Batman: Knight of Vengeance - The Final Chapter

Part I - Escalation

It's a night in Gotham like any other night. Thomas Wayne stationed himself at the Belfry for the time being, deciding to sit back and set around different patrol routes for the members of the Batfamily. It's surprisingly quiet however, a little too quiet. Most of Gotham has fallen into a sort of peace in the last few months, with all of the villains staying in Arkham Penitentiary.

After a while of waiting Thomas clicks the channel on again and begins to speak. "This is Blackbird to all patrol units, report in."

"Negative activity." He hears from practically all of them, until one more chimes in.

"I got a runaway truck tearing through the streets. Unsure of what the contents are." Rose Wilson aka Red Robin shoots in through the commlink, as Thomas takes instant notice to it.

"Keep following it and report any updates." Thomas cuts off the line again and then sits back, removing his cowl. The first action in Gotham in a while and it's nothing that major, it makes his mind start to wander again, to the idea of retirement. It's lingered around in his thoughts for not a long while, but it still weighs heavily. Gotham clearly isn't in need of him anymore, and it might be time for him to pass on the cowl.

Suddenly Rose pops onto the comms again, with some surprising news. "Uhhhh boss, the truck is armed with explosives and is heading towards Arkham right now. Someone clearly custom built this thing, I can barely catch up to it."

Thomas snaps back into action and runs over towards the comms, his voice sharp with urgency. "I need all of you to support Red Robin right now, do not let that truck reach Arkham! I'm on my way now."

And with that, the Batman grabs his cowl and pulls it back on, running towards the Batmobile. The massive vehicle fires up before he slams the pedal down and starts to blast through the streets of Gotham almost instantly. It's clear that this runaway truck is more than it seems. Someone wants to start a mass breakout. With how many villains are in Arkham...it'll be madness. But he's determined to stop it, someone has to at least.

"This is Batgirl, reporting another truck in the Industrial District, seems like Arkham is its target too."

"Robin and Redbird, same thing over here on Memorial."

Batman's teeth grind together with anger as he starts to see the picture more clearly. "This is a coordinated attack. We can't stop all the trucks here. If anyone can make it to Arkham step on it now!" He turns his attention away from the trucks and instead tries to make it to Arkham as quickly as possible.

The car tears onto the lone street that leads down to Arkham, as he sees a truck made it there before him. His car switches into assault mode as the turret aims down at the vehicle, but it's too late. It bursts through the gate and explodes right in front of the building, causing massive damage. At the same time, he can hear explosions in the distance, going off all over the city. The other trucks.

"Blackbird to all patrols come in. Patrols, come in. Damn it!"

He abandons the prison to hell, and decides to turn back and check to see if there were any casualties out in the city. He makes his way to the closest explosion and jumps out of the car, before seeing Red Robin already checking out the wreckage.

"Arkham's lost. I couldn't make it in time." Thomas says with a heavy heart.

"There was nothing you could do, boss. We were taken by surprise and overwhelmed. Clearly this isn't a spur of the moment type thing."

"My thoughts exactly. Someone's behind all this, and they've just set Gotham into its darkest night." He taps the commlink on his cowl to try and contact anyone else out there. "If you can hear me, this is an Alpha Level Emergency. Report back to the Belfry immediately. Do not engage any hostiles, I repeat, do not engage any hostiles."

Rose nods at Thomas and the two run back to the Batmobile before screaming off into the streets ahead.