Chapter 1 - Burning sky
Year 2XXX/04/02, Gotham city, Aquinas High School.
When the door opened while everyone was focused on their exams, Isaac Stradaniya knew something was off. 'No fucking way', he thought as hot metals pierced his desk grazing his legs unlike his neighbor mike, who fell on the ground as everyone screamed for their lives.
Not bothering with his bag, Isaac sprinted toward the left side of the classroom, avoided his class president cowered under a chair, protected his face with both arms, and crashed through the windows. Just before gravity slammed his body against the ground, Isaac saw his old friend Frank waving at him with one hand while the other pulled the trigger on a loud bang.
Seeing the familiar face Isaac hesitated, he could have tried to reason Frank but the shotgun in his hand dispel any other thoughts as well as his one-floor falling. It was that or escape through the certain death classroom door. Friend or not, he would have been finished like a dog.
Amortizing the shock first with his feet Isaac rolled forward ignoring the pain and blood covering his arms and forced his legs to push him straight toward the school's entrance. Only a dozen meters separated the gate to his previous class' building, yet it was the longest meters he felt in his life. Echoes of destroyed furniture and pleading barely registered his ears when his blood pumped hard through his vein, trying to distribute as much oxygen as fast as it could from his burning lungs.
" I don't want to die. I don't want to-die. I don't want to... I- ", Isaac closed his eyes. White headlight blinded him when a white and blue car rammed into his ribcage. The young teenager lay paralyzed on the grass next to the cherry guarding the Aquinas High School entrance. " My arm... ", dark hair stuck to his forehead glued by red and sweat.
" Look who's a bad junior here ? ", two men exited the car. One dressed in a red suit with a black jacket lited a smoke. He scanned the surrounding once before taking another cigarette, uncaring for anything else but his smoke. The other man clothed in a fast-food server's uniform walked closer to the teenager. " Skipping school at 11:30 am- such a delinquent don't you think Jonny ? ", the closest man started laughing when the smoking one shook his head.
" You know, at your age, I worked my ass every day to make old pop proud. ", the fast-food guy started singing a strange lullaby alternating between 'you know what' to 'never mind' in switching tonality and speed as he sat next to Isaac whose eyes focused on the man left pocket.
" -I knew, just like pop, you deserve a good lesson, lad, a really good lesson. ", the fast-food guy show his hand holding a grey and rust-free looking Beretta 950 Jetfire. " This little beauty might be small, but she does very well on short distance. My pop never got up after a few good round- ", the man couldn't finish his sentence when his colleague whose cigarette ended a few seconds ago slammed a wood baseball bat against the car.
" Those fat doughnuts put a tracker when we- ", the man froze as two dozen sirens howled at the same time, surrounding the high school main entrance. He didn't have the time to lift his hand high up when a red dot blinked on the man's chest and blood left his body.
" JONNY !!! ", the man in a fast-food uniform screamed at the same time as the policemen ordered him to drop his gun and lay on the ground. " STEP BACK !! STEP BACK !!! ", the man forced Isaac to stand up between him and the police force. Cold sweat wet his back. His legs struggled under his shaking. It wasn't supposed to happen like that, he whispered. Where were the other he wondered as he walked backward while his free hand dragged the teenager with him toward the closest building.
" Drop the weapon ! You're surrounded ! Leave the hostage and we won't shot ! ", a tall blond police officer waved his hand and a group of policemen with bulletproof shields forming a protective wall advanced toward the criminal followed closely by ten other policemen. " Team Delta, code BEAVER, I repeat delta code BEAVER !!! ", the officer noded when a third of the remaining men under his command sprinted toward the backside of the street to search and retrieved the unexpected variable who shot earlier.
Isaac saw the policemen getting closer despite the cornered man' shootings orders. His head started hurting from the cold barrel pressing against the back of his skull. His mind felt light and detached. He couldn't believe the situation he was in. the shock from being shot by his friend Frank mudded his senses. It was all real, and yet he never felt this unphased. Blood flowed from his arms and leg, leaving a red trail.
Living in Gotham city as the son of a middle teacher and car engineer, Isaac never confronted the city madness this close as his family placed in the upper of the middle-class category never failed to shield him till today. When he watched the news on the television, Isaac never felt connected to all the tragedies occurring in his city but now, it hit him hard. Will his parents cry when his cold corpse lay six feet underground he thought for an instant.
" Shit... ", the fast-food man pulled the trigger.
Unable to control his body, Isaac collapsed. In the corner of his sight, stood next to the policemen, a plain-looking young man with short brown hair and black eyes, wearing a brown coat, blue-grey pants and black boots. That man wasn't there before he thought as a shadow fell from the sky.
The criminal in a fast-food uniform didn't have the time to aim his gun at the newcomer when a black gauntlet reinforced with kevlar and ceramic plates fractured his jaw. Another jab punctured his lungs and forced him on his knees. With a final kick at the skull, the man fell unconscious next to the victim secured by policemen trying to keep him alive.
Batman didn't lose a second, as soon as he managed the remaining threat he jumped straight inside the school's building. Not a second later, three gunshots reverberated, followed by the fourth floor bursting red and orange fire tongues. The heat forced some policemen to raise their reinforced riot shield and deflect falling debris. A burned finger landed next to Isaac's face whose light faded slowly.
New patrol vehicles guarding ambulances and firefighters entered the Aquinas High School's ground. Ambulance's teams flooded the place, sprinting all around to give first aid while the firefighters rushed inside the building in fire to save as many students and teachers as they could before the smoke and heat turned them into corpses.
Isaac's mind barely registered the ambulancers' questions and care.
The hero exited the building lifting three people on his shoulders. None of them had the strength to get up after he placed them at safe distance in the care of the ambulancers' teams. Batman facilitated the firefighter workload with some of his oxygen deprivation capsule dissipating the fire.
" It's going to be alright, son. ", a man in his fifty wearing a worn-out but complete tactical uniform, similar to the police officer nodded to the medics treating Isaac. When he moved his sight to the damaged school, he took a deep breath. Today's event was worst than expected. If only they had better preparation he thought.
" How many, this time Batman ? I need to know. ", the Gotham police's most famous commissioner didn't react when the Batman appeared on his left. Both men had collaborated on multiple cases and since then Gordon built some resistance to the hero's quirky behavior. He no longer was startled.
" Too many. ", Batman typed short commands on his wristwatch. A list of names scrolled under his eyes, more than three hundred attached only to six different places. Under his mask, Batman frowned. News of the Joker sighting in the docks reached his ears.
" The joker's gang is courting death, they assaulted the Foxglove, the Brixman Family Jewelers, the Meyer and Hayes and three other places under the penguin protection. ", Gordon couldn't understand how his informants didn't notice such a big scale operation for today. They were either incompetent, overflown or compromised. Most probably the latter he guessed.
" What did you expect from them. They follow no logic, only chaos. ", Batman replaced a ceramic plate on his right arm protection which endured two rounds of shotgun. The plate was too damaged to keep for the next fight he planned on the docks. The Joker had to respond for his men.
" Bunch of lunatics, all of them. I wished the guy up there didn't leave this city. ", Gordon accepted a report from the blond police officer responsible for this rescuing work. We need more people, the commissioner told himself knowing in advance that his dream will be rejected by the governor despite today's event.
" No miracles. No mercy. No redemption. No heaven. No hell. No Higher Power. Just life, just... us. ", Batman tapped one last time on his watch before using grappling to fly away, closer to the Joker's supposed location. He had no second to lose, to stop the madman and put him behind the bars forever.
Gordon looked at the Batman getting further away then focused back on the report in his hands. If the information was correct, the situation was worst than whatever he anticipated since the first attack on the Foxglove. Most of the aggressors weren't even fully a member of the Joker's gang. They were victims too, forced to follow madness under the control of a new drug.
Year 2XXX/10/31, Gotham city, Gotham General Hospital
Two weeks after regaining consciousness, Isaac waited for his daily visit. The first few days, the teenager was unable to keep his focus for more than a few minutes. Staying awake in an unknown place frightened him. Stranger voices making fuzzy noise didn't help. He was kept under sedative until his parent calmed him down, both in tears.
The clock in the room indicated 19:57 pm. Soon, his father would come, thought Isaac. In the last three conversations he had with him and his mother, he tried to find out about the accident but they refused him. He knew some parts thanks to the gossip traveling the hospital but he wanted to make sure.
A man in his forty pushed the door. Dark hair like Isaac covered the man's face with a beard just as thick, the man smiled at his son before putting a new flower bouquet on the sole window of the room. The older man kissed Isaac on the forehead then sat on the border of the bed ready to speak with his son.
Like a well-repeated ritual, they started speaking about the day in Wayne Enterprise for a car engineer then about the last news of the city like the famous playboy Bruce Wayne making scandals or preparing some charity fundraising. Then they started to approach the real topic, Isaac's well-being.
" Tell me what happened that day dad. Please I want, no, I need to know. I can't sleep at night, everything is blurred but the screams and smell. ", Isaac held one hand to his mouth, resisting the urge to vomit. Whenever he fell asleep, any dreams turned into nightmares of smoke, pain and people begging for their lives before dying.
" The doctor- ", the father couldn't continue when Isaac shouted.
" IS NOT MY FATHER !!! ", Isaac slammed his fists against the bed mattress. He tried to speak with the doctors and the psychiatrist but none of them accepted. It was for his health they said. In Isaac's eyes, it seems more like they didn't have the time nor the wish to. The hospital never stopped welcoming and treating new patients every day, every night. It didn't have enough personnel for everything, all was done in hurry.
" Sorry. Sorry. I-can't. It will make things worst for you... ", The older man was interrupted again by his son.
" DAD !!! People talk about it, they whispered in the hallway or the nurses and doctors when they think I'm asleep. Parts and parts and parts and parts, I'm going crazy, trying to guess what I miss... LOOK AT ME DAD, look at me. ", Isaac grabbed his father's face in both hands. He was trembling but didn't look away. He could see how hard it was for him.
" Isaac... You've been shot in the head. That day, I lost you, we lost you. When we arrived, the doctors almost gave up. You, you, you died when the ambulance reached the hospital. The cardioversion didn't work, it couldn't restart your pulse. Then, bless the Lord... ", Andrew wiped his eyes. Those memories hurt, they were still fresh in his mind.
Andrew remembered how devasted he was, holding his wife in his arms, unable to do anything. Then, all stopped moving. It was silent. The doctors, the nurses, the policemen, the patients and Emma were frozen in place except for him. He heard a voice in his head. Asking him, if he was willing to pay the price for his child to live. Whatever the price Andrew thought and all returned back to normal. He didn't regret anything, whatever would be the price.
" Your body convulsed, you were alive, breathing. I was happy. It was a... miracle. Nobody could believe it. Even your injury healed, slowly but steadily for months, six long months. I visited your bed every day at 5:00 am. ", the father smiled now at those memories, waking up groggy but never stopping his small ritual. Despite his difficulty breathing sometimes, Andrew persisted and wished Isaac a good morning and talked for ten minutes before going to work.
" I prayed for you. I knew you will wake up someday. I also came the evening after work, around 20:00 pm when I could avoid long reunions or terrible traffics or your mom dinner list. ", Andrew mocked his wife, but she accompanied him every time in the evening even if this time she had some trouble with the traffic.
" Thank dad, now I understand better. But, you have to tell me about the accident. You can't hide it. When I will leave this place, I will find it anyway. I just prefer, if it's you who tell me. ", the teenager rested his back against his pillows. Soon he would leave this bed, but not today, he calmed a bit.
" Isaac, your friend Frank. He, he used to be a nice and kind kid. I remembered when I taught him how to swim with you in the piscine. Both of you were so young and innocent. ", Andrew caught a short smirk on his son's face. " I don't know the exact details, poor kid. Frank, since last year, he joined a new community and frequented the wrong people, that's why he stopped coming to school. ", Andrew stopped a moment to crack his neck. For the day he had to look up to fix an engine and his neck was still stiff. " He is still under some disillusions, but the day of the incident, he and members of the same gang assaulted many places of which Aquinas High School. The rest, you can guess it. ", Andrew hoped that would suffice but he knew it wouldn't.
" And the man ? ", Isaac pleaded. That was the most important information he needed.
Andrew took a deep breath. He hesitated. What should he do ? " I wished you forgot about him. Isaac, listen to me. You can't forget, but you have to be the better man and forgive. ", Andrew wished things could be different. He felt hypocritical, he asked for things he couldn't do himself. He hoped for Isaac to learn from his past mistakes.
" WHAT ?!! ", Isaac jerked back in one instant.
" I know it's- ", Andrew avoided the flying remote controller.
" YOU DON'T KNOW SHIT !!! IT'S NOT YOU WHOSE BRAIN SPLATTERED ON GROUND !!! YOU DON'T KNOW, YOU DON'T KNOW, YOU DON'T know. ", Isaac took a deep breath. His throat was dry and sore. His body still didn't recover enough to leave his bed nor to speak for long. He closed his eyes.
When the bullet pierced his skull, Isaac recalled the smell of iron and dirt. Superposing with a blurred sight, memories from his childhood he had forgotten long ago played till the moment he collapsed then it played backward till it stopped on pure darkness. Nothingness from memories that didn't exist, when he wasn't even born. Death or his perception of this concept he didn't know.
Isaac brushed away those uncomfortable feelings. He wanted to shout more, to scream until he had no more voice, until he broke down completely, until he escaped from his body.
" True, true Isaac. I don't know. I'll probably never know. Just listen to me. listen to me, I don't want to lose you again. I know you'll try something foolish when you'll recover. It broke me, seeing you motionless with a fucking hole through the skull. Violence birth more violence, just look at the city, it never stops. Only forgiveness and love can stop this madness. I sound desperate because I am. I, I... ", Andrew looked down.
Isaac forfeited any strength in his body and dived back into the mattress. He fixed the ceiling. For a full minute silence reigned in the room. " Dad, I'm not sure if I'm alive right now. ", Isaac whispered.
" ...Isaac. ", Andrew hugged his son. With care and force, his arms tried to transmit his love and protectiveness to the child. Under his embrace, Isaac's body never felt this frail, so light, so thin, so fragile thought Andrew. Telling or hiding the truth would hurt in both cases, there was no good choice. When he felt his son calmer, Andrew took a second to prepare himself.
" The man who shot you is called Peter Stumpp. Thirty-seven years old, known by the police for many crimes, thievery, aggression and murder. He was arrested with others, after a long process, he and some were condemned for the death penalty but... Last month he escaped and no news since then. ", Andrew didn't need to add anything. He knew his son would understand after reading the news. Gotham deserved to be called the worst city in the United States.
Isaac stared at the older man. He gritted his teeth. Life was unfair, he knew it. In his comfortable family, he was protected from most of the city's danger but it worsened each year. Criminals grew bigger, stronger even with the appearance of Batman. The man was even a cause of the rise of new criminal heads like the Joker.
If only the police had better equipment, if only the justice worked faster, if only the death penalty was exercised for once instead of being replaced by either life imprisonment or sent to the new therapy for the 'New Man Program' in both cases the criminal escaped in few months, Isaac thought.
Mobsters from the Falcon family or hired guns from Black Mask still walked free through Gotham streets and worked with different bosses even after Batman dealt with them. If those people like Peter Stumpp were correctly punished the first time there would have been no second, nor third nor any more crime from them, Isaac coughed. His body needed rest.
" It's been a long evening son, your mom will arrive anytime soon. ", Andrew looked at the clock then at his phone. There were two missed calls, one from his wife Emma and the other one from his manager.
" Thank dad. ", Isaac was glad his father trust him and answer everything even if it was painful. " I love you dad. ", Isaac said from the bottom of his heart.
" Me too son, me too. ", Andrew caressed the head of his child. The dark hair both shared was the only similarity Isaac inherited thought Andrew as mentally and physiologically Isaac was way closer to Emma. He, Andrew was a tall black-haired man with a kind face and a bit on the bigger size while Isaac and Emma were both green eyes thin knife with an unfriendly attitude to others and sickly pale bodies.
After listening to the messaging, Andrew replied to his wife he wouldn't sleep at home tonight as the new engine at work needed and emergency fixup. Stuff like that was forced to happen, Andrew knew it when he started working with the team to make an engine able to speed up and break the sound speed which is at 1234,8 km/h when the world record for a car engine reached 1227.985 km/h.
After Andrew bid goodnight to Isaac, Emma visited her son half an hour later. Roads and traffics were perturbed greatly by another Gotham special event. Giant plants for no reason started to grow in the city center, demolishing the asphalt, concrete and sideways when it didn't target the citizens.
Year 2XXX/12/07, Gotham city, Gotham General Hospital
In the ward for reeducation stood Isaac sweating a lot as he finished his seance to build back his muscle mass. He no longer looked like a living skeleton. A big smile plastered his face. He finally did all the exercises with no more difficulty for any move even if his endurance was still lacking.
The teenager almost jumped out when a soft hand landed on his shoulder. A woman in her thirty with brown hair, same green eyes and thin trait smacked her lips on Isaac's cheeks, leaving a trailing red lipstick mark. She loved when her son looked so embarrassed.
" My little Isaac is no more so little, just look at you now. ", Emma faked searching for something with her hands in binoculars. " Where's my little cry baby ? ", she looked in distress, hugging Isaac. " Have you seen him sir ? ", Emma walked her son to the ward corner where there was a clean and unoccupied bench. Her school bag was a bit heavy with all copies of her students she needed to grade at night.
While Isaac recuperated next to her, she fed him some chocolate bars from his favorite brand with 60% sugar proportion which impressed her as it only tasted like sugar for her. This time, school lasted only half-day and no accident occurred in the city so she happily came in time for her baby boy, surprising him too.
Both chatted for a while. It was far more relaxed than the first time when Isaac couldn't respond except by a few words or a small nod as his body didn't have the strength for more.
" You know you can talk to me. There is no need to make that face Isaac. You know I know. Why are you, so, so desperate. This is no healthy behavior Isaac. ", Emma wrapped her left arm over her son. According to the doctor, he trained beyond the recommended session in his bedroom. If it continued, it could affect his recuperation, but he didn't listen.
" I'm not Andrew, I can't understand you as well as he does, but, I love you just as much if not much more. I'm just worried. ", the mother rested her head on the tired shoulder. " Promised me you'll be a good boy. Don't forget to rest. ", Emma took Isaac's hand in her own, comforting them.
" I love you mom. ", Isaac felt some heat rising.
He didn't have the time to move one inch when the windows' glasses shattered. The moment both Stradaniya turned their heads, the street-side wall exploded from top to bottom as a red laser traced burning lines through the hospital. The shockwave propelled the duo across the ward.
Despite his fatigue, Isaac holding his mother's hand, sprinted toward the damaged door. It was the only exit. He didn't want to stay in a place trembling each passing second. He was five meters away from the door when the floor crumbled. By instinct, he hugged his mother while they fell.
His back hit a green bedsheet from the floor under his previous ward. A nurse in panic screamed. A patient's bottom laid on her feet, the other part nowhere to see. Another explosion shook the building. The street below, filled with abandoned cars and running citizens wasn't in better shape. Isaac noticed a deep trace scorching the street as well as the hospital, the bank and buildings on the other side.
" Come on mom, we gotta move. To somewhere safe. NOW ! ", Isaac cursed his lack of strength. Alone, he couldn't move Emma away from the disastrous sight. " MOM !!! ", the shout helped the mother to regain her focus. Isaac didn't try to reason the nurse, he didn't have the time nor the energy when he felt the earth-shaking and his city burning.
From two streets away a twenty floors Wayne Enterprise building crashed down after two figures pierced the metal structure like butter. Isaac couldn't follow the two figures, only the massive damage they caused, each time they clashed cars went flying, walls exploded or edifices like roads were cut open with a red laser.
In the hospital, the doctors as well the nurses and other medics tried to gather all the patients, family, and visitors outside as the place was going down. Fire and smoke started erupting. Isaac and Emma passed before the lift but didn't even try to take it, they moved through the masses and reach the exit stairs.
Isaac tried his best to focus only on the way to get out alive. All the screams, the smell, it was way too familiar. Hopefully this time he wasn't alone, it wasn't like before, there was his mother, it was different, he would survive without dying, they would be fine he repeated in his head, ignoring the corpses, stepping on the red marks, avoiding the fire.
When he finally exited the stairs and reached the outside, Isaac took a deep breath. He was alive. Loud roars filled the sky. Tracing a white trail in the sky, three military aircrafts scouted the city from above. Emma opened wide her eyes. The last time she saw those models in the sky it went very bad. Without wasting any second, she looked at the damaged street.
Among the hospital's parking was a blue BMW 3-Series whose hood supported a fallen street lamp. The car's light winked at the Stradaniya family members. Despite the external damages and missing glasses, the car started without any problem when Emma put the keys in. The previous roar came back in the sky.
" ...repeat this is code red. We repeat, the city is under attack from a foreign force. All citizens are to gather in the closest shelters, air support will retaliate in ten minutes. We repeat this is code re... ", the radio message appeared on any channels. Isaac gulped.
On the third street branch, Isaac saw the Gotham City Bank in the New Town district whose walls collapsed, leaving an open entrance for some local greedy and foolish robbers. The police weren't enough in normal time, now the city was under chaos, this kind of scene repeated six times on their way to the shelter.
When the car reached the Bamonte's Restaurant, four men with clown masks blocked the road. " Mom, what are you doing ? Mom, we can find another way. ", Isaac stopped talking and attached his security belt as the car accelerated and bright light from the phare blind the disguised men. Crazy or not, three of them had the time to throw themself away when the car passed through them.
At the same time, the BMW rammed into one of the clowns, the military aircrafts in the sky shot missiles to the city center. A blast of hot air washed Isaac's face just before the three planes explodes painting the sky red. Burning debris fell while paper and gas iginited above their heads. The shelter was almost there. They only needed to cross the street filled with abandoned vehicles.
Almost deaf for a full minute, Isaac descended the car when it stopped and vomited. Emma left the car like the previous conductors and led her son in the safe shelter. There were no questions asked when they entered after they moved into the waiting line. Just like them, groups of three or more had choosen that shelter among the fives across the city.
Another earthquake shook the street but the shelter resisted it with no damaged.