Batman: Gotham Psycho

1-The Arrival

Gotham City, an American city rife with corruption and crime, the home of its iconic protector, Batman. Dark, chaotic, and bleak. Gotham is undoubtedly one of the most dangerous cities. It's full of crime, evil villains and hopelessness. This city also represents the fact that crime mostly happen more at night than day. Guess it goes that some of its' predators can stalk and strike their prey at night. Night, April 27th. A man new to the dark precipitating city is riding in a taxi on his way to a entrepreneur party. His driver pulls up to a medium-sized building. He pays the taxi cab and enters the building which happens to be a local jazz club.

As he strolls through, he's introduce into a few of Gotham's most finest entrepreneurs, millionaires, even the most famous, Bruce Wayne. He closes the distance between him and Bruce and introduce himself. "Hey, you're Bruce Wayne, right? Millionaire playboy?" Bruce chuckles humbly as he extends out his hand. "Billionaire and, yes, nice to meet you Mr.?" The blonde stranger extends his hand to meet Bruces'. "Oh, it's Machin. Lonnie Machin." Bruce and Lonnie shook hands and strolled through the club together to Bruce's table. "A pleasure Mr. Machin. You new here in Gotham?" Bruce asked as he and his new acquaintance sat down at a table along with the GCPD Commissioner, James Gordon, the Mayor of Gotham, Aubrey James, and the CEO of GothCorp, Ferris Boyle. "I am, yes. I got her about two days ago. Had to step up shop y'know. As I was unpacking, I decided to get out tonight, and I'm glad I did. Beautiful city so far." Lonnie answered. "Gentlemen, this is Lonnie Machin. He's new here in Gotham." They each introduce themselves to The newcomer of the city. "A pleasure, Mr. Machin. Care for a drink?" Ferris waves for a waiter to pour them a drink as he directs his attention to Gordon. "So Gordon, you and the boys in blue have been on a roll. Taking down almost all of the major crime families in Gotham. The Falcones, Maronies. Almost all gone!" He complimented. Gordon chuckles. "Thank you Mr. Boyle, although, we can't take all the credit. We have the Batman to thank for the assistance." Lonnie was confused. "Ahem, excuse me, the what?" "The Batman. He's kinda our dark guardian of our city." Gordon explained. "A plague more like it." Ferris added. "With only the Szabos, The Polish Mob, and minor gangs still active, it won't be a matter of time before we're just busting people for parking tickets." Said Jim. "All thanks to the Batman."Ferris said with disgust. "Oh boy, here we go. Buckle up Lonnie" Bruce joked as he nudged Lonnie on his arm. "It's despicable. Nowadays, anyone can put on a cape and mask and call themselves heroes. Having to take the law into their own hands is both a mockery and a disgrace to law and order. Dammit, Gordon, why haven't you arrested him yet!?" Bruce tries to calm Ferris down. "Mr. Boyle, take it easy will ya?" Bruce says in a calming voice. "It's a war zone out there, and Batman's our best front line of defense. Maybe the mayor here outta put you in a uniform so you could join the fight." Ferris simply laughs off the offer. "That won't be necessary. For I have some very special projects developing at GothCorp that will change Gotham and the world." As he went on, he took a glance at his watch. "Speaking of which, I must be getting back. I gotta supervise the our special projects and take my fiancé out for dinner afterwards." As Ferris stoops up, the group of Gothams influential figures and the newly addition Lonnie were most surprised, but mostly intrigue that Ferris of all people would have tied a knot. "Wow, Ferris, uh, congratulations." The group gave him a short congratulatory applause. But Lonnie gave him a different kind of look. Not a look of approval or any signs of resentment. Just a blank look before it turned into a look of gratitude and a joined the round of applause. "Lonnie my friend, stop by GothCorp. We'll do lunch." Ferris says as he gave his business card to him and exits the Gala. As Bruce was getting ready to speak, Gordon was receiving a call. "Gordon. Really?! Where? Alright. Excuse me gentlemen, I have a signal to light." Gordon then departs. "Sorry for all that. It's kinda the norm here in Gotham." Bruce stood up. "Well, I must be going too. I gotta swing by the office and then I got a date to attend to. Good day gentlemen, Mr. Machin, welcome to Gotham." Bruce said as he leaves the table. That leaves only Fane and the mayor. "So, what brings you to Gotham?" "Well, I'm into philanthropy and word through the grapevine is that Gotham has one of the world's most famous playboys. *Lonnie looks around* and from what I can see, I can concur that the rumors are true." He clears his throat. "So tell me more about this Batman." The mayor was surprised. "O-Oh. I'm surprised you haven't heard of him outside of Gotham. Well you see, this "Batman" is like what Mr. Gordon referred to him, a dark guardian, he's a vigilante." Lonnie was confused. "Hmm, how curious. I thought vigilantism was illegal." "It was, and still is. But things are different now. With all of these villains popping up like cockroaches, and wreaking havoc on the streets of Gotham, it had come to a point where it had became too much for our Police Department and even with some." He stars to lean closer and whisper. "Corruption." That word peaked his interest. "Corruption you say?" He wanted to continue the topic, but Aubrey had to leave too. "Listen, Mr. Machin, I would love to chat more, but unfortunately, I have a town hall meeting to attend to." He gets up out of his chair. "Welcome to Gotham and stay out of trouble." It was just Lonnie all by himself, pondering about his recent enlightenment about Batman. He soon would depart from the jazz club but as he strolls along the streets of Gotham, he was intrigued by a news headline titled "Gotham Gangs Foiled" and the sub-line reading "Thanks to The Dark Knight." "This Batman sure get a lot of attention around here." He thought to himself. "He breaks the law every single day and he gets praise from the people and good publicity. But whenever we ordinary people do something illegal just to fulfill our basic needs, we're the bad guys. We're declared unethical." He would enter his apartment building, which was at the low-end of Gotham. He arrives at his door, inserts his key and unlocked it. He enters his broken down apartment, tossed his things on the cold, dirty wooden floor, and threw himself on his couch. He would enter a deep state of thought and an idea would brew in his mind, a malevolent idea. He quickly pulls his laptop out and browse the internet for many news article regarding The Batman, any notorious crime families, and the many infamous villains of Gotham. "Hmm, lotta foes you've made here Batman." He would then get up from his couch and glanced out his window. Outside the rundown neighborhood, he finds two lowly thugs getting ready to mug a woman. Lonnie would quickly rush out of his apartment to the woman's aid. He arrives on the scene but decided ma to hid himself behind a wall. "Aight missy. Hand over the purse nice an' easy." Threaten the first thug holding a knife. It was then Lonnie rushed the thug holding the knife throwing a couple of punches knocking him out. The woman used this to get away while thanking him, while the first thug's partner got angry and attacks Lonnie. "Grrrr! Why you...!" The second thug charges at him while throwing a punch. That tactic however would fail as Lonnie would simply grab his arm and throw him towards his partner. The thugs groan in pain but then cower in fear as Lonnie walks toward them. "Ok, ok, we give up! No more!" The first man shouts. "Just don't tell Batman!" The other one begged. Fane would kneel down to their level and attempted to calm them down. "Gentlemen, you misinterpreted my actions. I didn't fight you to save that woman, I fought you to see if you're the perfect people for a job. And you're just the men I need. I'll pay you for your services of course." The duo look at each other and nodded in agreement. "What kinda job?" One of them asked, but he simply smiled and chuckles deviously.