Gotham Knight: Dying of Laughter

Chapter 19

Chapter 19: Epilogue

A scrawny, black haired man in his mid 30's stood at the abandoned Gotham International Airport hangar, looking anxiously at his watch.

All of a sudden, a car pulled up to the warehouse. Three hulking bodyguards exited the vehicle along with a young man in a long trenchcoat over an expensive gray suit.

"Going somewhere, Falcone?" The young Englishman asked.

Alberto Falcone put out his cigarette and shivered.

"J-Just taking a v-vacation."

Oz Cobblepot looked at him and nodded patronizingly.

"Uh-huh, with your briefcase packed full of me old man's money, I bet. And I doubt Mario will be 'appy when I tell 'im what you did. He might be the most reasonable member of the Falcone family, but as someone who grew up on the streets, I know just how valuable money really is."

They could hear a plane approaching as Oz cracked his knuckles and stretched his arms.

"Y'see, I don't like what your father, Maroni and the Joker have done with this city and I don't like what my dad has planned either. So I made a few deals of my own."

The plane landed and stopped at the hangar. The door opened and a ladder came down as a bunch of mercenaries wearing luchadore masks exited the plane, followed by another. The man was tall, about 6'8 ft tall, and his mask was different from the others. Over the luchadore mask was another mask, resembling a gas mask. The tubes on the mask, located where the mouth would be, slightly resembled teeth.

"I am so sorry," Oz then said before pulling a gun and shooting Falcone.

"We can't have any witnesses."

The tall man finally spoke.

"So this is Gotham? I must say, I find it...underwhelming."

He spoke in a deep voice with a thick Latino accent.

Oz smirked. "Welcome to Gotham, Bane."

-

Duela exhausted all her favors with her mother's co-workers and with Gordon to find files on the Joker and some DNA tests. After days of going through all the info the GCPD had on the Joker, she visited a young man in Blackgate Penitentiary.

"You probably don't know me, so let me start by introducing myself. My name is Duela Dent."

The boy, around 19, simply smirked.

"Any relation to the fallen district attorney?"

Duela nodded. "Yes, but that's not why I'm here, Lonnie."

She looked at her notes. Lonnie Machin's file had already answered her questions, but she needed to hear it from him.

"Did you ever meet your parents?"

Machin shook his head. "My mother left me at an orphanage when I was three. Never met my father."

Duela sighed a little, frowning. "I'm sorry. I wish I'd never met my father. Up until a few months ago, I enjoyed fantasizing about what it'd be like to meet him, until I did and almost killed him. Didn't take me long to notice that I was subconsciously becoming more like him."

She said, revealing scars at the corners of her mouth, giving it a smile-like appearance. Lonnie started acting uneasy.

"So the Joker's your father? Okay, but what does that have to do with me?"

Duela's green eyes met his through the glass and she smiled a little.

"I think you know exactly what it means...brother."

-

Batman sat in the Batcave, staring at the Batcomputer's monitor, when he heard a wooshing sound coming from behind him. Jason, wearing his new Robin uniform, stared in awe as he could barely make out a red streak coming from the tunnels out of the Cave. The streak then took the form of a man in a blue outfit with a bright red cape.

"Clark," Bruce said without turning around.

"Bruce, I need your help," the man said, his face painted with a rare terrified expression. Bruce turned around and looked at the man of steel in front of him.

"What can be so bad that Superman would need my help with it?"

Clark looked at him worriedly.

"I think the two of us won't be enough. This could destroy the entire world."

Bruce turned back to the monitor and clicked a file on the Batcomputer's mainframe. Three symbols appeared. A lightning bolt, something resembling a yellow arrow in the shape of an A and a golden symbol in the shape of two W's.

"I've been tracking these three for the past year. Of all the metahumans popping up, these people seem to mainly use their gifts to save and protect people. Perhaps, it's time to go pay them a visit."