Gotham City Police Department

Episode 1- Storm

The time has come, Commissioner still didn't start the action. He told us that he is waiting for more intel. I don't think anyone believed that. I certainly didn't. It's obvious what he's waiting for. He wants Him to do the dirty work. Quick without risking our lives. He didn't show up.

I set myself on the designated position. I gave the signal to start. Along with my favorite trench coat with thousands of useless things stuffed in its pockets, a bulletproof vest, a hat with a hidden razorblade, two tear gas grenades, a gasmask and finally a pistol, I passed the doorstep. It has begun.
I barely even set foot in the factory when this massive body jumped on me. We were laying on the ground. Before anyone could do anything, a giant fist punched me in the face crushing my nose. It wasn't my lucky day. I really liked my nose. It was pretty small and slightly raised up. Was. Now it looked like it begged to end its misery. In addition the blood stained my favorite coat. Blood is practically impossible to wash. When the officers left the now unconscious gangster, we heard shots coming from the inside of the building. We should be there already. I had a feeling that later that day the Commissioner would like to talk with me about responsibility. I told my people to hurry up when I thought of something. I walked slowly to the man responsible of deforming my nose and kicked him in his own nose. Even without my inference it resembled an exceptionally shapeless potato. He was still unconscious.

I caught up with the rest of the squad. The further we went the louder shots became, we still couldn't figure out their source. Suddenly a gas grenade rolled under our feet
-Masks!- I yelled while putting one on myself
I was pierced with fear, the gas could get into the airways. Criminals like these don't use sleeping gas or tear gas if they are using gas it's to kill.
After a moment of shock I decided that the bleeding in my nose somehow stopped the flow of the or that I simply wore the mask in time. Someone ran past me in the exit's direction. I wanted to chase him, when suddenldy something seemed off. Something changed, but I didn't know what. I started carefully listening to my environment. What I heard scared me. Or rather what I didn't hear. The shots just stopped. Complete silence surrounded me. I looked back. I became even more afraid. Everyone from my squad was dead. Nobody wore the mask in time. To this day I remember the look of their faces. I felt that I let them down. I slowly went forward watching overwhelming death. Step by step. Every step was ringing out like a gong in this complete silence.
Afraid of my own footsteps I arrived at the room where the auction should be held. There were no traces of the gangsters. Officers' bodies were all over the place. These officers weren't gassed. They weren't even shot. What I saw couldn't be a work of a human being. They were massacred. Their separated limbs were laying all over the place. One body didn't have a head. Some of the corpses looked like something started eating them and then torn them. The blood was everywhere. I just stood crippled with fear and no hope for survival. I wasn't scared of the bodies. I was scared of what did this to them. I knew what it was.

A few years ago, about a year after I started being a police officer, I were assigned to a case. There a lot of reports from people who claimed they saw a monster, others said it was a giant crocodile. Whatever that was it was scaring the people of Gotham, and my job was to put an end to this. When I arrived at the place almost no one was there. I found a homeless person near the dumpster, who apparently was the only person there. I got near and asked him where had everyone gone.
-They ran away- it didn't worry me as it should. I thanked him and gave him my lunch and a few dollars. I thought that some thieves were dressing up as a giant crocodile so the victims wouldn't defend themself, but when I found traces of blood near the dumpsters and on the pavement I started thinking if it was indeed a big reptile. I looked closely at the manhole. What I thought was mud was actually dried up blood.

I pushed the lid. It was actually pretty heavy. I felt sharp, irritating odor, it wasn't the smell found commonly in sewers. It was the smell of rotting meat, corpses. I readied my gun. I thought about calling for backup and safely waiting on the surface. I still don't know why the hell did I go into the lion's den. Not even a minute passed but what I saw I couldn't forget. When I set my foot on the floor of unknown origin, I saw the writing on the wall. 'Oh my god' I thought. The writing where different in sizes and angles but all of them were written in blood. They said "Killer Croc". All of them. About a thousand feet away I saw him. A giant beast with teeth visible even from a long distance. I could easily imagine how they tear me to shreds. I returned to the surface as fast I could without getting noticed.

I went to the car to call for reinforcements. But at the same moment the lid that I could hardly move went flying and destroyed the back window of my car. I drove as fast as I could, without caring about anything other than survival. Finally I made sure it wasn't chasing me and I drove straight to the police station. After I wrote the report a squad of 18 best men was assembled.

We were searching the sewers. We didn't have to wait long for Killer Croc to appear. He jumped on one of the officers and bit his face off. The fight with him was very bloody. He ran away taking the lives of three great officers. Their mutilated bodies haunt me to this day.
These massacred bodies looked identical as those three corpses. Then I saw him. He was standing 20 feet away from me. 20 feet away from death. He was staring at me with his reptile eyes, and I stood still hypnotized. When the shock was over I slowly pointed my gun at him. He responded quickly. He knocked the gun from my hand. I shouldn't be alive, but he was just watching. In desperation I punched him as hard as I could. In response he punched me so hard that I became unconscious.

I woke up in a hospital bed. My wife Emily was sitting next to me in tears. I sat. When she saw that she cried even more and hugged me. I didn't know what to do. So I hugged her too.
After some time, my friend from work, Frank Burton explained me everything. No one wore the mask in time. Everyone form my squad inhaled the gas. It was Scarecrow's fear gas. Everything that I saw after that was a reflection of my fears. Killer Croc was just a police officer who I tried to shoot and then started punching. I don't blame him from knocking me out.
I returned to work after three days. Somebody must have done the paperwork and I evaded the conversation about responsibility with the commissioner. In the end I couldn't wash the blood of my coat.

Translation done by my best friend Simon (known on wattpad as szymomaaan).