Chapter 27

Disclaimer: If you recognise it, surprise, I don't own it.

Chapter 14– I AM BATMAN.

Edited: 04/04/2023

------------------------------------

The city isn't what it used to be. It all happened so fast. Everything went to crap. It's like... everyone's sense of morals just... disappeared. Bad economy made things worse. The jobs started drying up. Then the stores had to shut down. Hundreds of people losing their jobs, and their livelihoods, all so a couple of evil men could make a couple of bucks. I leap across the sky, a literal shadow that remains unseen, my cape fluttering behind me.

I hop over an alley and look towards the street. A giant billboard lighting up the night, a billboard that says change is coming, a big bald man's bid to become this city's Mayor. However, the word liar is spray-painted over the word, an accurate assessment.

If there is one thing that shows this city is very nearly beyond saving, that the corruption has spread too far, then it would be the fact that a mob boss is very close to being elected the Mayor. I pull out my grapple gun, and it connects to the ledge of a building, zipping me up into the air. Opening my cape, I glide through the dark sky, completely unseen.

This city is dying, and no matter how many try to stem the wounds, its lifeblood continues to drain, evil men continually sucking it dry. I look down at the street, where a young man and women crowd together under a single umbrella on this stormy night, hurrying home, scared to stay out on the roads. As more and more people turn to crime and violence, the town becomes gripped in fear.

Dark times. The city needs protection. I step off the ledge of the building, plummeting down towards the grimy alley below, opening my cape at the last moment, slowing my plunge into a float, and allowing me to land softly on the hard pavement.

The white chalk outline of a man and a woman defaces the ground, the scene of a crime wholly forgotten by the denizens of this city, ignored by those who should be resolving despicable crimes like this. I quickly move on, sickened by the sight of it, to know two lives were cut down in this place, and so close to the busy road nearby where traffic constantly flows, where somebody could have helped them.

There is an animal that lives by night, that swoops through the air and streaks across the sky. It strikes fear in all those who see it, scared of the danger this animal represents. And an animal is what this city needs, something that will terrify those who take advantage of the night, a symbol to be afraid of, a symbol of fear.

I run through the night, jumping across the city skyline, traversing through this city's many shadows, shadows where usually only evil lurks, but now something else hides within those shadows as well. Finally, spotting something from the city rooftops, I leap down from a great height and glide down to rest on top of a parked car.

The scum that taints this city has spread too far and festers in every alleyway, in every brick, on every asphalt pavement. To clean out the gutters of society, I have chosen to become that something, to become more than a man. I am not the hero this city deserves, nor am I the one it needs. But, I am the hero this town cannot survive without. I am... the Batman!

As the world plummets into despair and countless innocent voices cry out for help, Batman will fight to keep the order intact and to bring down the hammers of justi-.

"HEY, GET THE HELL OFF MY CAR, YOU FREAK!!"

Oh shit, I didn't realise there was somebody inside the parked car I am on top of. I quickly jump off it and whip my grapple gun out to zip me away and up to the ledge of a roof, so I can get away from the guy getting angry at me. I can still hear him even now, ranting and raving.

"ALL OF YOU GODDAMN FREAKS SHOULD JUST LEAVE. I AM TIRED OF ALL YOU SPIDER PEOPLE AND YOU DEVILS AND YOU BIG HULKS SMASHING AROUND THE PLACE!! JUST LEAVE US NORMAL PEOPLE ALONE!!" Jeez, Louise, grow up already, you asshole. You don't see me complaining because that bastard interrupted my fantastic brooding Batman monologue. I didn't even get to the part about my never-ending crusade or my two hands being the hammers of justice.

"AGGGGH!" A scream rips me from my thoughts and reminds me just why I glided down to land on that car. Acting quick, I ran along the rooftop towards the place where the scream came from, and I found a woman running away from three men who were doggedly pursuing her through an alleyway, their goal obvious, with one of them wielding a knife.

Diving down over the edge of the building as if I was diving into the sea, I head headfirst towards the ground or, more accurately, head first towards the group of three degenerates that deserve to be pounded into the ground. Closing in on them, I deploy my cape and widen it to catch all of the air, allowing me to safely land while maintaining enough momentum to kick two of the guys in the back and send them sprawling to the ground.

Skidding along the ground, I turn around in time to see the two guys getting back up to their feet, confused about what just happened and shitting themselves at the sight of me towering above them. I rush them before they can do anything else and stomp on one of their head and smash my fist into the face of the other, promptly knocking them both out.

Turning around, I expect to see the last thug looking at me in abject horror and scaredly backing away from me. But instead, I see him still running off down the alley in pursuit of the scared, cornered girl, so disgustingly fixated on his objective that he didn't see or even hear me knock out his fellow comrades. Seeing that the girl is still in danger, I quickly sprint off down the alley, soon catching up to the piece of shit.

I reach him just as he manages to lay a hand on the woman and spins her around to see him, making her stumble back in the process and fall back onto her behind, the thug standing menacingly over her. But instead of her cowering to him, her eyes quickly find mine. Instead of holding relief or hope, they fill up with abject fear and despair, finding my terrifying visage frightening. She begins to start desperately shuffling backwards to get away from me.

"Haha, you aren't going anywhere, girly. You can try to run, but you won't get anywhere, you are mine now, and we are going to have some fun. You see this here, knife. If you don't do exactly as I say, then I am going to cut you up into a million tiny pieces and store you in a box, a glass box, that I will display on my mantle." The thug brandishes his knife and moves to strike her, trying to stab her in the leg and pin down her movements.

"Huh?" He stupidly mutters when his arm refuses to move down, and when he looks towards it, he sees my mighty black gauntlets grasping his forearm, denying it the freedom to move. I watch as his bewildered eyes follow along my hand across my arm and up to my shoulder before he locks his gaze with mine, and the blood drains from his face, which makes sense since my face is completely covered in a pitch-black mask that has bright white lenses for eyes and two large horns on top of my head.

Before the scum can even react or let out another syllable, I whip my arm to the right, dragging him along with it and letting him go to smash into the brick wall, not paying attention to his cry of pain or the clatter of his knife hitting the ground.

The force leaves him, letting his body slide down the wall until his ass hits the ground, his hand clutching the wrist attached to the hand that was wielding the knife, but that is all the attention he can afford to it, and his nervous eyes dart up to see me calmly stalking towards him.

"S-STAY AWAY FROM ME! YOU, YOU DEMON! S-STAY BACK, OR, OR I WILL CALL THE POLICE!! THE- THE AVENGERS WILL COME FOR YOU, SO YOU BETTER LEAVE ME ALONE!!!" He pathetically calls out in the hopes of stopping my advance, but I ignore him, and I ignore the irony that a criminal like him that was about to commit a serious crime is now toting about the police and the Avengers, claiming that they will come to rescue him.

Tired of this pathetic showing and this situation as a whole, I forgo the foreplay and dart forward to slam my knee into the trash's face, pinning his head between my limb and the hard brick wall, no doubt crushing his nose and a few other bones in his head, but he will live. Drawing my knee back, the thug slips to the right, no longer having my knee in place to hold him, and he slumps down to the ground, unconscious.

I am getting really tired of all these diversions, I was supposed to be at my destination a half hour ago, but I keep getting pulled away. This was supposed to be a simple thing. I would go out dressed as Batman, beat up a few thugs that look to be a bit organised and interrogate them, ply information about Fisk from them and then use that information to fuck up all of his operations.

Well, that plan started out great, and I managed to glean some information on Fisk's businesses by leaning on some mooks. I immediately set off to assault the place I was told about before that idiot regained his sense and went to tell someone, which would probably be bad for him since snitches aren't regarded well in his line of work.

But it is like I am playing a fantastic RPG, and my main goal, the main quest, is right in front of me, and it is an easy home run. But as I run towards it, suddenly all of these little blips start to pop up on my minimap, and I can't help but be the gamer that I am and run towards them, eager to do all the side quests and having a compulsive need to do everything before I tackle the big boss.

I have had to stop several times on my way to stop some minor crimes and even some major crimes, given how you look at them, and it has made me seriously late for my self-made appointment. New York really is kinda crap; there is another crime going on every few minutes, every few blocks. And since I sense them, I have to go and stop them; it's like the instinct is engrained in my soul.

Suppressing a sigh, I turn away from the downed thug and move to go and check on the girl who is still sitting on the ground, trembling profusely. Seeing that she is still scared and possibly in shock, I walk toward her to wake her up a bit so she can call the cops and leave, but when I take a step towards her, she reacts violently.

My feet stop when she suddenly lifts her hand and points something toward me, and I am shocked to see her wielding a knife, the same knife that the thug dropped when I smashed him into the wall. She must have picked it up while I was knocking him out. Seeing the knife pointing threateningly in my direction, I narrow my eyes at it, which seems to be the wrong move since she reacts wildly.

"S-STAY AWAY, STAY AWAY FROM ME, YOU DEVIL. L-LEAVE, NOW YOU FOUL SPIRIT!!" She begins to scream, wildly brandishing the knife in all directions as if that will protect her. She has really freaked out, and I fear that she has had a mental break of some sort; undoubtedly, she will leave today with a lot of trauma.

"Oh, Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth..." She begins to mutter profusely to herself, clutching onto the knife with both hands and rocking back and forth, constantly repeating her prayers in the hopes of being saved.

Seeing that my presence here is doing more harm than good, I quickly move away from the situation and zip up on top of a rooftop before looking down to keep an eye on the situation since I can't just leave it like this. I reach into my utility belt and pull out a burner phone which I will use to ring the police and inform them of the situation, and then I will be on my way as soon as someone arrives.

Note to self, next time, tone down the intimidation and fear factor when there are innocents nearby since I don't want to frighten them as well.