Chapter Text
GOTHAM. BURNSIDE
A man enters his apartment in a drunken stupor with the stench of whiskey on his breath. He flips the light switch only for light to not appear; the clacking of heels enters his ears as he turns around. There, sitting in the shadows of his apartment, a dapper gentleman smiled, reading from a giant book in his hands, his face hidden in the shadows.
“Oh no.”
“A devil lies in the hearts of all men. Avaricious and deceitful, and ever cruel. This devil sits in waiting, for a chance, a sign from their lord who sits in the abyss. What is this sign, you ask?”
The man bolts towards the door, only for hands to breach the darkness and pin him to the floor as the man in the chair continues his sermon.
“This sign is approved. Approval that they can rampage, that they can go forth and enact his will upon their fellow sinners! The time is now, my son.”
“N-No! Please, god, no!!!”
The man feels his body go numb as one of the hands’ pierces his neck with a steel syringe. They inject a strange black fluid into the man’s body before removing themselves from him as they watch it go to work. The man convulses in pain, his screams wild and bloodcurdling as his veins turn black, followed by his blood leaving his mouth and nostrils.
“JESUS CHRIST! P-PLEASE! GOD! K-KILL ME!!!!”
The gentleman closes his book and stands with a sinister expression upon his face as he looks on with glee at the man’s agony. The man kneels and places his gloved hand on his chin, rubbing it as he speaks. “No. No. No, my child. Death cannot claim you yet, for you are transcending. Summoned to a higher realm, to his court.”
The man’s screams turn into gargles as his blood turns tar-black, and the skin from his fingers turns to the bone from scratching at the floorboards. His body continues to morph, his bones breaking and rearranging themselves into a ghastly form. His teeth sharpen, and his hair falls to the bloodstained floor as he can no longer breathe. The gentleman stands proud as he watches his creation, as the horns burst forth in bloody viscera and his wings take shape under his arms.
“Welcome, my child! Welcome to his garden! Go forth and prepare for him! For Gotham’s true God!!”
SKREEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!
ALL-STAR BATMAN III
CHAPTER 1: THE KNIGHT
GOTHAM. UPPER EAST-SIDE.
“Welcome dark darlings and lighthearted loyalists! The name is Lady B on Goth AM, 193.9! Here again with true Gothamaites and their true experiences.”
Thunder crashes above the dark stone hellscape of Gotham City. In the city’s empty construction sector, two guards stand outside of the abandoned Rucka Tenement Building. They share a smoke as a dark and ominous figure stalks them from the rooftop; the criminals sigh in boredom as they look up to the sky to see the cloudy sky missing something.
“My fellow citizens of Gotham, it has been a strenuous two months since the last appearance of our hero, The Batman. Last sighted in a destructive battle against his foe, The Joker. While Commissioner Jim Gordon has yet to issue an official statement on the subject, we can all feel it in the air.”
The criminals scoff at the sight. The shadowy figure watching from above pounces with the crack of thunder to cover their sounds. Within seconds, both men are unconscious under their feet, and it continues deeper into the building.
“Something sinister has come to Gotham. And it sure as hell ain’t good.”
“Guice, Romero, Report. Hello?”
The criminal sighed in frustration as he turned off the radio. He walked towards the stairs leading to the basement exit. He flies back as the living shadow breaks the door off the hinges with a single kick. It then lunged forward, breaking the man’s arm as it turned towards the army of goons.
‘Human traffickers. All are using unseen military-grade tech and are aiming them at me. But I’m not afraid; I’ve fought worse.’
“Who the f%*k?!”
“The Batman isn’t coming back.”
“I’m Batman!”
Batman threw small Batarangs into the air with the declaration stated, which embedded themselves into the criminals’ arms and legs. He rushed forward and delivered the blows, breaking their arms and legs and even sending a low-level thug flying into the wall. He growled, using the shadows that came naturally to him. He was better at it them most. With a final dropkick, that was the last of the cannon fodder.
BANG!
Batman twitched as he dodged the gunfire from the last conscious thug, turning quickly. He launched a Batarang into the man’s hand before rushing him and delivering a painful punch to his collarbone. The man screamed before being knocked out by the following headbutt and thrown to the ground. Batman stood over the unconscious criminals and grimaced as he moved towards the exit.
“TT.”
“But now is not a time for mourning. Listeners, remember that there was a time before Batman. A time where we couldn’t trust our neighbors and our men and women in uniform. Always remember those nights of being afraid because we cannot allow them to happen.”
Minutes pass, Jim Gordon exits his and Bullocks patrol car at the abandoned housing building. The two senior officers meet with the first responders helping the victims to the nearest hospital; they then stopped as they found the kidnappers beaten and bruised while tied up and hanging from the ceiling. Gordon gave a slight smirk as he stomped out his cigarette on the floor.
“Call it in Bullock.”
“Stand up! Fight back! Don’t let the monsters win the day.”
GOTHAM. PARK ROW.
“Oh, don’t give me that crap! I barely touched you!”
A man screams in the night as his foot slams into the stomach of a young boy. The boy heaves and falls to the wet floor in pain before receiving a second kick to his face. The drunken assaulter growls as he reaches for the back of the boy’s hood. Before he can even touch the child, a black visage rushes him from the shadows and slams him against the walls. The man screams as the sound of kevlar pounding against human flesh echo in the alleyway. The boy groans in pain as he looks up to find Batman staring back at him with his icy-white eyes. Gotham’s hero stands from the unconscious, bloody man beneath him; he tosses the boy a card and looks at him with sympathetic eyes.
“Call Dr. Thompkins. She’ll help with those wounds, stay off the streets. Batman is hunting.”
With those words, he flew upwards above and over the rooftops. The boy stared at the card and smiled as he watched Batman grapple away into the night.
“And never forget Gothamites. We are Gotham. We’ve survived the Joker, Bane, and even the Fall of Batman Inc. We don’t go down easy!”
HIDDEN IN A POCKET OF GOTHAM.
KLIK!
Batman stands at the entrance of a large tunnel, using a flashlight to illuminate the way. In his free hand, he peruses a black hardcover book titled ‘The Black Casebook.’ Batman huffs as he moved deeper into the sewer tunnels, the stink of Gotham’s waste irritating him with every foot forward.
“Okay then, soliloquy aside. It’s time to open up the lines and hear from you, Gotham. Tell me what’s going down.”
As he nears a corner, Batman freezes, and he hides in the shadows as he peers ‘round the corner. The sounds of a body moving against the sewer waters’ current, his eyes couldn’t believe what they were seeing. Monsters, not Clayface, not The Joker, actual monsters with skin as black as coal and eyes beady and filled with blood huddled together.
‘Great actual monsters. Todd would’ve likely gone in like a fool and open fire. I need to stay back and watch them, find out what they’re-’
He paused mid-sentence as his eyes widened, the creatures moved to reveal their prize. An unconscious homeless man who he suspected they were planning on feasting on. Clenching his gloved fists, he needed to make a move and fast, strategize a quick escape tactic, a fast maneuver to grab and disable the beasts. But instead of doing either of those, he went with a route he knew was stupid but would prevent the man from being hurt.
‘TT. Dammit. Guess we're doing this Grayson's way!’
Leaping from the shadows, Batman launched several Batarangs at his enemies to draw their attention towards him. The projectiles bounce off of their thick hydes, and they turn to face the now surprised Batman.
“Shit.”
Batman clenched his fists and rushed forward, using his agility to dodge their clawed swipes, only losing parts of his cape while in mid-air. He lands on his feet and throws several orbs into the air, which explode into a cloud of smoke.
“The first caller of the night comes from Cherry Hill; what’s your name, and what do you have to report in?”
The creature screech and hiss as Batman uses the smoke to his advantage; he rushes the closest one. He slams his gloved fist against the beast's chin; the impact hurt him more than the creature. He pulled out two Batarangs and held them close as he rushed forward and used them to slash at their thick skin. Two of them ran at him from behind; the last one ran away with their victim.
“NO!”
" Hey Lady B. Names Aaron, big fan. But I wouldn’t be so sure about the Bat. Cause I saw ‘im.”
Batman threw his Batarang at the fleeing creature with all his strength as the two tackled him from behind. The weapon sliced through the monster's shoulder, causing it to scream in irritation.
“AAAH!!!”
Batman slammed the back of his head into the monster's head and followed up by stabbing the other in the eye with his Batarang. He wrapped his arms around its neck and tightened it before tossing the creature over his shoulder and slamming him into the water. He growled and turned to find the remaining two fleeing into the tunnel. He roared and followed on foot.
“Come back here!!”
“Bold claim Aaron. Where did you see him?”
“It was tonight! I was walking through The Village visiting Gene’s for dinner; shout out to Gene’s on 5th Street! Best Burgers in Gotham! When some dumbass flew out of the convenience store window and into my car! Next thing I know, I saw The Bat glaring back at me before grabbing the guy and flying away.”
The monsters sniff the air for their pursuer as they stop underneath a sewer grate. A Batarang flies into the eye of one as Batman appears, lunging at the other with a flying dropkick only for it to swat him away. He slams into the concrete cracking it as he falls to the floor. The beast lunges at the hero, who rolls out of the way and throws a small disk onto the beast’s skin.
“Hope you find this shocking!”
‘Don’t try to be Grayson. You’re not good at puns.’
The disk glows before releasing a powerful electrical jolt shocking the monster. Reacting fast, Batman fires his grappling hook at the victim, pulling them towards him as he leaps off the ground and latches onto the grate. Both beasts scream as their electrocuted by the current. Batman groans as he struggles to keep the man away from the water.
“God, you’re heavy!”
“So wait, Batman goes missing for over a month, and the first thing he does is take down some dude robbing a bodega? That’s a stretch, don’t you think, Aaron?”
“I thought the same thing, but what if that’s what he’s doing. He’s trying to be discreet so that Joker doesn’t pop back up again?”
As the screaming stops, Batman breathes a heavy sigh as he removes the grate and crawls out of the sewer. He tosses the man to the floor as he flops onto the alley floor, panting out of exhaustion. His eyes slowly shut as he whispers under his breath.
“That was annoying.”
“Huh. That’s a good theory. I wonder if anyone else in Gotham has seen our friendly neighborhood Batman? Another caller, what a coincidence. You’re on with Lady B. What you got for me?”
“SKRREEEEEEE!!!!!!”
Batman jolts up as he finds himself under attack by three similar-looking beasts with their fangs bared. Batman grabs the man and grapples to the rooftop, using the open space to his advantage. Once he lands, he looks back and watches in horror as the quadruped creatures scream in pain as large leathery wings burst forth from their back. They screech and fly after him, and the unconscious man, Batman, runs towards the ledge, growling as they fly after him.
“Shit!”
“H-Hey. I’m a new listener. I love your work. I just wanted to piggyback on Aaron. I saw him too tonight.”
Batman leaps off the building’s ledge; before he can open his cape to soften the landing, the creature slams into his back, forcing his grip to loosen from the man. He’s then scooped in mid-air by the monster, which flies off in the opposite direction.
“NO!!”
“Wow. Two sightings in one night are rare. So, what’s your name and story?”
Batman growls, punching the monster’s eye rapidly, causing it to crash through a nearby chimney. Batman forced the beast’s arms from his body as he leaped onto its back and clung on for life. While on its back, he stabbed its good eye with another Batarang as he leaped off and landed on a free fire escape. He watched in silence as the monster crashed through the window of a penthouse hotel room. Batman turned to chase after the other beasts but froze and clenched his fists as he thought to himself.
‘It’s not down. Those people need your help.’
“TT.”
Batman closed his eyes and continued in the opposite direction. Only to freeze once again as he pivoted and ran towards the hotel. As he fired his grappling hook, he thought to himself.
' They need Batman!’
“My name is Eileen. So, it just happened when I was listening to calm my nerves.”
Batman leaps through the broken window and lands on the nearest couch, where he finds a couple, terrified for their lives, fending off the blind beast with a chair as it tried to tear them apart.
“So my husband and I, we were staying in this hotel for the weekend. A nice retreat from life, you know? Then a monster just broke in through the window and started tearing the place apart. It was screaming and tried to eat us.”
Batman reaches behind his torn cape and pulls out a red baton; he chucks it at the door shattering the handle and knocking it open. The hero lunges onto the monster’s back and places it into a chokehold causing it to stumble back.
“Next thing we know, he shows up seconds after. He opened the door for us and distracted it, allowing us to escape. The only thing he said to us was-”
“GET OUT OF HERE, YOU IDIOTS!”
He groaned as he struggled against the writhing beast in his grasp. Its body was too broad and esophagus rigid for him to suffocate, but at least he could keep it off balance while they escaped. Once they did, Batman smirked and flipped off of the beast’s back and landed with his back to the window. The monster roared and raced at Batman, ready to chop into his flesh.
“As we were leaving, I saw the stick thing he threw to break the door stuck in the wall. I knew he would need it. So I took it and threw it back at him.”
Batman holds out his hand and catches his Baton; he smirks and holds it tight as he jumps over the charging beast. He growls and stabs his weapon into the beast’s back with all of his strength, breaking the skin as it broke through the window, screaming as it fell.
“My husband and I ran outside to see if they made it, but there wasn’t anything but debris on the street.”
“Wow. Talk about intense! It sounds like this Batman is dealing with some heavy hitters! Listen, I suggest staying put and talking to Gordon if he shows up. If not him, then Officer Crispus Allen will help you find a different hotel in Gotham. That one isn’t up to code. Thank you for your time, Eileen. Hope you and your husband stay safe.”
KRASSHH!!!!
Lady B coughs and slowly stands up as the dust and debris clear out; her eyes widen in shock as she jumps to her feet. Her trembling hand grasps her mike as she looks on in wonder at sight before her. Batman, injured and sporting claw marks across his chest, lays on her floor bleeding from his mouth and covered in debris from the hole in the ceiling he’d fallen through.
“My dear listeners. Batman just fell through my roof, and I think he’s down.”
TO BE CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 2
SAME BAT-TIME! SAME BAT-CHANNEL!