Chapter 84: The Darkest Knight Emerges

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"Batman Punches People In The Face."

- Bruce Wayne, (Batman (Vol. 3) #53 (2018))

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<(Omniscient POV)> 

"What are you all waiting for? Quickly check what's wrong with the power. I hope it's not those DEA bastards. Even though the buyer assured us that he would take care of them, we still can't trust his words a hundred percent." The fat leader roared as he sent his men away to investigate the sudden blackout in the port.

He was the type of man who wasn't a fan of horror movies, otherwise, he would know that this was probably the worst decision he could have ever made in the horror story that his life was soon going to become. 

"May-maybe we should get out of here Mr. Bill. W-we are done with the heavy lifting anyway. The client's g-guys would take care of the rest of the transportation process. We already have what we need." Ray gulped in anxiety and tried to advise his current boss as he quickly put the rest of the drugs in the soon-to-be-shipped container and sealed it.

"Don't worry boy, didn't I say as long as I am here, nothing can go wro...."

*AAAAHHH* A scream suddenly echoed in the distance, interrupting Bill as he immediately became vigilant and pointed his gun in the distance, not even sure where to aim at. Ray's situation was also similar as he too took out an AK-47 from the car trunk he had just loaded and aimed at the direction the scream came from. He was barely able to even lift the gun with his scrawny body as he struggled to figure out how it worked.

"Give me the big one. Here, you use the small one." Bill immediately took the AK-47 from his underling, giving him his small pistol in return. Either the boss was too proud to use a smaller gun than his subordinate or he was very scared.

While the two were barely able to breathe in unease, the others who had gone to check the other parts of the port were facing their own difficulties.

"Shoot the containers, he is on there." *BANG BANG BANG "No, he is at the boats. Shoot there." BANG BANG BANG* A large amount of gunshots began to echo as the men began to fire at random directions all over the port. The fog made their vision even worse as they struggled to see if they were even hitting anything at all or just firing at shadows.

"Wait, we are only four. Where's the rest?" A random mob who noticed the steadily dwindling number of their gang members after a few minutes, muttered to himself as he looked all around him, trying to find his colleagues. But before, he could voice his doubts, a metallic wire suddenly coiled around his feet and pulled him up with a force that dislocated a few bones of his body.

Hanging upside down, the last thing he could see before losing consciousness was the shadow of a terrifying humanoid bat punching him in the face with a metal-gloved hand with small spikes on it, spikes that he knew were going to break his nose and leave a very deep and painful mark on his face. 

"Shit, I'll kill you whoever you are." The three other remaining gangsters who had noticed their friend being dragged upwards toward the roof of one of the containers began to shoot in that direction. One of them even threw a Molotov that he had brought with him to burn the entire place just to make sure that the creature who was hunting them didn't survive. They were even ready to sacrifice and burn their captured friend if it meant getting rid of the 'beast' that was hiding in the shadows.

Silence ensured after that, giving everyone there a false hope that perhaps they had won in the confrontation against whatever that was. But that false sense of security and victory didn't last for long as a light humming sound vibrated from behind them.

"Fuck" One of them said without even turning as a strange whirring sound accompanied by a burst of light struck one of the gangsters in his back, propelling him several feet away like a ragdoll, until he collided with a container and was immediately knocked out with several of his bones cracked. 

Before the other two could even react, a metallic net was fired from the shoulder of the figure standing behind them. The net instantly surrounded one of them and began to contract on itself, tightly binding the gangster in the process in what looked like a VERY uncomfortable position, digging into his skin, drawing blood. Even when removed, the net would leave quite a bloody tattoo on the man's face and body.

The third gangster however was able to turn around but that was the last thing he was able to do as a small bat-shaped blade found its way to his chest, rendering the man unconscious in a few seconds. The wound on his chest might not have been very deep since the batarang weren't thrown with full force but the knockout poison the blade was coated with was definitely of the top quality.

"Fuck! What are those bastards doing in there? Are they fighting cops or members of some other gang?... HEY, ANY OF YOU STILL ALIVE?" Mr. Bill yelled, trying to get a reaction out of his subordinates who had gone to check the power outage but alas, there was no reply. Not even so much of a whisper from a single one of the gang members.

"They won't be answering" An inhumanely heavy voice like that of a demon or some monster sounded from behind the surviving pair. The voice was as low as a whisper but clearly understandable to the two as they turned to look at the speaker with shaking hands. 

As soon as Bill's eyes fell on the being standing before him, he felt goosebumps. Not just him but even the young recruit beside him too looked scared out of his mind. The figure standing before them was a black and red armor-wearing humanoid who looked like a bat with a huge cape that hid a major portion of his body from view.

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Even though scared out of his mind, Bill still wasn't a rookie. He wouldn't let an opportunity go to waste. Forcing his hands steady, he clenched his teeth and fired his AK-47 at the humanoid. He used up the entire clip of his rifle, continuously shooting at the demonic-looking man till the last bullet left his gun but unfortunately for him, no sign of blood or even the tiniest of groans came from the armored being. 

"Impossible," Bill exclaimed as the gun dropped from his hands in fright. "A REAL DEMON!"

"However, he couldn't say anything anymore as the... Batman picked him up with just a single hand and slammed him against the steel container that was recently filled with drugs.

"You can either answer my questions the easy way, the painful way, or the really painful way. Choose." He said in a stoic voice, with not a single hint of emotions present in his sound which scared Bill even more. 

But he wasn't new in this business. He knew that if he opened his mouth here, the chances of his survival would be zero. The gang would even burn his family and any friends he had too just to make an example out of him.

"I won't say shit. I am not a snitch. You don't know who you are messing with. Fal-Falcone doesn't let his enemies get away. He will find you and he will kill your entire family before making you pay." The man warned as he struggled to breathe under the vigilante's hold and the pain from his broken shoulder that had just fractured due to the heavy slam.

"The really painful way it is then." The Batman grabbed his right hand where his shoulder was fractured and twisted it, immediately breaking it like a twig. But he wasn't done with just that. With a single kick, he fractured his left knee as well and then broke a few of his ribs with a punch from his armored hand. 

But he didn't continue to ask any more questions. He was no longer interested in an interrogation. He simply took out a small instrument that looked like a... tiara from his belt and then forced it onto the gang leader's head. 

The tiara then began to display a soft glow, making the gang leader look like a really low-budget joke of a Disney princess. A few seconds after that, he took it back from the man's head and kept it inside his belt again. Without sparing the man a single more look, he punched the gang leader in the face and incapacitated him.

The Batman looked like he was about to leave but then he stopped and looked at the younger kid who was frozen in his place as he looked like he had gone into shock because of excess fear. The front of his black jeans even seemed a little wet as he just stared at the scary figure in front of him with dread. He had long dropped the small pistol from his hand to the ground.

"I-I d-don't work for F-Falcone. I am a n-new recruit of Penguin. He s-sent me to k-keep an eye on Falcone and pass useful intel to him. I am just a n-nobody in both gangs. Please d-don't kill me." Ray somehow gathered his courage and muttered with tears uncontrollably leaking from his eyes.

"... I believe you... Your eyes state that you are too much of a coward to be a killer anyway... Go and get a proper job." The Batman offhandedly commented as he didn't even bother to question the kid.

"..." Ray was shocked into silence as he just stared at the back of the leaving demon. "W-who are you?" 

"I am the Darkest Knight of Gotham." He answered before jumping up and flying away into the night, the soles of his feet emitting energy to propel him into the sky.

"He forgot the drugs and the weapons," Ray mumbled as he debated with himself if he should really leave the life of crime for good as he was just advised to or perhaps deliver all this to Penguin and get the biggest bonus of his life.

*beep beep Beep Beep BEEP BEEP* *BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM* Multiple explosions suddenly lit up the entire port after a few seconds of strange beeping sound as the drug-filled container and all the cars of the Falcone gang that contained the weapons exploded all at once, destroying millions of dollars of illegal substance and weaponry.

"No, I am definitely going to quit," Ray muttered to himself as he gulped while shielding his head from the explosions happening all around him. He knew that the era of crime was over in Gotham but he wasn't going to go down with it.

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<(Bruce Wayne POV)> 

"Maybe next time, trigger the explosion when a kid isn't so near the bomb, or perhaps decrease the charge of the explosives." Cortana quipped as she showed CCTV footage of the destroyed drugs and weapons.

"You are worried about the kid? I am feeling sad simply imagining all the perfectly functioning weaponry that I had to destroy just to make a good first impression on the cops and the criminals who are going to hear about this later. I could have used all those guns and explosives or maybe rebranded them and sold them legally to various justice departments of the country. But that wouldn't have been a good PR move right at the start of my vigilante career...

Plus, the truth is that I was really nervous. I wanted to give the kid a proper speech about me being Vengeance, the Night, and Batman, but unfortunately, I only managed to tell him that I was the Dark Knight and it even came out as the Darkest Knight. I hope the people don't start calling me the Darkest Knight of Gotham. Although that would be cool, it would still be extremely awkward as a superhero name." I lamented at my misfortune and screw up.

"Nonetheless, did you gain any useful information from the man's mind? I know he was one of the higher-ups in Falcone's gang from his digital profile but anything else?" I asked.

"Besides the fact that he thought of you as a communist because of the... too much red on your costume, yeah, I found more than half of the locations Falcone uses to store his money, drugs, weaponry, stolen antiques, and all the other illegal things he deals in," Cortana answered.

"Okay, then. We will hit all of them by the end of the night. By tomorrow morning, I want to see Falcone crying his eyes out at his own misfortune... By the way, red doesn't look that bad on me, does it?" I asked with a hint of doubt at my spectacular fashion sense.

"No, but maybe you could dial it down a little or perhaps use the other designs with the darker shades if you want to be 'one with the night' like how ninjas normally are. This one might look cool but is also a little too much on the eyes. How about the Bat Demon design? It doesn't come with a cape but that one will truly terrify the criminals into shitting their pants." Cortana sounded more excited than even me in helping me perfect my vigilante fashion.

"Uhh no, I think I will leave that one when I really need to terrify someone. Also, the glider that goes with it still isn't finished... Plus, we can change the armor design any time we want due it it all being nanobot technology, so we don't have to rush into it. Let the process guide us.

For now, focus on destroying Falcone by completely uprooting his empire first. We don't want somebody else to come and sit on his throne after he is gone. Gotham will plunge into chaos once he dies and it will be an all-you-can-eat buffet for me where I can hunt all I want and take everything I need to change the city once and for all. That will be our priority for now." I let Cortana know as I blasted toward the direction of the Falcone's safe house that was the nearest to me.

"Shame. The costume would have matched with Ace once you decided to take him out on missions as well." Cortana commented with a sad voice.

"..." I didn't respond to that as I continued to fly towards my destination.

That particular night was filled with dozens of explosions as various factories, storage units, and abandoned buildings were reduced to dust, all having ties to Carmine Falcone and his gang. Nobody knew who had declared the fight on the biggest criminal gang in Gotham or who had been tying Falcone's gang members half-dead in all of the locations of the blasts for the cops to find but everyone knew one thing, a war was dawning on Gotham.

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(A/N: All battle sequences won't be so big. This one is because it's special in the sense that this was the MC's first night out as Batman.)

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