Dynasty: A Batman Tale Part 19

NOW

The wind chill slapping the commissioner in the face had caused the spraying mist from Gotham Harbor to freeze in his mustache while racing out to the Antarctica. His horn-rimmed glasses needed to be continuously wiped just so he could see. Not that it mattered, the fog was too thick and only the red and blue lights from his police boat twirling in the surrounding clouds were visible. Jim Gordon was leading a team of Gotham’s finest to take Pamela Isley or as she preferred, Poison Ivy into custody.

Joker and his crew had been in hiding for more than a decade. Jim was hoping that Ivy would be able to disclose for their absence, and provide information about Mad Hatter’s murder. As Gordon’s boat approached to dock up against the Penguin’s pleasure yacht, he noticed his men tense up. He was not a fan of private security forces and Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot was known for hiring the best.

The fog dissipated further out in the harbor where the Antarctica drifted. The commissioner could start to make out figures moving about the ship. He spotted Penguin’s armed guards stationed around the ship’s perimeter. He saw Penguin escorting Ivy out onto the deck. Her hands bound and secured by her waist.

Earlier in the evening he had secured the Tetch crime scene and granted Batman an opportunity to collect evidence. In return Batman had led Gordon to Cobblepot who had the venomous Poison Ivy locked in his brig. The Dark Knight had confirmed Commissioner Gordon’s fear about the severity of Joker’s threat to destroy Gotham. Gordon couldn’t remember the last time he needed the caped crusader’s help to this extent. He knew his men were completely competent, however, most of them were part of the commissioner’s reformation of the Gotham City police force after the Batman and himself cleaned up the cities corruption from organized crime. These men had yet to go up against the Joker and the chaos he left in his wake. There were units searching the city both above ground and below and Jim had a sick sense that they were all running out of time.

Gordon and a few of his men climbed aboard the Antarctica, the rest stayed behind with their weapons at the ready. Always in a tuxedo, Jim thought, such a pompous bastard. Standing next to the Penguin was the statuesque Ivy. Her transformation was almost as shocking to Gordon as the Joker’s. Reports had been vague, but apparently Doctor Strange had performed multiple experiments on his subjects and Ivy in particular had been injected with a deadly venom toxin that had fused with her DNA. Allegedly she was extremely dangerous, but extremely beautiful. Gordon stood with his sidearm still holstered, he noticed Ivy was bound with a zip-tie, but pulled out his handcuffs nevertheless.

“Evening Gordon, I have a present here for you all wrapped up and ready to go. Would you care for a drink?” offered the tuxedo clad Penguin.

“No thanks, Cobblepot.”

Suddenly Ivy slapped Chester across the face cursing him as she did. Next every gun was drawn, but Penguin yelled “NO!” I’m sure he deserved that for one reason or another. Jim lowered his weapon and his men followed suit.

“Let’s go Ivy, we don’t have time for any nonsense. It’s time to take you in.” Gordon could tell Ivy was on edge. Something rattled her. Her eyes were stabbing him like daggers.

“NONSENSE! This city is going to burn and you’re all going to die!” She yelled and grabbed Chester’s face pulling him in for a deadly kiss. Penguin pushed her away allowing his men to open fire riddling Poison Ivy with bullets. The police fired in response killing three of Penguins guards. Gordon called back to one of his lieutenants to check on his men.

“We’re good Commissioner, nobody got hit.” The lieutenant caught sight of Ivy’s body, “Can’t say the same for her though.”

Gordon walked over to Cobblepot noticing he had yet to get up from off his knees. “Chester, you hit?” Asked the commissioner.

“Not by bullets!”

“What the hell?” Gordon felt nauseas. Penguins face had quickly become swollen and covered in pustules.

“There is a reason she’s called Poison Ivy. Her kiss kills…,” Chester started convulsing, and coughing violently while blood poured from his nose and eyes.

“Oh Christ, we need a medic now.” Gordon ordered, but he knew it was too late. “God Damn it!” Gordon furiously yelled out. He paced back and forth across the deck of the Antarctica. The body count was climbing and he wasn’t anywhere closer to finding Joker. His men had not discovered any explosives and this night was spiraling out of control. Come on Gotham. Help me save you. Jim went inside to Penguin’s fully stocked bar and decided to make himself a drink. Jim grabbed a bottle of Gentlemen Jack and poured himself a double. He didn’t drink it, instead he stared at it, watching the sweat drip down the glass creating a puddle on the bar top. Another few seconds and he may have slung it back, instead a dispatcher’s voice squawked through the commissioner’s radio, “Central for Commissioner Gordon.”

Jim reached for the radio on his belt “Go for Gordon.”

“Jim, it’s Bullock.” The voice no longer belonged to the dispatcher. It belonged to Jim’s former partner and longtime friend Harvey Bullock. Harvey was cut from the same cloth as Jim, born to be a cop. Their only difference was that Harvey was a true born Gotham-mite. Most would say he should have retired years ago, but anybody who dared bring it up with him surely felt his wrath. One of the first changes Gordon had made when he became commissioner was promote Bullock to captain. “You need to get back to central right away!” Jim could tell he had no time to waste from the tone of the Captain’s voice.

THEN

Gotham City was spiraling out of control, half the force was on the take and organized crime ruled the streets. A madman leading a crew of criminally insane psychopaths and a group of caped crusader vigilantes led by a large man dressed as a bat were using the city as their battleground. Privately Jim was a supporter of the man the media were calling Batman, he owed the Dark Knight his life, but publicly he wasn’t in a position to go against the standing order to arrest on sight. Vigilantism was illegal according to the current administration. Gordon understood to fix the system; sometimes one needs to work outside of it. Not long after the Arkham escape when Batman saved his life, Gordon found a manifesto on his desk. Although Jim had no idea of the identity of the man under the cowl, it appeared to Gordon they both shared a common interest, and an unlikely partnership was formed. Batman and his young partner Robin spent years helping Jim not only clean up Gotham, but also eradicate corruption in the police force.

Detective Gordon felt the blast before he heard it. Almost immediately reports of an explosion near the Seaside Pier were coming in. Jim raced towards the waterfront, when he arrived on the scene, he found that the entire boardwalk housing the abandon Gotham carnival had been decimated. The plume of smoke could be seen from miles away, but luckily most of the flames had gone out. None of the structures surrounding the boardwalk survived. Jim walked through a valley of debris, his hand holding his tie over his mouth in an attempt to not breathe in the soot filled air. He saw random Gotham-mites sprawled out on the street suffering from superficial wounds attained from the blast.

“This is Gordon, get everyone down here. We have wounded.” He ordered into his radio kneeling down to check an injured woman's pulse. Faint, but there. He saw her eyes twitch. Jim caressed her blood-matted hair, “Hang on, you’ll be fine. Help is on the way.”

The sound of sirens began to fill the air. Jim checked the other victims for more survivors, thankful that there were more alive than dead. When he saw the medics approaching, Jim made his way further up the street towards the epicenter of the blast. The boardwalk was gone, it had been completely destroyed, as if it never existed. He caught movement in the corner of his eye and walked over to what remained of the arcade. Jim thought he heard a muffled sob coming from a room up ahead that somehow managed to still hold form. When he entered, his heart sank.

In front of him was a sight he could never have imagined. Batman was on his knees with the lifeless body of the Boy Wonder cradled in his arms, at least what remained of him. Jim felt sick. Joker is a God Damn monster, all these people. This child! He looked around taking the entire scene in. An army of first responders were just minutes away from covering the area. “His secret will be safe, but you need to go.”

Batman gently laid the boy down and stood up, looked at Gordon and nodded. From behind Jim, voices began to yell out orders and directions. Jim turned to wave off an officer calling out to him and when he turned back Batman was gone.

Jim made sure that Jason Todd was among the names of victims belonging to the Joker. He would be one of the many innocent bystanders who lost their lives in another attack on the city by the clown prince of evil. Later, after Jim learned Robin’s name was Jason Todd, he chose not to investigate further knowing it would possibly lead to Batman’s true identity. I don’t want to know who he is.

Jim respected the silent partnership formed between himself and Batman. On multiple occasions, Jim had taken advantage of the Dark Knights help and in return made sure he always could evade arrest. Meanwhile Jim began to position Batman as an ally for the rest of the department. He continuously stressed Batman’s nonlethal approach at every briefing and eventually found success in swaying others to his way of thinking. The Joker’s assaults were steadily getting worse and more violent with each attack and there were quite a number of police officers that owed their life to the Batman.

An anonymous benefactor donated a Klieg Searchlight specially modified with a bat symbol centered on it. Its main purpose was for Gotham’s underworld to know the Dark Knight was out there, and he wasn’t alone. On more than one occasion Jim had encountered not only the Batman, but the Batgirl as well. At first the detective had assumed that Batman, Batgirl and Robin were a family of sorts, but he was sure Jason Todd was not the original Robin and that made him question his theory. Eventually Jim would learn the truth. Sadly it would be tragedy that would lift the veil from Gordon’s eyes.

NOW

Once in a while Jim enjoyed the power that came with his position, nobody questioned him or so much as raised a finger when he commandeered Penguin’s helicopter to race back to Central. The chopper flew low over the water and climbed higher once over land. Jim looked down on his city, an urban labyrinth filled with thousands of innocent people, all of whom could end up dead if Joker gets his way.

The chopper banked left making its way to Central passing over his daughter’s watchtower, Jim thought of the night he learned the truth. Barbara, Batgirl, Oracle!

Before the Joker’s disappearance a decade ago, the clown constantly threatened to level the city for his personal amusement. At the same time he was leaving a trail of bodies in his wake, all masked in clown make up, his crew purposely pulled heists and bank jobs that served solely as distractions.

Ever since their first confrontation Joker had been obsessed with Batman, whether it was to kill Batman or not, Jim did not know. What he did know, however, is that everyone else was collateral damage, including his daughter.

Years prior, Batman and Batgirl were rescuing hostages abducted by the Joker’s crew when Jim and the rest of Gotham’s finest arrived on the scene. Joker had set fire to a room holding six innocent bystanders just to serve as a distraction so he could escape. Batman and Batgirl chose to save the hostages allowing the Joker to get away again.

Later that night Jim decided to check in on Barbara, something about seeing those people rescued made him think about family. He called his daughter, letting her know he would be stopping by. Gordon pulled up to her apartment and heard the gunshot once he reached the front steps. Instinctively he drew his weapon and charged in. He raced up the stairwell to her floor, not sure where the shot came from. He broke into a sprint when he saw her door swung open from down the hall. Jim with his gun raised took cover next to the door and peered in. His heart sunk, Barbara was lying on the ground motionless in a pool of blood. Frantically he called into his radio for help. He was kneeling by her side, scared to touch her, but managed to find a pulse. He felt around her abdomen and found the wound, suddenly she spit up a bit of blood and grasped for breath, “Oh thank God. Hang on Barbara, stay with me. Help is on the way.”

Her eyes flickered open and closed.

“Barbara, who did this?”

Barbara managed to open her eyes. Jim was applying pressure to her wound in hopes to stop some of the bleeding.

“Joker” she managed to mutter.

“Joker?” Jim didn’t understand, he was confused, Why? Jim began to blame himself, but before passing out, Barbara muttered one more word. A word that allowed everything to fall into place. Batgirl!

Commissioner Gordon could see Bullock waiting on the GCPD rooftop just off to the side of the landing pad. Bullock was leaning up against the Bat-signal that hadn’t been used in years.

“Tell me.” Jim ordered as he made his way from the helicopter.

Bullock followed the commissioner down the stairwell to holding. “His name is Porter, Allen Porter. He’s got a rap sheet as long as Main Street. Started boosting cars at 14, moved up to B&E’s not long after. He served two years at a boot camp for trouble teens,” Bullock smirked, “apparently it didn’t take. Ended up doing two stints at Blackgate, got out three years ago and appears to have somehow managed to stay out of trouble.”

“So why is he here?” Asked Jim as they entered the holding area. Gordon could see through the two way mirror into Interrogation Room A, an obviously disheveled man sat smoking a cigarette. He was a mess. He was wearing an orange inmate jumpsuit; the police had taken all his clothing and belongings.

“We’re processing his shit as we speak, he was covered in blood.” Reported Bullock.

“Not his!” Assumed the commissioner, always the detective. He couldn’t see any visible wounds on the man. “So Who’s then?”

“His brother’s!”

“Where is the brother now?”

“Oh you’re gonna love this Jim, he’s claiming him and his brother were hired as part of a demolition crew and earlier this evening, Edward Nigma shot his brother in the face.”

“You’re kidding?” Jim asked rhetorically.

“We’re lucky the kid ain’t stupid. Realizing he’s expendable probably saved his life.”

“He realized he was a loose end!” Jim had his own realization. “He knows the locations!”

“And he’s just waiting to make a deal with you in exchange for them.” Smiled Bullock.

“You’re right…,” Jim looked at Harvey before making his way into the square interrogation room, “…not Stupid.”