#3: Old Foes, Pt 1 (Moreau / Flinchum)

The bright yellow sun rises about six this time of year. It pulls itself up from behind Wayne Manor and slowly masks all of Gotham until even the most secluded ally feels the warmth of it. The streets are packed car-to-car, with many of Gotham’s citizens going to their jobs. It’s just like a regular city.

But that’s exactly what the sun is to Gotham–a mask. A mask that hides what Gotham truly is. At night, the mask comes off, and the real Gotham is revealed. A city that is NOT like any other city. A place where Hell burns two feet below it. It’s a world of cowards trying to make an extra buck off you, a world of murderous lunatics who dress up in costumes, a world of people who have got to be scared to walk out their doors. It’s a city that everyone’s given up on.

Except...for HIM.

At five-thirty I get back to the house from a typical night. No lunatics like the Joker...yet. I change from my night clothes and head upstairs. I sleep for two hours. Alfred wakes me up around eight.

“Rise and shine, Master Bruce,” Alfred says with his usual charm. I get up, feeling a bit groggy from oversleeping. Alfred has my breakfast on the table.

“Oh, by the way sir,” Alfred says at breakfast, “Mr. Lucius Fox called, he said there is to be a meeting today at twelve o’clock at Wayne Enterprises’s Waynetech building. He mentioned something about them hiring a new employee. He did also ask if he could accompany you on your way to Waynetech.”

A new employee? Why wasn’t I informed about this before today? I’m usually one of the first people informed about new employees at Waynetech. And why are they making such a big deal of this?

I change into one of the suits whose purchase would’ve put most on the streets, while Alfred gets the limo. These clothes are more of a disguise than my nighttime outfit, but one must keep up appearances…

We pull up to Lucius Fox’s house. I see his kids waving to me in the window. They do that every time the limo pulls up. Something as simple as a limo never excited me that much. It was just the family car. It’s different being rich as a kid. I remember it actually feeling good. Whatever happiness I had as a child ended when I was eight.

“Hey Bruce,” Lucius says to me as he gets in the car, “How are you?”

“Fine”, I reply, “What about this new employee?”

“I don’t know any more than you do Bruce,” he says with a strange look on his face. “I got a call about six this morning about it. The guy on the phone told me to tell you. Anyway, I hear some strange things about the guy they hired. People say he’s on the cutting edge of this nanotechnology stuff. They say he could do wonders for Wayne Enterprises as a whole. But there’s one thing in his profile that really caught my eye. He seems to be phenomenal at this nanotech stuff, but it appears thatche never went to college. However, Mr Schneider, the head of Waynetech’s nanotechnology division, insists on hiring him.”

We arrive at Waynetech. Alfred opens the door for me and I get out of the car. Of course, the press is right there with all of their flashing cameras. I’ve learned how to deal with this by now. I just walk to the door without saying a word.

We get inside. We go into a small auditorium–no, it is actually fairly big, big enough to accommodate most of Waynetech’s employees. It’s mostly used for demonstrations of new inventions. There aren’t any decorations, only a small podium in the center of the stage. The press, of course, follows.

After a short wait, Mr. Schneider walks up to the podium. I don’t get why Waynetech’s making such a big deal of this. There have been thousands of new employees at Wayne Enterprises over the years, and I’ve never seen one who’s gotten such a welcome as this.

“Good evening, ladies and gentleman. It is my honor today to present to you a new employee at Waynetech. This man is on the cutting edge of nanotechnology, and his expertise will help drive Wayne Enterprises’s technology division into the 21st century. Now, I understand that this man may not have a perfect record with the law, but I assure you he has paid his debt to society, and is fully reformed and ready to make an honest and decent living. So without further adieu, I present to you Waynetech’s newest employee!”

A short pudgy man walks out from the side of the stage. He has a strange, smug looking smile on his face and is supporting an unusual-looking top hat. I’d know that face from a hundred miles away.

“Ladies and gentleman, I present to you, Mr. Jervis Tetch!”

The Waynetech building. Thirty stories of technology. It was started by my father soon after I was born. Dad would be ashamed if he knew who was working in his building now. The Mad Hatter’s new laboratory is in a semi-secluded hall on the sixth floor. Room 66.

As anyone can imagine, Waynetech’s security is top notch. Between the guards, the cameras, and the security wall that surrounds all but the front and back of the building where there are high-security gates, it’s nearly impossible to break into. But one could break into Fort Knox if they owned it. The front door is guarded by two heavily armed guards. I’m not going in that way. I perch myself on the wall near the back of the building. I look down. There is a guard leaning against the wall patrolling the less-obvious back entrance. After about a half-hour, the guard looks at his watch. Suddenly, a black truck pulls up to the security gate opposite the guard. Time for the guards to change shifts. The guard gets off the wall he was leaning on and walks towards the truck to check the driver’s I..D. I use this as my chance. I quietly drop off the wall and sneak into the shadows around the building. I quickly swoop into the back door.

Inside, there is a glass door with a hand-recognition machine. Only a very small number of people could get through here to the other side of the bullet-proof glass. I’m one of them. I remove my glove and place my hand onto the scanner. I listen for the beep and watch as the machine changes from red to green, and the light by the door does the same. I quietly walk through the door and into the hall.

The hall inside goes straight, then curves at a 90 degree angle to the left. Straight ahead, there is a pivoting security camera. I quickly dash into the office to my left before it picks me up. I slip into the office adjacent to the one I’m in, and then the one adjacent to that. Once I make my way down, I open the door into the hall. A camera is located right above the door I opened, but it is facing away from me. I disconnect the camera from the wall outlet and proceed down the hall.

I walk into the office further down the hall to avoid more cameras. Wondering what to do, I look up. The air vent is located on one of the side walls. A screwdriver attachment on my lock pick tool takes the hinges off, and I’m up on my way through the vent. After almost four minutes of crawling, I drop through the other side. I’m in the labs now. An instant after I drop, I notice my mistake. A security camera is aiming right towards me. Damn. In my anger, I whip a baterang at it, which shatters the lens. I find the elevator and head up in it. Second floor, third floor, I watch the light above the door. Fourth floor, fifth floor, sixth floor… The elevator bell dings and the doors open. Room 66 is right near the elevator.

Slowly, I turn the doorknob and open the door into the room. The hinges just barely creek. I look around, but I can’t see anything. It’s pitch black. Once again, I turn on my nightvision. There are two folders on the tables in the middle of the room, and a sheet over something huge to the right. I walk towards the tables.

I open up one of the folders. It’s scribbles and doodles of characters from “Alice in Wonderland”. I flip through them. They’re nicely drawn yet horribly twisted–just like the Mad Hatter’s mind...except for the part of them being nicely drawn. The last paper is a blueprint of some giant machine. It’s all sketched out with measurements and everything. A lot of the terms I don’t even understand.

“Twinkle, twinkle little bat! How I wonder what you’re at!” I hear coming from some type of loudspeaker in the room that I don’t bother to locate.

“Where are you Hatter?!” I grate.

“Right here, Batman.” The lights go on. I’m blind. I turn off my night vision and turn around to where the voice had come from. The same short pudgy figure I saw a few days ago is standing in the doorway from which I entered. He’s wearing a purple suit with a ridiculously big polka-dotted bow-tie, and a hat that stands at least two feet up.

“Let’s make this easy, Hatter,” I say. “If you cooperate, things will be much less painful, especially for you. Why are you working at Waynetech?”

“Speak English, Batman,” he says, “I don’t know the meaning of half those words, and I don’t believe you do either!” He walks towards the giant sheet. “You see Batman, I have all kinds of great ideas. But the problem is, no one would ever let me get these great ideas out of my head, so they’ve been all cooped up. But once upon a time, I was sitting around and I had this superb idea! There was no way I could just keep this one inside my head! This was better than all the rest! I saw Mr. Schneider on T.V one day. Inspiration struck! I spoke to Mr. Schneider at Waynetech and through certain err...arrangements, he helped me get a job here so I could make my marvelous dreams come true! What a great notion it was, wasn’t it Batman? I think even you can agree!”

“What’s under that sheet, Hatter?!” I say threateningly.

“Ah, so you do have some curiosity under that cowl! You just can’t stop thinking: what is the marvelous, superb, greatly thought out idea that the genius in whose presence you stand, came up with? Well, prepare to be dazzled!”

The Mad Hatter walks towards the giant sheet and rips it off. Under it is a machine that looks like it was stolen right out of Dr. Frankenstein’s laboratory. It’s shaped roughly like an observatory telescope. It includes a huge cone with electrical conductors, flashing light bulbs, circular lights that appear to be swirling around the base, everything you’d expect from a classic horror movie.

“Batman, you know the wonderful inventiveness of my hats, no?” the lunatic continues. “I have finally come up with a way to concentrate the signals which I incorporate into my fashionable headgear, and multiply them! I can make them as powerful as I wish! And when I turn my machine on, the person any person I want doesn’t stop being my grateful servant until I decide to turn it off! I’d like you to meet my first successful lab rat, Batman! Oh Maxie!”

Before I can turn around, I feel something grab my arms and rip them behind my back, almost tearing them off. “Guhh!!” I yell. I look up. Max Schneider is twisting my arms back with a blank hypnotized stare on his face.

“He’s just an experiment, Batman, whom I hypnotized with a small prototype I keep in the back. But imagine what I could do with the real machine to a whole building’s worth of people, or better yet, a whole city’s worth!!”

“You’re mad, Hatter!” I yell.

“We’re all mad here, Batman.” As he says this, he tilts his head down so that the brim of his hat covers his eyes and the only thing visible on his face is an evil smirk. “Anyway, there are still a few...kinks with my toy. That’s why I’ve decided to hire you! Congratulations, Batman! You get to be my new lab rat! I really have to see what this machine is capable of before I release it to the public. Be right back!” He goes into another room.

He comes back with an exact replica of his giant machine, only scaled much smaller. “Is there anything you’d like to say, Batman? Goodbye to your wife and kids maybe? I regret I have but one life to give for my country? Whatever it is, just make it quick!”

“There’s no way you’re getting away with this Hatter!” I yell. He pivots the machine on its base and points it at me.

“You’re nothing but a pack of cards, Batman!” He hits a giant red button. Why is it that these lunatics absolutely have to decorate everything they touch? A swirling red light seems to spiral towards my face. I feel drowsy. Fight it! Getting sleepy! No! Everything begins to fade. Then, everything goes black.

Now:

This is my city, and they know it. Every low life scum up to every drug lord this side of the Mississippi knows it.

During the day there is little I can do, at least of that which needs to be done; but, when night falls, then it is my turn to strike back for all the victims in the city whose trespassers go unpunished.

My father, Thomas Wayne, gave this city much in his short life. He was in the process of helping rejuvenate the city when he was struck down by the bullet of a common thief. Soon after his death, the city took a downward spiral and never came back up again.

I’m waiting in the shadows on a roof across from one of Gotham’s more famous restaurants—“Michelle’s”. It has been known for its steaks, its seafood and for its five star martinis, since the day it opened almost fifty years ago. Unfortunately, the neighborhood that surrounds it hasn’t maintained the same popularity.

Back in the day, this was considered one of the more glamorous areas in the city. The streets were lined with nightclubs, restaurants and shops that were open almost all night; whereas now, even the homeless stay away from this neighborhood. The wealthy get dropped off at the front door and their eyes avoid everything but the entrance. Just another example of how the city is continuing to deteriorate.

Now:

Two weeks later my parents were gunned down in front of my eyes and from that day forward there have been many places in this city that Bruce Wayne refuses to go. Places that still hurt, because he can still see them there, happy and content.

I’m so lost in my own thoughts that I almost miss seeing them as they round the corner. Careless of me. They walk down the street like they own it. Street punks, and disorganized ones at that. None of them can be any older then nineteen. They are the same gang that has been terrorizing the patrons of Michelle’s for the last couple of weeks. Small timers in the grand scheme of things. Demanding money and jewels in exchange for safe passage out of the neighborhood. So far none of them have even used a weapon of any sort. My plan is simple. Scare the hell out of them and hope that it’s enough to keep them from coming back, if not change their ways all together.

I watch as the door to the restaurant swings open and a couple walks out. They’re in the autumn of their years and I can tell the way they are holding hands that they are still obviously in love. It’s also obvious that they are very wealthy.

The street gang moves in…all five of them. They circle the couple and I can see what appears to be their leader demanding something from them.

As the couple begins to hand over their stuff, I fire the cable to the building across the street and jump off of the one I am on.

There is a moment before the cable tightens and before I begin my descent that I am suspended in the air…motionless. That is the moment when I feel the most free, when I am finally at peace with myself. It is a moment that disappears almost as quickly as it comes.

The cable connects and I am once again swinging into action. As I come down I strike at the man-child who is furthest from the gang. He doesn’t even have time to scream out…just the way I like it.

Two others are smarter then I give them credit for, they run. The fourth one is not as smart. In fact as he raises his fists and lunges towards me, It strikes me that he is extremely stupid. Wisdom, I suppose, is something that many acquire as they get older; although, most never acquire it at all. The fourth one is on the ground with a broken nose before he realizes he’s even been hit.

The final kid is the stupidest, the leaders usually are. He pulls a knife and puts it up to the woman’s throat, “Don’t take another step, man, or the old broad gets an extra happy face.”

He’s not even holding the knife the right way and I could be on top of him way before he even begins to cut her, but I don’t take chances with civilians, and I don’t let them tell me what to do, either.

“Are you that stupid, kid,” I say to him, not moving a muscle but dropping my voice even further into the lower octaves. “I let you go tonight and you better keep running because you will be the sole focal point of my nights until I catch you. You draw even a drop of blood on that woman and you are still going to be carted off to jail, only with the possibility of loss of limb. So you’ve got the choice, do you surrender now or do you go down hard on a night you’re not expecting it?”

My eyes never leave his and I can see the wheels inside that drug addled brain of his try and work it through. I’m nothing if not patient, so I stand there waiting. I ignore the crying of the old lady and the pleas of her husband.

After what feels like an hour but actually is less then a minute, he drops the weapon and raises his hands. That’s two more times that I have been proven wrong tonight. Wisdom doesn’t necessarily come with age and this kid is obviously not as stupid as I thought. I cuff him to the flagpole outside of the restaurant and turn to go when I hear my name called by the old woman.

“Thank you Batman,” she gushes in her excitement. “I’ve always stood up for you to all my friends. There are people out there that believe in you.”

I do not return the conversation but I nod at her. To talk to the civilians lessens the bat and makes me more of the man, and I can not allow that.

“My husband and I were celebrating our anniversary.”

She’s starting to babble, time for me to leave.

“Well not our marriage anniversary, but the anniversary of when he proposed to me.”

I stop my turn and stare at them. Did I hear that correctly?

The husband speaks for the first time, “Only the birth of our children comes close to being the second happiest day of our lives. Thank you Batman, for not making this the most tragic.”
day of my life.”

His eyes are wet, I have to go.

I nod again and fire my cable up into the night sky. It catches and pulls me away from the bizarre and ironic scene that I was just in.

Back on the roof, I watch them leave, and I realize that I am feeling something that I haven’t felt in more years then I care to remember.

I pull out Bruce’s phone and hit star three. It rings only once when she answers.

“Hello?”

“Selina, its Bruce.”

“Well, to what do I owe the pleasure?” Her voice has always sounded like a quiet symphony to me.

“Dinner, I’m hungry. Want to come with me?”

“Why, Bruce, this is a surprise. Yes, I would love to come with you. Where are we going if I may ask?”

“Michelle’s. I’m in the mood for petits filets smothered in a brandy and mushroom sauce…”