92 Chapter 92: End of The Falcon's Reign (1)
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"Your anger gives you great power. But if you let it, it will destroy you… As it almost did me."
- Henri Ducard, Batman Begins
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<(Omniscient POV)>
Jim Gordon normally didn't like to trust criminals. As a cop working in freaking Gotham of all places, he didn't trust civilians or even other cops, much less, criminals or in this case a broody vigilante dressed in a weirdly cool black and red metal armor who liked to beat up criminals for a kick... But, something inside him told him that he should, that if he didn't believe the guy, he would be making a big mistake that would cost both him, his force, and this city quite dearly.
"You are Griffin Katz, right? You have a younger brother and a single mother at home, don't you? Do me a favor officer and shoot me right in the head. The chest would do too since they are the most well-known weak points in the human body." Batman gestured at one of the officers behind Jim Gordon who was pointing the gun at him with slightly shaking hands. "Come on, what are you waiting for? Do it. At least, then we will be able to talk calmly without any of you thinking that you are any danger to me, even with all your guns."
"Griffin, don't." Jim tried to be the voice of reason. He himself wasn't sure if the Dark Knight was telling the truth or not but he didn't want to take a gamble. Shooting someone even though the victim asked to be shot was still very much a punishable offense even if the shooter was a cop and the victim was a criminal assaulting a caped crusader.
"Do it... NOW." *Bang* The sound of a bullet pierced the tense atmosphere as the officer shot his gun, his finger still twitching from fear.
"No, I didn't want to. It was a mistake. I was just scared for a moment." The cop immediately tried to defend himself as he put his gun down in fear but contrary to what he was expecting, there was no dead body falling on the floor like a puppet with broken strings.
No, the figure in front of him wasn't even the slightest bit wounded.
"Told you, you can't hurt me. This armor can withstand a heavy military-grade missile that can take out half of this city. One single bullet would not even scratch it... So, now, that we have finally concluded that you guys can't harm me, can we now finally move on to the more important subjects that we need to discuss?
Like all the substantial and non-dismissible evidence I have that can prove that half the drugs, crimes, and illegal weapons in this city are currently being controlled by Carmine Falcon with Penguin and this little nightclub of his being an important part of Falcon's operations." Batman stated as he waved a thick folder in front of the cops' eyes.
"And, what do you get by helping us for free? No wait, let me guess, you are removing competition for whoever you work for, so that they can take Falcon's empty throne for themselves once he goes to jail?" Gordon asked with a disgusted snort.
"I don't work for anyone. Someone might take up Falcon's power once he goes to jail, but I will make sure that I send them to jail as well. And as for your question, I don't work for anyone. However, I do indeed need something from you. I need your word that none of the cops will come after me while I do my work. I will purge Gotham of its filth and corruption and even assist GCPD when it needs my help but in return, you and all your officers will leave me alone to my devices, so that I can bring everyone who deserves it to justice."
"You want us cops, the guardians of justice to let you a random person in armor and a mask roam the city freely and beat up criminals as much as you want while we do nothing and sit on our asses all day long, hoping that you will be able to do our job better than us." Truthfully Jim was more than tempted to accept the offer. For some reason, he was sure that this person was more capable than his entire police department. However, he was not able to put aside his pride and say it in front of so many of his officers.
"In simple terms, yes. But, I can assure you that you won't regret it and Gotham's development as a city will be much faster that way. Now, do you want to make a deal or not? Do you want Gotham to improve or not?" Bruce asked while extending the folder in Gordon's direction.
"I will... think about it," Jim answered after a deep sigh as he took the folder from Bruce. As the Commissioner of GCPD and the cop holding the most power and superior position here, he could not agree to Bruce's proposal so readily in front of the gaze of his other officers and thus had to feign disagreement. But in his mind, Jim thought that it was a very good deal to make in a city like Gotham since there was a chance, however small it be that the Dark Knight would actually be able to make Gotham a much better place by achieving things that could not be done by staying within the boundaries of the law. That's why Jim Gordon didn't outright say 'no' to his suggestion.
The veteran cop needed to have a more thorough discussion with Batman before he could even think of agreeing to such an outlandish proposal.
"You can arrest this guy here as well. There is enough evidence in that folder to tie him to Falcon. I have even more evidence to make it a completely airtight case, but I'll send it to you only after you agree to assist my goal." Bruce laid down his conditions. "Plus, I think you will find about a hundred kilos of illegal narcotics they were planning to distribute in the city, stored in the basement along with enough weapons to start a rebellion. That should be useful as evidence as well."
"Thank you. We have also secured all the other gang members you knocked out as well. But, may I ask where is Carmine Falcon? If he is the real mastermind of this entire operation, we need to arrest him to truly shut this entire thing down." Jim Gordon stated while signaling his subordinates to arrest the unconscious Penguin and then raid the basement of the nightclub.
"Falcon, huh? Well, I know exactly where he is. But if you want him alive, we need to move now. My friend doesn't really like Falcon that much, so there is a slight chance that she might try to kill him... or might have already killed him by now."
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"For the sake of the promise I made to my mother, you will have to die... " Selina said with venom in her voice as she positioned her bladed tail in front of Falcon, ready to decapitate him with a single slash of her artificial cat tail.
"Wait, Catwoman. Stop." The heavy voice of Batman suddenly stopped Catwoman in her tracks, making her look at the door behind her with furrowed brows.
Bruce was looking at her with the police commissioner, James Gordon waiting behind him with his gun pointed at her, ready to shoot her or Falcon, at a single wrong move.
"You know what he did to me, Batman. He killed my mother. So, why? Why would you want me to spare him?" Selina almost yelled in desperation.
"Because you are better than this Catwoman. Killing him like this won't solve anything. It won't make your life any better than it is. It will just make you a criminal, and push you into a path that you won't be able to come back from. He might have taken your mother's life. But tell me the truth, would your mother ever want her only daughter to live the life of a criminal, chased by cops her entire life? Would your mother want her daughter to be a wanted murderer? Would she?" Bruce argued.
"But what about him? Doesn't he deserve to be brought to justice?" Selina still tried to plead her cause.
"He will be brought to justice, but not like this. He will be given proper punishment in a court of law, I will make sure of it. I promise you." Gordon too tried his best to calm Catwoman down.
"If you kill a killer, the number of killers in the world remains the same." Bruce urged as he walked towards Selina and held her shoulder for support.
"... I see. Fine, take him. He is yours *Smack*" Selina used her tail to slap and knock out Falcon using her tail, before weakly walking away from the room.
Her mind was already in chaos and regret for not being able to keep her mother's promise. She didn't want to be around Falcon anymore since she would probably not be able to stop herself from killing him if she had to look at his disgusting face for even a few more minutes.
"You can arrest Falcon now. But, remember to keep him secure. A lot of important and powerful people in Gotham used to work with Falcon as his partners or allies, they wouldn't like him talking in court and might try to silence him to save themselves. I am trusting YOU to keep him safe Commissioner, so that he can get his deserved punishment from the court like he should." Batman gave a small nod at Jim while handing him a small matte-black card with a bat insignia embedded in the center. "I'll contact you through that when it's time for us to talk."
"I will keep him away from everyone's claws... Batman. GCPD will do its best to ensure that Carmine Falcon will be punished accordingly by the law." Jim Gordon respectfully nodded back at Batman before proceeding to check the pulse of the criminal godfather. "Thank god, he is alive. Anyway, before you go, do you think you can give me a statement of what was happening here before we... huh, where did he go?" Jim looked around the washroom frantically but couldn't find a single trace of the Dark Knight anymore.
He had only looked away for a moment but the Batman had disappeared like he was never there. "Goddamn animal-themed ninjas." He muttered to himself.
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