Chapter 84: The Darkest Knight Emerges
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"Batman Punches People In The Face."
- Bruce Wayne, (Batman (Vol. 3) #53 (2018))
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<(Omniscient POV)>
"What are you all waiting for? Quickly check what's wrong with the power. I hope it's not those DEA bastards. Even though the buyer assured us that he would take care of them, we still can't trust his words a hundred percent." The fat leader roared as he sent his men away to investigate the sudden blackout in the port.
He was the type of man who wasn't a fan of horror movies, otherwise, he would know that this was probably the worst decision he could have ever made in the horror story that his life was soon going to become.
"May-maybe we should get out of here Mr. Bill. W-we are done with the heavy lifting anyway. The client's g-guys would take care of the rest of the transportation process. We already have what we need." Ray gulped in anxiety and tried to advise his current boss as he quickly put the rest of the drugs in the soon-to-be-shipped container and sealed it.
"Don't worry boy, didn't I say as long as I am here, nothing can go wro...."
*AAAAHHH* A scream suddenly echoed in the distance, interrupting Bill as he immediately became vigilant and pointed his gun in the distance, not even sure where to aim at. Ray's situation was also similar as he too took out an AK-47 from the car trunk he had just loaded and aimed at the direction the scream came from. He was barely able to even lift the gun with his scrawny body as he struggled to figure out how it worked.
"Give me the big one. Here, you use the small one." Bill immediately took the AK-47 from his underling, giving him his small pistol in return. Either the boss was too proud to use a smaller gun than his subordinate or he was very scared.
While the two were barely able to breathe in unease, the others who had gone to check the other parts of the port were facing their own difficulties.
"Shoot the containers, he is on there." *BANG BANG BANG "No, he is at the boats. Shoot there." BANG BANG BANG* A large amount of gunshots began to echo as the men began to fire at random directions all over the port. The fog made their vision even worse as they struggled to see if they were even hitting anything at all or just firing at shadows.
"Wait, we are only four. Where's the rest?" A random mob who noticed the steadily dwindling number of their gang members after a few minutes, muttered to himself as he looked all around him, trying to find his colleagues. But before, he could voice his doubts, a metallic wire suddenly coiled around his feet and pulled him up with a force that dislocated a few bones of his body.
Hanging upside down, the last thing he could see before losing consciousness was the shadow of a terrifying humanoid bat punching him in the face with a metal-gloved hand with small spikes on it, spikes that he knew were going to break his nose and leave a very deep and painful mark on his face.
"Shit, I'll kill you whoever you are." The three other remaining gangsters who had noticed their friend being dragged upwards toward the roof of one of the containers began to shoot in that direction. One of them even threw a Molotov that he had brought with him to burn the entire place just to make sure that the creature who was hunting them didn't survive. They were even ready to sacrifice and burn their captured friend if it meant getting rid of the 'beast' that was hiding in the shadows.
Silence ensured after that, giving everyone there a false hope that perhaps they had won in the confrontation against whatever that was. But that false sense of security and victory didn't last for long as a light humming sound vibrated from behind them.
"Fuck" One of them said without even turning as a strange whirring sound accompanied by a burst of light struck one of the gangsters in his back, propelling him several feet away like a ragdoll, until he collided with a container and was immediately knocked out with several of his bones cracked.
Before the other two could even react, a metallic net was fired from the shoulder of the figure standing behind them. The net instantly surrounded one of them and began to contract on itself, tightly binding the gangster in the process in what looked like a VERY uncomfortable position, digging into his skin, drawing blood. Even when removed, the net would leave quite a bloody tattoo on the man's face and body.
The third gangster however was able to turn around but that was the last thing he was able to do as a small bat-shaped blade found its way to his chest, rendering the man unconscious in a few seconds. The wound on his chest might not have been very deep since the batarang weren't thrown with full force but the knockout poison the blade was coated with was definitely of the top quality.
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<(Bruce Wayne POV)>
"Maybe next time, trigger the explosion when a kid isn't so near the bomb, or perhaps decrease the charge of the explosives." Cortana quipped as she showed CCTV footage of the destroyed drugs and weapons.
"You are worried about the kid? I am feeling sad simply imagining all the perfectly functioning weaponry that I had to destroy just to make a good first impression on the cops and the criminals who are going to hear about this later. I could have used all those guns and explosives or maybe rebranded them and sold them legally to various justice departments of the country. But that wouldn't have been a good PR move right at the start of my vigilante career...
Plus, the truth is that I was really nervous. I wanted to give the kid a proper speech about me being Vengeance, the Night, and Batman, but unfortunately, I only managed to tell him that I was the Dark Knight and it even came out as the Darkest Knight. I hope the people don't start calling me the Darkest Knight of Gotham. Although that would be cool, it would still be extremely awkward as a superhero name." I lamented at my misfortune and screw up.
"Nonetheless, did you gain any useful information from the man's mind? I know he was one of the higher-ups in Falcone's gang from his digital profile but anything else?" I asked.
"Besides the fact that he thought of you as a communist because of the... too much red on your costume, yeah, I found more than half of the locations Falcone uses to store his money, drugs, weaponry, stolen antiques, and all the other illegal things he deals in," Cortana answered.
"Okay, then. We will hit all of them by the end of the night. By tomorrow morning, I want to see Falcone crying his eyes out at his own misfortune... By the way, red doesn't look that bad on me, does it?" I asked with a hint of doubt at my spectacular fashion sense.
"No, but maybe you could dial it down a little or perhaps use the other designs with the darker shades if you want to be 'one with the night' like how ninjas normally are. This one might look cool but is also a little too much on the eyes. How about the Bat Demon design? It doesn't come with a cape but that one will truly terrify the criminals into shitting their pants." Cortana sounded more excited than even me in helping me perfect my vigilante fashion.
"Uhh no, I think I will leave that one when I really need to terrify someone. Also, the glider that goes with it still isn't finished... Plus, we can change the armor design any time we want due it it all being nanobot technology, so we don't have to rush into it. Let the process guide us.
For now, focus on destroying Falcone by completely uprooting his empire first. We don't want somebody else to come and sit on his throne after he is gone. Gotham will plunge into chaos once he dies and it will be an all-you-can-eat buffet for me where I can hunt all I want and take everything I need to change the city once and for all. That will be our priority for now." I let Cortana know as I blasted toward the direction of the Falcone's safe house that was the nearest to me.
"Shame. The costume would have matched with Ace once you decided to take him out on missions as well." Cortana commented with a sad voice.
"..." I didn't respond to that as I continued to fly towards my destination.
That particular night was filled with dozens of explosions as various factories, storage units, and abandoned buildings were reduced to dust, all having ties to Carmine Falcone and his gang. Nobody knew who had declared the fight on the biggest criminal gang in Gotham or who had been tying Falcone's gang members half-dead in all of the locations of the blasts for the cops to find but everyone knew one thing, a war was dawning on Gotham.
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(A/N: All battle sequences won't be so big. This one is because it's special in the sense that this was the MC's first night out as Batman.)
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/God_Doom