No Heroes

Last Resort

Bruce: The Next Morning

They gathered in the Captains Office. Jim and Harvey were ecstatic because now, they had more people to help clean up the ravaged city. They had been managing, the four of them, but just barely. The addition of two skilled fighters might not seem like much to some, but it was to them.

The group was gathered around the messy desk, with Jim and Bruce on one end and Selina and Alfred on the other. Lucius was in between Selina and Jim and Harvey was beside Bruce and Alfred, still yawning.

Bruce looked at Selina, wondering if she was okay. Last night, she had looked like she was going to be sick when she ran out of that room. He had tried to follow her, but Alfred stopped him. Bruce had watched Alfred open the door and listened to them talk for a minute before realizing that it was in no way about him.

For the past month, they had been trying to catch this group of criminals who had taken control of the Narrows. Lee Thompkins had disappeared, but most of the people left in Gotham were from there. They couldn't afford to leave.

Jim and Bruce had been trying to form a strategy for days. Jim felt especially obligated to help these people because they were important to Lee.

If they were in pairs, Lucius could shut down the power and they could use the GCPD's night vision goggles to lock them up and free the people from their rule.

Selina agreed to protect him so that he could get close enough because she didn't have enough experience with that kind of equipment.

Bruce and Jim would enter through the west wing of the building. They would take out the front security while Alfred and Harvey worked their way through the east side.

They broke the circle and started to suit up. Jim, Harvey and Alfred loaded themselves with guns, and Selina grabbed her switchblade, whip and tucked a gun in the waistline of her pants. Lucius grabbed a taser and his own handgun. Bruce just wrapped his knuckles from the past fights.

It was midnight when they left. No electricity meant nothing if the sunlight still allowed the enemy to see.

They jumped in the car, and Bruce listened contently to Selina and Lucius talking about what he had to do to shut the power off. She seemed genuinely interested.

They dropped the two of them off a couple blocks away from the building, and parked the car in an abandoned garage.

The rest of the group strapped on the high tech gear, and got into position.

He could hear Selina chuckling through the coms.

Bruce looked back up to see Jim smirking at him. He dismissed it with an eye roll, and watched closely for the lights to go out.

He didn't realize how dark it would actually get. He couldn't see his own hand directly in front of his face. He quickly pulled on the night vision goggles and kicked in the door.

The first couple minutes went great. Bruce took down at least five men. He saw Alfred and Harvey burst into the room. He heard bodies dropping from every direction. Bruce almost didn't notice that one of the things that hit the ground wasn't a body. It was loud and it was hard. He looked up at Alfred for a split second before the room filled up with gas.

Bruce turned to punch the guy running to him, but his hand felt so heavy. His whole body felt like it was magnetized to the ground, and he couldn't help but crumble.

Bruce squinted at the man in front of him. He was wearing a gas mask.

"Jeremiah wanted us to be prepared for you." He could almost see the grin from ear to ear behind the mask before him and all of his senses drifted into the darkness.