They pushed forward like modern Spartans, shoulder to
shoulder in a phalanx. Their Plexiglas
shields were pummeled by insane fists and crushing weight of orange clad
lunatics. Those who tried to clamber
over the blockade were met with bean bag rounds from riot shot guns. Officers shouted at officers, each looking to
the other for strength. Police
Commissioner Barbra Gordon shouted orders over a megaphone, orders that were
lost in the din of the living, breathing nightmare that threatened to explode
into Gotham. Then a roar in the
distance, like a growling beast from the darkness, began to rise up. Inmates backed away from officers, as the
police in the back looked over their shoulders.
Commissioner Gordon lowered her microphone and looked at the flickering
lights that grew larger.
Some kind of motorcycle, long, narrow and black burst onto
the roadway and flames erupted from its undercarriage, launching it and it’s
rider into the sky, sailing over the officers.
As it glided over the inmates, midnight black wings seemed to snap out from
its sides. Small metallic balls fell on
the ground of the insane, exploding into flashes of blinding light and
deafening sound. The vehicle came down
hard and skidded to the side to a halt.
The rider rose his head up, looking at the dozen or so inmates still
standing.
“Oh my god.” Gordon said, seeing this ghost from the
past. Her hand trembled on the
microphone. The figure was stock still,
as if giving everyone an opportunity to take it in, analyze and accept what
they were seeing. Finally one inmate
uttered what no one else could, the word caught in their collective throats,
locked in by terrifying legend that, given the evidence of their own eyes and
ringing ears was very much a reality.
“BATMAN!” he roared into the night, and charged forward in
pursuit. The Batman banked the cycle
towards the front gates of the asylum and roared into it’s dark halls with the
remaining inmates in foot pursuit.
Gordon seemed to regain sense of her surroundings. “Row one, secure them. Row two, with me into the asylum! She shouted as she drew her sidearm and ran
after the crowd.
“Quite the groupies you have there, sir.” Carrie said over
the intercom. “Are you sure you can get
back out?”
“I’ll be fine. Can
you see if anymore got away?”
“I’m connected to the traffic cams, I see about thirteen
loose and running the streets. Looks
like at least four of them have somewhere specific they’re going. The rest are either running rampant to going
to ground, trying to shed their jumpsuits quickly. Oh, I did not need to see his balls.”
“Keep an eye on the group.
Gotham’s enemies don’t like to work together so if they’re going to
ground together, they’re probably linked to whoever engineered the escape.”
“On it. And the
others?”
“Let the police know where they were last seen. Hopefully patrol officers can collect them.”
“Yes sir. I’ve got
the Asylum’s cameras back up and running.
The bat-cycle’s going to run out of room soon.”
“...Batcycle?”
“Room sir. Focus on
that.”
Carrie was accurate in her description, the hall was closing
in fast and there was too much debris to effectively maneuver the vehicle. Batman cranked it to the side and slid to a
halt. The massive black motorcycle
blocked the hallway and he stepped back from it into a dead end hall.
The first, the most physically fit inmates arrived
first. Six of them clambered over the
vehicle as Batman waited. As they
reached the top, he tapped the button of a remote control in his hand. The jump jets gave a deafening boom as the
vehicle and inmates were launched into the hard ceiling and came crashing back
down to the tiled floor. Bloodied and
broken, the inmates fell to the severely damaged floor.
Gordon and her team rounded the corner. They had lost track of where the group had
went due to the echo nature of the hospital walls. The bone rattle explosion shook her to the
core. Inmates fled into the police
officer’s arms as the cycle roared through the halls. Batman, on the cycle sped past her out the
doors, through what remained of the police blockade, and off into the
night. No officer could be spared to
give chase, and none of the patrol cars could keep pace with the seemingly
alien machine.
Hours
later and the inmates were back in their cells, some secured to their beds with
their injuries being tended by doctors.
The immense amount of paperwork had quickly become her worst nightmare,
threatening to engulf her desk. The governor
and mayor both wanted answers. Dr.
Strange would be giving her a statement in the morning. Lines furrowed her pale skin; she closed her
emerald eyes and removed her wire rimmed glasses. She leaned her head back against her chair, vaguely
noting her trench coat, the same coat her father once wore, hanging on the door
to her office. Her eyes drifted open and
closed briefly. There must be a breeze
in her office, the coat was moving.
Her eyes snapped open as she realized that was not her coat,
but rather some kind of entity emerging from the shadows. “Jesus!” she launched forward, reaching for
the pistol in her desk drawer. Batman
remained motionless. “I’d appreciate if
you didn’t do that, commissioner. I’m
here as a friend.” Gordon took her hand
away from the drawer but remained standing, maintaining eye contact with the
friendly intruder. “Is it really
you? I mean...really you. Not some half assed replacement.”
“I am him.” Batman said gravely. “I came to tell you, four inmates escaped in
the break out, they were working together, likely working with an outside
source.”
“A few more than four escaped.” Gordon said steely. “I know.
But these four are together.
They’re planning something.”
“Who?”
“Harvey Dent, Johnathan Crane, Waylon Jones, and Duela
Dent.”
“Two-Face, Scarecrow, Killer Croc, and Joker’s
Daughter. Thats an interesting
combiation.”
“They were seen in mid-town, at West and Ward. They’ve been missing ever since.”
“Well that helps, she glanced down at the files
on her desk. Anything else you ha...”
but Batman was gone. She shook her
head. Now she understood how dad
felt. “I’m going to nail his feet to the
floor.” She whispered reaching into the drawer with her sidearm. She lifted a secret panel under the drawer
and pulled out a thick file with the words in bold black sharpie marker. It read “Batman”.
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