Batman: The Crusaders

Chapter 4

Bruce Wayne's Pov

Dick and I were playing checkers, it was around eight at night. Dick was winning and I was thinking of a strategy I could use to win. As I moving to another square, I saw something out of the corner of my eyes. I turned my head slowly and looked up at the sky. The bat signal was shining brightly in the sky. I turned my head back to the game, trying not to make anything obvious. I gulped, trying to think of a way to leave the room.

"I'm actually tired," Dick said, "even though it's pretty early."

"Oh," I replied, "yeah, me too."

I gave a fake yawn.

Dick got up from his chair and went to his room. After he closed the door I waited a couple of seconds. I then got up from my seat and ran down stairs. I walked through a couple of halls and came upon a closet. I opened the closet and stepped inside of it. I placed my hand on the wall and moved it in a circle three times, slowly. The wall lifted up and revealed another hallway. I walked down the hallway and came upon a door. The door handle had a keypad on it. I punched in the numbers 4231 and the doorknob lit up green. I opened the door quickly and then closed it. I walked down another flight up stairs and ended up at the first part of the batcave... batcave 2.0 I should say. I walked over to one of the walls that had a rectangular pad on the wall. I placed my hand on the pad and the wall lifted up revealing my most recent batsuit. It was a very, very dark grey with a black bat symbol on the chest. It had the same mask and cape. I took a deep breath and grabbed the suit.

After I had put on my suit, I made my way to the second half of the batcave. I found the batmobile. I got in and started it. I drove through the secret passageway and ended up in the woods. I drove into Gotham and parked the car behind the building. I didn't have to worry about people stealing it, if an unauthorized person touched it would shock them. I grappled my way up the building. I finally made it to the top of the building. I glided onto the ground.

To my surprise, it was not Jim standing beside the signal but it was his daughter Barbara. I walked up behind her and stood there for a second.

"What," I said.

She jumped and her breathing started getting heavy. She turned around slowly. She was expecting me to be a couple inches shorter I guess because she was looking down at the top of my chest. She then looked up and her face was white with fear.

"Um," she said and blinked like she was trying to remember what she was going to say. Then, the fear escaped her eyes and she stood up tall and her head up. She then handed me a green box with a large question mark on top of it. I opened it up. There was a message inside of it. I read the message and took a couple of seconds to process it.

"We think that," Barbara said trying not to show the fear in her voice, "that the Joker is back."

"I knew it was going to be sometime soon," I replied. "Is he the one kidnapping the kids?"

"We're not very sure," she said. "Because of that box...that box doesn't have anything to do with him. Maybe he's working with people now."

"He is," I said, "this box...belongs to the Riddler."

"Who?" she asked.

"The riddler," I repeated. "He's a villain who wreaked havoc on Gotham once...probably when you still lived in..."

I stopped talking.

"When I still lived where?" she asked.

"Well," I said trying to think of something to say. She didn't know Bruce Wayne was Batman. Only Bruce knew she lived in Smallville before, not Batman. "I know you haven't lived here for very long. So it must have been then...he wasn't very strong then. But if he's working with the Joker now, he's a huge threat."

"What are we going to do?" Barbara asked.

"Do you have any other evidence of where we could find them?" I asked.

Barbara shook her head.

"Well then there isn't anything I can do," I said. "I guess the police force is on their own for now. But I guess I will try to find out all I can."

"Thank you," Barbara replied. "Not just for this but for...well everything. You've kept Gotham together. Not the police force. You. The police force has only helped a little bit but you do everything and we are all so thankful even though the citizens don't show it enough."

"You're welcome," I replied. I glided off the building and then grappled the rest of the way down. I got back into the batmobile and sped home.

The clown of Gotham was back. It's funny, he thought he was going to win. He was wrong.