Dynasty: A Batman Tale - Part 6

NOW

Pruitt Tower had once been the tallest buildings in Gotham, though over time the city’s skyline continued to rise leaving the conical roofed building in the shadow of Gotham’s newer sky-scrappers. The building’s tenants were made up of five small commercial businesses housed on the first two floors. Four major law firms occupied three levels each and while floors 19 through 23 were vacant, ELCARO Securities filled the top three, but the only way to reach the twenty-fourth floor was by private elevator in which none of the people working in the building had ever seen used.

Barbara rarely left the tower and when she did, it was after hours when all the other people had gone home. Her work was here. The tower was her home. The three floors that made up her watchtower were hollowed out as a loft. The south end of the space was built as Barbara’s home, but most of her time was spent in the cage. That’s what she called the 72 monitors racked in the shape of a cyclone, consisting of live feeds coming in from all fifty-six strategically placed cameras around the city. Four monitors were divided into eight smaller screens making up the tower’s thirty-two cameras. The rest were filled with data, images and decryption programs, but all of her attention was focused on the six in the center, five of which were videos of exploding clowns. The sixth screen continuously replayed Tim Drake’s abduction from Freeze. Barbara was analyzing the video, cross-referencing both suspects, the man in the Fedora and the cartwheeling murderer with every database in the world.

The message that had been delivered to the police claimed to be from the Joker. If Joker is back! There never was any definitive proof that he was dead, but if it is him. Where’s he been? Why now? It doesn’t make any sense. Barbara knew if Joker was indeed back, Tim’s situation was dire. He may be the Red Robin, but he’s still human. The computer was flashing through faces, but taking a long time. She’s moving so fast the computer’s having a hard time capturing her image. Suddenly the flashes stopped, an alarm sounded and the word MATCH appeared on the screen. The photo that had popped up was Harley Quinn’s mug shot. Any hope Barbara had slowly began to fade. We’re in trouble.

She punched Bruce’s phone number into her chair’s keyboard, but couldn’t reach him, so instead decided, although hesitant, to call the main house line of Wayne Manor. Bruce you’re leaving me no choice, but I know Alfred will answer. “Alfred, it’s Oracle. Barbara. Is he available?”

“I’m terribly sorry Ms. Gordon, Master Bruce is unavailabl. What message can I relay?”

“Alfred, is he aware of what’s happening?” Of course he’s aware of the situation, he’s Batman.

“I assure you Ms. Gordon, he is quite aware of the present situation.” Great, then what’s his plan?

“Alfred it’s urgent I speak with him.” Barbara disconnected the call and focused in on Tim’s abduction video. She couldn’t remember the last time she had felt this helpless. Her finger continuously scrolling the system track pad rewinding the incident, and watching it over and over again. She could no longer hold back the tears. Barbara allowed herself a few minutes to be emotional, then she dried her face and took a deep breath. What’s next? Just as the thought crossed her mind the phone rang. “Oracle” she answered.

“Ms. Gordon, Master Bruce will be in contact. For now, he requests for you to track down the location of Oswald Chesterfield Cobbelpot.”

THEN

While most girls her age were playing with their dolls and hosting sleepover parties, Barbara preferred taking apart anything with a circuit board. Any type of gadget or computer she could get her hands on, she would strip down and put back together, most of the time finding a way to improve the desired function.

Having a single father who happened to also be a police officer, left little room in her life for girly things. She looked forward to her dad coming home from work and though he censored most details, he would tell her stories from his day. She found all his tales terribly exciting and had decided at an early age to follow in her father’s footstep. Upon telling him her dream of becoming a cop, Jim had made her promise she would do just the opposite. He did not want his only daughter becoming a cop.

He may have edited the violent content from his job out of the stories he told, but he was very honest about the corruption he faced everyday. Barbara was exceptionally smart and observant, she knew her father was one of very few good clean police officers in Gotham City. Late at night Barbara would hear the sobbing prayers coming from his bedroom, begging for the strength to protect his daughter while saving the city. One night she overheard an argument between Jim and another detective. They were standing outside the front of the house; the detective was trying to force a small brown paper bag into her father’s hand. When he refused to take it, the other detective got very angry, raising his voice and pointing his finger in Jim’s face. She heard him yelling something about her dad keeping his nose clean and that he’d better no rock any boats. Jim had looked up as the detective was saying this and saw Barbara quickly duck away from the window.

Soon after that the nightly stories stopped, however, Barbara’s dream of becoming a detective did not. Not until she was thirteen when a new story began to emerge and though at first her father refused to speak of it, she had seen the headlines and read the stories about a man dressed in black armor dawning a cape and cowl flying across Gotham’s rooftops. He had be responsible for foiling a break-in at Gotham National Bank leaving the three alleged burglars tied up waiting for police. Witnesses of which there were few had different accounts for what they thought they saw. A woman working late in the department store across the street claimed to have seen what she thought was a Knight in dark armor and cape, she said his helmet had two horns and covered his eyes. A homeless man who made the alley behind the bank his home boasted about a large bat with giant wings.

In the following weeks and months more stories were reported about an alleged batman terrorizing Gotham’s criminals. No longer did she want to be a cop like her dad. She loved her father, but his hands were tied in his job. Whereas the Batman was reigning down deserved justice upon Gotham’s underworld. As Barbara grew older she was able to get her father to open up and speak about the vigilante, admitting the Batman was more help than hinder. The Batman made sense to Barbara Gordon, and she was determined to fight the cities injustice the same way.

NOW

Barbara had finished gathering and transmitting the intel regarding Cobbelpot's location to Bruce, she decided perhaps it would be wise to forward the dossier to Dick as well. He had been cleaning up Gotham’s sister city Blüdhaven for the last decade. Better safe than sorry. She disconnected her wheelchair from the Cage’s console and rolled herself into the kitchen. She prepared herself a cup of tea to help calm her nerves; the sudden threat against Gotham had quite an effect on her.

The Joker may be one of the most dangerous men on the planet and although he’s tried to make Gotham his personal playground for so long, most of Gotham’s citizens had never seen him. Not many people survive a meeting with the Joker! Nobody can truly fathom how evil he is. Barbara had looked into the Joker’s red eyes and she’d seen the fire burning inside them. She saw the raging psychotic madness that stirred inside of his pupils. She had felt his hot breath exhaling from through the scarred smile grinning wide allowing his yellow stained teeth to glow. Most people end up dead when they come across the Joker, nobody walks away, including her. She rolled herself back to the cage and plugged her chair back into the console.