In the shadow-draped alleys of Gotham City, where the line between savior and villain blurs, a new anthology emerges: "Tales of Gotham City." This gripping collection of fan fiction delves into the darkest corners of the metropolis, where vigilante...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
In the sprawling archives of the Gotham Museum of Antiquities, Dr. Nathaniel Vandal was once a name spoken with reverence. A prodigious archaeologist and historian, his passion for the ancient world was unmatched, his knowledge vast and deep. Dr. Vandal saw history not just as a series of events to be studied but as a tapestry of civilizations that once thrived in a purer form than the modern world could ever claim to be.
His fall from grace was as dramatic as his rise. It began with the discovery of an ancient site, a place that predated any known civilization, hidden deep within the jungles of South America. There, Dr. Vandal unearthed a collection of artifacts imbued with enigmatic energies—relics that spoke of a time when gods walked among men and mysticism was the fabric of reality.
Obsessed with these relics, Dr. Vandal's theories grew wild and strange, speaking of ways to harness their powers to "reset" the world. When he presented his findings, the academic community turned its back on him, labeling his ideas as the ramblings of a madman. Humiliated and enraged, Dr. Vandal vanished, taking the powerful artifacts with him.
Months turned into years, and whispers of a new figure emerged in the criminal underworld—a man who wielded objects that could bend the will of others, turn men to stone, or summon eldritch creatures. This figure was Dr. Vandal, now simply known as "Vandal," a man who had shed his academic shackles to embrace his new role as a herald of a bygone age.
Vandal amassed followers, those disillusioned with technology and the cold progress of the modern age. He promised them a return to glory, a world where the noble and the wise ruled, and where the ancient powers would cleanse the blight of the present.
His activities drew the attention of Batman, who saw in Vandal not only a threat to the present but a danger to the past as well. Artifacts were stolen, historical sites desecrated, all in the name of Vandal's twisted vision of a "better" world.
Now, Vandal moves in the shadows of Gotham, his crusade against the present day a dark mirror to Batman's fight for the future. Each relic he wields is a piece of history twisted into a weapon, each action a step toward a past that may have never been—a past that he will stop at nothing to bring into the present.
****
The night air was thick with tension as Batman crouched atop the Gotham Museum of Antiquities, his cape billowing softly behind him. Reports of a break-in had brought him here, but no alarms had been triggered. Someone had managed to infiltrate the most secure museum in the city without setting off a single alert. That tookinside knowledge - and there were few who knew the museum as well as its former star archaeologist, Dr. Nathaniel Vandal.
Sure enough, a flicker of light in the Egypt wing confirmed Batman's suspicions. With grapple in hand, he swung down to investigate, slipping silently through an open window. The beam of a flashlight danced over the exhibits as an elderly man inspected a sarcophagus.
"It's been a long time, Nathaniel," Batman rumbled.
The man whirled around, flashlight arcing wildly. When it finally settled on the Dark Knight's cowl, he let out a slow breath. "So the rumors are true. Gotham has its very own giant bat now."
