Chapter 7: The Fall of Gotham
Batman had become a wanted criminal in Gotham City. Bruce had been to a depressing press conference held by one of the frontrunners for the new District Attorney, Harvey Dent. He waned to vanquish Batman forever because he believed that he was a threat to the welfare of Gotham. It was on the news and he had re-watched it many times and each time he watched it he felt more depressed.
“I make my promise right now to you all that once I am made District Attorney the hunt for the vigilante who calls himself ‘Batman’ shall be brought to justice!” This was met with cheers from the crowd. Dent had black hair, a small but growing beard and always wore a silver suit and tie. He hadn’t donned the cape in weeks and had been spending most of his time with Vicki Vale. Also, he hadn’t picked up anything on the Batcomputer from Black Mask or any of the other criminals which led Bruce to suspect they were planning something huge. He figured that if he couldn’t find anything from his own home, then he would venture out and look around. As it was the middle of the day, he wouldn’t go out just yet.
It was midnight. The Batmobile was slowly making its way down different roads in Gotham on the lookout for criminals. Nobody was around, which surprised him. Suddenly, streetlights turned themselves on. Policemen rushed out of different corners of the street with guns in their hands. Commissioner James Gordon walked through the crowd and stood in front of the Batmobile.
“So, Batman. You’re under arrest for evasion of Police and abusing Police property.”
“Crap.” Batman said. Gordon lifted up the glass encasement and dragged him out. Another policeman stepped up and put him in handcuffs. Batman was shoved into a police car and driven away.
The next morning, the only thing on the news was that Batman had been arrested. People were either cheering in the streets, or rioting that he wasn’t there. This was the perfect time for Black Mask to strike. His plan was coming through and he was going to do something big. Soon. Gotham would be helpless without Batman and then Crime will have restored its place in the city. Batman was sat in a cell at the police station waiting to be moved to Arkham. He had asked why he was going to the prison for the criminally insane and they answered ‘You’re a guy who dresses up as a bat and fights crime at night without the GCPD’s permission’. That answered his question. In the following days, Harvey Dent had won the election for District Attorney. He nearly had to reveal his identity but stayed strong and, sitting in his cell Batman thought over the different possibilities of escape in the hellhole that was, Arkham Asylum.
Batman had been in prison for a month and Gotham was more crime-ridden than ever. A simple plan all orchestrated by the evil crime lord, Black Mask. Gordon and Dent had the choice of releasing Batman so that he could defeat all the criminals, or keep him in prison and they could catch the criminals themselves. Gordon was on the edge of losing his job for capturing Batman when he had done nothing wrong. The main reason he had done it was because he was jealous that Batman was more successful in capturing wanted criminals than the police were. Just this morning, Black Mask had danced in the streets to show Gotham how vulnerable it was. He couldn’t get the thought out of his mind. It kept coming back to plague him.
It was early morning in Gotham City. People were hurrying themselves to their worthless jobs or taking their young children to school. The sun was shining bright in the sky, unusually cheerful for the gloom of the past few days. But that was soon thrown away. A black land rover was driving up the road and suddenly stopped in his tracks, swerved to the right and smashed into a Mercedes and a Renault. Four men wearing ski masks and black jumpers leapt out holding machine guns. A fifth man got out of the passenger seat in the front wearing a black suit and tie, black latex gloves and neatly tied leather shoes. It was Black Mask.
“Hello, people of Gotham City!” He spoke with a maniacal dried and deep voice. He too was holding a machine gun. Everybody had stopped and were standing as still as statues watching the criminals. A man wearing a white pinstriped shirt and lilac trousers suddenly spoke.
“We’re not afraid of you! Gotham has triumphed over crime before and we can do it again!” One of the criminals aimed his gun at the man, but Mask motioned for him to stop.
“But before now you had the Batman. And when he was gone the police realised that they had to get off their asses and do some work to make this city good again! But the current Batman is in jail for some reason and the police once again have their heads stuck up their asses! I am not an unreasonable man, so give me five reasons why I shouldn’t have Zsasz here shoot you!” The man who spoke trembled where he stood.
“Well, um, I’m a good person. I’ve got a good job working for City Hall. I’m the father of three children and a husband to a beautiful wife. Ur...” Black Mask slowly made his way towards him, as Zsasz followed.
“Only three?”
“W-well I’m being put on the spot and I um, can’t think straight!” Mask grabbed him by the scruff of the neck as the crows backed away. Mask whispered into his ear.
“So, what’s your name?”
“F-frank.”
“Frank....”
“Frank Dover.”
“Nice. And what’s your job in City Hall?” Frank trembled worse than before. “What’s the matter? Got something to hide.... Hmm?”
“I am... I am the...”
“THE WHAT?” Black Mask yelled.
“The assistant to Harvey Dent!” Frank said this quickly in the vain hope that the deadly criminal wouldn’t understand or hear him properly.
“So, you’re somebody trying to stomp out crime?”
“W-well, we both wanted to get rid of Batman and now we’ve done it!” He laughed lightly, but Mask didn’t find it amusing.
“Zsasz! Over here now!” Frank let out a silent scream. “Listen buddy.” Mask whispered to Frank. “Batman is mine. Originally I came back to strike fear into the hearts of the public and I have accomplished that. But my new goal is to kill the Batman once and for all. And I don’t want anybody else to beat me to it or they get it in the chest. And if anybody does do it before me then they get a much worse punishment. One final question, why should we save people? Especially our mortal enemies. Don’t they deserve to be punished? Especially if they have made our lives difficult and stressful and they’ve got it good. So Frank, why are you worth saving?” Tears rolled down Frank’s cheeks. He looked dreadful.
“Because I’m being good. You are not. I’m contributing to society! And I haven’t done anything wrong. Kill Dent. Kill Gordon see if I care! They’re not my responsibility. That’s why I’m worth saving.” Black Mask was thinking, as was Zsasz.
“No you’re not. Because you don’t contribute to society. If you died, who would care? Would it matter? Would the economy crumble and fall and the society break apart if you suddenly didn’t show up for work today? You are not worth my time Frank. I want people to lose their minds and nobody would lose their minds if a small, insignificant person like you died. And as I said I am not unreasonable. So I’m going to let you go.” Frank’s face lit up with delight.
“That’s bullshit!” Shouted Zsasz and then proceeded to shoot Frank in the head. The crowd screamed. Zsasz took a pen out from his trousers pocket and drew a tally mark onto his arm. When he took off his mask and rolled up his sleeves everybody realised that there were marks all over his body. Everywhere. “See people, I don’t care if a small insignificant person dies. And you can see how many people I’ve killed just by looking at my body!” Victor Zsasz was grinning.
“Add one more mark to that arm Victor.” Black Mask said.
“What do you mean?” He pulled out a gun from his jacket pocket and shot Zsasz in the face.
“Did that matter? Yeah I think it did. Criminals will feel a loss which means it made a difference. So will the police. You see people! I only kill the people that matter. This is why next I’m going to do something a little different. I’m going to kill something that matters to everybody. There’s nothing anybody can do to stop me either!” Mask then proceeded to do something a little strange. He dragged both the bodies of Victor Zsasz and Frank Dover into the middle of the street and danced on them. The crowd were confused by this, but some of the clever ones understood it. He was showing Gotham how powerful he was and that he could do whatever he wanted. He could dance on dead bodies in the street. He could shoot members of his own team. He could do anything, and the police were too scared to come looking for him. None of them had even shown up, except for police Commissioner Gordon standing at the back of the crowd watching the job that put food on the table slowly fade away.
It was a Saturday. Gotham Football Stadium was packed with citizens. Today was the big game between the Gotham Rogues and the Gotham Sharks. It had started 20 minutes ago. The mayor of Gotham had warned Gordon that if he didn’t make any progress in the Black Mask case then he would be fired. Batman had been moved to Arkham without trial. He was sharing a cell with a master criminal known as Jack Napier, also known as The Red Hood. He had heard in the newspaper about the murder of Victor Zsasz and Frank Dover. He was longing to get out of here and back to fighting crime. He had been allowed one phone call to Alfred to explain what had happened to him and Alfred passed the message on to Vicki Vale, but tweaked into ‘Bruce has been invited on a business trip to China and had to leave immediately’. He also wanted to get out because of what Black Mask had said about him ‘destroying something that matters’ and to check up on construction of the power generator. The stadium had already been built and just needed to be painted and a ceiling/floor be built et cetera. The actual energy storage unit had been built as well so the only things that needed to be finished were the rest of the stadium and some of the energy generators. Bruce had heard that Harold Stapleton had been doing a great job over the past six months and was obliged to put him on the Wayne Enterprises board.
“So Bats’, when are you gonna take off that mask?” Napier asked.
“I’m not gonna so don’t get your hopes up.” Batman replied.
“Ha-ha! Have you thought about how stupid you’re going to look goin’ to get dinner dressed as a bat and wearing hockey pads?” He suddenly leapt up and slammed Jack’s head into the wall. Out of his wrists came three sharp edged curved blades that would slit his neck in a heartbeat.
“I don’t wear hockey pads!” Bruce pulled away and sat back down. Jack Napier sat on his side of the room silently, afraid that if he spoke Batman would kill him.
“You do realise that sooner or later one of the officers is gonna make you get into your prison outfit?” He said. Batman’s head turned towards him as Napier smiled and giggled.
“Come on; let’s put a smile on that face!” His maniacal laugh echoed down the hallway.
Back at the football stadium, the Rogues were winning 2-1. Small fist fights had broken out in the stadium over which team was better. But none of that mattered. Soon half of those people would either die or suffer major injuries. Suddenly, there was a massive explosion right in the middle of the football field. Most of the Rogues were caught in the blaze and thrown backwards. Screams erupted from the audience as they all made a dash for the exit. The doors were thrown open and a legion of criminals holding different guns and other weapons ran in shooting wildly at the air. While all the commotion was going on, one of the football players (he played for the Gotham Sharks) stayed on the pitch. In all the heat of the explosions, people would think he was mad. If you looked closely, you could see something dripping off of his face. It was wax. He lifted his hands up and scratched down on his face. Puddles of wax formed on the grass. He then scratched each hand with the other hand to reveal black skin. It was Black Mask. The fans watching gasped. One of the criminals walked up to him and gave him a machine gun, which Black Mask used to shoot the criminal with.
“People of Gotham City! As you can see, I do not break promises! As most of the veterans here will know, Thomas Wayne attempted to build an eco-friendly power generator in this city but plans were abandoned because they didn’t have the right technology! Instead, this very football stadium was built over it. But they didn’t bother to destroy the generator! Which was a bad mistake because guys like me and my goons over there can go underground and re-activate an old power generator which is bound to cause a bigger explosion soon enough. Goodbye football!” People had been trampled to death and were lying on the ground. The GCPD had shown up and were trying to evacuate people. Gordon was in the midst of everything trying to bring order back. He muttered quietly,
“We have to bring Batman back.”
Batman and Napier were sitting in their cell. He had spent the last few hours bothering Bruce on his identity and was he insane et cetera. Napier was waiting for a meeting with one of the members of the Arkham Asylum board. A woman in a pinstriped tailored jacket, skirt and rectangle glasses walked up to the cell.
“Mr Napier, Dr. Crane will see you now.” She smiled at him which he returned jokily. She escorted him out of their cell and gave a snooty glare at Batman. When they left, many policemen and women were running up and down the corridor talking about a major disturbance, wax and thousands of people being captured and trapped. Batman stood up and put his ear to the bars, trying to hear more.
“It’s collapsing!” One shouted.
“His face was made of wax!” Another said to another officer.
“How many are injured?” He asked.
“Hundreds. Maybe thousands! They’ve been either trampled to death or shot by his goons.”
“That’s it. Black Mask has gone too far this time, gather as many officers as you can!” Batman stumbled back, alarmed by what he had heard. This was the big destruction Mask had mentioned earlier this week. He heard hundreds of inmates yell out at police officers that they wanted to ‘help’. He could finish that sentence himself: ‘Help Black Mask’.
“Oi you! Get me outta here, I can help!” Batman said to a passing officer.
“Pfft, yeah right! You attacked the commissioner and you expect us to let you out? We’re not stupid!”
“Listen. I made a vow to protect the people of Gotham and people are in danger out there. From what I’ve heard you guys aren’t doing a very good job of stopping it. When I attacked Gordon I was already furious at him because of something bad he did. Then he took it out of hand. If you’ll have a look at my record, then you will know that before I was arrested I had been stopping crime for 6 months. Now either let me out of here or you’re seriously going to regret it.” The officer stood there, frozen.
“We can’t let out inmates.” He then raced out of Batman’s sight.
“Fine.” He muttered. “If they won’t let me out then I’ll have to resort to getting out myself. He looked down at his Batbelt and took out two long silver metal tubes. They were stuck together, but he grabbed them both and pulled them in opposite directions to reveal a blue futuristic hologram of a computer screen. He rested it on his arm and typed in words and moved files around on the screen. Many police officers and inmates had stopped what they were doing and watched Batman.
At the police headquarters in Gotham Central, things were even more frantic. Gordon was at the scene of the crime and so were all the other senior officers. The highest ranking person was dealing with many people coming up to him telling him different stories about the stadium collapsing. Then one of them revealed something that was more interesting and terrifying than any of the other things the other officers had told him.
“Sir, in the garage, the Batmobile’s starting up.” They both rushed to the garage as fast as they could followed by many officers interested in what was going on. The Batmobile’s lights were turning on. The engine was revving up. But there was nobody in there.
“What in blazes?” Asked the most important officer. Then the wheels started moving extremely fast and raced out of the garage, bashing down the wooden doors as it raced towards its owner.
Batman was sitting in his cell waiting for what was going to happen. Two police officers had been questioning him about what he had been doing with the unexplained futuristic scroll, but obviously he had refused to comment. They were now guarding his cell. A faint sound of a fast car racing down the road could be heard. It was getting louder and louder. Batman then proceeded to get up and stand by the bars.
“Hey!” One of the officers said. “What’re you doing?” He asked.
“Just shutup and leave me alone!”He replied. The officer grabbed the back of his mask and whipped him around, just for Batman to point his wrist in the air. On the bottom of it was a bat-sign attached to a piece of strong string. The logo ejected itself and buried itself into the ceiling.
“What the...” The other officer said. Then Batman was lifted up with the string and his curved wrist blades also buried into the ceiling. Suddenly, the Batmobile came crashing through the wall and all the way through the bars, throwing the officers back. Luckily it didn’t open any other cells. Batman dropped down from the ceiling, got into the car and drove off.
People were being held hostage all over the football stadium. Black Mask was waiting until Batman arrived so he could blow him up. Officers littered the streets outside and tied in ropes inside. It had been so long that the sky was beginning to become dark. Just the right time for a bat to strike. Most of the pitch was left in mud and buried in rubble and bodies. Gordon was being held hostage outside by a criminal known as Julian Day.
“Let me go!” Gordon yelled.
“Wow, you’re pretty pathetic for the police Commissioner!” Day replied. Just then, something round and bright moved across the sky. The shape was difficult to make out in the clouds and all the tall buildings, but some criminals and officers were muttering that it looked like a Bat. Something black was racing down the street. Gordon stared at it, as it was directly in front of him. He saw curved arcs in the shape of bats on the roof of the car.
“RUN!” Screamed Gordon and everybody around him. It was the Batmobile. In between the arcs was the bat-signal, projecting his specially designed logo onto the night sky. A missile launcher rose out of the roof and shot a rocket at the criminals. It hit the gates leading into the stadium and crushed many criminals, including Julian Day. Batman got out of the car and as he passed Gordon he said:
“I improved your idea.” He walked into the stadium and up the stairs. He wanted to get out the hostages before fighting Black Mask because he knew that if he went after him first then he would just detonate the generator and blow everybody up. Batman was making his way through the stadium, knocking out criminals and freeing people as quickly as he could. Mask was inside being taught how to use the detonator by his scientific advisor.
“So once you detonate the generator make an escape as quickly as possible. The stadium will stay partially intact for three minutes before collapsing. The explosion will only be enough to destroy the stadium, not anything else because it’s been here for nearly twenty years which has de-powered the energy largely. So, Mr. Sionis have you got all of that? Do you need to go over it again?”
“No it’s all right, I understand.” He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a gun. The scientist backed away trembling as Mask shot him. He kneeled down at the criminal’s body and watched him die.
“Y-you... You only kill people that matter! I DON’T MATTER!” He screamed. Blood was coughed up and splattered everywhere.
“What did you say?” Asked Mask.
“I DON’T MATTER! NOT AT ALL! Nobody cares about me!”
“Hmm... I’m correct. I once thought that when a person is dying at your feet, they let out all their anger and secrets at you. My methods teach people who they are. You have learnt that you don’t matter! Victims learn if they matter or not. Mattering is bad. But that’s for when I’m in an intellectual mood. At the moment I’m annoyed because Batman won’t get his sorry little ass over here! So that’s why I killed you!” Black Mask rose up and walked back out onto the pitch, as the scientist coughed up more blood and died.
While Mask was waiting, he took out a cigar and lit it. All the people that saw this learnt a little more about the crime lord. That he didn’t care what was going on. He could watch his entire mob die before his eyes and still stand there polluting his lungs. That was how insane and dangerous this person was. Suddenly, Gordon appeared in front of him pointing a gun at his face.
“You’re under arrest you son of a bitch.” He stated. Mask laughed.
“Do you think I’m going to go over to you and let you put me in handcuffs and that I’m not going to put up a fight!? Are you that stupid?”
“Most of your team are dead! And Batman’s here sto-“Gordon shut his eyes and mouthed ‘shit’. Black Mask threw the cigar to the ground.
“He’s here? Right now? Wow! I’ve been waiting to meet this loser for a long time! Where is he?”
“Why should I tell you?” Mask chuckled.
“Can I ask you a question?”
“No.”
“I’m asking it anyway. Do you matter?”
“Everybody in this stadium matters you son of a bitch!” This didn’t come from Gordon. Mask turned around and Batman was standing there and punched him in the face. Mask collapsed on the ground but leapt up as quickly as possible. They both then proceeded into a hardcore fist fight. Batman was winning by far. Then Mask grabbed a larger gun from his pocket and whacked it around Batman’s neck. He collapsed and Sionis cheered. Gordon rushed up from behind him and kicked him onto the ground. Mask was trying to get up but Gordon would just punch or kick him. He then grabbed Gordon’s gun and pointed them at both his opponents.
“See, I’m amazing!” Just then, Batman leapt up and wrapped his arm around Mask’s neck. He was choking heavily as Gordon continually kicked him in the chest and all around the body. While this was happening, Mask reached into his pocket slowly and seemed to be pressing buttons. Batman and Gordon stopped. Mask grinned. Then a section of the stadium erupted in flames. “It’s started!” Yelled Black Mask, as he slithered out of Batman’s grasp. Suddenly, the part of the pitch behind Batman exploded and threw all three of them forwards into another explosion which they quickly avoided.
“The whole place is exploding!” Stated Gordon.
“Great isn’t it!” Said the crime lord. While the protagonists were mesmerised by the explosions, Mask made getaway. When Batman noticed, he chased after him screaming at the top of his voice. The section of seats above the entrance exploded and rubble was about to bury it permanently. Black Mask speeded up and slid through before he could be trapped or crushed, but Batman was too late. Outside, the outer rim of the stadium fell down onto its walls as smoke and flames erupted out of it. Cracks made their way down the side of the stadium and it ripped it self apart. Everybody had already exited except for Batman and Gordon. Criminals and members of the general public were trying to break into the Batmobile and make an escape in it. About twenty or thirty people were clambering all over it. But then it made a buzzing sound, and electricity pulsed around its body, zapping them all off.
“What do we do!?” Yelled the commissioner.
“I’ve got an idea.” At the back of his Batbelt was an array of Battarangs, but had a slightly different design. They were covered in bright red lines making a complicated puzzle across the surface. Batman threw one at the rubble blocking the exit. Flames were everywhere, covering every exit they could find. Gaping holes had formed in the pitch, but were being quickly filled by collapsing rubble. The Battarang buried itself inside the rubble.
“What are you doing?” Asked Gordon.
“Just watch.” Batman replied. A loud beeping sound could be heard from inside the burning rubble. Suddenly, an explosion bigger than all the others erupted from the tiny Battarang, blowing away all the rubble in sight.
“How did you do that?!” Gordon asked.
“WayneTech. Better than the other crap.” He replied. “Now come on before you get crushed!” Gordon ran after Batman and they both raced out of the collapsing stadium. Batman leapt into the Batmobile and drove away as fast as he could.
“Huh. Thought he was gonna give me a lift!” He noticed an untouched police car by the side of the building. “There we go.” Gordon ran into it, started the ignition and drove away. He looked in the rear-view mirror and saw the stadium collapsing in on it self. Within a matter of minutes it was a pile of burning rubble. “I’m glad Batman’s back.”