Identity Theft

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batman and nightingale were taking a small break after they dealt with zsasz, as nightingale was fiddling with her gauntlet radio she hears something over the TYGER radio, " TYGER command, this is Air TYGER 7. we are approaching the designated location. the hallway is empty. thermal scans show no activity... hold on... there's a body, it appears to be naked. heat traces.. not been dead long. ah, jeez, it looks like someone's cut off his face!" and that's what caught batman's interest. batman looked at nightingale before they started heading to the location where the murder was. 

once they made it, they saw a body without a shirt and had trousers on, but the person's face was raped in bandages. " what happened here?" nightingale asks herself in horror at the sight in front of her as batman scans the body, " the victim's face has been removed and the head wrapped in bandages. there have been three murders in Gotham over the last month with eh same MO." batman said as he looked at nightingale who nodded her head, " the press has nicked named the killer the " identity thief". if he's in Arkham city, we need to track him down and stop him" nightingale said as batman nodded before looking around the crime scene. then he found a slat of blood on the ground and scanned it, " the attack left the victim bleeding profusely. the murderer is likely to have trace elements of the blood on them without realizing. I'll filter the scanner to track the victim's blood particles. that should lead me to the last person to see the victim alive. maybe even the killer himself" batman said to nightingale before they started to follow the trail of blood down the street and around the corner. 

They came to the end of the trail and saw a man cowering in fear, " why did you kill him?" nightingale asks n anger as placed her hands on her hips. " it wasn't me. I'm not a killer, I'm a plumber for god's sake. you've gotta believe me." the man said, " we don't have to believe anything. tell me what you saw." batman said. " there was this guy. he dropped the body there. he was weird looking, you won't believe me but... well, he looked like bruce Wayne" the man said as nightingale and batman's eyes go wide with shock and disbelieve, " what?!" nighitngale asks in horror as she looked at batman in shock and confusion. " I know. someone must have got to him. he was covered in cuts and bruises but I'm sure it was him. the poor guy must have a target the size of Gotham city painted on him. looked like he's been attacked by pretty much everyone in Arkham." the man said before nightingale nodded to the man and waved him off. 

as the man ran off, nightingale turned around, away from bruce as she sighs, " this doesn't make sense." nighitngale said in fear and shock, " it wasn't you. I was with you all night" she said as she looked at batman, " bruce, tell me you didn't do this while I was with the league. please -" catlin started but batman stops her as he takes her arms in his hards, " I didn't do anything. something isn't right. we will find out what's going on I promise." he said as catlin calmed down. she takes deeps breaths and nodded her head, " okay." she said before they kept looking for more bodies. 

 as the night went by, batman and nightingale found another body in an alleyway. " looks like another victim of the "identity thief". nightingale said as batman scans the body for the cause of death, " the M.O. is the same as for the previous victim." he said as he turned to face nightingale was hugged herself in fear but tried to calm her mind of the thoughts her had, " first the killer paralyzes the vocal chords and then removes the face before banding up the head." he finished as nightingale nodded her head slowly, " it's definitely him and it looks like he's stepping up his attacks. a crime with this level of precision requires weeks of premeditation. these aren't just random attacks" she said as batman found a medical knife on the ground, he scans it for fingerprints before sending them to (Y/N) who was sitting in her room as she was watching a movie until her laptop started beeping. she sighs before placing the laptop on her lap and clicked the keypad. 

" (Y/N), I've reconstructed a clean set of fingerprints, but there's no match to anything in the Gotham criminal databases. I'm uploading the prints to you now. check these against every record in the country." batman said as (Y/N) went through the system to find a match, she found one but something wasn't right. " dad, I've found a match for the print, but there must be a mistake. this can't be correct" she said. " who do the prints belong to?" he asks as he looked at nighitngale was listening in through her ear-peace as she held her breath. "  you. these are Bruce Wayne's fingerprints. how is that possible?" (Y/N) asks as batman looked to see nightingale had grappled up to the rooftop in fear. batman goes after her, " catlin, wait!" he called out before catching up with her, he grabbed her arm making her turn to face him. " catlin, listen to me. I have no idea how my fingerprints are on there" he explained but catlin shakes her head, " Bruce, I don't know how to say this, but..." she started but she was scared as batman said calmly, " what's wrong, catlin>" he asks.

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