Batman: Equilibrium

CHAPTER SIX

  Many people see Batman as a force of nature, a vengeful knight that watches over the good people of Gotham. A silent guardian who answers only to justice. But when an opposing force emerges, one hellbent on destroying Batman… On shredding him to pieces and leaving those pieces to rot, and be forgotten by the world… to hulk over Gotham and keep its citizens under his foot, the two forces are destined to meet, and they have met. Each of them has lost and won a round, but only one of them is craving for a third one.

  Two mercenaries wearing military equipment led Killer Moth down abandoned, underground train tracks. The two mercenaries were carrying assault rifles, and each rifle had a flashlight attached to it that they used to see in the dark tunnel. Everyone was silent. You could see graffiti all over the walls. None of it looked new, and eventually, the graffiti on the walls ended. As if no one had progressed beyond that point. Soon, they got to an abandoned subway station. It looked like it wasn't finished in the first place, a lot of tiles and signs were missing. Next to a set of stairs that led to nothing but concrete, was a metal door. The armed men opened the door and walked through a dark hallway, leading Killer Moth into a large, circular room. The center of it was incredibly bright, thanks to several powerful lights set up on tripods around the room. It was filled with more mercenaries, enough to consider it an army. There were several tunnels connected to the room, one led to a sewer and you could hear a small waterfall in the distance. There were tons of beds scattered around the place, and in a corner you could see a desk with several computers.

  The mercenaries started paying attention to Killer Moth, an uncomfortable silence creeped into the room. A mercenary that was standing far away, tilted his head and said something to a figure hidden in the shadows. You could see the outline in the dark, he was sitting in a bed, facing a wall. Suddenly, he stood up and stepped into the light, hulking over everyone else in the room. The red eyes in his mask stared directly at Killer Moth. It was Bane.

  "You are not supposed to be here," he calmly stated.

  "I believe I'm right where I'm supposed to be." Moth replied.

  "Is that so?" Bane asked as he started walking towards Killer Moth.

  "Yeah, I heard you were a bit passionate about this city. I can help with laying it on the palm of your hand."

  "I imagine one does not make an offer like that, without asking for something in return."

  "And you'd be correct. But what I'm asking for, is just a little investment. I'm asking for your army."

  Bane stood right in front of Killer Moth, forcing him to look up to see Bane's face.

  "You want me to lend you my army?" Bane asked before chuckling.

  "Yes."

  "Well, I'm waiting for you to explain yourself."

  "Anarky and I have a plan to take over Gotham City, we need a lot of men to pull it off. Once-"

  "Yes, yes, I know. The plan that requires the capture of Commissioner Gordon, The Mayor, and Cameron Van Cleer." Bane said.

  "You… know about that? How?" Killer Moth asked, his voice showing concern.

  "As you know, people like you and me must have eyes and ears everywhere. Right, Killer Moth?"

  "You knew why I was here, and pretended like you didn't." Moth said.

  "I had to know if I could trust you or not."

  "What if I had lied?"

  "Then you would be dead already." Bane said.

  "You think so?" Killer Moth asked.

  "I could open your ribcage and rip your heart out with my bare hands if I wanted to." Bane raised his voice a little.

  "You'd have to be very fast, I carry two mass-murdering pistols on my hips."

  "And I'm very aware of that. Which is why as soon as I got close to you, I pressed the button on this electromagnetic pulse generator. Problem solved." Bane said as he took out a small device from behind him.

  Killer Moth instinctively placed his right hand on his gun, his other hand was starting to shake. He then let go and tried to hide how uncomfortable he felt.

  "I'll give you a part of my army. Just say when and where." Bane broke the silence.

  "I'll return tomorrow with all the details. Be ready." Moth said.

  "Good. Now leave." Bane said.

  Killer Moth slowly turned around and walked away. He saw everyone staring at him from the corner of his eye as he left the room. Once he left, Bane turned to his mercenaries.

  "Which one of you brought him here?" Bane asked.

  The mercenaries stayed silent, only staring at the two responsible. Bane saw this, and looked straight at the two culprits.

  "You two, hand over your weapons."

  They both looked tense as they handed their rifles to another mercenary.

  "Now, get against the wall." Bane instructed.

  The two men did as he said. The other mercenaries pointed their weapons at them.

  "You all know that I prepared in case that man somehow found me, and you two led him straight to me."

  "He told us he had an offer for you. We thought we could trust him!" One of the men pleaded.

  Bane stood right in front of the man who said that. "That is for me to decide." He replied. Everyone remained silent. The sound of a waterfall in the distance was the only thing one could hear. Bane remained perfectly still as the man in front of him was sweating and taking deep breaths. Bane suddenly punched him in the gut, that sound, followed by the man's groans, echoed loudly throughout the room. Bane kept hitting him, striking him quickly, in the face, the chest, and his gut. The other man watched in horror as Bane took his colleague's life, one strike at a time. When he closed his eyes, he could still hear his screams, the bones shattering, the sound of squirting blood. The screams eventually stopped, but Bane kept going, and nobody was sure if that man was still alive or not. Finally, Bane smashed the man's head against his knee, before leaving his body on the floor and looking at the other unarmed man. Before Bane could get to him, the unarmed man looked at one of the mercenaries pointing a rifle at him, and ran straight towards him before getting shot to death.

  Once again, you could only hear that waterfall in the distance. Bane started walking away, everyone watched as he retreated into the shadows at a corner of the room.

  The following night, Commissioner Gordon stood next to the Bat-Signal as it shined its light in the clouds above the city. As he placed a cigar in his mouth, he heard a familiar voice behind him.

  "Any leads on the engineer?" Batman asked.

  Gordon turned around and said, "No time for theatrics this time, huh? Well, we have nothing on the missing engineer, unfortunately. But guess what, we checked on Van Cleer's company, and they said Van Cleer hasn't shown up since the day after the robbery. We're getting a search warrant for his house tomorrow. You found anything else on him?"

  "I think it's him. I found his patient file on Arkham. It said he exhibited signs of psychopathy and antisocial personality disorder. Lack of remorse, constant lying, disregard for the safety of others, manipulation, and image of grandiosity. But not only that, his interview tapes were all destroyed. Plus, he's firends with Margaret Pye, and Van Cleer had attacked his maid once. I'll search his office tonight." Batman said.

  "That'll do, I guess. You didn't get anything else?" Gordon asked.

  "The file mentioned he has an extreme case of Symmetry OCD, and medication barely helps him. But that isn't very relevant."

  "Interesting… Now comes the hard part, finding evidence."