Silent Knight

Prologue

Disclaimer: All rights for items, settings and characters are reserved and trademarked by DC Comics. I do not own or claim to own any of these characters, items or settings, but I am simply using them in my story.

Reader Discretion is advised: This story contains depictions of gore, violence and drug references. Not intended for ages 12 or under.

"...Don't they know? It's the end of the world. It ended when you said goodbye."

Those lyrics echoed through my head as Skeeter Davis' song "The End of the World" softly played through the cafe's jukebox. My steaming coffee was bittersweet as usual, black as the darkest night. As I took a sip of coffee and read over today's newspaper I wondered that very question;

Is it the end of the world?

Weird superhumans have been coming out of the darkest shadows more and more these days. Giant crocodiles or alligators, a supposedly immortal assassin, A strong guy who courses drugs through his blood and gets stronger than humanly possible, and even a humanoid bat have been popping up this Christmas.

Even just looking over the statistics at my job, crime has begun skyrocketing since Two-Face's capture. Local police like myself wouldn't be able to keep up with crime these days. We'd be outnumbered. We already are outmanned. Unless something changes real soon about this crime factor, Gotham City will be overrun by scum of the worst kind. Murders, sexual assaults and theft would be climbing higher than a stairway to heaven.

Although, I'm not too worried about that kind of thing happening. Two-Face was the worst of them all, especially since he was Gotham's District Attorney, Harvey Dent. People looked up to him. For a whole year, Gotham had hope. Crime was going down. But then during Salvatore Maroni's trial, he was attacked by Mr. Maroni himself with a bottle of acid. Half of his face was burnt and with his image and reputation ruined, he became the criminal Two-Face.

Two-Face caused a lot of pain to this already broken city. Banks were robbed, buildings destroyed, people were killed. All at the hands of Gotham's White Knight. Things were looking far too bleak for the longest time. The GCPD was powerless to stop them.

With a little help from a third party, we've captured countless scumbags and criminals such as the Electrocutioner, The Mad Hatter and more demented souls.

You may think that's only two or three people like that, and you're right. That's only two or three people like that. But that's the bad part, too. That's only two or three people like that. That isn't counting the lists of crime bosses and villains we've seen in this city.

That's not even scratching the surface of some of the people, if they can be called that, who are still out there. The Penguin, a crime boss, otherwise known as Oswald Cobblepot. He practically runs this city with his gang of mercenaries and brutes. Then you got Clayface, or Basil Karlo, who when given a strange clay-like substance called Renu, received the ability to morph his body into anything he thought fit. And that's just off the top of my head.

If you're planning a visit somewhere this Christmas, I wouldn't suggest it being Gotham City. This place is filled with the lowest of scum. Arsonists, murderers, thieves, maimers, serial killers, they're all here. The only reason I'm still in this ruined city is because of my job. Later jobs probably wouldn't look too fondly at my resume.

The latest stunt was that of Two-face. He was unstoppable. He found an army of criminals and thugs to back him up in his demented "crusade" for glory or superiority or whatever he was after. He even took over they Mayor's office for the longest time. Gotham was hell on earth during that. Every illegal act was justified through his reign. With that action, Gotham's White Knight fell.

But when there's a White Knight, disparity comes in. Out of the shadows came Gotham's own Dark Knight, who took Two-Face into custody of police.

That was a year ago. He appeared from the shadows and brought a miracle with him. However, my boss, Commissioner Loeb isn't too keen on Gotham's vigilante friend. He's ordered all units to bring him in whenever encountered.

With crime rising rapidly, it's only a matter of time before hell is unleashed on the scum of Gotham. Especially tonight of all nights. It's December 6th tonight and we've already had countless calls and reports come into our systems. I've got my radio by my side on the table, and while I passively read the newspaper and sip my hot drink I can hear countless reports of robberies and assaults flooding out of the small device's speakers from the units in the harsh snow outside.

That's the thing about Gotham, though; Even though it's like living in a perpetual gangfight to all of it's denizens, it's still beautiful in a way. It's no metropolis, especially since their crime rate isn't nearly as high as ours this time of year, but it's not some shoddy excuse of a city either. This place has a history, and it all started with the Waynes.

Wayne Tower lies near the center of Gotham City, an is the unofficial city center of our quaint little village. The metro system leads directly through it's base and comes around the entire city as Thomas Wayne's last investment into making this city a better place for everyone. And then there's Bruce.

Bruce Wayne is the new king of Wayne Enterprises. With the help of his staff, he's run that company better than his father ever did. They make a lot of the most conventional housewares these days, and even support the military. They really do make everything.

Now, you might be wondering how exactly the Wayne family leads into a monologue about crime rates and etcetera, but just be patient, I'm getting there.

When he was ten years old, Bruce's parents were both killed in front of him by a man named Joseph Chilton, or his criminal name, Joe Chill. As an officer, you see a lot of people who just lost someone important to them, but they're almost always sixteen years old or older. Imagine how it'd be for a ten year old, even if he was rich. Being a police officer ain't easy, I'll tell you that, but nothing gets to you like seeing a kid who could only watch as his parents died.

I still don't know how he goes on with his life these days. I've got a beautiful wife and daughter, and if I watched as they were offed in front of me I might go ballistic at any point in time, no matter how fitting.

"All units, we have a 211 on Main and Fifth Avenue. Back up requested."

It sounds as though we're a little swamped tonight with all of these reports. I'm gonna need to wrap up soon enough and get my coat back on, taking crime down a notch as I go, and even then it'd be too much for us even if we had every unit on every case. Except in all of the chaos tonight, all the theft, all the fraud, the murders, all the bloodshed, one thing is for sure.

If anyone can slow things down tonight, it's the Batman.