"So the Penguin and Sal Maroni got taken down, what a dear shame, too for them I'm smarter than them" a voice said as he held various city officials, crime bosses, and upper crust on conspiracy boards and dart boards "Of course, no one is going to figure out my plan" the man said as he picked up a Rubik's cube and spun it between his fingers, shuffling it up and putting it in a cardboard box, one marked with the Gotham Gazette, another one labelled GCPD, a third label to the DA Offices. He laughed as he did so; grabbing his cane and standing up. "Now time to show everyone that the smart ones are the ones in charge" he laughed.
"CAPTAIN!" a rather overweight detective wearing a fedora and trench coat rushed in. "We got another one" he said
"Another what Bullock?" Gordon asked sipping his coffee.
"One of those weird boxes containing the Rubik's cubes" Bullock said
"Damn it; who keeps sending them" Gordon gruffly asked
"I'm not sure, but the forensic labs is solving them and they reveal nothing" Bullock said as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a strip of dried meat
"What is that?" Gordon asked pointing to the meat
"Kangaroo jerky; Doctor said I have to lay off the hot dogs" he said
"And the doughnuts" Montoya said "Hey Capt, I heard that Babs is hanging out with DA Dawes" she said
"Yeah" Gordon nodded
"That will be good for her" Montoya said "Especially since she's one of the good ones alongside Dent"
"Yeah" Gordon said as he went for a pipe.
"Um sir?" the detective said
"Oh right, Sarah wanted to me to give it up" Gordon whined.
"Thanks for allowing me to shadow you today DA Dawes" Babs said
"No worries, it's not often I get asked by a captain of the GCPD if his daughter can shadow me for the day, and please call me Rachel" she said smiling as she walked into her
"Okay" Babs said as she spied a curious box on Rachel's desk
"Another one" Rachel groaned
"What is it?" Babs asked as she walked over
"For the past week we have been getting in each one there was nothing but a Rubik's cube. We're not sure what they're for but it's getting annoying" Rachel said
"Huh curious" Babs said as she looked at it, frowning as she saw nothing weird about it.
"So this is one of the Rubik's cubes sent from the GCPD?" Bruce inquired picking it up as a frown appeared on his face.
"Indeed, Lucius was given it but they haven't gotten anywhere;" Alfred said as Bruce picked it up and started to solve it, frowned as he solved it and looked over it, but there was something wrong with it, as if. Bruce realised this and pressed a button on his desk making his office lock down and his batsuit appear. He placed he finished cube on the desk and walked over grabbing his cowl and pulling on, quickly activating the detective vision and he gasped.
"Sir?" Alfred asked, curious as Bruce rotated the cube. He pulled out a pad and wrote down six numbers: 1-0-1-9-4-8. "Incredible" Alfred gasped. "101948, how did you know?" he asked
"There's a slight residue feel to them. Most likely ultraviolet ink. Tell the others that they need to shine a black light on the" Bruce said wiping his hands.
"But what are they?" Alfred asked
"I'm not sure" Bruce frowned as he entered the numbers into a search engine and got nothing that would really match up. It was not good to him.
"CAPTAIN!" Montoya shouted as she raced in
"What is it Montoya?" Gordon asked
"We got something on one of the cubes we sent to Wayne Enterprises" Montoya told him,
"What is it?" Gordon asked
"101948, we're not sure what is it yet" Montoya said
"How did they come by this?" Gordon asked
"Black light, there's UV Ink on them" Montoya said
"Get me one" Gordon said "And then run that through cryptography, I want to know if something important" Gordon said
"Yes sir" Montoya said. "Also should we send them over to Wayne enterprises?" she asked
"Yeah, I wouldn't mind seeing what those eggs heads say about them" Gordon nodded.
"101948, 011966, 061995, 111992, 052005, 032022, 082009; these are the numerical sequences found on the Rubik's cubes from the GCPD. Now upon reching out to the other places they were sent I can confirm that these are indeed the same set of numbers" Lucius informed Bruce.
"Do they mean anything?" Bruce asked
"No, and we've run them through every type of cryptography
"This is confusing" Bruce said
Frowning "Maybe a financial angle?" Bruce said
"I'm not sure. Before I forget Earl ran said that custom engine was read to pick up" Lucius smiled
"Good, I'm sure I'll put it to good use" Bruce said as he went back to the numbers; which was confusing him greatly. There was no way he could decided what they were pointing to. But them being on the Rubik's cubes must have meant something, only he didn't know what it was. He copied the data over to the flash drive and then logged off and decided to head home "I'm heading home for the day" Bruce said to his secretary
"Oh goodnight Mr Wayne" she smiled and continued to work on something before she gasped
"Alicia?" Bruce rushed over and frowned as he saw a large laughing question mark was on the screen.
"Did we get hacked?" he asked
"Mr Wayne?" Lucius rushed in
"What's wrong Lucius?" Bruce asked
"The GCPD, the DA Office and the Gotham Gazette have all been hacked!" Lucius said
"And us" Bruce said before he realised. "The numbers" Bruce rushed back into his office and quickly retyped the numbers in, which did nothing
"Well that didn't work" Lucius mused.
"I'm heading back" Bruce said as he rushed out of there, seeing Alfred
"I hear on the news, I figured you'd want to get a better look at this thing" Alfred shouted as Bruce got in
"I do" Bruce said as Alfred drove off.
Upon reaching the batcomputer, Bruce logged in and quickly scanned the networked to try and find the source of the hack.
"Damn it!" Bruce growled
"What is it Master Wayne?" Alfred asked
"There are multiple nodes that have been affected and are dealing with the hack. Plus the numbers are still nonsense; maybe if I...no it shouldn't be that simple. But that's the only way it could happen." Bruce said as he added up each number sequence getting "23, 23, 30, 23, 9 ,19" he wrote them in and got access to the hacked node. "I'm in!" he said as he quickly ran a system
"Who could be doing this?" Alfred said
"I don't know, but I'm getting the GCPD systems back online" Bruce said before he was kicked out of it "SHIT!" Bruce shouted as he tried the number sequence again, only for it to not work again.
"What's wrong?" Alfred asked
"whoever the hacker is changed it" Bruce said as he looked at the numbers again and then realised something, and opened a map browser and turned the sequences into map coordinates and it showed several locations. Only of them in a ring like pattern
"This is deliberate" Bruce said as he taped on a panel making the suit appear.
"Oh by the way, Earl called. Its ready" Alfred smiled
"I need to pick it up" Batman said
"Take the Porsche" Alfred said
"Very well" Batman said as he got into a black process and drove off.
At a mechanic's shop. A man in his 50's was whistling a jaunty tune as he was filling his cup up with hot coffee. He then turned around and walked past Batman
"Howdy, you must be here for the custom work" the man said" the man said
"I am" Batman said as he followed the man out onto a hidden part of the garage behind the paint shed.
"You know when Al and Lucius told me they were planning something, I didn't think I would be supping up a Muscle car, but I managed to slam a V-10 Dodge Viper engine into the chassis of a Ford Mustang, gave it the same kind of armour plating that GCPD uses on its tactical vehicles" the man said "Also it has a nice matte black finish, 19 inch alloy wheels, GPS, Bluetooth, heck I even made the seats heated" he smiled holding out the keys
"Thank you Earl" Batman said as he jumped into the new car, sliding the keys in the ignition and revving it up. The engine make a wild howl, making the Mechanic cheered
"Oh yeah" he laughed before Batman nodded, buckled up and drove off. The Mechanic turned back and then remembered something. "Ah shoot, I forgot about the jet boosters" he snapped his fingers.
"And yet no one has solved the Riddler's puzzle. Such wonderful news. That means that no one can stop me. Though one of them did try to use my codes to find me" Riddler said looking through the question mark shaped crook on his cane. "Curiouser and Curiouser" he said "I hope you are going to play with me, let's see" Riddler said as he pulled out a new Rubik's cube, shuffled it and used a drone to deliver it to Blackgate prison. Riddler quickly logged into the prison ransomware to the prison
"There is no way this new guy will be able to decode my puzzler and return control of it to the warden before the prisoners are released, and I'm pretty sure pretty little Rachel Dawes is there" Riddler said as he sent the cube before he sat back.
"Thank you warden" Rachel said as she and Babs left the warden's office, only to be stopped by the sound of buzzers going throughout the prison. The warden went over to the computer and went wide eyed as the computers displayed a laughing question mark before a message was revealed saying "Solve the cube or let the inmates run the prison" it laughed
"the cube?" the warden asked as a cube as brought in by an officer.
"Solve it and shine a black light on it to reveal the shutdown code" Rachel said
"And you may want to hurry it up" Babs said making them shocked as the laughing question mark now showed a timer.
We have 20 minutes" The warden gasped, Rachel taking it and trying to solve it, but each time she got a side done it would automatically shuffle itself.
"Shit" Babs commented
"Language" Rachel snapped.
"Master Bruce, you better head to Blackgate" Alfred said over the radio
"They got locked out I take it?" Batman asked, using the batmobile at peak performance.
"Yes, they have a cube as well but from what I can gather it reshuffles every time they solve a side. It's going to be impossible to solve it" Alfred said
"I'm on my way" Batman said as he increased the speed he was driving downtown
"How is the car?" Alfred asked
"performing at peak performance, it's got a good top speed, and there's a jet engine on the back." Batman said
"Why?" Alfred asked
"I don't know" Batman said "But still useful" Batman said as he headed for Blackgate.
"Huh, a speed demon, no the Bat. The one who took down Maroni and Cobbelpot. But how can a thug take answering my riddles?" Riddler sneered "Only by dumb luck" Riddler snapped as he looked at the computer, smiling as he saw the money flowing in from several banks into an online Swiss bank account; one that he can only access. A sick smirk on his face. "Soon I will be the richest person in Gotham, too bad I can't access Wayne's account. I still dream of my revenge. Too bad his father died" Riddler spat. "You always hid your money no matter how squeaky clean you seemed, opening orphanage, hospitals, the rail network. The rich are always evil, and I am here to end it all" Riddle asked as he saw the batmobile pull up outside of the prison. "Let's see how this plays out"
Batman walked into the prison's underground entrance, his cloak covering his armour, the guards were being attacked by a large inmate. Batman walked up, the inmate looked at him, only to be punched in the gut, double over and crashed to the ground, the guards were amazed as Batman walked in. He looked around and saw there were security cameras. He quickly used his sequencer to sync in to the cameras. Giving him eyes inside the prison.
"So this is what he's planning. But something else is up why knock those out of the national network, unless he's using them for some other reason. I'm guessing he's using them to about the computers. Maybe the banks" Batman said as a group of angry thugs in orange ran at him. Glaring at them he pulled out a smoke bomb, throwing it on the ground, creating a thick silver cloud of smoke, allowing him to quickly escape, right as a thug was about to punch him.
"Hey where did he go?" the thug asked looking around
"He can't have just vanished, FIND HIM!" another thug shouted as the spread out. Suddenly one of them yelped as he was pulled into the shadows.
"What was that?" a third asked
"Oh shit, not again!" A scared prisoner shouted making the rest look at him. "That is how he grabbed me and Penguin's crew, it was like out of a horror film" the penguin thug said
"What do you mean?"the first thug said before another one was pulled into the smoke.
"boo" Batman said as he appeared, grabbed the thug and pulled him back into the smoke as a second group of this charged at him, one of them holding a lead pipe which he swung at Batman, who he missed . Batman watched them from his perch above them
"Alright fan out and find the BAT!" the one holding the pipe shouted making the gathered thugs spread out, the Penguin thug shook in fear.
"YOU!" the pipe holder shouted as he marched over and slammed the pipe over his head, knocking him out "Anybody else scared of a cop?" the shouted before he saw a guy be pulled into the rafters and then dangled upside down.
"That isn't the work of a cop" another prisoner said before Batman shifted to the floor, hiding behind a large square pillar as a prisoner back up to him. He was grabbed, punched in the back and knocked out, he laying him down Batman activated detective vision and saw there were six more prisoners into the pipe holding shot caller. Reaching into his belt Batman produced a batarang and threw it at a thug, knocking him out before a closer prisoner was grabbed by Batman and knocked against another prisoner knocking him out. Grabbing his grappling gun, using it to pull the second to last remaining prisoner to him, wrapping him in a choke hold as soon as he was close enough and once the Thug was out Batman let go and turned to the shot caller.
"THERE YOU ARE!" the shot caller bark as he charged at him, pipe at the ready. Batman stood there unflinching, though he was glaring before the shot caller swung at Batman, who braced against the hit with his gauntlet, using his free hand to knock the pipe out of the shot caller's hand, then he his free hand to wrench the pipe out of the shot caller's hand, shoved it into his stomach and knocked him out just as the smoke clear.
"Damn" Babs said as she and the others were watching. Quickly pulling her pad out Babs started on new blogpost for her Knightwatch blog
"Where did he pick those skills up from" Rachel asked
"I don't care, what I want to know is how he gain accessed to the cameras" the warden snapped as he heard marching behind him, reaching for his gun he was relieved when the door was kicked in to reveal Captain Gordon and a fair few members of the SWAT teams GCPD had in store "James"
"Robert" Gordon shook his hand. "So the Batman saved our asses once again" he frowned
"Yeah, but we still have this to deal with" Rachel said as she showed them what happened when a side was solved
"Well that's annoying" Gordon grumbled. "Barbara, what are you doing?"
"Knightwatch" Babs shrugged making her father groaned and Rachel chuckled.
Batman walked through the prison with his detective mode on trying to find out how this new hacker was getting access from, only to see a glowing question mark. He scanned it making a riddle showed up
'what has stripes, but doesn't move as a herd and is limited by an iron pen?' the riddle asked
"Prisoners" Batman answered making a 3D printed question mark like trophy light up in neon green. Grabbing it Batman realised something, so he walked back to the office.
"Whoa" Babs said as Batman walked in
"Hold on!" the warden said as Rachel gulped her nerves down. Grabbing the cube Batman placed the trophy on top of it, showing 102011. He pulled the keyboard closer to him and typed the six numbers into the textbox which broke the ransomware block shocking them
"How did?" Gordon asked only to see he was gone.
"WHAT!" the Riddler shouted as he saw that his ransomware was broken and he was panicking as the status of the money theft was only at 46% "No, no, no, no, no, no, no" he panicked as he tried to speed it up. Growling in annoyance he grabbed his cane and turned to leave, only to see Batman behind him, glowering "Oh" Riddler said as he tried to sneak away, only to be pounced in the gut, forcing him to the ground. Batman then stepped over him and looked at the programs; quickly reversing what Riddler had done returning the money. "NO!" Riddler shouted
"Shut up Riddler" Batman said knocking him out with a single punch. "Riddler huh, someone who used their brains for villainy instead of good" Batman said dragging him out, unaware that out of his coat pocket fell playing card, one with a green and red joker on it.
G'day Guys Grizz here, And the Riddler has been introduced and is basically more like his Arhkamverse counterpart, the annoying twerp who leaves trophies and riddles everywhere. Sucks I didn't beat him up in Arkham Knight...I could be stuffed doing the trophy hunt. Anyway I was stuck on a villain until I settled on the Riddler, now a coincidence happened today when I see a fic Miraculous Wings and Webs by my buddy Mrotrax and his collab partner was posted this morning (i'm posting this Friday Night ACDT) and saw it alos had the Riddler though it was the BTAS version.
Oh right you're wondering what the numbers were well, here is what the mean: They're months and year dates based around Riddler
101948- Oct 1948 he's first appearance in the comics
011966- Jan 1966 His debut episode on the Adam West Batman TV series
061995 Jun 1995 the release date of Batman Forever which feature the Riddler as a villain
111992 Nov 1992 His Debut Episode on the Batman animated series
052005 May 2005 His debut on 'The Batman' animated series
032022, Mar 2022 Release date for the Robert Patterson Batman movie
082009 Aug 2009 Arkham Assylum release date
102011 Oct 2011 Arkham City release date
I hoped you enjoyed those fun easter eggs
So until Next time I'll catch you on the flipside