Post by jordan on Jan 9, 2014 16:33:38 GMT -5
Ultimate DC Comics Presents
Batman; Gotham Harbors
I sit perched, listening to the thugs murmur. Their voices are smug but fearful. They know what's coming. They can almost smell it. They smell more than the rusted metal and fish mixing together to make the smell of vomit linger in the air. They smell more than the gasoline and the gunpowder mixing with the vomit into a smell that reminds me of little more than dead babies.
My legs tense as their conversation intensifies. Below me, there are five men. Three of them are armed, the other two stand tall and buff, no needing arms in most conflicts. Among these five men, one stands out. His sandy brown hair is accented by streaks of red, and he stands tall and proud, like what he does every day matters. But I know the truth. Underneath his long, sleek peacoat is a man afraid and ashamed, just as much as anyone could be after everything he's done. He's bred evil in this city for a long time. Now he's trying to fix his mistakes. Now he's trying to be a good cop. Trying to make every day count.
"Listen, Tommy, the way that all of this is gonna go down--" He starts, he has a thick Brooklyn accent. He used to live there. He left to get away from the mobs and violence. He should've gone to Metropolis. Tommy Harkin, one of the bigger men, steps forward, his brute mass scarring the other two armed men to raise their arms. "Drop your guns ya dumb fucks. You got something to say Tommy?"
"Yeah, you and yo boss don't tell me how ta run ma business, mmk? You drop the five grand right here tomorrow night at this time and you'll have yo guns, got me? No negotiations." His eyes are strong and confident. He's a gun dealer, you have to have confident eyes. It's what's inside that counts. And if he isn't yet, soon, he'll be afraid
Ultimate Batman In
I move closer, silently, my feet barely even touching the ground. Now I sit just yards away from them, listening to their every word. "Alright, Tommy. We can do that. The Mask will be very pleased with all of this." No one moves, no one talks, they just stand in silence. They just smell the air. They smell something stronger than their own testosterone--they smell war.
"Cause that's what I care about." Tommy's smile isn't afraid of the oncoming storm but...embracing. Comforted. His business will boom but...no. Tommy throws his hand into the air, throws it back down, and takes two steps back and laughs. "Bye bye!" Just before I jump out, Corrigan notices the ambush.
"Get down ya fuckers!" With a quick leap, all three armed men jump to cover as a wall of bullets flies at them. I'm forced to duck further back into cover to avoid being hit. I hear Corrigan and the Masks returning fire. Ping, ping, ping. No one is hit for some time. I know this is serious when I hear a scream of death from the boat. Corrigan's crew killed someone.
Within seconds I'm back on my feet, scrambling up the side of the warehouse I'm perched at. I reach the top and stare down. Six men remain on the boat with guns, shooting down at Corrigan and his three men. I look for Tommy but don't see him anywhere. Either he's on the boat somewhere or he ran for it. This is the opening salvo of a gang war. Killing a dirty cop and two thugs isn't much but...shit. I take a closer look at the boat and see enough blinking lights for twenty-to-thirty pounds of C4 coming from the water. Probably strapped to the hull of boat.
I don't have time to react before the explosion. Fire engulfs the boat as the six men scream. One survives long enough to dive off the boat, his skin on fire. The fire engulfs the front of the harbor, the debris destroying almost all cover. A chunk of the boat flies at me but I manage to duck out of the way. I watch as one of the men with Corrigan is swallowed by a wall of fire and the other is knocked cold by a chunk of debris. Corrigan takes a piece of debris, probably glass, in his leg. And, just as suddenly as it began, it's over. Seven men dead, engulfed in a wall of flames.
Gotham Wars
My feet hit the ground running. My heart is racing. This is my fault. I just killed all of those men. I hear him calling out. Not for help but for...victory? I listen carefully, straining to hear over the loud patter of my shoes on hard concrete. "That's right you bastards, run! Tell your boss the Mask is out for blood!" I come to stop, standing just over Corrigan. He spits to the side. It's red. Blood. He stares me in the eyes and laughs. "Well hey there, Batty."
"What the hell was that, Corrigan?" I look back and forth from the burning wreckage to Corrigan. In the distance, I hear sirens. I have but moments to get both of us out of here.
"I guess Zeiss wanted to start with a...bang!" He laughs harder now.
"We need to get out of here."
"Well, I would love too, but I can't really do the whole...walkin' thing." He points down at the shrapnel in his leg. Damn. I have to pull all his dead weight. What will I do?
"Damnit, Corrigan. You were supposed to play this safe!"
"Yeah, shuddup and get me outta her befo I passsss....." He loses consciousness. Damn it, he's losing blood and fast. Using a knife from my belt, a cut the sleeve from his coat and wrap it around his leg like a tourniquet.
"Alfred, come in." I don't even wait seconds before I hear the familiar voice.
"Yes, sir?" His English accent and snobby demeanor come through the headpiece just fine. I hate myself for making him hate me. But I need him to be...this.
"How fast can I get to the nearest hospital in the car?" I throw Corrigan's body over my shoulder and run back in the direction of my car. My feet pound the pavement fast and hard, weighed down by the crooked cop. The sirens get closer and closer ever second.
"Just a moment, sir." I reach my car and it immediately unlocks. I throw Corrigan into the passenger seat and jump in the driver's side door.
"I don't have a goddamned moment! This man is dying!"
"Well then, sir, maybe you should not have asked him to start a war for you."
"He has a son, Alfred!"
"Three minutes, Gotham Central. Due East. Need go one-hundred and fifteen miles per hour, sir." I cut off the communication without a word and hit the gas as hard as I can.
Chapter I
"A Black Mask"
As my car roars down 75th street, I pass the cops responding to the explosion. Without even the slightest moment of hesitation, one car swings around and comes after me, several other cars following in pursuit. The remaining cars continue on to the explosion. I hear a small laugh come from Corrigan. "Corrigan, stay with me!" My voice isn't panicked--it's angry. I'm not sure if he can tell the difference. "Corrigan! Corrigan!" I keepy shouting his name, shaking him hard to keep him awake.
"Will ya quite your bloody yellin' ya scumbag." He talks in an extremely horrid British accent. If only John could see him now. He'd probably put him out of his misery. Before I can even respond, Corrigan laughs and spits blood onto the console.
"Corrigan, don't die!"
"Just...just tell my son...tell him that the Captain saved me. Tell him the stories of Marv..." His eyes close. I press my fingers against his neck, feeling for a pulse. Nothing. He's dead.
"Damn it all!" My voice booms in the small, inclosed car. "Alfred, I'm coming home."
"Roger that, sir." I veer the car to the right and jump down a level on the street onto empty highway. My car zooms off into the distance towards Wayne Manor. The cops have lost me.
By Jordan
Batman; The Bat-Cave
My dirty, cold, tired, wet foot slams on the solid limestone hard and I feel the vibrations through my entire body. Everything is blurry and dark, swirling and mashing together everything is so...surreal. As I pull the rest of my body out of the car, I look back at the dead body, the blood dripping from his mouth, his arms turned purple. He helped me, he did me a favor, and I let him die. His blood is on my hands. "Alfred!" My voice carries far across the massive cavern I call home, reverberating from every wall, crack, and crevice and coming back at me. "Alfred!" My steps start forward slow, deliberate, until I can't do it anymore, until I break into a brisk pace, and then a jog and then a run, sprinting across the cave until I come across Alfred. I stop in my tracks, anger clouding my vision, my eyes resting on him.
"Yes, sir? You called?"
"What the hell was that?! He is dead! He is dead because you couldn't tell me where the goddamned hospital was! His blood is on you!" The rage in my voice scares the bats away, and I see the fear and the remorse cloud over any judgement and anger and annoyance in his eyes. I see a tear forming.
"Sir, I..."
"Shut up! How did it get to this?! You were like a father to me!"
"A father whom you'd never listen to." I step forward, throwing my face into his, our eyes starring into one another's. His breath is warm on my exposed cheek, I'm sure mine is too.
"That's a damned lie and you know it Alfred. I treated you like my father. I gave you my love and respect."
"Did you really, sir? Was it out of respect that you ran away from home? Was it out of respect that you'd disappeared for years without a call, a letter or a postcard? Was it out of respect that you became this...bat even when I told you not to? Was all of that respect?" The fear in his eyes has disappeared, now replaced with stubborn indignation. As much as I hate to admit it...
"You're right." I take a few steps back, refusing to meet is indignant gaze, starring past him at the monitors. He's right. No matter how much he pleaded, I still left home. I still became this. And now a dead man's body rots in my car. Whose fault is it really?
"Excuse me, sir?"
"Stop that. Please."
"Stop what, sir?"
"That. My name is Bruce, not Sir."
"Of course, s--Bruce, but I am your butler, it is only polite."
"I'm sorry, Alfred."
"For what, Bruce?"
"For bringing us to this."
"I would love to tell you that this isn't your fault, s--Bruce, but no other madman could think up...all this." He makes wide motions, circling around, pointing out the massive monitors, the security cameras in every corner, the massive Joker card, the schematics to the city, Arkham, the police headquarters...everything. And maybe he's right. But even if he is, this city needs a madman to save it. Sane men have tried and failed.
"Alfred..."
"Yes, s--Bruce?"
"I--" I'm cut short by the red alarms going off. "It's Gordon." I see the look of righteous indignation fade back to stubborn anger. Duty calls...again.
"Of course, sir."
"Alfred--"
"Go, sir." Without another word, I sprint off to the small phone across a small chasm. With a running start, I leap over the chasm and land effortlessly on the other side. I regain my stance and pick up the phone.
"Jim."
"I assume you heard about the explosion?" His voice is worn, tired. I did that to him. He just got finished with Nightwing and Maroni, and now he's got a gang war on his hands.
"You're correct. Why?"
"Because that was just the beginning, Batman. Zeiss, Philo Zeiss, the overseas head of the Global Zeiss Family, is coming."
"Zeiss is coming in person? Interesting."
"That isn't all, Batman. New blood is moving in from all over the country, some foreign families, there's a lot of movement in a little bit of time. If we don't stop this soon, this could be the bloodiest gang war in history." I hear the fear in his voice.
"How does the Maroni clan stand?"
"Scattered. Decimated. They're finished unless someone stands up and reunites them."
"Any clue who the new blood is?"
"Just rumors, really, but the Stryker gang from New York has been rumored to have started moving in arms from the west, coming in through civilian vehicles, mostly pick-ups."
"The Stryker gang isn't that big, they don't have the manpower or financial assets to set up a second operation in Gotham. Anyone else?"
"We've heard some rumors about someone moving in from Star City. We're not sure if it is one of the heavy hitters or just a small gang trying to make a name for themselves."
"Star City?"
"Yeah. So what do you think we should do?"
"Make a move against the Falcones. Their biggest rival just got taken down, they'll start expanding. Put increased patrols on the harbors and the Golds, that's where the movement will be. Moxon's crew doesn't have the manpower to fight a war right now. All of the new blood will be concentrated in the Golds. Zeiss only has enough to run his share of the city in town right now, so keep patrols poster on Greeks and Germans coming into Gotham that are citizens of the country. Black Mask is going to put everything onto gaining the new territory and if the Maroni's don't get another head soon, they'll probably fall in with Black Mask as he's the only ally the Maroni's had in Gotham. Your main priorities should be keeping Moxon out of the war, stopping the new blood and Zeiss's men from entering Gotham and taking Falcone out of the equation. That'll leave me with taking out Black Mask and any stragglers from the Maroni's."
"Batman, I know this is your thing, but be careful. This war is going to be something else."
"Goodbye Jim."
"Bye." The line ends and I stand there, alone and in silence. New blood and Zeiss coming. I don't think I realized what I've started. I began this crusade to get rid of the families in Gotham but...I can get rid of them all. I can cripple them all. Here and now, I can give justice to more than just Gotham, but to the world.
"Alfred!" I call up, hoping he's still there.
"Yes, sir?" His voice is calm now, but still annoyed. I'll have to make up with him some other time. For now, a war is on the rise.
"I need you to call Queen. I need him here for a business proposition in the next forty-eight hours."
"Yes, sir."
"I'll be out late tonight, go to bed."
"May I ask where you're going, sir?"
"I've got a meeting with the Mask."
TO BE CONTINUED