The Dark Knight Beyond: Prologue

The Dark Knight Beyond: Chapter 1

Chapter 1

5 years later- Night fell over Gotham, the city that refused to die. It had suffered everything from almost total economic collapse, to being completely overrun by the mafia and corrupt officials. Fourteen years ago, one man had dared to do the impossible and take his city back by force. He became a symbol of hope for all who had feared the darkness that had claimed their city. As is usually the case, the darkness had refused to give up without a fight. After only one year The Batman, working with police Lieutenant Jim Gordon had flushed out most of the mafia's hiding places, backing them into a corner, of course by then they had gained a new ally in the DA Harvey Dent. In desperation, the mob had turned to another of their own enemies, a loose cannon who would all but psychologically and physically rip the city, that was showing signs of being on the mend, apart. That man, had no name, just as his greatest adversary had no face, but he too became a symbol, one of chaos known only as The Joker. He had almost won and he would have, were it not for the sacrifice made by the Batman in order to salvage everything he and the GCPD had already fought so hard for.

Eight years passed and then it was the mercenary Bane, that had all but wiped Gotham off of the map with a hydrogen bomb. Bane and Talia, the daughter of Ras Al Ghul had almost destroyed the city and they would have, if not for the sacrifice made by the Batman, only this time, that sacrifice had been his very life.
It had been five years since Bane had almost turned Gotham into a No Mans Land, there were still construction crews even now in parts of the city that had been demolished during his reign.

Robin John Blake a.k.a Nightwing raced across the rooftops zip lining over the areas too large to jump, until he came to his destination. "I should be out there with you." said the young boys voice from his radio transmitter. " No, no you shouldn't. You should be upstairs in bed getting rest, you have a test tomorrow, remember, besides this is a recon mission any way. I got this, I actually was a detective at one point. Now get upstairs, I'll let you know if I find anything." There was a grumble on the other end. "Alright" Blake couldn't help but smile, the boy, Terry McGinness reminded him a lot of himself at the age of sixteen. Terry's mother and father got divorced, and not long afterward his mother had died of an illness, leaving he and his brother in the care of their father Warren, but a few months back, there had been a break in at their house and Warren was found murdered, the victim of a suspected house burglary committed by a sect of the street gang that called themselves The Jokerz. Nightwing had dealt with them before, common street thugs, that luckily for everyone, had not really lived up to the gangs name. After he and his twelve year old brother were brought to the orphanage at Wayne Manor, Terry had stumbled onto a disk that his father had went to great lengths to hide. When it became clear that Terry McGinness was sneaking out at night, Blake had decided to follow him as Nightwing. He had caught him just outside of the place he was now standing in front of Wayne-Powers.

After any chance of Wayne Enterprises being able to get any kind of return on their clean energy project exploded in the bay, it was only a matter of time before the only way the company could be saved was through a merger with Powers Technology. The merger had been a God send, or so everyone believes, Many jobs were saved, many more were created, Derrick Powers had put a fortune in his own money along with his technology used in the reconstruction of the city to bring it back from the brink. Powers was an angel in the eyes of Gotham and the company is now thriving once more, but still......."You'd be rolling in your grave, if what the kid tells me turns out to be right about the type of man in control of your family's company." He said out loud. He bent down where he was in the alleyway across from the building, using a uv light from his belt, he found the control he was looking for on the outer rim of a man hole cover. Tripping the control the manhole cover rose up revealing a cylinder shaped elevator. He entered the elevator and pushed the button, the elevator lowered making him disappear into the streets. One of the things he had learned in the computer files of the bat cave he had inherited was schematics detailing a number of secret entrances and exits to Wayne Enterprises that Bruce Wayne had installed during his day as the owner of the company. Nightwing decided that even four years was not enough time for Derrick Powers to have discovered all if any of them.