chapter 12 [EDITED BY NEW GUY]

Gotham Police headquarters

Gordon was watching the scene unfold on TV. 

He kept telling his officers in that area to hurry over. 

But then he watched as Carl shot one thug, while Mike kills another, and Carl went full killer. 

He killed that gangster, to save his family and friends. 

But that speech was what made Gordon worried. Gordon knew what was going to happen. Gordon knew they were too late and now they would have to pay the price. It was going to be like Bane all over again. It will be a civil war. 

Gordon's phone rang and he saw the one who was calling him. 

" You saw what happened? Gordon asked his aid.

" Yes. '' Batman replied with only one word but Gordon knew how distressed his friend was under that stoic voice.

" So what now? What should we do? We must act fast or else this shit will blow up in our face! "  Gordon asked for the advice as he doesn't know what to do. 

" It has already blown up. We can't do much now. This was all Rudra's plan, that's why he separates us. That's why he kidnapped Barbara. 

Now all we can do is limit the damage. Don't do anything out of your rules. Do your duty even if it is wrong and amoral. " Batman says as he had already seen through Gordon's inner turmoil. He knew that, Gordon knew what would happen if he didn't do it. But the damage has already been done and now they don't have the luxury to stop it, now all they can to do is to limit this damage. 

" YOU WANT ME TO ARREST HIM!! " Gordon shouted. 

Yes, this was the dilemma that Gordon was having, to arrest Carl for murder or not. 

Yes, what Carl does is right. It was right as it counted as self-defense due to the thug having a weapon. But he was unarmed when Carl killed him with a steel bat. That was a crime, no matter how the people and he; himself cheered him for that good work for society, in the Law's eyes that was a crime, and Carl was a criminal. But Gordon knew that if he arrested Carl then the public's anger would be directed towards the police and the public would not give them any chance to prepare. They will not wait for morning and do peaceful protests this time, they would be violent. He could see the injuries and possible deaths of many police officers if he arrested Carl. 

But if Gordon didn't, they would suspend him or maybe even terminate him. Many would make sure of that, but that doesn't mean Gordon does not have any influence over the police department. He has a reputation in the department and no matter who will be on the chair, they will give him some respect. 

But what Batman said was also true. They don't know who was behind all of this, if this was a coincidence, or if it was Rudra. But no matter what, the situation is very delicate, one wrong move and everything will burn. 

Gordon was in a dilemma, what to do and what not to do? In the end, Gordon made a decision. 

  *sigh* " I will order his arrest. " 

Police officers who were stationed outside Carl's home received their orders. They handcuffed Carl in front of all the people present there. 

Mr Wise, who was standing there since the beginning, took a bat and smacked it on a police officer's head from behind. 

" You bastards, where were you when they were beating my wife?! Where were you when they threatened to kill little Karen?! Now you have the gall to arrest him for saving his family! " 

Mr Wise looked at everyone in the eyes. No one knew what drove Mr Wise to attack. Was it guilt, sadness, anger, or something else? But one thing's sure and that the first shot of the night was fired and Gordon's nightmare has just started as not everyone is as docile as to do candle marches and protests. They decided enough was enough, and the target was the Police. 

The words that Mr Wise spoke were not only his words, but they were the words and doubts of every Gotham citizen, Mr Wise gave them the voice they needed and now Rudra's magic started to work. 

Everyone's anger erupted like a volcano, especially teenagers and young adults. They took their baseball bats, hockey sticks, steel rods and any weapon they can get their hands on out to the roads. 

When Bullock reached Carl's Block, he was stunned to see so many people resisting the Police. They were throwing rocks, beer bottles at the police. They were shouting and yelling at the police. The police even allowed the use of smoke guns to control the crowd, but the public was not scared anymore. They have seen what their cowardice can cause. No one wants their child to commit murder. A father would burn the whole world if it meant that his daughter or son would be safe. 

" What's the situation here? " Bullock asked the officer in-charge there. (a/n: Sorry I don't know the appropriate police ranks of the American police force. So imagine some high ranking officer there.) 

" Well, as you can see, it's getting out of hand. We have asked for tear gas and water tankers. They will be here after some time. " The one in charge gave Bullock a very short but accurate answer that Bullock appreciated.

" What about those police officers who were ordered to arrest Carl. " Bullock asks, remembering the incident that happened not a long time ago.

" They are safe, nothing life-threatening but they were beaten quite badly. " The officer gave some good news to Bullock.

Bullock and the other officer were talking to each other when they heard something exploding. 

They hurriedly ran toward the sound and saw a Police car burning, luckily no police officer were harmed. 

" WHAT HAPPENED HERE? " Bullock shouted. 

" They threw a petrol bomb at us. We were lucky that we weren't anywhere near that car. ". A police officer answered. 

" THEY HAVE PETROL BOMBS NOW?! " 

*Boom* 

Another bomb was thrown at them. 

Bullock knew that the situation was already out of his hands. He knew that the mission was a failure, if they stayed here then the police force would have heavy casualties because it was not just bombs but the people still have those machine guns that those motherfucking goons had with them, if any hot-headed fucker took them out then everything is gone. 

" Listen, tell the force to retreat. We can't afford any casualties, not on our side and by gods not on the civilian side." 

" But sir the Commissioner…." 

" I will talk with Gordon; you just take your lads away from here. " 

" Yes sir. " 

Bullock took his phone out of his pocket and dialed Gordon's number 

" Arrest him? Have you even seen the reports, Gordon? It is impossible to even reach his house. Children, women, and the elderly all are here in front of his house. They are fighting us. " 

" I don't care about any of your logical crap Gordon, they have fuckin petrol bombs here and they are using it. "

" No, no casualties on either side but if we don't retreat there will be. " 

" Say my name. I will bear the burden. " 

" Uhuh…. Yeah…. okay. " 

Bullock knew his retreat would only add more fuel to the fire. The mindless crowd would take it as their first victory, increasing their morale and giving them more motivation to go against the police. It will imprint the image of them being right and the Police being wrong, which will have devastating effects on Gotham. But he can't endanger the life of this many police officers. If by any chance a civilian is killed, then the backlash will even shake the Whitehouse.

Rudra was hovering in the air looking at his handiwork. 

It might seem like a very violent response from the public and everyone would think that innocent people may die. But Rudra made sure that no one got hurt. He made sure that those police officers were safe and there was no life-threatening injury to them when he supplied the petrol bombs to the crowd, he used probability and luck manipulation to make sure no one died and the property is not unnecessarily harmed. He just made sure that this looked like violence but it was not in any way. Every move was calculated. 

He saw some people trying to rob a shop, Rudra looing into their history, killed them. They were scum who have killed innocent people for money. He made sure no crime happened during this protest, because if it does then all will be lost. The public will think that it happened because of them and feel guilty. Everyone will blame them, and this protest will slowly be suppressed.

Rudra will not have it. This will be one of the most violent and peaceful protests of all time. He will scare them; he will enjoy people's fear and then he will reap their souls. 

But now is the time for something else, to add more fuel, to make sure the mafias and corrupted police are pushed more into the corner. 

***********************************************

The whole night at various places in Gotham City people started a riot. 

The crowd was mad, madder than anything else. But what was truly baffling was that there was no murder, no rape or any other crime that happened during this rioting. 

Instead, it was the opposite of that. People stopped at least 30 attempts of rape. ( A/N: believe me, this would look like an astronomical number but it is true, various women just don't do anything about it, they would just suffer in silence. Which is wrong.) 

30 attempted rapes. 10 Robberies were stopped, 20 robbers died too with a heart attack, which was keeping both Batman and Gordon on their toes. 

Then there is Garuda, another Vigilante but more violent than anyone. What he did at the Triad's base was enough to make the officers lose their meals. Such ferocity and such violent measures were never seen in Gotham by any vigilante. Even the fabled Red Hood just killed people with bullets. But this guy, he was not human. Somehow both Gordon and Batman think that this guy is related to Rudra.

The limbs of every Triad member were cut off, half of them didn't die of their head decapitated. They died of blood loss. They saw their deaths slowing inching towards them. Their eyes had regret and fear in them. All the floors were dyed red by their blood.

And the most alarming thing, neither Batman nor Gordon had the slightest idea that there was such a huge base of Triad society located right under their noses. If the data from the documents, they have found there is anything to go by then this will shake the whole US. It is not evidence against any of the big politicians or anything like that. No, it was the sheer list of their crimes and how much they have profited from it. 

This base was the main pillar of Triad's business in all the Northern American continent. This base supplies to every country, every state. They didn't just find the girls, no this base has layers upon layers. 

What they found was more than 500 people working, tunnels that lead to different buildings in the city. The people would travel through these tunnels and then reach here. And Gaurda killed every single one of them. This guy's kill count reached around 800 in a single night. 

They found at least 160 tons of cocaine and other hardcore drugs, firearms such as UZI, AK-47, AK-46 and many more which were worth around 500 million, antique artefacts, gold, diamond and other precious metals, they also found 1 billion in hard cash. They found cash books and registers piled up all about the transactions. If what they have seen today is anything to go by, then these transactions will go more than a trillion dollars. This much money was able to light the fire under anyone's ass even the president and the UN.

The base was large enough to house at least 1000 people easily and had other facilities. They have their own power source from which they would draw electricity. So, it was never noticed that such a large base was operating in the city and with people coming here through the tunnels, it became more foolproof. 

The assailant even left a recording of his, where he introduced himself. GARUDA. 

This guy sends out a message to the Triad. A message which is written in blood. He didn't care who would come at him, he would slaughter them. The Triad will not let this go. It will be a bloodbath. 

He created an image equal to Rudra in one single go. 

On any other day, Gordon would have been okay with this but not right now. As of right now, there was a crazy number of people holding banners and shouting at the police. 

It was as Batman anticipated, the authorities wanted Gordon out of the picture, and this was great timing, but due to Gordon giving Carl's arrest order's and Harvey not following them, Bullock had to shoulder all the blame and all he got was a small scolding session. 

But right now if the news of another murdering vigilante comes out, the public will go nuts. More people will take arms. Right to safety is a good thing but murdering people even if they are the scum of society is not. 

So they have to somehow turn the tables. Luckily this raid will give them that chance. 

They could manipulate this news somehow. They will tell only part of this to the media, they will lower the whole operation to 1 billion dollars, the people who were killed by Garuda will be presented as criminals shot by the police. They will give those girls some money or some other protection to get them to go with their cover story. 

' Who am I kidding? They will never agree with us, but I'll have to persuade them. ' Gordon thought to himself. 

Gordon even told the higher-ups like the mayor and Senator's about this and all of them agreed to it. 

Those old Fogies didn't wish for more trouble than they already were in, with a sum like 1 trillion everyone will get involved. The FBI, CBI and other agencies although the Triad will make sure that they don't get involved because it is pretty sure that the names that Triad has with them in their books as beneficiaries are more than enough to put the whole UN in distress. 

*sigh* " Let's just hope that nothing goes wrong. " Gordon said, looking toward the sky.

Everything went wrong. 

##################################

Batman and his bat family members were all watching the news and public response on the Bat Computer. 

" Lisa as we know, you were present there last night, and believe me, I know how hard It can be for you but can you please tell our viewer's what happened and what your thoughts were during yesterday. " The news anchor asked the lady reporter who was present at the party. 

" I am still scared of what happened yesterday, Tim. Believe me when I say that I am not comfortable talking about what happened last night but I think I must share the story and my thoughts on this not just as a reporter but as a good friend of Carl and Kathie. " Lisa said with a sad expression on her face. 

" Before telling you what happened yesterday and how it happened, I would like to throw some light at Carl and my late friend Katherine. 

Katherine and Carl were both orphans from birth. They met at college and Carl fell in love the moment he saw her and from that moment they became each other's family. 

Carl opened his hard and software shop while Katherine joined us. 

Katherine was so full of life and had that calm aura around her that made her one of the best people to hang around. Soon she became the center of the whole office. Her ideas were always so unique and directed toward helping people. If you guys have seen our shows like "Young Talent" and "Farmers Land", then you will know how helpful they are to new inventors and farmers. It was her idea. Most of the time she would donate her salary to the homeless people. She was a friend that was ready whenever you needed her. She was always eager to help. 

Carl was like her, ready to help people and full of life.  

Do you know he has a mini tuition center in the back of his shop where he teaches the poor students? 

They adopted a child. And do you remember Tim, how happy she was when she found out she was pregnant the second time? 

She would often joke " I hope this one is another girl as then Carl and Max will have triple the trouble handling us all. " 

Everything was great. Then that happened. Katherine was killed by Victor Zsasz. That monster….. stabbed her….. 35 times. 35 times. *sob*

It broke everyone. Her family became a husk of what it was. Carl became a living husk of his former self. He kept living for his children but that was all. He was empty from inside and that was true for their son Max as well. Both father and son would smile in front of the youngest of their family but those smiles were forced. 

We all tried to tell them to move on but we were not successful. Carl would always go to her grave in the morning. Sit there for an hour and talk with her. 

We as her friends too missed her. There was not a day when I didn't dream that our spineless judiciary would grow some courage and give that monster a death sentence. But that day never came. 

All that happened was, Victor escaping from Arkham and would kill some more, then Batman would catch him and put him again in the prison. That's all that ever happened.

It was like a game for them. Like our lives don't matter to them. 

Well fast forward to last night, someone grew the balls to do what was necessary. He delivered Justice on behalf of a lot of people and for that, I salute him. Those monsters don't deserve a single ounce of pity from me. 

I  was going to make a party as my best friend was avenged but Carl beat me to it. 

I reached Carl's house to interview him. We set our camera and equipment. We were enjoying the party and I was just going to interview him when 4 men with firearms broke into the house. 

The first shot into the air. 

We all were on our knees and put our hands on our ears. We were terrified and the most terrified one was Carl as his children were there. 

They were Victor Zsasz's men or maybe his friend Black Mask's. 

They wanted to just terrify us, that much I deduced from them. 

They wanted to harm Carl's little daughter, but his neighbor Mrs Wise didn't let the girl go, so they started to beat her and then I saw something snapped inside Carl. There were rage in his eyes, he took out his gun and shot the guy who was beating Mrs Wise. 

Then Max somehow threw a knife at the other guy's neck and he too died. Due to our Police and Judiciary system's lack of courage, a 12-year child must kill. Do you understand its implications?

But later after that Carl smashed their leader's head with the baseball bat, and I don't think it was a crime like our police thought it was. " She said with venom in her tone

" That man threatened to kill his family, threatened to kill his daughter and son.

If you ask me Carl didn't kill anyone, instead, it was a father who killed to save his children, it was a husband who avenged his wife. The wife who was stabbed 32 times with her unborn child. He was a common man who fought to save his family. He is not a criminal and if the police think that they can file charges against him they got another thing coming. " 

Batman shut down the Bat Computer and massaged his temples. 

His lack of sleep was catching up to him. It has been 48 continuous hours and he hasn't gotten a single ounce of rest. 

When he came to the Batcave after yesterday's fiasco, he found Alfred and his daughter's safety had been compromised. 

Right now, Damien and Dick were both consoling Barbara and the other family members. 

Barbara was scared not for herself but for her father. Rudra was playing with Gordon and Bruce's mind; everyone got that, but his methods were not anything they had seen before. He was not killing the people around them or harming them if he wanted to do that, he would have already done so but what he was doing was creating fear by putting them in dangerously safe situations. 

Like the way, he looked at Damien on the rooftop or showing her video to her father. 

When she heard her father's voice after her rescue, it broke her. She regretted taking the bat mantle for the first time. She hated that weakness in her father's voice. She realized that her father was not just her strength but was also her weakness. She hated herself for that and now she wanted to kill that motherfucker Rudra for doing so. 

Nightwing knew what was going through everyone's mind and he can't blame them for having those thoughts, after all Rudra was one of the most formidable enemies they have ever faced; A delusional knight of justice who has them by the balls. 

Rudra was a special breed like a Joker but even more dangerous than the Joker. People like Rudra and Joker have a specific scent on them which makes them unique (metaphorical use of scent here). These people know exactly what they wanted, and they won't stop till they get it. Joker wanted to die by Batman's hand and wanted to show Bruce that all it takes was one bad day for a man to break. While Rudra wanted people to fight for themselves. But in every case, civilians died. They must protect them. 

With their brief encounter and a short fight with Rudra, Nightwing knew that his fighting prowess was not something to take lightly. He and Bruce both recognized a lot of martial principal's mixed in that fighting style if he wanted, he could have ended both his and Damien's lives in a single attack. His preparation would have taken him years. Not everyone has that kind of patience. This is what makes him most dangerous. He is just like Bruce in that regard, he came into the fight knowing that he would win.

" This is going nowhere! Dad, why don't you ask help from your friends from that team that you lead." Damien asked, annoyed at his loss against Rudra. 

But Damien was somewhat happy too, he was happy at how his father cared for him when Rudra looked at him. He was also happy at Victor's and Mad Hatters death and how they died. 

He is fighting against crimes with his father, but the blood of Ra still flow through his veins. 

" It is our city, our responsibility. If for every little thing we asked for other people's help, then what is our purpose as protectors? He is just another delusional man; we will stop him. " Bruce said as he doesn't want anyone from the justice league to step in his city. It was his responsibility.

" People will die if he is not stopped sooner. Look at what he did in one day. And didn't he say that he uses magic, how are we going to fight him?" Tim said as he too was annoyed. 

" At least ask Zatanna or Doctor Fate to locate him." Stephanie chimed in. 

When they were all talking to Bruce, they noticed Bruce's finger tapping lightly against his temple. They understood the message. 

Bruce communicated with them using morse code. He knew Rudra was listening to them.

He said that Zatanna and the whole league was already working on finding him and that they should keep fighting among themselves as Rudra could have been hearing them now. 

Bruce was not taking any chances here. He used the communication methods that he had reserved for such an emergency where he was constantly under watch. Those methods came in handy today. 

He contacted the whole League to search for Rudra as quietly as possible. He told them that he knew their secret identities and all of them started finding him.

Superman was keeping a close eye on Gotham. Zatanna and Fate were casting magic spell after magic spell to find any trace of him, but it was like he vanished or no one like him ever existed in this reality or any reality. 

The whole League was on standby to confront him, he was just too dangerous to face alone. 

Wayne Corps spyware that was in every computer and the mobile phone that they made were working on finding this one man. 

Now Bruce was hoping that nothing new comes out till Gordon is finished with the Media about that raid so that they could get some leeway. 

But his luck wouldn't let him have it. 

His screens started to turn on and that man was looking from that screen. The same phenomena that happened yesterday started happening again. People's phone screens, T.V, also started to showed the same man who killed Victor and Madhatter. 

The man smiled and his new victim's list appeared on the screen. 

When Bruce saw the names on the list, he became pale from the shock. 

Bruce hurriedly started to type things on the Bat Computer and tried to shut down the whole network with his satellite.

" No, no, no, Not them, Not right now. " Bruce mumbled to himself. 

Gordon too was not faring any well. He and his whole team's faces became pale from the name on those screens. Those names at a time like this would only spell doom. 

" Damn It," Harvey said, anticipating what was to come. 

The people HE chose today were...

[ Edited By: New Guy ]

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