6 Through The Fire And Flames

(Nathan POV)

The average Gotham citizen says Gotham City is a terrible place to live. They are correct, as even before the city was split up into territories controlled or influenced by various gangs, organized crime had always been an issue. But organized crime now has access to advanced weaponry as well as a vast array of corrupt officials to keep them from getting in trouble. 

And this time, it's not the writers giving supervillains a revolving door to fit them into a storyline. It's real-life corruption. Currently, I'm walking to Goth Mart, which I assumed was this world's version of Walmart.

The walk takes a little more than 20 minutes on average, and as I walked the streets, I saw no less than five different types of crime. At one point, I saw a drug deal going on down a nearby alleyway, and the men there knew that they could not be punished for it. I also saw a man walking down the street, arm to the teeth with various weapons, as well as someone getting mugged. The police officer assigned to the area is simply watching this go on and has done nothing.

Sadly, this makes sense as Jim Gordon only recently became police commissioner after replacing the now-deceased Commissioner Loeb. The police department has quite literally become a hive of scum and villainy, with more corrupt cops than legit ones, and even Batman can only deal with one issue at a time. 

This does make sense. Why use effort to go after those the criminals have corrupted if you can simply go after the criminals and then have said corrupt people be turned against the criminals?

Currently, from the chatter I have heard, it seems that Black Mask is trying to encroach on Joker's territory, as the police just arrested him after being beaten by Batman a couple of days ago. I assume because he was arrested, the original owner of this body was set upon by the Joker's men as they needed bodies to fight against Black Mask or cannon fodder. 

There have been no open shootouts yet, but the tension is there, and as I arrived at work and went to the back room to stock the merchandise to be sent out onto the floor, I heard the doors behind me open and then locked. Looking behind me, I saw the same two men who confronted Nathan a few days ago, looking at me with apathetic expressions on their faces. I assumed the boss let them in as you needed his key to lock the doors.

"I am definitely going to be quitting this job after today." I think to myself as the two men had me backed into a corner, and as goon one looked at me, he said, "Well, we gave you a couple of days, so where is your donation? Or do you plan on donating yourself instead?" 

My blank stare and refusal to answer seemed to upset them. Goon 2 then punched me in the gut, which I pretended to feel. If there is one benefit to having assimilated two spies, it is that they know how to pretend to feel pain.

Before I turned around, I had my camera on my phone recording this whole thing along with calling 911 but putting the speaker audio on silence, and as it could record audio, I needed them to say enough to get them off my back. But since they attacked me first, that was a good start, and as they went to punch me again, I asked "weakly" "What do you even need from me?" 

The two goons chuckled as goon one said, "Well, the boss is doing his weekly visit to the asylum, and Black Mask's boys are getting a bit uppity, so we need bodies to throw at him until the boss gets out."

"So either you join us and give us all your money, or we break every bone in your body." Goon One, after saying this, goes to punch me again, but then the doors to the back room are knocked on, and as he looks to Goon Two, he goes to check it out. Then the lights go out, and as the lights go out, the two take out their guns and start shooting towards the light switch but hit nothing.

One of the other goons tries to grab me, but I simply "fall over" in the dark, and I hear a metallic object whizzing by, and two batarangs disarm the two men and do seem to leave a deep scratch on each of their hands. As they yelled in pain, a large shape appeared in the dark and slammed his body into Goon One, who was then knocked out as Goon Two flailed around randomly and only succeeded in slamming his fist into the stone wall.

As this goes on, I watch and learn, but as it is dark, I can barely see him move. I see enough, such as how he moves his body, where he aims his batarangs, and how he ends the fight so fast. He targets explicitly nerve centers and at points where the muscles weaken or are most vulnerable. It is a curiosity how he tries so hard not to kill people but simultaneously leaves them in such pain they wish they were dead. Batman was truly one of the first superheroes to kill criminals with hospital bills.

The two goons, now locked in bat cuffs, are now on the floor unconscious, and as I hear sirens in the distance, I turn on the lights to find a man dressed up as a bat staring right at me. As he stared at me, I took out my phone and handed it over to him. 

I saw his stare become more curious as I explained, "I was recording the conversation before you showed up and thought it might be useful." He nodded, and after taking out his bat phone, he opened my phone and found the video. He uploaded a copy to the bat computer and handed it back to me.

I am definitely going to have to check for bugs now, as this is Batman. While he may be less experienced, his lack of said experience is matched by his will and dedication to his mission. While I may disagree with some of his methods, I do admire the man's will, and the prospect of fighting him fills me with some trepidation and a tiny bit of excitement, which I assume came from Taskmaster as he always did, like learning from new opponents.

And without saying a word, he steps into the shadows of the room and disappears, which, in truth, he exited through the vents like he was playing Among Us. Luckily, Batman is not an imposter, or is he? Regardless, two cops then entered the backroom and saw me standing there with two unconscious men on the ground. One of them, who sighs, says, "Batman?"

"Batman," I answered. He holstered his weapon and said, "I'm Officer Bullock, and this is partner Renee Montoya. We would ask if you can come down to the station for your statement." nodding, Harvey looked at the two and said, "Renee, it's your turn to carry the goons."

"Bullshit! You said that last time. Or are those muscles fat from eating too many donuts from the break room?" Bullock, without a hint of shame, says, "I'm going to answer with the second one as I really don't feel like carrying unconscious bodies, so feel free, Renee."

The woman then looked at me with an inquisitive stare and said, "You got a name, kid?" Looking her in the eyes, I answer, "Nathan Rockwood most call me Nate, but a lot of people don't care to know my name." 

The woman then picks up a body, and Harvey, with some reluctance, lugs another one over his shoulder and says, "Every name is worth knowing, kid; I would know as I have forgotten enough names to last a lifetime."

Renee then says, "Apologies, kid, but it's going to be a tight squeeze for ya. Can't have dumb and dumber escaping." Nodding, I then ask, "I assume they're going to be restrained to their chairs because if they were to wake up and saw me, I would most likely not survive before reaching the police station."

The two then say nothing and place the two goons in the back as I sit on the right side. After that, we leave the place, and on the way to the Police Station, Harvey asks me, "You seem quiet, kid. They didn't hit your vocals, did they?" Shaking my head, I mention, "I am not very adept at social interaction, and I would not know what to talk about." 

Renee then adds, "Well, you seem to be a calm and reasonable young man, so we would like to ask what happened to have these two fellows after you?" 

Taking a breath, I said to the two, "Well, these two initially confronted me on my way home from work and left me with some injuries, which I recovered from yesterday, and what they wanted was simply a meat shield. I have a video on my phone that basically says that they're getting anyone they can grab for some kind of possible conflict with Black Mask. I refused to be a criminal, so they wanted to either kill me or take me to one of their fun houses."

My tone of voice, seeming a bit flat, causes Harvey to ask, "You seem a bit too calm for being threatened by criminals. Does this happen often?" Nodding, I answered, "Yes, as a lot of the people in my area were left homeless by the Red Hood Gang a couple of months ago, so they make for easy targets." Renee, seeming a bit more empathetic, says, "Well, it's good that we made it in time, or Batman at least."

Harvey scoffs and says, "Yeah, of course, the Batman that everyone keeps talking about, you know, I really don't see the appeal. He goes around the city with his all-black suit and high-tech gadgets and beats up criminals, but most of the time, they just get sent to the hospital and let out. Since we can't count acts of vigilantism towards catching any crooks, he really only helps with the super freaks." 

Renee seemed to disagree and said, "Well, at least when they get out of the hospital, they don't really have a place to go because that place cleans your coffers out faster than the Powerball."

Harvey nodded and took a sip of his coffee. Soon enough, we arrived at the station. As I was let out, I was directed towards an interrogation room to confirm my story, and as I was walking to the room, I opened my phone and found a tracer in the battery pack. And as I put the things back on, I put the tracer in my pocket after learning its broadcast signal.

Because if I am guessing right, Batman uses this signal as a way to track criminals, and after I assimilate the Robot template, I will be able to use that to my advantage. Looking at my assimilation progress, I saw that Taskmaster had risen to 30% and Loid to 33%, which was definitely showing as I felt my observational skills increase by the second. My ploy with the two goons has been increasing my assimilation rate a decent amount.

 From what I gathered, it seems that the Loid template develops the more I lie as well as hide secrets, while for Taskmaster, it's learning in combat as well as other forms of combat as well as being unreadable. 

The last one is just conjecture, but the progress speaks for itself. The increased assimilation progress is also most likely caused by the fact that they are only above-average human, with Taskmaster being near peak human in terms of physical fitness.

So as I sat down in the chair, one of the officers came in to get my statement, but it seemed that some of the eyes on me were less than friendly. As this was not an interrogation but a questioning, the windows were not tinted, and because of this, I saw some officers looking at me. Based on the words that I read from their lips, one was reporting this to Penguin, another to Riddler, and another to Dent and Black Mask.

To call this place a leaky ship is an understatement, as all of them typed into their phones the fact that two of Joker's goons got arrested. My head is going to be on the chopping block for the next couple of weeks.

This is not ideal but may present some opportunities for the future. But I need to plan out how I can handle this as while I simply want to kill them all, I would earn the ire of Batman even though it would be a legitimate case for self-defense. Worst comes to worst, I have to fake my death and leave Gotham and go somewhere else. 

There are so many options and so little time. As I answered the officer's questions, he wrote down my responses as well as recorded them, and after half an hour, I was out of the room with Harvey coming over and asking, "Need a ride, kid?" Nodding as I would not want to walk alone for over an hour to reach my house. Accepting the free ride, I gave him my address, and he drove me home.

As we arrived, he handed me a small card with a number on it and said, "Listen, kid, I knew you weren't lying when you answered our questions, but I know that look on your face that's a look at someone on the edge so if you need any help call me." Giving him a fake smile, I say, "Thank you, it means a lot."

The man huffs and says, "It's my job, kid, and besides, I am the picture of a professional officer of the law, and don't let Renee tell ya otherwise."

After telling me that he had left, and as I was about to enter the place, I noticed a small wire on the doorframe. After backing off, I called the number, and as he picked up, he said, "Kid, I know I said I would be there, but isn't this too soon?"

"I apologize for the bother, but my door has a wire on it that is connected to some kind of device, so I thought I should call you." The line then goes silent for a second, and he yells, "Get out of there now, kid!" 

He hangs up, and I immediately retreat down the two flights of stairs, and not a moment sooner does the explosive go off and blow the complex to smithereens. Thankfully, most of the stuff there was junk anyway. All I really needed was my laptop and my phone, as well as my wallet and everything else in the gacha inventory.

As I look at the burning ruin that was my former home, all I can think is, "You really can't have shit in Gotham."

So after all of this and looking at my 42 points, I opened the gacha, and using 30 more points, I prayed for a miracle.