Gotham...
Gotham is a black page...
Gotham is a black page you write on white font...
It is the first line... of the last story... you'll ever write...
Gotham...
A city of contradictions.
A place where beauty and brutality exist side by side, where the gleaming facades of wealth and power hide the rot that lies beneath.
Gotham is dark, gritty, corrupt, a city plagued by crime, poverty, and urban decay. It is a reflection of the worst aspects of a modern city, with its skyline dominated by looming skyscrapers and smog, and its streets filled with crime and violence. Despite its outward appearance of modernity, Gotham is rife with hidden corruption and sinister secrets lurking beneath the surface.
Despite its pervasive darkness, for every criminal that stalks these streets, there are a hundred more who dare to dream of a better tomorrow. For every act of cruelty, there are countless acts of kindness and compassion that go unnoticed. Gotham may be a city that breeds darkness, but it is also a city that nurtures hope. a city of resilience and hope, with its citizens banding together in the face of adversity and its heroes tirelessly fighting to make it a better place.
As was the founders vision,
Pinkney saw his designs as an organic whole, almost a living being that would itself fight against evil. Gargoyles to frighten people onto the path of righteousness; rounded edges to confuse malevolent beings; thick walls to lock in virtue. It also had many elevated walkways, with some buildings connected to each other in such a way as they could not stand alone.
Yet now, the city was the breading ground for crime.
But I refuse to believe that Gotham is beyond redemption. I refuse to accept that darkness will always triumph over light.
Will you join my purpose?
Yours truly, Zion.
Meet you at the location.
...
This was the letter Batman received that night after Zion's announcement.
He had watched the whole telecast, he saw Zion's anger and power. Zion, a force unequaled, a power undefeated, even by Superman, a problem he couldn't solve.
A boy from nowhere had grown to a powerhouse that governed the world in a matter of a month. Sometimes he wished he had not been so cautious. He had been too cautious, too tight. He wished he had taken the guy down, but he doubted he was capable.
The boy had left crumbed for him to follow, keep his wits about him. The singularity. One who knows of the future of this world. This made him want to know, the secrets of that night, where Batman was born.
However the results were not bad as he thought they would be. The wars around the world had ended. A silent peace was brought. The world was now focused on him, his power and how to defeat this new order. The forces hidden would not stop, but their ignorance had already cost them of their freedom.
As Batman, he saw Gotham gone silent, of fear and a different silence, a expectant silence mostly from those that hoped. The criminals were silent, too silent. They were preparing, preparing to fight or die. While some escaped, while some understood that the force was not to be trifled with, that this was not Batman, not human.
Nion was a different, he cared not much for humans, he cared not for the government or rules. He now controlled it all. He was above law, he was above rules.
His powers still unexplained, his watch a mystery, an unexplainable technology.
Batman was still formulating, forming a plan in case Zion turn dark. But he could see no light to that problem and today he would meet back. Not with the boy who wanted money, but the force that governed the world.
He was to meet with Nion.
Batman stood at the high building, the winds ruffling his cape, the dark city below him. The Gargoyles hid is figure in the darkness.
["Gotham's silent, peaceful. I can't say that I don't like some quiet."]
"This is different, Alfred. This is a silence of fear," Batman replied.
["Isn't that your moto?"]
"..." Batman stayed silent.
"You dress as a Bat to invoke fear, a fear similar..." A bionic voice spoke, leaving the sentence incomplete.
Batman turned his head slightly, unflinched. "You are here."
"I am," Zion answered as he walked from the shadow.
He stood next to Batman at the edge, his hand on the gargoyles and looking down at the city and its people. The neon signs lit up the dark city in its light. People walking about with their hands to themselves, guarded, always in light. The people here were different, harder, stronger, more hopeful.
"A cursed city indeed," Nion remarked.
"..." Batman remained silent.
"No question?" Zion turned to Batman. "The dark knight has no questions? Hmm... suspicious."
Batman glared at Zion...no wait, that was how he always looks. His lips drew thin, his eyes gazing deeply. Batman had question, but he need not ask them. Zion would answer it himself. His evaluation made him believe so. Zion always told the truth, but never the whole truth.
Zion tilted his head, his visor displaying his disappointment. "__"
"Okay, let's go," Zion stated as he flicked his wrist.
To the location a frame appeared on the space, blurring whats on the other side. This was Zion new mode of transport he calls "The Door". {TVS Time Door}
"Shall we?" Zion gestured to the door.
Batman grunted before walking through. He felt the spatial displacement and his ears ring at the pressure difference. His face felt the cold breeze and tasted the salt on the wind. They were now standing opposite the see, oppose to a large floating ice that was the Iceberg Lounge.
Zion appeared through the door and kept walking toward the Iceberg. He crossed the bridge and stopped before the bouncer who stood menacingly. He smiled at the bouncer,（￣︶￣）.
The bouncer glared back in full volume, his eyes not shaking in fear as one would expect. He just folded his arms and flexed his big muscles. It didn't help that Zion was a head shorter than the man. Zion was expecting him to move the minute he showed up, after all he was the real thing in flesh.
"Hmm... I am here to meet a flightless bird," Zion spoke, not knowing what to do.
"Huff, Your outfit is really good. Nearly seems legit," Bouncer stated as he scanned Zion top to bottom. "Nice try but not today mate. If you don't want to get killed, leave now."
The bouncer gestured to the other side and saw three people in tuxedo knocked out to the side. Their suits looked very similar to the suit he wore this morning and the helmet was nearly looked legit but it was nearly advanced as his.
"You kidding?" Zion was flabbergasted that someone would mimic him, who had that much gut. He then turned to the shadows, "How much gut do Gotham have ?"
Batman walked out the shadow and the bouncer took a step back in fear. "Move." that was all he stated before the bouncer backed away. Nion was a new force that criminals of Gotham don't understand. But Batman, Batman was their nightmare. He had instilled such fear that they feared moving shadows in the night.
Zion looking at the scared bouncer and was annoyed. So, he picked him up with telekinesis and flung him into the sea.
"Ha," He scoffed as he adjusted his cuff and walked into the Iceberg Lounge.
Batman stayed silent as he followed Zion like a shadow and all the crooks who saw them moved away and hid. Some even ran out the Lounge. Zion walked into the hall uninterrupted, where a large artificial pool of penguins and seals with a small iceberg floating in the middle. The dinner an antarctic themed, a ship themed dance floor and tuxedo clad jazz band.
The minute Zion and Batman stepped in, the floor went silent.
All eyes, criminal, looked at Batman with vengeance, then their eyes turned to the guy next. Their brains took time to process and when it came to conclusion of this new person, most turned their head avoid contact.
Zion looked at all the familiar faces. Two-face, Black mask, Rupert Thorne, Riddler, Mad hatter, even dancing Harley Quinn. Zion looked up to the second floor and saw Penguin in his private Lounge. His visor smiled.
"Come down, flighless bird," Zion commanded. ヾ(≧▽≦*)o "I would rather speak to all of you at once than go one by one."
Penguin didn't look exactly scared, a bit arrogant. He didn't seem to be moving as his three assistants pulled three freezing guns.
"So a bird wants to fight?" Zion took a step forward, flames bursting forth from him.
A claw formed from the flamed and ripped the wall between Penguin and his death like paper. The trio of assistants tried to use the freeze gun to fight the flame, however the Telekinesis was faster. The guns were atomized and three were merged with the wall.
Zion put his hands in his pocket and taped the floor lightly, instantly causing all that stood to kneel. Zion was putting the minor percentage of mind on their. The difference of weight came down like a Dragon's fear.
They all felt suffocated as if they were being chocked. A breath of air was a struggled. Their ears rung, their body shivered, and some even fainted, foaming.
Zion turned back to Penguin. The fat short man with pinocchio nose was burned but he was alive. He pulled him out of his cottage and hanged him before him. Zion leaned his head and looked into Penguins eyes as his visor displayed an amicable smile.
"Be welcoming, I am here as a guest," Nion bionic voice rung in each crooks head.
He straightened and walked around the struggling bird. He met the eyes of every single one, he was taking account, taking a bit to consider kill them all here or not. It was a hard choice, not only Mark scolded him for killing those terrorist, that guy had lectured him for a whole hour before he was let go.
He forgot that Mark would be watching, then he saw people condemning him for telecasting such horrifying scene and scaring their children. He couldn't do anything about the murderous intent he had when being Nioz, it a builtin function of the Burning Martians.
Burning Martians live for terror. They are embodiment of suffering and anguish and Nioz was his Humungousaur. It was his Superman. his plot armor. It was his powerful transformation with many added ability.
"I know all your crimes, I know of every single thing you have done, and my instinct says to burn you all alive," Nion stated as he walked around the hall, looking at the struggling crooks.
"But not today, a good brother of mine had asked me to forgive, to give you maggots a chance. So, what you say?" Zion stopped as all the crooks got lifted by their neck.
They clawed their neck to be released from the grip but not one could shatter the TK hold.
"Do you desire freedom of choice or Hell's inferno?" He asked as all struggled to breath. "Not going to give me answer?"
He questioned while not allowing them to speak. The crooks couldn't even breath, much could they answer him.
"Nion," Batman spoke, his voice grim. "Let them down."
No one needed to point, Batman was ready to fight.
"Okay," Nion released them.
The crooks fell to the floor gasping for air as they felt their ability to breath return. They had felt a true horror of death grazing them as their body demanded for air to live on. It will be something that will be engraved in their mind. Death was not something trifle to be forgotten.
"I want you all surrendered in GCPD tomorrow morning but I hope you all don't surrender easily," Nion stated with a excited tone, he was truly enjoying this. "I hope you fight the authority. I very much like squashing bugs."
The criminals couldn't see but they felt in their senses. This was a game to this guy, a sadistic game where they would be the one to lose.
Zion turned from them and walked out of The Iceberg Lounge, leaving the criminals sprawled around. Zion arrived out exactly when the bouncer was walking towards them, shivering in cold. Zion caught him with his telekinesis and threw him again.
"You were about to kill them," Batman spoke as he strode behind Zion.
"Was I, Pennyworth?" Zion asked.
["Probably, sir"]
"Probably," Zion replied as another Door opened. "I am here to clean the city of its rats and if the rats are going to give me trouble, I would rather end them now than wait for them to breed and bite back." Zion stated as he walked through.
Batman followed.
And they booth arrived before a gothic metal gate that came straight out of horror movie. Above the gate was the metal letter spelling, "Arkham Asylum".
*****
I am back, and ready to go into the next arc. I got three main things for this arc but If you guys want any special character interactions or some villains getting beaten up.
Comment it here:
Let go!