Post by HoM on Dec 18, 2009 17:45:16 GMT -5
I can’t believe it, it just feels so surreal, is what I’m thinking to myself, standing before an empty glass case in the Batcave trophy room, holding the batsuit-- my batsuit-- in my hands, ready to hang it up for the final time. Bruce is back, after spending the better part of a year on a secret mission that he felt required him to fake his death. In his absence, in what I thought were his final wishes, I took up the mantle of the bat and became Gotham’s Caped Crusader. I was apprehensive about it at first and it took me a while to accept that I wasn’t a surrogate for the suit. I began to accept the role and embrace it. I became more than the hero I was before, I became legend, I was the Batman... or so I thought.
That’s probably why I feel so dejected right now, facing a future I really didn’t anticipate. Can I go back to just being Nightwing? Is that taking a step back, considering everything I’ve done and experienced in the past year? Bruce has told me many times since we were triumphant over Ra’s Al Ghul and his legions, how proud he was of me, and how worthy I proved myself, not as his replacement, but as his equal. However, there is room for only one Batman, one true Batman, and the reality is, it’s not Dick Grayson.
I slung the cape and cowl over my shoulder and opened the glass door with a heavy sigh. I placed the grey body armor inside first, piecing it together like a suit of medieval armor. Gave it a final shake to make sure it was sturdy before placing the cape and cowl. I smoothed out the midnight blue fabric and positioned the cape over the shoulders of the armor so that the bat insignia was visible. I traced the yellow ellipse with my finger and looked into the eyes of the empty cowl. Looking down at the ground, I took a step back, grabbing the handle of the door, ready to close this chapter in my life.
“Dick,” I heard Bruce’s gritty voice calling me from the top of the staircase that connected the cave with the study above in Wayne Manor. “How are you?”
“Fine,” I replied, looking into the empty cowl again. “Just getting ready to goodbye …”
“Planning on leaving Gotham tonight?” Bruce asked as he went down the last step and walked toward me in the trophy room.
“Maybe,” I said. “I was thinking about picking up Tim from Titan’s tower in the first before taking off.”
“Back to New York?”
“I don’t know… I don’t know if that’s the place for me anymore…”
“Well, how about staying in Gotham? At least for tonight?”
“What…”
“Lucius needs me to go to Wayne Tower tonight to take care of some of the complications of bringing Bruce Wayne back from the dead… government, paper work, press conference…” Bruce paused as he looked at the batsuit I had used in his absence. “It’s stuff that needs to be done by the morning, before the start of business and I need to be there, so I won’t get a chance to patrol the city.”
“No problem. Let me get my Nightwing gear from storage…”
“When I said I, I meant Batman…” Bruce said, looking at me with a smirk. “For keeping up appearances… it would be good that the city see Bruce Wayne and Batman in two separate places…”
“What about Tim?”
“Tim called, and said he’s going to spend the night at the Tower.”
I could feel a smile emerge on my face, stretching from ear to ear. “You’re right… for keeping up appearances…”
Bruce smiled back at me and placed his hand on my shoulder, before turning around and walking away. “Oh, and by the way Caped Crusader,” Bruce said with a mischievous tone as he walked back up to Wayne Manor. “Check the police scanners before you leave, you might have a loose end or two to finish up.
The smile stayed on my face while I grabbed the cape and cowl from the case.
Detective Comics
Issue Forty-Four: The Exit Interview
Part One (of Two): "The Final Act of the Caped Crusader"
Written by Alex Vasquez
Cover by Mark Saxton
Edited by House Of Mystery
Tonight’s feels like it’s gonna be a good night, ran through my mind while running along the rooftops of Gotham, dressed as the Caped Crusader for the last time. Sirens sounded in all directions above the hustle and bustle of the city below. In-cloud lightning dotted the night sky and the air was so humid, it could be cut with a knife. But the oncoming storm could not keep the smile off of my face, while leaping from rooftop to rooftop, as searching for prey. Yeah, I think. It’s gonna be a good night.
As Bruce suggested, I checked the police scanners while traveling into Gotham on one of the batbikes . It didn’t take me long to hear a very familiar modus operandi being described over the radio. Multiple robberies were reported throughout the north island of Gotham. All of the victims were alleged to be involved in the drug trade or some kind of organized crime. They were all robbed at gunpoint, by a man described as African American, with a shotgun and wearing a trench coat. It looks like we finally found Orpheus.
After our encounter with the Black Mask and the Flesh Monger, I tracked him down and challenged him to be something more than another petty crook. I told him he had potential to contribute to his community, and not add to the circle of violence that kept it downtrodden. Once I told him I would take care of his financial situation and outfit him with updated armor and non-lethal weapons, he took me up and did a good job. He kept certain illegal activity contained to certain areas, so it could be easily controlled and regulated. I wasn’t fond of the idea, but it seemed to work and you’re not just going to be able to get rid of something like drugs overnight. He recruited and trained a gang and outfitted them with the weapons I gave him. They called themselves the Hill Street Gang and things ran in the Hill like clockwork.
That was before the emergence of Gotham’s new underworld and their decision to attack the Hill. During the battle, a group of Jokerz showed up with some high tech weaponry and began to blow everyone to hell. Gavin King was critically injured before I could get there and brought him to the cave to be treated by Alfred. He was unconscious for most of the calamity that ensued. Once things settled and he was taken to Gotham Memorial to get better treatment. There he regained consciousness, snuck out and had had been off the grid ever since.
Something struck me as odd with all of these robberies. They were very uncharacteristic. Orpheus was very meticulous when it came to his work. He staked out his mark, sometimes for months, worked with a crew of no more than four and only went after the heavy hitters in the dope game, took their money and drugs, which he sold back on the street for a fraction of its value, then lay low for a long while before striking again. These recent robberies were of low to mid-level dealers, and were rushed jobs, only taking whatever money they had and leaving the product. I have to think that Orpheus is on the run, which means time is a critical factor.
I checked Orpheus’s safe house on the Hill, and found nothing useful to indicate what he was up to or where he was. I didn’t spend much time on the Hill, knowing that I won’t get anything out of the residents that remained, so I went to check out his family’s house in Otisburg, where they were brutally murdered by the Black Mask. The house had been cleaned up after the attack, but everything had a layer of dust and looked as if no one had lived here or a while, but I managed to find a clue there about Orpheus’s whereabouts. A printed page from a website, a wasted page, the last of the group which only had a header and footer printed out. The header said out of town bus schedule and the footer contained the page number and a partial website URL for Gotham Transit. The time stamp on the paper wasn’t from long ago, so I might still be able to catch him.
I rushed to the nearest bus station and perched myself on top of the terminal building. Pressing a button on the side of the cowl, I activated its binocular lenses and began to scan the dispersed crowd waiting for their buses to depart. It’s not the busiest time of the day, so it was easy to spot my mark standing at the terminal at the far end of the building. I crept closer and shot a grapple to the roof of the nearest building. There were less than ten people waiting at this terminal and once boarding was announced and they all went to the bus, I swooped down and snatched Gavin, bringing him back to the rooftop, before falling into an adjacent ally.
“What the @#$% are you doing?” Gavin yelled as he dropped his bag and grabbed his stomach. It seems as if he’s not fully recovered from his injury. He looks a little gaunt and pale. Maybe the sloppiness of the stick ups was the result of that and not haphazardness.
“I could ask you the same thing,” I growled in reply. “We had a deal, and it still applies.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Gavin said defiantly.
“So it’s just a coincidence that you’re skipping town after a series of stick ups?”
“I don’t know anything about any stick ups, but if that’s the case, yeah, purely coincidental.” Gavin clenched his fists. “And I’m sure who ever was robbed had it coming and besides, it’s not like you stuck to your end of ours.”
I reached into my utility belt and pulled out a bank card and gave it to him. “The pin’s on the back. It’s linked to an encrypted bank account, with the agreed upon amount…”
“Thanks,” Gavin said, taking the card. “But that’s not entirely what I’m pissed about. We got massacred out there. We were promised backup. Where were you or your people? Or are colored people getting massacred not a high enough priority for you people.”
“That’s not fair,” I snapped back. “We were spread thin at the time. Those gangs were attacking several spots simultaneously. I tried to get there as quickly as possible…” I looked to the ground for a moment, then back at Gavin. “I’m sorry.”
Gavin stared at the ground for a moment, sighed and looked away. “I can’t let you take all of the blame. You did risk yourself to save my sorry @#$... It’s mostly my fault. I was out of my element, I’m not used to being out of control and things got out of control real fast, I didn’t know what to do…”
“We were all caught off guard by what happened, all we can do is become better for it, for those who we’ve lost.”
“What, you getting into the life coach game now?” Gavin chuckled. I remained stoic. “Whatever. I’m getting out of here. There’s nothing left for me here… I got family in Dakota, gonna stay with them while I get things sorted out.”
“Taking your act on the road?”
“Naw,” Gavin chuckled again. “I’m retiring. The game took everything from me, and most people in my line of work don’t exactly live to a ripe old age. You just gotta know when you’re time is up, and mine is. With my nest egg I’ve compiled and this,” Gavin held up the card I gave him and placed it in his pocket. “I should be set for a long time.”
“Well, if you are heading for a normal life, all I have to say is good luck,” I extended my hand.
“Thanks,” Gavin said, shaking my hand. He grabbed his bag off the ground and began to walk back to the terminal as the announcer called for the final boarding.
“Gavin,” I called out. He turned. “When you say you’re retired, I’m going to hold you to that. I better not find Orpheus or any familiar M.O.’s in my city.”
“Fair enough, but I have a question,” Gavin asked. “Just out of plain curiosity and nothing else, so don’t take this the wrong way. What if I decide to tell you to go @#$% yourself and go back into the game. I’ve evaded you, the GCPD and all the other clowns that have tried to come at me for years… What makes you think you could stop me if you wanted to?”
“Have Orpheus show his face around Gotham and you’ll find out… real fast,” I growled to add some bravado as I shot a grapple into the night and swung off. Out of the corner of my eye, I would see Gavin King shake his head and smile as he walked towards the terminal.
Since my meeting with Orpheus, the night’s activity is unusually slow. No heavy hitters out, just the typical lowlifes have made it an easy night on the job so far. With all of the high octane insanity that’s transpired in the last few days, maybe Gotham deserves a night off of its usual craziness. And since things are down to a crawl, I might as well take some time out to make a special and overdue visit. After a few leaps and a swing on a grapnel line, I land on top of the roof of the St. Jude’s orphanage.
After a few more steps, I dropped into the courtyard, and walked along the circular gravel walkway to the center of the garden, where a statue of Jesus, draped in flowers and rosaries stood with his arms reaching out. Candles surrounded the statue and at the center of the base was a picture of Sister Clarice.
This was her place, where she liked to pray. This is where I met her for the first time, where she comforted me after my parents had died. I think I might have turned out a lot different if I hadn’t had Sister Clarice’s words that night. I could and probably will visit her grave, but coming here, I think it’s more fitting and meaningful.
I haven’t been here since she was murdered. I couldn’t face it, I felt guilty I couldn’t save her. I felt ashamed at being angry with her for protecting her killer from me. Regardless, I should’ve been able to do something and my failure to act is why she’s not here. I told myself after she died, that I would be better, that I would be more than a hero. With everything that’s happened and all of the transition that’s ahead of me, I can’t help but wonder if I had succeeded?
“Hello? Who’s there?” I heard a woman’s voice coming from the doorway into the orphanage. I turned to see another face I recognized from my past. Sister Mary Elizabeth, she was the nun that escorted me to my room when I first arrived here all those years ago, soon after my parents died.
“I don’t mean to cause any trouble Sister,” I said. “I just came to pay my respects. I was just leaving anyway.”
“No apologies necessary, you haven’t caused any,” Sister Mary Elizabeth said, walking in my direction, to my surprise, without any trepidation. She sat down on the bench in front of the statue. “I’m sorry to have disturbed you; I just come out here at times, just like Clarice did. It’s comforting, especially since the way things have gotten worse since she’s been gone.”
“Worse?” I asked as I walked to the bench and sat down next to her. “What’s been going on?”
“Well, at first it was much of the same,” Mary Elizabeth began, folding her hands on her lap. “Another gang came in and started fighting with the LoBoyz gang.”
“What did this new gang look like?”
“Dressed in black, wore sun glasses all the time, very advanced looking guns.” I immediately thought about Boss Synth’s gang. Mary Elizabeth continued. “The fighting got bad between them, until members of the LoBoyz suddenly disappeared.”
“Disappeared?”
“Gone… the typical locales and street corners were abandoned. None of the children reported being harassed by any of them, like if they just decided to leave or vanished.”
“When did this happen?”
“A couple of weeks ago,” Mary Elizabeth said looking at the ground. I could tell she was starting to choke up. “Shortly before bodies had started to turn up, dumped in the alleys around the neighborhood. They looked as if the life was just sucked from their bodies, leaving a dried out corpse. Soon after, we noticed some of our children had gone missing and soon were found in the same condition.”
“Is it still continuing to go on?”
“We found one of our children this morning.” Mary Elizabeth wiped tears from her eyes. “We’ve brought this to the police, but they have been spread thin trying to control all of the recent violence that has spread throughout the city, so the children just keep disappearing and dying. I’m thankful that the orphanage is going to be shut down in a few weeks… maybe it will save the lives of the remaining children.” She paused and looked at the picture of Sister Clarice. “I’m just glad she’s not here to see all of this.”
“I’m going to look into this Sister,” I said, standing up and grabbing my grapple gun from my belt, shooting it up into the night. “And I’m going to put a stop to it.”
I really don’t have a clue what I'm up against. I know it's related to Boss Synth, who has recently gone missing and in this town, if someone of his ilk is gone more than a couple of days, chances are he's not breathing. What’s really urgent is that if Synth did bring in something that could wipe out an entire gang overnight, and if he was dead, whatever it is, it's out there unchecked.
Sister Mary Elizabeth said they reported these incidents to the police, so it should be easy enough to hack into the GCPD database. I reach into one of the pockets of my utility belt and pull out a three by six touch screen device. I've been dying to test out this prototype WayneTech tablet Lucius gave me, running on the secret WayneTech 5g network. I pull up the map application the tablet and mark the areas where bodies were found in Old Gotham. Some of these Alleys the bodies were dumped in were well known hot-spots for the homeless, so I start with those first.
The homeless, the ones who didn't stonewall me, managed to fill in some details and gave some new locations where dumped bodies were found. They seemed just as spooked and disturbed by this as Sister Mary Elizabeth. They reported that the bodies were dumped by a white van, with the bodies in garbage bags and usually cut up into pieces. Some mentioned that these white vans were targets of LoBoyz attacks, right before the gang disappeared. I marked these places on the tablet's map, noticing that they all circle the area around the Clocktower.
With the Clocktower in sight, I heard a yell in the distance. I ran towards it, hoping to find a white van, but found a young man in an alley hassling a young blonde girl, wearing a ripped up leather jacket and ripped up jeans. "Get the $&@€ away from me," she yelled at him, trying to hit him with her right, but she was easily keep at arm’s length by her attacker.
“Baby, I know you got something for me under there," the gang banger said. "And it's about time you give it up." She struggled a bit, before he spun her around and slammed her into the brick wall of a building.
I leapt off of the rooftop across from them, extending my arms and snapping my wings out, landing a thunderous kick to the thug’s chest, sending him flying to the same wall he flung the girl. I landed down and was about to tie up the attack all nice for the police, when I noticed am interlocking L and O on his neck.
"Must be my lucky day," I said aloud as I slammed him into the wall once again. "You LoBoyz are in scarce supply these days." He spun around and lunged at me, throwing a wild punch that I easily parried into an arm bar and slammed him to the ground, where I held him. "Make this easy and tell me what's up with the bodies, the white vans and what happened to your homeboys."
He started to struggle frantically, using his free hand to claw at the sidewalk. His fingers were bloody within seconds. "Don't make me remember," he said. "I can't remember..." I grabbed his free hand and bound it to his other with a plastic restraint. He started to try and grind his face into the ground, which forced me to administrate a tranquilizer to calm him.
"Now tell me, what happened to your gang."
"We followed the white vans; we knew they were apart some something big..."
"Where did you follow them too?"
"Oh God no...”
“WHERE?!”
“Please... That thing... It killed them all... NO!" he began to trash uncontrollably. "No, please... I'm sorry Mommy!" He began to trash around uncontrollably, forcing me to sedate him again. He wasn't going to be any good to me anyway, but now my best lead just went kaput as he passed out.
"I know the place he was talking about," I heard a female voice say behind me. I turned and saw his victim coming out of hiding behind a dumpster. "Those guys are always recruiting street people to work for them. I've had a couple of friends go there and not come back."
"When was the last time they went out recruiting?" I asked as she walked towards me.
"Today, right before this #%^£ tried to pimp me out," she ran up to the fallen gang banger and kicked him in the stomach. "Mother $@#%£."
"Alright, that's enough," I grabbed her and pulled her away from him. It dawns on me that she can't me that much older than Tim. "Look..."
"Steph," she interrupted.
"What?"
"My name is Steph."
"Okay, Steph, I need you to tell me where this place is..."
"No, I'll show you," She said defiantly. "I've got friends that disappeared in that place. I need to see if they're okay. We are all we've got out here. I hear what happens to the people that go there, I've seen it."
"And that's why you can't tag along. It's too dangerous,"
"I’ve lived on the streets of Gotham for a while now. I can take care of my self." Steph said crossing her arms. "Either I go with you or you can roll the dice and see if you get lucky searching every building in the neighborhood."
"Fine," I reluctantly say, knowing time is essential. "But at the first sign of trouble, you take off."
"Scout's honor," Steph replied holding up two fingers.
"Wow," Steph said with a smile and a small laugh. "I could get used to this."She held on to me tight as we rappelled down a building across from a nondescript warehouse a few blocks from the Clocktower, where Steph said was the place her friends were taken.
"Don't" I replied as touched down on the pavement and made our way to the warehouse. It was surrounded by a chain-link fence and a white van was parked in front of the loading dock. A quick scan of the exterior of the building didn’t show any surveillance cameras. We moved closer to the chain-link fence to get a better look. I could see an air vent near the roof, which should provide me easy access to what’s inside. “So, you’re sure this is the place?”
“Yeah… positive,” Steph replied. “So what’s the plan?”
“Well, I’m going to check out the van first, then enter through the vent and put an end to whatever’s inside.”
“So what am I gonna… hey what the hell?!” Steph screamed as she realized I had handcuffed her to the fence.
“You’re gonna sit tight here. It’s too dangerous for you,” I said as I jumped over the fence. “Those are standard issue handcuffs. When the police get here, they’ll let you go.”
“This is #$%^&,” Steph screamed as I crept away, towards the van and around to its rear double doors. It was locked up, but a batarang should be able to break the lock and open it. Once I do, I’m almost knocked down by the pungent smell. I count 5 bodies intact, three of them children and two, with what clothing and accessories they had on, probably working girls. They all looked as if they had been decaying for years.
I shot my grapple up to the vent and climbed up the warehouse, and had to remove the grate to gain access. It’s not the sturdiest, but so far seems to be holding my weight well. After a couple of twists and turns, my progress is blocked by another grate with another one directly below me. I look through it and could see a very high tech lab below. On the far side, were a bunch of workers, male and female, working on machines that seem to be processing some kind of compound, and placing them into syringes. The syringes were moved to another part of the room and divided in half, while more workers paint some syringes red and the others blue.
A couple of heavily armed security guards surrounded the machinery and an elderly woman, wearing glasses and a long brown dress with with an apron and bonnet, was joyfully skipping around the workers and machinery, singing in a jovial tone “Red pill, blue pill,” over and over. Below me, I could hear two men talking through the vent.
“Man, does she ever shut the ^&*% up?” one of them said. I moved back a bit to see them through the grate below me. They were security and had large rifle-looking guns that I’ve never seen before.
“Get used to it,” the other guard said as he sat down. “It doesn’t stop… EVER!”
“Maybe if we talk to her…”
“No, Boss Synth was very adamant that we do not engage in any sort of socializing with her,” the guard said as he sat down and put his feet up on a nearby desk. “The last guy to start talking to her blew his brains out and the guy before him jumped off the roof. Then there was the guy that first found her, he decided to take a band saw and cut off his…”
“I get the idea… but when are we going to hear from Boss Synth? It’s been a few days…”
“It’s not uncommon for the boss to not touch base for a couple of days,” The sitting guard said. “We just gotta sit tight and wait for the word and…”
“What are you doing?!” The elderly woman screamed at one of the painters. I moved up a little and saw her slapping his brush out of his hand and picking him up by throat. “THESE syringes must be painted blue. It is very important…Or perhaps if I looked like this…” My jaw dropped as a white glow surrounded the elderly lady and she morphed into a balding, middle-aged man, wearing a brown suit and a moustache. “And perhaps if I touched you in that ‘special’ way,” her voice changed as well, sounded rough, as if she smoked 3 packs a day.” “Then maybe you would learn to LISTEN!”
“#$%& YOU, YOU FREAK!” The worker said he kneed the creature in the groin.
“I’m sorry,” The white glow surrounded the man once again and his voice changed. It sounded feminine again, but harmonized with two opposing octaves, causing a distressing dissonance. Her shape changed again, this time a woman donning a grey body suit that resembles latex, and a mask, covering her entire face and two yellow bubbles where her eyes would be. “While I looked like I had man-parts, it was only an illusion.”
Sparks flew from her hands and it seemed as if an electric current started from the neck of the worker and flowed into her hand. I kicked the grate off, grabbed a batarang and flung it towards the shape shifter. It lodged itself in the back of its hand, causing her to scream and drop her victim.
“What the #A$%^?” I heard a guard below yell and saw the guards across from me begin to raise their weapons. I turned around to exit the building, but was cut off by a hail of gunfire aiming upward at the duct. It didn’t take long for it to rip off the ceiling and crash onto the floor, taking me down with it. Heavily disoriented, and probably concussed, I grabbed two handfuls of smoke bombs and threw them outward, filling the room with smoke before I crawled out of the wreckage.
I stood up, and stumbled forward, and bumped into a coughing guard, before I disarmed him and knocked him out with the but of his own weapon. Another guard rushed towards me from behind. I turned and stuck the handle of the weapon out, catching him in the gut and took a swing at his head, putting him down.
Dropping the gun, I started to make my way back towards the way I came in, or at least I thought it was. My head is swimming, the room is filled with smoke and I have no sense of direction at the moment. I take two steps before getting a case of the spins, falling to a knee. I hear a yell in harmonic dissonance coming towards me, getting louder and before I can react, that creature jumped on top of me, slamming my head into the ground and grabbing the skin exposed by the cowl.
“My, my,” her harmonic voice said into my ear. “I bet you’re a tasty treat!” I suddenly feel a sensation that I can describe as my insides being pulled out of my body through my pores. Electricity surrounded her hands and I could see an electric current going from my body to hers. Her grip is like steel, I can’t break it, so I wrapped by hands around her head and pulled her in close, slamming her face into the crown of my head. That and a quick punch to the solar plexus caused her to release her grip.
The smoke began to dissipate, allowing the rest of the guards to see my position. It also allowed me to see a window on the wall near me. I grabbed two exploding batarangs, threw one at the window and one at the machinery, causing the guards on that side of the room to halt their pursuit. I struggled to my feet and sprinted to the blown out window, and jumped through the rubble and broken glass. I managed to make it to the fire escape on the adjacent building, and by make it, I landed on railing, knocking the wind out of me and probably my dinner.
I dropped off the ledge, down a level, managing to avoid the oncoming gunfire from the lab. The rapid fire was causing the rusted fire escape to lose stability. Grabbing the grapple gun, I shot it to the roof and swung off before the fire escape fell down into the ally below.
I must have blacked out momentarily during the swing, because I came too just as I was about to fall on the roof of a car. The roof collapsed, the windows blew out and the nearby alarms began to sound. I rolled off and stumbled into a nearby alley before collapsing. The pain was unbearable, breathing was difficult, and I was coughing up blood.
“Don’t worry Richard Grayson, you’ll be going to a better place,” I heard a soothing voice say. A brilliant white light enveloped everything around me, and it was the last thing I saw before everything faded to black.
That’s probably why I feel so dejected right now, facing a future I really didn’t anticipate. Can I go back to just being Nightwing? Is that taking a step back, considering everything I’ve done and experienced in the past year? Bruce has told me many times since we were triumphant over Ra’s Al Ghul and his legions, how proud he was of me, and how worthy I proved myself, not as his replacement, but as his equal. However, there is room for only one Batman, one true Batman, and the reality is, it’s not Dick Grayson.
I slung the cape and cowl over my shoulder and opened the glass door with a heavy sigh. I placed the grey body armor inside first, piecing it together like a suit of medieval armor. Gave it a final shake to make sure it was sturdy before placing the cape and cowl. I smoothed out the midnight blue fabric and positioned the cape over the shoulders of the armor so that the bat insignia was visible. I traced the yellow ellipse with my finger and looked into the eyes of the empty cowl. Looking down at the ground, I took a step back, grabbing the handle of the door, ready to close this chapter in my life.
“Dick,” I heard Bruce’s gritty voice calling me from the top of the staircase that connected the cave with the study above in Wayne Manor. “How are you?”
“Fine,” I replied, looking into the empty cowl again. “Just getting ready to goodbye …”
“Planning on leaving Gotham tonight?” Bruce asked as he went down the last step and walked toward me in the trophy room.
“Maybe,” I said. “I was thinking about picking up Tim from Titan’s tower in the first before taking off.”
“Back to New York?”
“I don’t know… I don’t know if that’s the place for me anymore…”
“Well, how about staying in Gotham? At least for tonight?”
“What…”
“Lucius needs me to go to Wayne Tower tonight to take care of some of the complications of bringing Bruce Wayne back from the dead… government, paper work, press conference…” Bruce paused as he looked at the batsuit I had used in his absence. “It’s stuff that needs to be done by the morning, before the start of business and I need to be there, so I won’t get a chance to patrol the city.”
“No problem. Let me get my Nightwing gear from storage…”
“When I said I, I meant Batman…” Bruce said, looking at me with a smirk. “For keeping up appearances… it would be good that the city see Bruce Wayne and Batman in two separate places…”
“What about Tim?”
“Tim called, and said he’s going to spend the night at the Tower.”
I could feel a smile emerge on my face, stretching from ear to ear. “You’re right… for keeping up appearances…”
Bruce smiled back at me and placed his hand on my shoulder, before turning around and walking away. “Oh, and by the way Caped Crusader,” Bruce said with a mischievous tone as he walked back up to Wayne Manor. “Check the police scanners before you leave, you might have a loose end or two to finish up.
The smile stayed on my face while I grabbed the cape and cowl from the case.
Detective Comics
Issue Forty-Four: The Exit Interview
Part One (of Two): "The Final Act of the Caped Crusader"
Written by Alex Vasquez
Cover by Mark Saxton
Edited by House Of Mystery
Tonight’s feels like it’s gonna be a good night, ran through my mind while running along the rooftops of Gotham, dressed as the Caped Crusader for the last time. Sirens sounded in all directions above the hustle and bustle of the city below. In-cloud lightning dotted the night sky and the air was so humid, it could be cut with a knife. But the oncoming storm could not keep the smile off of my face, while leaping from rooftop to rooftop, as searching for prey. Yeah, I think. It’s gonna be a good night.
As Bruce suggested, I checked the police scanners while traveling into Gotham on one of the batbikes . It didn’t take me long to hear a very familiar modus operandi being described over the radio. Multiple robberies were reported throughout the north island of Gotham. All of the victims were alleged to be involved in the drug trade or some kind of organized crime. They were all robbed at gunpoint, by a man described as African American, with a shotgun and wearing a trench coat. It looks like we finally found Orpheus.
After our encounter with the Black Mask and the Flesh Monger, I tracked him down and challenged him to be something more than another petty crook. I told him he had potential to contribute to his community, and not add to the circle of violence that kept it downtrodden. Once I told him I would take care of his financial situation and outfit him with updated armor and non-lethal weapons, he took me up and did a good job. He kept certain illegal activity contained to certain areas, so it could be easily controlled and regulated. I wasn’t fond of the idea, but it seemed to work and you’re not just going to be able to get rid of something like drugs overnight. He recruited and trained a gang and outfitted them with the weapons I gave him. They called themselves the Hill Street Gang and things ran in the Hill like clockwork.
That was before the emergence of Gotham’s new underworld and their decision to attack the Hill. During the battle, a group of Jokerz showed up with some high tech weaponry and began to blow everyone to hell. Gavin King was critically injured before I could get there and brought him to the cave to be treated by Alfred. He was unconscious for most of the calamity that ensued. Once things settled and he was taken to Gotham Memorial to get better treatment. There he regained consciousness, snuck out and had had been off the grid ever since.
Something struck me as odd with all of these robberies. They were very uncharacteristic. Orpheus was very meticulous when it came to his work. He staked out his mark, sometimes for months, worked with a crew of no more than four and only went after the heavy hitters in the dope game, took their money and drugs, which he sold back on the street for a fraction of its value, then lay low for a long while before striking again. These recent robberies were of low to mid-level dealers, and were rushed jobs, only taking whatever money they had and leaving the product. I have to think that Orpheus is on the run, which means time is a critical factor.
I checked Orpheus’s safe house on the Hill, and found nothing useful to indicate what he was up to or where he was. I didn’t spend much time on the Hill, knowing that I won’t get anything out of the residents that remained, so I went to check out his family’s house in Otisburg, where they were brutally murdered by the Black Mask. The house had been cleaned up after the attack, but everything had a layer of dust and looked as if no one had lived here or a while, but I managed to find a clue there about Orpheus’s whereabouts. A printed page from a website, a wasted page, the last of the group which only had a header and footer printed out. The header said out of town bus schedule and the footer contained the page number and a partial website URL for Gotham Transit. The time stamp on the paper wasn’t from long ago, so I might still be able to catch him.
I rushed to the nearest bus station and perched myself on top of the terminal building. Pressing a button on the side of the cowl, I activated its binocular lenses and began to scan the dispersed crowd waiting for their buses to depart. It’s not the busiest time of the day, so it was easy to spot my mark standing at the terminal at the far end of the building. I crept closer and shot a grapple to the roof of the nearest building. There were less than ten people waiting at this terminal and once boarding was announced and they all went to the bus, I swooped down and snatched Gavin, bringing him back to the rooftop, before falling into an adjacent ally.
“What the @#$% are you doing?” Gavin yelled as he dropped his bag and grabbed his stomach. It seems as if he’s not fully recovered from his injury. He looks a little gaunt and pale. Maybe the sloppiness of the stick ups was the result of that and not haphazardness.
“I could ask you the same thing,” I growled in reply. “We had a deal, and it still applies.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Gavin said defiantly.
“So it’s just a coincidence that you’re skipping town after a series of stick ups?”
“I don’t know anything about any stick ups, but if that’s the case, yeah, purely coincidental.” Gavin clenched his fists. “And I’m sure who ever was robbed had it coming and besides, it’s not like you stuck to your end of ours.”
I reached into my utility belt and pulled out a bank card and gave it to him. “The pin’s on the back. It’s linked to an encrypted bank account, with the agreed upon amount…”
“Thanks,” Gavin said, taking the card. “But that’s not entirely what I’m pissed about. We got massacred out there. We were promised backup. Where were you or your people? Or are colored people getting massacred not a high enough priority for you people.”
“That’s not fair,” I snapped back. “We were spread thin at the time. Those gangs were attacking several spots simultaneously. I tried to get there as quickly as possible…” I looked to the ground for a moment, then back at Gavin. “I’m sorry.”
Gavin stared at the ground for a moment, sighed and looked away. “I can’t let you take all of the blame. You did risk yourself to save my sorry @#$... It’s mostly my fault. I was out of my element, I’m not used to being out of control and things got out of control real fast, I didn’t know what to do…”
“We were all caught off guard by what happened, all we can do is become better for it, for those who we’ve lost.”
“What, you getting into the life coach game now?” Gavin chuckled. I remained stoic. “Whatever. I’m getting out of here. There’s nothing left for me here… I got family in Dakota, gonna stay with them while I get things sorted out.”
“Taking your act on the road?”
“Naw,” Gavin chuckled again. “I’m retiring. The game took everything from me, and most people in my line of work don’t exactly live to a ripe old age. You just gotta know when you’re time is up, and mine is. With my nest egg I’ve compiled and this,” Gavin held up the card I gave him and placed it in his pocket. “I should be set for a long time.”
“Well, if you are heading for a normal life, all I have to say is good luck,” I extended my hand.
“Thanks,” Gavin said, shaking my hand. He grabbed his bag off the ground and began to walk back to the terminal as the announcer called for the final boarding.
“Gavin,” I called out. He turned. “When you say you’re retired, I’m going to hold you to that. I better not find Orpheus or any familiar M.O.’s in my city.”
“Fair enough, but I have a question,” Gavin asked. “Just out of plain curiosity and nothing else, so don’t take this the wrong way. What if I decide to tell you to go @#$% yourself and go back into the game. I’ve evaded you, the GCPD and all the other clowns that have tried to come at me for years… What makes you think you could stop me if you wanted to?”
“Have Orpheus show his face around Gotham and you’ll find out… real fast,” I growled to add some bravado as I shot a grapple into the night and swung off. Out of the corner of my eye, I would see Gavin King shake his head and smile as he walked towards the terminal.
*
Since my meeting with Orpheus, the night’s activity is unusually slow. No heavy hitters out, just the typical lowlifes have made it an easy night on the job so far. With all of the high octane insanity that’s transpired in the last few days, maybe Gotham deserves a night off of its usual craziness. And since things are down to a crawl, I might as well take some time out to make a special and overdue visit. After a few leaps and a swing on a grapnel line, I land on top of the roof of the St. Jude’s orphanage.
After a few more steps, I dropped into the courtyard, and walked along the circular gravel walkway to the center of the garden, where a statue of Jesus, draped in flowers and rosaries stood with his arms reaching out. Candles surrounded the statue and at the center of the base was a picture of Sister Clarice.
This was her place, where she liked to pray. This is where I met her for the first time, where she comforted me after my parents had died. I think I might have turned out a lot different if I hadn’t had Sister Clarice’s words that night. I could and probably will visit her grave, but coming here, I think it’s more fitting and meaningful.
I haven’t been here since she was murdered. I couldn’t face it, I felt guilty I couldn’t save her. I felt ashamed at being angry with her for protecting her killer from me. Regardless, I should’ve been able to do something and my failure to act is why she’s not here. I told myself after she died, that I would be better, that I would be more than a hero. With everything that’s happened and all of the transition that’s ahead of me, I can’t help but wonder if I had succeeded?
“Hello? Who’s there?” I heard a woman’s voice coming from the doorway into the orphanage. I turned to see another face I recognized from my past. Sister Mary Elizabeth, she was the nun that escorted me to my room when I first arrived here all those years ago, soon after my parents died.
“I don’t mean to cause any trouble Sister,” I said. “I just came to pay my respects. I was just leaving anyway.”
“No apologies necessary, you haven’t caused any,” Sister Mary Elizabeth said, walking in my direction, to my surprise, without any trepidation. She sat down on the bench in front of the statue. “I’m sorry to have disturbed you; I just come out here at times, just like Clarice did. It’s comforting, especially since the way things have gotten worse since she’s been gone.”
“Worse?” I asked as I walked to the bench and sat down next to her. “What’s been going on?”
“Well, at first it was much of the same,” Mary Elizabeth began, folding her hands on her lap. “Another gang came in and started fighting with the LoBoyz gang.”
“What did this new gang look like?”
“Dressed in black, wore sun glasses all the time, very advanced looking guns.” I immediately thought about Boss Synth’s gang. Mary Elizabeth continued. “The fighting got bad between them, until members of the LoBoyz suddenly disappeared.”
“Disappeared?”
“Gone… the typical locales and street corners were abandoned. None of the children reported being harassed by any of them, like if they just decided to leave or vanished.”
“When did this happen?”
“A couple of weeks ago,” Mary Elizabeth said looking at the ground. I could tell she was starting to choke up. “Shortly before bodies had started to turn up, dumped in the alleys around the neighborhood. They looked as if the life was just sucked from their bodies, leaving a dried out corpse. Soon after, we noticed some of our children had gone missing and soon were found in the same condition.”
“Is it still continuing to go on?”
“We found one of our children this morning.” Mary Elizabeth wiped tears from her eyes. “We’ve brought this to the police, but they have been spread thin trying to control all of the recent violence that has spread throughout the city, so the children just keep disappearing and dying. I’m thankful that the orphanage is going to be shut down in a few weeks… maybe it will save the lives of the remaining children.” She paused and looked at the picture of Sister Clarice. “I’m just glad she’s not here to see all of this.”
“I’m going to look into this Sister,” I said, standing up and grabbing my grapple gun from my belt, shooting it up into the night. “And I’m going to put a stop to it.”
*
I really don’t have a clue what I'm up against. I know it's related to Boss Synth, who has recently gone missing and in this town, if someone of his ilk is gone more than a couple of days, chances are he's not breathing. What’s really urgent is that if Synth did bring in something that could wipe out an entire gang overnight, and if he was dead, whatever it is, it's out there unchecked.
Sister Mary Elizabeth said they reported these incidents to the police, so it should be easy enough to hack into the GCPD database. I reach into one of the pockets of my utility belt and pull out a three by six touch screen device. I've been dying to test out this prototype WayneTech tablet Lucius gave me, running on the secret WayneTech 5g network. I pull up the map application the tablet and mark the areas where bodies were found in Old Gotham. Some of these Alleys the bodies were dumped in were well known hot-spots for the homeless, so I start with those first.
The homeless, the ones who didn't stonewall me, managed to fill in some details and gave some new locations where dumped bodies were found. They seemed just as spooked and disturbed by this as Sister Mary Elizabeth. They reported that the bodies were dumped by a white van, with the bodies in garbage bags and usually cut up into pieces. Some mentioned that these white vans were targets of LoBoyz attacks, right before the gang disappeared. I marked these places on the tablet's map, noticing that they all circle the area around the Clocktower.
With the Clocktower in sight, I heard a yell in the distance. I ran towards it, hoping to find a white van, but found a young man in an alley hassling a young blonde girl, wearing a ripped up leather jacket and ripped up jeans. "Get the $&@€ away from me," she yelled at him, trying to hit him with her right, but she was easily keep at arm’s length by her attacker.
“Baby, I know you got something for me under there," the gang banger said. "And it's about time you give it up." She struggled a bit, before he spun her around and slammed her into the brick wall of a building.
I leapt off of the rooftop across from them, extending my arms and snapping my wings out, landing a thunderous kick to the thug’s chest, sending him flying to the same wall he flung the girl. I landed down and was about to tie up the attack all nice for the police, when I noticed am interlocking L and O on his neck.
"Must be my lucky day," I said aloud as I slammed him into the wall once again. "You LoBoyz are in scarce supply these days." He spun around and lunged at me, throwing a wild punch that I easily parried into an arm bar and slammed him to the ground, where I held him. "Make this easy and tell me what's up with the bodies, the white vans and what happened to your homeboys."
He started to struggle frantically, using his free hand to claw at the sidewalk. His fingers were bloody within seconds. "Don't make me remember," he said. "I can't remember..." I grabbed his free hand and bound it to his other with a plastic restraint. He started to try and grind his face into the ground, which forced me to administrate a tranquilizer to calm him.
"Now tell me, what happened to your gang."
"We followed the white vans; we knew they were apart some something big..."
"Where did you follow them too?"
"Oh God no...”
“WHERE?!”
“Please... That thing... It killed them all... NO!" he began to trash uncontrollably. "No, please... I'm sorry Mommy!" He began to trash around uncontrollably, forcing me to sedate him again. He wasn't going to be any good to me anyway, but now my best lead just went kaput as he passed out.
"I know the place he was talking about," I heard a female voice say behind me. I turned and saw his victim coming out of hiding behind a dumpster. "Those guys are always recruiting street people to work for them. I've had a couple of friends go there and not come back."
"When was the last time they went out recruiting?" I asked as she walked towards me.
"Today, right before this #%^£ tried to pimp me out," she ran up to the fallen gang banger and kicked him in the stomach. "Mother $@#%£."
"Alright, that's enough," I grabbed her and pulled her away from him. It dawns on me that she can't me that much older than Tim. "Look..."
"Steph," she interrupted.
"What?"
"My name is Steph."
"Okay, Steph, I need you to tell me where this place is..."
"No, I'll show you," She said defiantly. "I've got friends that disappeared in that place. I need to see if they're okay. We are all we've got out here. I hear what happens to the people that go there, I've seen it."
"And that's why you can't tag along. It's too dangerous,"
"I’ve lived on the streets of Gotham for a while now. I can take care of my self." Steph said crossing her arms. "Either I go with you or you can roll the dice and see if you get lucky searching every building in the neighborhood."
"Fine," I reluctantly say, knowing time is essential. "But at the first sign of trouble, you take off."
"Scout's honor," Steph replied holding up two fingers.
*
"Wow," Steph said with a smile and a small laugh. "I could get used to this."She held on to me tight as we rappelled down a building across from a nondescript warehouse a few blocks from the Clocktower, where Steph said was the place her friends were taken.
"Don't" I replied as touched down on the pavement and made our way to the warehouse. It was surrounded by a chain-link fence and a white van was parked in front of the loading dock. A quick scan of the exterior of the building didn’t show any surveillance cameras. We moved closer to the chain-link fence to get a better look. I could see an air vent near the roof, which should provide me easy access to what’s inside. “So, you’re sure this is the place?”
“Yeah… positive,” Steph replied. “So what’s the plan?”
“Well, I’m going to check out the van first, then enter through the vent and put an end to whatever’s inside.”
“So what am I gonna… hey what the hell?!” Steph screamed as she realized I had handcuffed her to the fence.
“You’re gonna sit tight here. It’s too dangerous for you,” I said as I jumped over the fence. “Those are standard issue handcuffs. When the police get here, they’ll let you go.”
“This is #$%^&,” Steph screamed as I crept away, towards the van and around to its rear double doors. It was locked up, but a batarang should be able to break the lock and open it. Once I do, I’m almost knocked down by the pungent smell. I count 5 bodies intact, three of them children and two, with what clothing and accessories they had on, probably working girls. They all looked as if they had been decaying for years.
I shot my grapple up to the vent and climbed up the warehouse, and had to remove the grate to gain access. It’s not the sturdiest, but so far seems to be holding my weight well. After a couple of twists and turns, my progress is blocked by another grate with another one directly below me. I look through it and could see a very high tech lab below. On the far side, were a bunch of workers, male and female, working on machines that seem to be processing some kind of compound, and placing them into syringes. The syringes were moved to another part of the room and divided in half, while more workers paint some syringes red and the others blue.
A couple of heavily armed security guards surrounded the machinery and an elderly woman, wearing glasses and a long brown dress with with an apron and bonnet, was joyfully skipping around the workers and machinery, singing in a jovial tone “Red pill, blue pill,” over and over. Below me, I could hear two men talking through the vent.
“Man, does she ever shut the ^&*% up?” one of them said. I moved back a bit to see them through the grate below me. They were security and had large rifle-looking guns that I’ve never seen before.
“Get used to it,” the other guard said as he sat down. “It doesn’t stop… EVER!”
“Maybe if we talk to her…”
“No, Boss Synth was very adamant that we do not engage in any sort of socializing with her,” the guard said as he sat down and put his feet up on a nearby desk. “The last guy to start talking to her blew his brains out and the guy before him jumped off the roof. Then there was the guy that first found her, he decided to take a band saw and cut off his…”
“I get the idea… but when are we going to hear from Boss Synth? It’s been a few days…”
“It’s not uncommon for the boss to not touch base for a couple of days,” The sitting guard said. “We just gotta sit tight and wait for the word and…”
“What are you doing?!” The elderly woman screamed at one of the painters. I moved up a little and saw her slapping his brush out of his hand and picking him up by throat. “THESE syringes must be painted blue. It is very important…Or perhaps if I looked like this…” My jaw dropped as a white glow surrounded the elderly lady and she morphed into a balding, middle-aged man, wearing a brown suit and a moustache. “And perhaps if I touched you in that ‘special’ way,” her voice changed as well, sounded rough, as if she smoked 3 packs a day.” “Then maybe you would learn to LISTEN!”
“#$%& YOU, YOU FREAK!” The worker said he kneed the creature in the groin.
“I’m sorry,” The white glow surrounded the man once again and his voice changed. It sounded feminine again, but harmonized with two opposing octaves, causing a distressing dissonance. Her shape changed again, this time a woman donning a grey body suit that resembles latex, and a mask, covering her entire face and two yellow bubbles where her eyes would be. “While I looked like I had man-parts, it was only an illusion.”
Sparks flew from her hands and it seemed as if an electric current started from the neck of the worker and flowed into her hand. I kicked the grate off, grabbed a batarang and flung it towards the shape shifter. It lodged itself in the back of its hand, causing her to scream and drop her victim.
“What the #A$%^?” I heard a guard below yell and saw the guards across from me begin to raise their weapons. I turned around to exit the building, but was cut off by a hail of gunfire aiming upward at the duct. It didn’t take long for it to rip off the ceiling and crash onto the floor, taking me down with it. Heavily disoriented, and probably concussed, I grabbed two handfuls of smoke bombs and threw them outward, filling the room with smoke before I crawled out of the wreckage.
I stood up, and stumbled forward, and bumped into a coughing guard, before I disarmed him and knocked him out with the but of his own weapon. Another guard rushed towards me from behind. I turned and stuck the handle of the weapon out, catching him in the gut and took a swing at his head, putting him down.
Dropping the gun, I started to make my way back towards the way I came in, or at least I thought it was. My head is swimming, the room is filled with smoke and I have no sense of direction at the moment. I take two steps before getting a case of the spins, falling to a knee. I hear a yell in harmonic dissonance coming towards me, getting louder and before I can react, that creature jumped on top of me, slamming my head into the ground and grabbing the skin exposed by the cowl.
“My, my,” her harmonic voice said into my ear. “I bet you’re a tasty treat!” I suddenly feel a sensation that I can describe as my insides being pulled out of my body through my pores. Electricity surrounded her hands and I could see an electric current going from my body to hers. Her grip is like steel, I can’t break it, so I wrapped by hands around her head and pulled her in close, slamming her face into the crown of my head. That and a quick punch to the solar plexus caused her to release her grip.
The smoke began to dissipate, allowing the rest of the guards to see my position. It also allowed me to see a window on the wall near me. I grabbed two exploding batarangs, threw one at the window and one at the machinery, causing the guards on that side of the room to halt their pursuit. I struggled to my feet and sprinted to the blown out window, and jumped through the rubble and broken glass. I managed to make it to the fire escape on the adjacent building, and by make it, I landed on railing, knocking the wind out of me and probably my dinner.
I dropped off the ledge, down a level, managing to avoid the oncoming gunfire from the lab. The rapid fire was causing the rusted fire escape to lose stability. Grabbing the grapple gun, I shot it to the roof and swung off before the fire escape fell down into the ally below.
I must have blacked out momentarily during the swing, because I came too just as I was about to fall on the roof of a car. The roof collapsed, the windows blew out and the nearby alarms began to sound. I rolled off and stumbled into a nearby alley before collapsing. The pain was unbearable, breathing was difficult, and I was coughing up blood.
“Don’t worry Richard Grayson, you’ll be going to a better place,” I heard a soothing voice say. A brilliant white light enveloped everything around me, and it was the last thing I saw before everything faded to black.