Batman: Death and Destruction

CHAPTER 2: A Final Riddle

Attention: I do not own Batman, Gotham City, or any of the characters in this chapter, just the man with the gun and this story.  Enjoy!

Gotham is a beautiful city at night.  If you don't hear the occasional sound of gunfire or the violent screams of someone being robbed, it's a beautiful city.  Almost every building glows from its bright neon signs and the Gotham Bridge is quite a sight to see standing from a gargoyle.

It was foggy, and something behind one of the buildings was casting a bright, white light.  My eyes followed the beam of light up to the sky.  I saw the shape of a bat shining in the clouds.  Immediately after knowing what had been activated, I leaped from the gargoyle and used my grappling hook to get to the other building. 

After doing this for a while, finally made it to the roof of the Gotham City Police Department.  Commissioner Jim Gordon didn't see me until he turned.  "Batman!" Jim said with a serious voice.  Usually, he snaps a joke about something that had happened earlier in the day, but not this time.  Whatever reason he turned on the Bat-signal for, it was serious and urgent.

"Batman, someone dropped off a tape here at GCPD.  Listen to it."  Jim took a voice recorder out of his pocket and gave it to me.  I hit the play button and heard, "Batman, go to Olsen Street.  You'll find me on the roof of the abandoned chemical factory."  At the end of the recording, I heard a sort of high pitched sigh.  It was definitely a man. 

"Jim, this person is not alone.  Did you find any finger prints on the tape?" 

"If I did, don't you think that I would have told you?"  Gordon always got an attitude when he was on edge.  How could I blame him?  The person on this tape could be leading me into a very obvious trap or something else.  The meeting place is on the roof of the old chemical factory, I'll be able to observe the location from a nearby building.

"Be careful, Batman." Jim said.  I always waited for that, before I would ever leave to investigate a disturbance in the city, I waited for Jim to get in a last word because those could be the last words that I'll ever hear.

The abandoned chemical factory was very torn apart, but this wasn't recent.  This happened years ago from an encounter I had with the Joker.  I could see two people on the top of the factory, one was kneeling down and another was standing.  After taking a closer look, I could see that the person standing was holding a gun to the person kneeling.  I could also see that the person kneeling was the Riddler.

Near me was a clock tower that was casting a shadow over the roof of the chemical factory.  I waited until the man with the gun was looking away from my direction before grappling up to the clock tower.  He looked like he was bored and was losing patience.  I knew that if he saw me, he would shoot Nigma.

He was looking at the back end of the factory, now is my chance.  I quickly aimed the grappling gun towards a gargoyle on the clock tower.  It was in the perfect position.  It was in complete darkness and had a direct advantage over the position of hostage seeming situation.  Even my eyesight would have trouble spotting it.

I pulled the trigger on the grappling gun and was pulled directly to the gargoyle.  Nigma noticed me change positions.  I was almost praying that he wouldn't give up my position.  But at the moment, he was scared.  I could see the fear in his eyes.  The way the moon light shined on his face, I could see his emotion.  After he confirmed it was me on the clock tower, his face changed to an emotion with more hope than fear and said, "Do you want to hear a Riddle?"  The man with the gun stared at Nigma with a look of annoyance, but Nigma proceeded.  "What's black, grey, made of lies, but could be the key to stopping my demise?"

The man with the gun looked in the direction Nigma was staring.  His eyes were bloodshot and his face had several scars on it.  He couldn't locate my position, but he knew I was there.

BANG!  The gun went off.  Blood from Nigma's head was streaming down his body and on the roof of the factory.  "You're welcome." The murderer said.

I couldn't believe what I had just seen.  Edward Nigma, the Riddler, the man who almost killed me, needed me.  For once in his obsessive, lonely, and selfish life, he needed me.  He believe I could save him, the one time he ever needed anyone in his life, and he didn't get it.  I had failed.

"Come on out, Batman.  I just want to talk." Said the man with the scared face.  I felt a sudden surge of rage.  Before I could even think of a next move, my body reacted.  I dived from the gargoyle straight down to the murder scene.  The man noticed my speed and backed.  I landed, causing the roof to violently shake for a moment.  I had forgotten how unstable the factory was.

"Okay, now listen." He started.  "I did that for a very good reason."  Before he could start his next sentence, I quickly walked toward him.  He aimed the gun at me but I grabbed it out of his hand so fast that I broke a piece of the barrel off.  He didn't seem to be the scarred of me, and that's one of the only things that I rely on when wanting answers.

I grabbed him by the throat, took him a foot off the ground, and walked him towards the edge of the roof.  "Why did you do that?" I yelled. 

"He deserved it, it's what I'm supposed to do."  Still, the man didn't seem scarred.  I threw him across the roof of the abandoned factory with a rage spreading throughout my body.  Just as he had hit the ground, the roof gave away.  The distance to the floor of the factory was about one hundred feet.  I saw the murderer falling, but then I blinked.  He vanished just as I do when leaving an encounter with Commissioner Gordon.

I grabbed both ends of my cape and stretched them out as fast as I could.  If that action was performed a second sooner, I could have broken my legs.  I landed on a metal walkway.  In the center, the walkway ended, it was cut off and the edge has burn marks.  Memories of the incident that destroyed the factory flooded my thoughts.