Sean

Prologue to "The Genius" (Rugged Submission)

Prologue:

6 MONTHS AGO

Something was amiss that frigid, inhospitable Gotham night. The Batman's keen senses, honed to perfection after years of rigorous training, could feel it. It was as if the very air itself exuded the foreboding sensations which now plagued him, sensations of ill will and imminent despair. They weighed heavily upon his consciousness, increasingly so as he exited his Batmobile and began the arduous trudge towards his destination.

The storm which had loomed threateningly for quite some time was now unleashing its contents upon him in a frightful deluge. But the Batman was not one to falter. The feeling of dread which strove to take hold of his mind reached a hideous crescendo as he reached the metal door of the dockyard lighthouse, the heavy rains spilling down his flowing black cape and chilling him to the bone. The iron bolts which held the door in place had long since rusted away to the point of no repair, and with very little effort he was able to force them apart.

Stepping into the dank confines of the condemned lighthouse he intended to investigate, the Batman received a much needed reprieve from the terrors of the storm outside, allowing his mind to focus on the job at hand. He closed the decrepit metal door once more and bolted it in place as best he could before stepping forward into the darkness that lay ahead. Reaching into the contents of his utility belt he retrieved a small flashlight and allowed the thin beam of light to be his guide. Taking several steps forward, he felt his forearm collide with a metal cylinder set haphazardly atop a nearby workbench. With reflexes as sharp as one hundred knives, he was able to intercept it before it collided with the stone floor, narrowly averting the attraction of undue attention. Something was off tonight, he knew it to be so. Perhaps it was the undue strain that stemmed from recent events which was affecting his concentration, or maybe, but far less likely, it was the storm playing games with his mind. Either way, he wouldn't have ordinarily permitted such a mishap.

The Batman had certain motives in coming to such desolate parts of Gotham City on such an unholy night. His efforts this night were the culmination of a yearlong effort to identify the perpetrators of certain recent events. The first thing that had caught the Batman's attention was the record lull in criminal activity his city had boasted for many months. It seemed as though almost every thief and fanatic had disappeared from the criminal radar. There still remained, of course, the occasional heist perpetrated by his more ostentatious enemies. However, they too were becoming unusually infrequent.

Several weeks ago a well-orchestrated assault was conducted on the Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane. While the perpetrators were unknown, the target was clearly the assassination of the asylum's most dangerous inmates. However, the cunning top-level prisoners used the distraction as an opportunity to escape. The Mad Hatter, Poison Ivy, and many others were released into the city, his city. Despite the Batman's best efforts to locate and incarcerate his enemies once more, they proved impossible to locate. Either they did not want to be found or the same unknown party was silencing them.

The Batman was reminded of a similar incident years ago when the master strategist Bane first arrived in his city. He emptied Arkham in an effort to break the already overtaxed Dark Knight. The chaos that followed was disastrous. The Batman vowed that today would be resolved as quickly and as effectively as possible. So it was that the Batman went off in the direction of the only solid lead he could discern from the viscous murk of information that enveloped his Batcomputer. Although his original intent was merely to investigate a condemned lighthouse, he found himself entangled in something of infinitely greater malice. From what he could tell in the disadvantageous lighting, the array of cylindrical canisters set before him housed highly toxic gases. The reason for their being there became clear as he fixed his iron gaze forwards.