No Man's Land

Chapter 2

Smoke clouds the conference room nestled deep within the walls of the Iceberg Lounge. Always a business man, Oswald Cobblepot would not just have a safe room. No... his whole Lounge and place of operations would meet the same standards. Now, as the rest of Gotham lay in ruins, he snickers from the head of the table: It sure paid off.

"Here is what we need to remember fellas," He says excitedly, "Right now the city is panicking. Eventually, that will fade, and the fight for territory will begin. Not only do we need to keep monitoring what we already have, but we need to take advantage of this opportunity to expand our business."

One henchman speaks up, "And what will that be, exactly?"

The Penguin's grin slides further and further up his face, "Anything and everything. People will want food, fresh water, guns, protection. You name it, we sell it, thanks to the good ol' US of A."

The same henchman clears his throat, "Uh... sir?"

Penguin frowns, angrily being forced out of his daydream, "What?"

"What about Two-Face?"

"What about him?" The Penguin grumbles.

"His territory is just south of us, and he's always been trying to gain anything he can-"

"And you don't think I am taking this into consideration?!" He squaks, rising from his chair and smashing his cigar into the ashtray.

The henchman sinks further and further into his chair, "No! No, Sir! That's not what I-"

"The only reason you are still breathing is because we need numbers to maintain our borders. Keep that in mind next time you decide to open your mouth." He angrily turns to the rest of the table, "Anyone else have any concerns?!"

The others hastily shake their heads.

"Good." He sits back down, straightening his tie and taking a breath. "Now, where were we?"

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Sarah shivers in place next to the broken Bat signal. The vest she's wearing was meant to keep out bullets, not the cold Gotham wind.

"Jim..." She calls as he scans the sky.

"He's coming, Sarah." Jim insists.

"The signal isn't working, Jim. Maybe-"

"He's coming, Sarah." He frowns... He has to come.

She crosses her arms and sighs. It's like talking to Barbara; so optimistically stubborn. Then again, she's always loved that about them. Somehow it always gave her hope... unfortunately not this time.

"Jim..." She sighs, "It's been over an hour... I hate to say it-"

"Dammit, Sarah, he's coming!" Jim shouts.

"HE'S NOT COMING JIM!" She yells with tears in her eyes as her own hope is fading, "Maybe he's dead or worse, maybe he gave up. I don't know, but what I do know is that standing up here won't fix any of this. We have a whole team of officers downstairs who are all looking to you for leadership."

"How do we even begin to fix this on our own, Sarah?" He sighs, looking out at the fire-ridden city.

"One step at a time, Jim... one foot in front of the other."

He turns back around, staring up at the sky again. Sarah sighs and brushes past Harvey who just climbed his way up. He looks over at his friend. "Jim, buddy, you know my position on all this-"

"And you know mine." Jim grumbles.

"Come on, man. I know he's this symbol of hope and all, but Sarah's right: we have to act now before the crap hits the fan."

Jim lets a chuckle slip through his stubborn frown. "Hope..."

"Yeah," Harvey nods, kicking a small rock away with his foot, "Hope."

"Some people in this city could really use that right now..." Jim sighs as he slowly walks away with his head hung low.

Harvey's eyes fixate on the now smashed beacon of hope. He hadn't realized how in such a small way, Batman brought that to people. He turns around and watches his friend go down what remains of the stairway. He hasn't seen him like this since she left him and Barbara. If one person needs Batman right now more than anyone else in Gotham, it is Jim Gordon.

Bullock mumbles the question on all of their minds as he looks up at the sky, "Where the hell is he?"

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Bruce Wayne surfaces several miles along the north Atlantic coast. He gasps as a wave hits as he takes his mask off. He coughs as he spits out the salt water, turning quickly to look at Gotham.

No... another wave crashes into him, briefly forcing him underwater. Bruce clings tightly to his mask as he fights his way back up to the surface. Maybe his first look was just a fluke; it can't be that bad, right?

The city he fought so hard to protect, now looks like a floating fireball in the Atlantic. There are ships wrecked in the harbors, and the bridges between the islands have collapsed creating three separate isles. Things are going to get really bad, really quick.

Batman might not be able to fix this, but the Wayne fortune might. He quickly puts his mask back on and continues his journey to New York City. Hopefully, with the help of government corruption, someone will listen to his money and send aid to Gotham.

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I start to create a list of threats: escaped inmates, food supply, clean water, caring for the injured, putting out fires without significantly depleting the town's supply, impending aftershocks and tidal waves... Dammit... This list just seems to grow. While I am secluded to this room, it unfortunately is all I can do. Until, Dinah and GCPD can confirm who is alive, I can only speculate what might be happening.

The first thing that will become a problem will be food, safety, water... which is easy prey for the gangs; do what they say and they will provide you with at least one of those three.

Because of the amount of gangs in Gotham, this will probably start a turf war. Penguin and Two-Face have always been in control of eastern Gotham, so there is bound to be struggle there if both of them are still alive. We have to maintain whatever territory the police have now, and somehow expand that across the rest of the Downtown island, then branch north to the Midtown and Uptown isles... How to do so safely is at this point incomprehensible.

All we can do right now is to do what is right in front of us: help the injured, look for survivors, and then find a way to survive.