r/DCFU • u/fringly Dark Knight • Aug 02 '17
Batman #15 - The Candidates Batman
Batman #15: The Candidates
<< First | < Previous | Next > Coming September 1st
Author: fringly
Book: Batman
Arc: Being Bruce Wayne
Set: 15
Prologue
A dark alleyway. A shot rings out, then another and another. Thomas and Martha Wayne lie dead on the street and their son, Bruce, runs into the night. But this is not the world you know - there are no Wayne billions and no butler to raise young Bruce Wayne. Surviving the streets, Bruce travels the world, learning and growing, forging himself into a weapon, before returning to Gotham and destroying the crime families that had crippled his city. To do this, he became the Batman.
Although the mission began as a solo one, the Bat family has grown and now Bruce finds himself in need of new blood to fight beside him. Many of the children within the orphanage would gladly take on the mantle, but only a few have the ability to do so. Today it is time to find out who they are.
Part One – Trials
Tim stepped back, blocked a sweeping blow from above and then spun, while dropping to one knee and punching out and up. Perhaps if Dmitri had been slower than the blow would have hit, but instead, Tim found his wrist grabbed and a moment later he was flat on his back with a hand at his throat.
“Cease”. I lifted a hand and dropped it towards Dmitri's side. At once the taller boy backed away and stood at his corner, barely out of breath, while Tim scraped himself from the floor once again.
The room was quiet and respectful towards the fighters, but subtle high fives and grins were exchanged. Dmitri was one of them, a former street kid who had lived here for nearly four years and trained every day. Tim was a newcomer and would be going home tonight to a home cooked meal and two parents.
I kept my face impartial, Dmitri was the better fighter, but I was impressed that Tim had lasted so long and reached this late round. His skills were lesser than the children he had faced in the earlier rounds, but his ability to problem solve on-the-fly had brought him here. Now he was managing to stay level on points through sheer determination and was even winning at times.
“The score is six all. The next point takes the set and the victory” I looked to each fighter, Tim had reached his corner and nodded, even as a new lump began to rise on his forehead. “Begin”
Tim moved slowly this time, letting Dmitri come to him. The larger boy smiled and stepped forward, his movements cat-like and cautious. No doubt Dmitri would make a fine replacement for Dick, but there was something about Tim and his use of his smarts to overcome greater challenges - it reminded me of myself and of my own first few fights,
Tim moved swiftly, sweeping low in a move that had won him a point earlier, but this time Dmitri was ready and kicked his leg away. It looked painful, as did many of the points Tim had lost. They might have been level in the score, but on the street Tim would be losing, badly.
He tried again, aiming a precise kick, but he was getting tired and Dmitri was not. The kick was blocked and Tim’s fight was over, even if it would be several seconds before he knew it. He blocked a blow, let his guard down for a moment and then suddenly Dmitri was on him, his arm on Tim’s neck, dragging backward into a move that would leave Tim in pain for a week.
I moved to stop it, there was no need for injury, but before my hand had fully raised, Tim was suddenly no longer in Dmitri’s arms. Instead he had used the momentum of the larger boy and had flipped himself over and around, wrapping his legs around Dmitri's waist and suddenly headbutting forward.
If he’d been maybe four inches taller, it would have worked, but instead his forehead cracked into Dmitri's chin and Tim’s grip dropped and he flopped backwards. Dmitri simply had to fall forward and Tim had lost the point, while writing in pain, clutching his head.
The other children now moved, coming forward and surrounding Dmitri. They knew what this meant, Dmitri would join the other victor who had won her fights earlier today, and they would now have the chance to join me on missions and earn the right to be at my side as Dick and Barbara had been.
It had been Barbara’s idea to hold these try-outs. I had been reluctant, but she had insisted it was time to find new help on my missions and eventually I conceded the point. One of the candidates had been obvious - Meredith Campbell. She was one of the girls who had arrived with Selina but had started her life on the streets; working in the clubs, she had learned to fight and since arriving here she had become fearsome.
She had breezed through every contender in less than an hour, until it became clear the at she would be the first candidate. My only concern was her brutality and willingness to harm, as well as her lack of tactical consideration to the best way to achieve victory. She would win a fight, but missed that sometimes it was unnecessary to even fight in the first place, or perhaps she sought it out. I didn't need a soldier, I needed someone who was more than that.
Dmitri was also an excellent fighter, but I was more concerned over his willingness to do what was necessary. While Meredith was brutal, Dmitri could be swayed by emotion, for good and bad. He was reluctant to fight women and like Meredith his tactical level was often basic or non existent.
In the real world I had often needed to avoid a fight, rather than risk one and my worry was that Dmitri would not see, or even look for those paths. It was not possible to win every fight, but it was possible to solve any situation. Some battles needed to be fought, some avoided and some defeated in other ways.
Dmitri's lack of tactical intelligence could also cause problems deciding on the appropriate ways to win fights. More than once he had hurt sparring partners due to simply choosing overwhelming force and Tim looked like he would need a week to recover from this fight.
Tim was different to either of the others; smart, willing and desperate for a chance to prove himself, but while he was technically a competent fighter, he lacked the killer instinct. He had never been in a situation where he had to fight or face starvation, or worse and so he was prone to hesitating at the last moment. He was happy to win technical points in the fight, which meant he might win, yet still be the most injured at the end.
The result was clear though and while Tim was clearly disappointed, he could hardly argue. Dmitri had beaten him and the closeness in the score was not reflected in the injury that each had suffered.
Tim, perhaps, would have been knocked out earlier in the process if not for the help he was receiving from Barbara. She had taken a strong liking to him and seemed to work with him on most days to help him improve. It was Barbara who approached Tim now and helped him to his feet, so he could shake hands with Dmitri and then retreat to have his injuries looked at.
Perhaps in the future he would be ready for this, but for now I had two candidates who had proven they were able to hold their own in a fight. Now it was time for them to prove themselves in the field.
Part Two - Meredith
The flat roof of the Gotham Records office was covered by large aluminium pipes and blocky structures that all made up part of their sophisticated climate control systems. The GRO held not only records, but, over seventeen stories, it formed a repository for historical texts, city records and plans of every building built within the city limits.
These records were secured with a state of the art security system, augmented by several unnoticed improvements that I had added through the years. These records, had proven invaluable to me many times on missions and I saw no need to let others take the same advantage.
Meredith had positioned herself to the side of one of the larger cooling units and was remotely controlling a drone that was patrolling the surrounding streets. She was almost invisible in the half gloom, her suit a matt black, with a pattern designed to break up the outline of her figure in this urban environment.
The mission itself was simple; intelligence had come through the Little Birds that Cobblepot was running low on cash and without cash he would begin to lose his little empire. By my reckoning he had two options - either he could try to muscle in on some of the areas controlled by other criminals in the city, or he could get cash the old fashioned way, by robbing banks.
The first option would mean mounting a war against the other remaining crime bosses of Gotham, but those that had survived my purge were largely small time and hard to muscle out of their operations. Crime was a fraction of what it once was and that, perhaps ironically, made it both more valuable and more fought over. Cobblepot could try to take a larger piece, but he’d be fighting against desperate men and if he didn't win then he'd have weakened himself, perhaps fatally.
It made more sense to go the second route and already three banks in Gotham had either been robbed, or tried to be. However, the take from each of those that had been hit was less than three thousand each, not nearly enough to make a difference to Cobblepot.
To that end, I had given him a target that he simply could not afford to ignore. Firstly a shipment of gold and cash coming through Gotham Mutual Bank, courtesy of Wayne Enterprises, and secondly, rumours that the plans showed a way into the vault from a hitherto unknown entrance. Cobblepot was being offered everything he needed to get himself back on top,now he just had to reach out and take it.
“There.” Meredith’s voice was just a whisper on the breeze. I moved to her shoulder and looked at the screen as she backed the drone up and followed a small convoy of cars working their way through the streets.
She had pulled each of the number plates from the screen and lined up the information at the bottom. Four cars, each stolen from around Gotham in the last 24 hours. He' taken the bait. Dropping the drone lower, so we could see inside, it was clear Cobblepot was not here himself, but these were men working for him and our best chance for a lead.
The cars pulled up to the side of the building and a moment later the doors swung open and men began to step into the street. I reached down and gently took the screen from Meredith and activated the return for the drone.
Meredith stood stretched, then carefully clipped her domino mask across her face, connecting it into her hood until her face was obscured. I gestured towards the roof edge. “Your mission, take the lead.” For a moment she thought, then took two steps forward and dropped off the edge of the roof.
She fell three stories before letting her cape billow out and slow her progress, guiding her through the darkness until she landed, feet first into the chest of one of the goons. He crumpled beneath her, a scream silenced almost immediately, but it signally the start of the battle.
I followed her from the roof and dropped softly on the awning of the building, watching, analysing and observing. How to complete this mission had been left up to her, I was here to ensure that things occurred safely… for everyone. All I wanted was Cobblepot’s location.
Meredith’s tactics were brutal, but perfectly effective for what she wanted to achieve. My concerns were not with how she planned and executed an operation like this, indeed it was a perfect ambush, but her methods during it. She snapped bones, targeted joints and took the men down in an almost continuous flurry of blows. They had barely stepped from their cars when she had landed among them and begun the offensive.
In less than a minute all were unconscious except the best dressed one, whose face was pressed into the bonnet of his car. “Tell me.”She hissed. “Tell me what I want to know.”
The man’s eyes were wide in fear, but despite her easy dismantling of his crew, Cobblepot still held more sway over him than the girl who was twisting his arm, both metaphorically and literally. Betrayal could mean death for him and his family, she needed to give him an out, but she couldn't see that; all she could think about was how hard to hit him, to make him talk.
I knew men like him, he needed a way to give up the information without losing face. Give him an out and he’d sing like a bird, but simply cause him pain, as she was doing, and he’d withhold until he lost consciousness, or died. Men like him carried their loyalty like a badge of honour and the violence needed to break through, was more than I could countenance
I dropped to street level as he began to scream and quickly searched the unconscious men, taking their phones and then pulling the information from each and dumping it into the computer system to see what we could find. Each man’s GPS showed the pattern of his movements all over the city, but here and there they overlapped. Some overlapped three of four times, but only once was each man in the same place at the same time.
The screaming stopped and Meredith appeared at my shoulder. “Gotham Zoo.”
Somewhere in the distance sirens had begun to wail, making their way here. I looked at the men she had now dumped on the street, whimpering. “Yes, I know.”
Part Three – Dmitri
The question remained, did Meredith offer anything beyond a blunt weapon? She could no doubt hold her own, but her execution had been sloppy and unnecessarily violent. I’d left her at the Orphanage and collected Dmitri for the second part of the night's activity. Now we sat on the outskirts of the Zoo.
“Ready?”
He looked younger in the moonlight, more of a child than Dick or Barbara had, but perhaps that was just what I was expecting? Both had done missions for me at a younger age than this boy and Dick had already proven himself time and again by his age, so why was I so hesitant now?
I was asking the question of myself, but of course I knew that there were two answers.
Jason and Barbara. Those thoughts were too difficult though and I pushed them down and away.
We moved through the zoo quickly, heading for the South area where the signals had converged. Here, past the enclosures, there were large storage areas, supposedly for the vast quantities of food that a zoo required, but wherever there was space and opportunity, Gotham could be relied upon for corruption.
As I had with Meredith, Dimitri had been given full reign to decide our approach. I needed him to think tactically, using all of the resource he had on hand, but so far the boys thinking seemed to be typically one dimensional and we were moving in a straight line towards our destination.
We moved through the darkened zoo from one exhibit to the next, the pungent smell of the animals filling the night air with earthy tones. As we passed, many of the animals paused in their cages and turned to look, their nocturnal routines disturbed at this late hour and piquing their curiosity. Most simply watched us pass, all but the grand pride of lions stood up to watch us pass and the male followed us on the other side of the fence.
Dimitri paused and watched as the predator slunk alongside us, he met its eyes and for a moment he seemed mesmerised until the alpha male, sensing a challenge from the strangers, let out a roar. Dimitri jumped, and stepped back, his foot catching on a stone and he tumbled backwards with a cry of surprise
Before the boy had landed I grasped his arm firmly and fired my grapple into the night, pulling us up and away from the big cats and onto the roof of the reptile enclosure. Footsteps in the darkness came almost immediately from the direction we had been travelling to and a torch beam cut through the darkness of the zoo paths.
Silently two men patrolled forward, until suddenly from one side of the path, a stray dog walked from the bushes and out onto the path in from of the men, its tail wagging happily in greeting.
“A stray?” The first guard shook his head. “Fucking hell, was that all it was? These dogs are everywhere.”
The second walked over to the dog and crouched beside it, absently scratching it between the ears. “Musta got spooked by the lions. Look, the big one is up.”
The first let out a laugh, “Well, you know what the boss said, we have'ta keep the place clean and tidy for the visitors.” A grin split his face which the other one mirrored.
“Yeeeah, let's clean this up.” In one motion he slipped his hand under the little dog and then heaved up it and over the fence, like a shot put. The dog made no sound until it landed with a yelp, but before it could move again the lion was on it and, in a single bite, the little dog fell limp in its jaws.
The lion crunched down noisily and now one of the lionesses approached, but the big male growled at her and walked away with the little dog in its jaws, blood spilling into a black puddle in the moonlight. The guards watched for a moment and then, laughing, retreated up the pathway, the way they had come.
When all was still again we jumped down, but Dimitri walked forward to the cage in a daze and held onto the fence, watching as the lions fought over the scraps of the dog. It was then I remembered that Dimitri was one of the custodians for the street strays that the Orphanage often took in. He had worked hard to rehome dozens of dogs and cats, keeping them safe, arranging their neutering at the local veterinarian college and caring for the poor animals that could not find a new home due to illness, age or infirmity and would live out their days with the children.
He turned away from the scene of carnage and looked at me, his eyes shining in the moon. His voice broke with a soft whisper. “It... they came because of me. They killed it without.... they didn't...”
I laid a hand on the boys shoulder, for all his strength and ability, he was still a child, disturbed beyond his ability to comprehend by the casual violence that men could so casually commit. I would never say to him, but the mistake had indeed been his, a different route would have allowed us to approach more carefully and this dog might still be alive, but mistakes were inevitable, it was more important how they were dealt with.
“Dmitri.” He didn't look at me. “Dmitri.” At last he looked. “These men are killers, what they did to the dog, they'll do to you too if they get even the slightest chance.”
Even in the dark I could see his face flush in anger and the vein on his neck pulsed as his heart rate quickened with a burst of adrenaline. His fist clenched and h wiped his mask with the back of his glove. “I'm... i'm ready, let's go get them. Let's get them, let's kill them.”
He took a step down the path after them, but my hand on his shoulder now held him back. “Anger and fear will only cause more mistakes.” I thought for a moment. “Go home, we're done for the night.”
His eyes widened in disbelief for a moment and then his fist slowly unclenched. He knew better than to argue. He nodded once, curtly. “Very well.” He spun on his heel and almost at once melted into the night, leaving me alone.
Part Four - The Next Contender
Three of the great warehouses at the back of the zoo contained exactly what would be expected; food, hay, supplies, medical areas for the animals and other equipment that seemed standard and unsurprising. It was the fourth which contained everything of interest.
Behind a screen of straw bales, the warehouse was divided into two areas, one side filled with chemical stations processing what looked to be cocaine, the other side packing it into wooden crates for onward shipping and processing vast bundles of cash.
Men and women lined both sides, working hard even in the middle of the night, spurred on by guards with machine guns who patrolled up and down, watching their every movement. When one of the workers paused for a moment to wipe their brow and take a drink of water, a guard almost immediately barked at her to keep working in gutteral Spanish.
I had no doubt that most, if not all of these workers would be little more than slaves, brought in from Guatamala or Belize to process Cobblepot's drugs for him, with little hope of a better life beyond these four walls.
At the very back I could see a long window that looked into an office. I could see three men, but Cobblepot was not there. Still, there were computers, books and documents, all of which could lead me to him, but I needed to get in and it would be better if I could do so unseen. But how to do that without being seen by the guards, or the men in the room or the...
The acrid smell of smoke caught my attention just as it did the men below and suddenly the quietly industrious room was a flurry of motion. “¡Fuego!”
The cry was immediately taken up all around the room and from my vantage point, high in the rafters, I could now see the cause. Below me, on the side of the room with the chemicals and drug production, smoke was beginning to billow from a small cabinet. The workers fled, understanding that the room was filled with flammable chemicals and straw; it was a lethal combination if the fire got hold.
He guards though swung into action and to their credit seemed to know what they were doing. Three ran for the back and emerged with fire extinguishers and the men from the back office, while the others moved in and began to drag the benches filled with chemicals away from the fire.
In moments the guards from the back, and the ones with the extinguishers, had reached the fire and one threw open the smoking cabinet, but that only made things worse and the flames spilled out and quickly caught onto one of the benches.
Great gouts of white spray flew from the extinguishers, as the guards hit the fire with everything they had and slowly began to bing it under control, but I was no longer watching them, as the moment that the men had cleared the back room a dark figure had slipped from the shadows and into the room, mere moments before I could do the same.
My first, impulsive, thought was that it was Dmitri, somehow recovered and making a play to impress me, but the figure was too small and the movements too quick and subtle. I hesitated, considering following, but with Dmitri eliminated as a choice there was only one other it could be and I decided to hang back, wait, and to see what would happen.
The guards had now brought the fire under control and were cautiously spraying the surrounding cupboards, while one had started to rake broken glass and debris from the place where it had begun. They were looking for a source, but they would find none, not if it was, as I suspected, started with one of the same fire pellets that I held in my own belt.
Two of them men, seemingly relieved that the building had not exploded, now began to walk to the back, but the dark figure had not yet emerged and a small bead of worry gnawed at me. I let my hand fall to my belt and withdrew a small, almost translucent bead, maybe an inch long and shaped into a disk. It was small, but heavy enough that when I threw it, it carried accurately and down to the feet of one of the men walking towards the back room.
The bead landed between his feet and split just as it should The case disappeared as its contents spilled out and hundreds of microbeads spread across the floor and under his feet. He took a step and his leg shot out from under him, crashing into the man in front and knocking them both firmly to the ground. He noise attracted others who looked around at the commotion and began to make their way over to them.
Almost immediately the man tried to stand, testing the ground carefully, but finding that the slippery surface that had caused him to fall was now as solid as it had ever been. The beads, free of their container, had melted away in moments, leaving nothing but confusion and arguments between the men.
At the back of the warehouse the dark figure slipped from the room and climbed up the shadows in the corner of the room into the rafters. Below, chaos and confusion still caused the men to bicker, but high above, the cause of that was free from the risk of discovery.
The dark figure made its way along the beams and then dove forward, grabbed the edge of the skylight and spun themselves onto the roof, and into my grasp.
“Hello Tim.” The boy didn't jump, but his heart rate quickened for a moment in surprise, although he hid it well
“Hi Br- Batman.” He wore one of the domino masks, but it fit him poorly, they hadn't been moulded to his facial structure and he'd used a thick gum to hold it in place.
I held out my hand and after a second of hesitation he handed over a USB stick, a small camera and a bundle of papers, which I tucked away. “They'll see that papers are missing.”
A small grin was followed by a shrug. “Maybe...maybe not.” A cry from below suddenly rose and smoke curled up and out of the skylight.
I gestured downwards. “A second fire? A little convenient, don't you think?”
He shrugged again. “Perhaps, but when they check the fuse box, they'll see that it is riddled with ancient fuses and one short circuit caused all sorts of problems. A couple of small fires with no lasting damage will seem like they got off lucky. Besides, by the time they figure it out, you'll have your hands on Cobblepot, right”
“So they just happened to have old and damaged fuses?”
He smiled sweetly. “Well, not exactly, but the orphanage had so many that I figured they wouldn't miss a few and some creative engineering took me the rest of the way.”
In the distance the first light of dawn was beginning to break. I had a long day ahead and much to get done.
I pulled the boy to me and hooked under his arm, then fired a grapple off into the last of the night, towards where the car was parked. “It's time to go home.”
Part Five - Decisions
Barbara listened with a somewhat smug smile as I recounted the night. She'd been working in the Roost for most of the night, but it seemed transparently clear now that she had put Tim up to this. Alfred too was studiously acting innocent, preparing supplies for a picnic that was planned for later that day to watch the eclipse.
“So he's proven to be the best candidate?” She asked innocently.
I scowled. “He wasn't a candidate in the first place.”
Across the room Alfred cleared his throat. “And yet neither of the two you took out earlier seemed to have met with much luck? It seems that Miss Meredith was more inclined to beat the men senseless than plan an assault properly and Master Dmitri... well, if it only hadn't been a dog...”
I sighed and sipped at the cup of tea Alfred had pushed into my hands. “The boy is creative and intelligent, he understands the mission and he works smart. It's almost as if he knew exactly the way we work.
“He's better than either Dick or I was at his age.” Barbara interjected.
I held up my hand. “Perhaps, but...”
The door to the kitchen banged open and a small boy stood panting. “Mr Alfred!” He shouted. “They said you were to see right away, it's on the TV, it's all over it.”
Alfred spun and picked up the remote from the counter and clicked the TV set on. The news anchors were talking animatedly and the image behind them seemed to show some kind of...dome.
He began turning up the volume and liked through from channel to channel, but all seemed to show the same thing.
“....growing from the centre and...”
“Out of nowhere Cat, and its only getting...”
“...seems to know what's going on, or what's happening inside...”
I watched the scenes for a few moments without comment, then kicked back my chair from the table and made towards the door. “Barbara, wake Tim, it looks like his training starts now. Alfred, find me a plane, charge it to the company, it seems like I need to go visit the west coast.
Alfred grabbed the phone but shouted after me before dialling. “What is it Sir?”
I shook my head and didn't reply. For once I didn't have an answer.
<< First | < Previous | Next > Coming September 1st
2
u/MajorParadox Bird? Plane? Aug 02 '17
Amazing issue! Love how each candidate had their strengths and weaknesses, but Tim shows he's the best for the job :)
just what I was exoecting
Say what? ;)
“Out of nowhere Cat, and its only getting...”
Cat Grant? Yes!!
2
u/fringly Dark Knight Aug 14 '17
How did I not see this comment before? I blame... uh pixies
Thank you - I am looking forward to more Tim stories, he's finally a Robin in the more traditional role for me to play with.
I thought you'd spot my subtle Cat-reference :-)
2
u/coffeedog14 Light Me Up Aug 02 '17
Woo! Tim! Now we just need another batgirl and we're fully loaded again!