- The mercenaries! – said Alfred:

- Yes! – Bruce confirmed – Sent by Falcone from what I heard!

- That means despair! – said Alfred:

- How great is this despair? – asked Bruce.

A question with many meanings, if the mafia was desperate, the police can certainly be included in this:

- More mercenaries! – said Alfred:

- More mercenaries! – Bruce confirmed.

Bruce took off his armor while Alfred entered the room with the medical equipment and he saw the purple marks on Bruce's chest:

- Impact marks, Master Bruce? – asked Alfred:

- A few shots hit Alfred, but the armor absorbed most of the impact force! - Bruce replied, sitting down, allowing Alfred to apply a paste to heal and thenthebandage on top:

- Well sir; I'm sure that in the future Mr. Fox will come up with better material that doesn't leave a mark! - said Alfred:

- The armor is perfectly resistant to low-caliber bullets, not very well to large-caliber ones! – said Bruce – There is some room for improvement!

- It is clear to me, Master Bruce, that the marks on your body show that the armor is not ammunitionmilitary!

Neither of them said anything else and Bruce let Alfred finish before going up to the mansion and retiring for the night to sleep and rest, he had a full day at the company and more than ever he felt he deserved a felt that the siege of the mafia and the police was increasing more and more, but he would not give up, not now that he was getting results, the bandits were hiding in fear and the streets were becoming safer and the news media showed comparisons of before and after his appearance, showing that the most varied crimes were decreasing and the mafia was losing more and more space.

Batman doesn't want recognition, no matter how much his figure has becomeoneurban legend, he was only there for the mission and each moment he achieved each victory with a taste of satisfaction, less drugs on the streets, bandits with fear and corrupt police officers cowering and looking over their shoulders waiting to see if they would be the next to be caught by Batman, that's what he is, a vigilante trying to bring the guilty to justice and trusting that she is still blind, even if those who make it work are not; in these months, Batman continued to act against criminals and corrupt people, but Bruce Wayne also has to keep up appearances, so he ended up dating reporter Vicki Vale, the relationship lasted four months and Bruce saw that he could build something with her, but she is practically obsessed with Batman and the story, with the work and also with the career that she practically left him.

Bruce spent a month taking it out on criminals until he was feeling well again and now at the end of the year, snow falls in Gotham like every end of the year, December is the month he fondly remembers his parents who were very festive and more charitable and a very happy time of the year, but not for Batman, he has a mission and he can't stop; even at Christmas the bandits and the corrupt don't stop, Batman would make sure that some families spend Christmas happily without any tragedy weighing on their bodies.