Darkest Knight

Chapter 03: Hunted

Batman and Robin came at the target apartment from different sides. Batman dived in through the window to take the bomber by surprise. The criminal tried to run, but Robin shouldered the door open and blocked the other exit.

"Neil Brusker," Batman said. "You built the bomb responsible for blowing up a warehouse last night."

"I didn't do anything," Neil denied.

Batman punched the bomber in the face before following with a knee to his stomach, doubling him over. Another punch to the face straightened the criminal back up and a final blow to the center of his chest drove Neil hard into the wall. Batman's glove wrapped around Neil's throat.

"There's two ways this is going to go," Batman snarled. "You're either going to tell us what we want to know, or you're going to beg to tell us."

***

Police Commissioner Gordon slammed his open hand down on the desk in frustration.

"I won't accept it!" Gordon shouted. "The Batman doesn't kill. If the evidence said he did, then it's a frame up, and I want you to find out who's behind it. Get moving!"

As the cops hastily exited the office, Gordon came out from behind his desk, put on his trench coat, and used the back stairs to access the roof. He lifted his collar around his neck to better ward off the cold.

"I didn't think I'd have to turn on the spotlight before you showed up," Gordon said, and the darkness to his left reshaped as Batman stepped out of it and into the light. "Most of the department thinks you went off the deep end. If I can't prove your innocence, this could get messy. Is it possible that League of Assassins is behind this?"

"No, Jim," Batman denied. "I did kill him."

"What?" Gordon asked, unable to believe what he'd just heard.

"His bomb killed Talia and the others in the warehouse," Batman explained.

"Since when are you an executioner?" Gordon demanded.

"I was wrong," Batman admitted.

"I'll say you were," Gordon snapped. "When the press gets a hold on this, both of us are going to end up in the public's crosshairs."

"No, Jim," Batman corrected. "I was wrong in my former methods. I was trying to fight this war like a cop, and it wasn't working. Murderers and psychopaths kill citizens of Gotham, we catch them and lock them away only for them to get out and do it again. If you have a war where only one side inflicts casualties, you can easily predict the end result. Like it or not, we're in a war for the future of Gotham, and it's time we started fighting it that way, killing the enemy and breaking their ability to continue victimizing people."

"You'll never get away with it," Gordon pointed out. "Public opinion has only barely tolerated your activities up until now. After this, the police department may be sent after you; I'll be sent after you."

"I'm going to fight this war the way I should've been fighting it all along," Batman told Gordon. "If your people are in opposition to cleaning up Gotham, they're part of the reason why this city has fallen so far and will be treated accordingly. I can save Gotham, just tell your people to stay out of my way."

Batman lunged off the side of the roof and spread his gliding cape, vanishing into the night.

Gordon went back downstairs, but his movements were mechanical as his brain was still trying to rationalize what had just happened.

The main floor of the Gotham City Police Department was jammed with desks, separated by thin walls of wood and glass but sometimes only by stacks of papers and police files. Muted conversations filled the air, either of officers conversing with each other about their cases or on the phones while working another angle of investigation. Suspended on long chains, overhead lamps hung from the ceiling to make certain the cops could see as they wrote and filed the mountains of paperwork coinciding with their jobs.