here's the first part of a short story I'm writing entitled....
JUSTICE
It was winter in Gotham, the coldest in the city’s history. Most people would be home now, wrapped in blankets beside fires. Most people’s biggest concern at the moment would be how long to warm their hot drinks. He is not most people, and He had business to take care of.
“Where’s Marroni?”
“You’re crazy man!”
The dark figure picked him up by his throat and slammed him into the brick wall. His name was Alex Johnson a drug dealer working for Marroni but as far as He was concerned just another piece of trash littering the streets of Gotham.
“Where is he?”
He could see it in his eyes, fear; it’s why He put on the mantle of the bat, to strike terror in the hearts of those who would do evil.
“Alright, he’s gonna be at the Gotham Plaza Casino tonight at twelve, now get the hell away from me! ”
After the Batman was done with the lackey he struck him once with enough force to incapacitate him for hours. He was on the trail of Marroni Roman head of the mafia crime family known as “The Roman Empire.” He was close, so close he could almost feel Marroni’s throat in his iron clad grip. He would do anything now to find him, make him beg for his life, and then kill him. He had made a promise to his parents to rid this city of the evil that took their lives. He would do it with justice, he would work with the law not against it, but lately that kind of justice wasn’t good enough, so he had to deliver his own kind of justice.
Alfred, the last person Bruce Wayne could call family was shot six times when he got caught in the crossfire between Marroni’s men and a rival family as he was passing by the Gotham Plaza Casino. As usual they were able to bribe their way out within an hour. It was fitting that the place where Alfred was killed would be the place where his murderer would be killed. The Batman went back to the cave to prepare.
As he entered, the Batman looked into the fissure in the center of the cave that no human eye could see the bottom of. He looked into the abyss and it looked back, His soul felt as empty and dark as the chasm.
The dark, cold, atmosphere had always given him comfort. When he first stumbled across it he would lose himself in its many hidden chambers and spend hours alone. But since Alfred’s death it gave him little solace.
The Batman refilled his utility belt and replaced his Kevlar lined suit. The casino was in a densely populated part of downtown so, if he wanted to maintain his stealth, he could only take the Batmobile part way there, after that he would have to use the rooftops.
Eleven o’clock, almost time. He leaped into the Batmobile, started the engines, and roared out of the cave.
A few blocks from the casino he stopped. Using a fire escape he climbed to the top of a nearby building. From his utility belt he removed his grappler and fired it at a higher building, hooking one of the many stone gargoyles that stood watch over the city. He then leaped off the side of the building and flew through the air, his now fully unfurled cape giving him the silhouette of a gigantic bat gliding around Gotham city.
As he circled around, the other buildings beneath him became a blur and he focused on the one he would be landing on. This building was close to the one he was hooked on and slightly lower. As he approached, he detached his grappling hook and retracted it. He let his momentum carry him and just before landing he grabbed the light weight steel bars that lined the top of the inside of his cape which attached to steel “fingers” that ran down to the bottom of the cape, much like the actual skeletal structure of a bat. This caused the cape to act as a parachute allowing him to glide down for a silent landing.
He repeated this twice more before reaching the casino’s rooftop.
As he expected, a few of Marroni’s men were out in front of the casino. He spotted an isolated guard who had just stepped around a corner and into an alley. Once again using his cape he dropped in front of the man.
“IT’S THE…”
One of Marroni’s men was down before he could warn anyone, then thrown into a dumpster unconscious. His trench coat would conceal the Batman.
The casino floor was a massive hall with hundreds of people gambling on roulette wheels, playing black jack, craps, poker, and dropping coins into slot machines. Waitresses walked around serving free drinks to the gamblers who had lost enough money to pay for dozens, and in some cases, hundreds of drinks.
A row of massive crystal chandeliers lit the casino. The noise of falling coins, laughter, and casual conversation filled the air. Everyone was so preoccupied that the people who did, never even noticed that they had just walked by a person who they all had heard of but none of them thought was real.
Most of Marroni’s men in the casino were either gambling or drinking, they obviously thought that there was nothing to be worried about tonight. They were wrong. The Batman eventually spotted him through the crowd, Marroni, the man who caused Alfred to be killed. He made his way past all of Marroni’s bodyguards. He was just about to get his hands on him when suddenly a blinding light filled his vision and a powerful force knocked him onto his back. Smoke filled the air. The Batman realized it was an explosion, but from where he wondered, then he saw the cause.
“HAHAHA!”
It was the JOKER.
“Joker!” yelled the Batman.
“Bats, I was just about to murder some innocent Gothamites to get your attention, HAHAHA, but it looks like you’re already here.”
“Sorry to disappoint you,”
“Don’t be I can still have some fun,” said the joker with a grotesque grin on his face.
The deafening rattle of machine gunfire, and two people were riddled with bullets. More gunfire, another two lying in a pool of blood, another four to be added to the list of hundreds of lives he has taken, the last he would ever be able take.
The Batman jumped into the air, his fists making contact on the madman’s face sending him reeling back dropping his weapon. Two of Joker’s men attacked from behind. The Batman turned around and rolled to the right, then swung his left leg and connected with one of them in the stomach, and then came around with his right fist and hit him in the face knocking him out. The other one to his right tried to hit him with a chair but he blocked with his right arm sending splintered wood in all directions. The Batman elbowed the man with his left arm then struck him in the chin, finally the Batman knocked down the man with a punch in the face that sent blood spraying from his nose. He then rose up to take on the Joker, but the Joker had disappeared.
“Did you miss me bats HAHAHA?”
As the Batman turned around, the Joker slammed a roulette wheel into the side of his face. Everything became blurry, but the Batman was not willing to be defeated, he had to kill Marroni and he knew the only way to do it was to get the Joker out of the way. He gathered all his will power, pulled back his fist and punched the Joker with everything he had. The Joker flew back ten feet and slammed through a craps table and hit the floor sending chips and dice through the air. The Batman leaped on top of him striking his face over and over until blood and teeth went flying.
“All right Bats you win, I give up, take me in,” said the Joker barely managing to speak through his now bloody and nearly toothless mouth.
“Who said anything about taking you in, Joker?”
“I’m so scared,” he said sarcastically.
The faces of all the innocent people the Joker had killed flashed before the eyes of the Batman; he remembered feeling the same helplessness every time he lost the fight for someone’s life as he felt that night. The night when the world stopped making sense, the night when all he had cared about was taken from him. He remembered the look in his parents’ eyes just before they were shot. He remembered his parents, and the promise he made, and the rest was easy.
The Batman squeezed the Joker’s throat, the Joker tried to fight back, he kicked, punched, and clawed at the Batman, but it was of no use.
Suddenly, a dozen police officers burst through the doors into the casino expecting to have a firefight. Instead, what they found was an empty casino with a bloodied Joker laughing hysterically on the floor.