Batman: Punishing Gotham - Part 8

If you have not read before here is a link to Batman: Punishing Gotham - 1  The Fan-Fic below is rated M for gore and language partial nudity and such. Alright so its about 6 am down here and I haven't slept so I have no idea how I got through this one and its pretty long too (Uh sounds dirty :P) So I guess I must be really awesome.. and Im being modest. Seriously though, I hope you enjoy.
 
Inside the Hotel Gemini, the place almost looks as though it is once again open for business. There are men and women in the lounge and the bar. The place is lit with numerous candles and oil lamps. Walking through the bar, a woman on either arm, is Harvey Dent. Better known as Two Face, he wears a custom made suit which is white on one side and black on the other. His left hand and the left side of his face are horribly scarred by acid. Even the hair on one side of his head had turned white.

The women on his arm are identical twins. Former adult film stars, they go by their stage names of Sodom and Gomorrah. They were blackballed from the adult film industry when their drug fueled partying ways made them unreliable on set. They then turned to a life of crime in order to feed their drug habits. That is where they first met Two Face. Now they remain by his side as his arm candy, as long as he maintains their steady supply of drugs.

"So," says Two Face to one of his men, "How's business?"

"Pretty good, boss," says the thug, "We got money comin' in from drugs, racketeering, and prostitution. Penguin's givin' us a good deal on all our stolen merchandise. As long as The Bat don't shut us down, we're lookin' at makin' a tidy profit."

"I ain't worried about The Bat," says Two Face, "It's this new guy. He don't pull no punches. You put extra men on security detail like I told you?"

"Sure did, boss," says the thug, "Recruited a whole damn street gang. Got 'em dressed up in stolen security uniforms so they look legit. And everyone here is packin'. If someone gets past the boys outside, there'll be Hell waitin' for 'em when they get in here."

"Good," says Two Face, "Keep it up. We're going to my room. And we're not to be disturbed."

"You got it, boss."

Two Face, Sodom, and Gomorrah leave the hired thugs to their work. Outside, one of the fake security guards stops to light a cigarette. As the flame from his windproof lighter touches the end of the cigarette, and the smoke flares to life, a muzzle flash flares in the distance and the guard's life is snuffed out. Another guard walks around the corner. He sees his buddy lying on the ground. Quick as he can, he reaches for his radio. He isn't quicker than a bullet though, and he's soon lying next to his dead friend. A third guard comes around the corner and takes a bullet to the head, joining his companions in death.

The Punisher puts his rifle away and sprints across the empty parking lot. He takes out his silenced Beretta.9 mm handgun and creeps about the perimeter of the building. One by one he discovers gangbangers wearing stolen security uniforms. One by one, he guns them down. Soon, all of the perimeter guards have been eliminated. The Punisher removes his leather trench coat and puts on the hat and coat of one of the guards he had just killed. He then turns and heads for the main doors.

Inside, two thugs are sitting in the hall outside the lounge playing cards. One of them looks up to see what he believes is one of the hired street gang members from outside approaching them.

"You're supposed to call in on the radio," he says to the him, "Why ain't ya outside?"

Instead of answering, The Punisher simply pulls out his Beretta and shoots each man through the head. Then the vigilante removes his disguise and pulls out an M-203 machine gun with attached grenade launcher. He kicks open the lounge doors and walks in firing. The first few hired thugs went down quickly as the attack happened too quickly for them to react. Once they had regained their composure, they all started pulling out weapons and firing back. Having no delusions of invulnerability, The Punisher makes a dash towards the bar, firing at the thugs as he runs. Just as he reaches the bar, Frank pauses long enough to launch the grenade, killing several thugs who had clustered behind the same cover.

The Punisher dives behind the bar, where he discovers another thug hiding from the carnage. Frank pulls out his Smith & Wesson 500 revolver and shoots the thug right between the eyes. Bottles and mirrored glass shatter all over Castle as the remaining thugs all shoot up the bar. Frank calmly reloads the grenade launcher and pops a fresh clip into the rifle. He then takes out a hand grenade, pulls the pin, and tosses it out at the thugs. The grenade explodes, causing as much confusion as actual damage. The second the explosion ends, Frank pops up behind the bar shooting at will. After the initial assault and the two grenades, there are very few thugs left. As most of them have no formal training in weapons or military tactics, their aim is less than perfect and their discipline is nonexistent. The last few thugs fall easily to The Punisher's superior marksmanship. The stereo equipment explodes, killing the thugs hiding behind it. Frank Castle then takes out an emergency road flare, lights it, tosses it onto the floor behind the bar, and walks away. With all of the broken bottles of potent liquor scattered about, the flames soon spread and grow very high.

While Two Face's soldiers had The Punisher pinned down, one of the thugs managed to run out of the lounge. He runs up the stairs two at a time. Eventually he slows down, climbing the stairs one at a time, huffing and puffing.

"He had . . . to take . . . the twentieth . . . floor." he says.

He notices that the shooting downstairs had stopped. He figures that means that the fight's over, although who won he's not sure. Not willing to wait and find out, just in case it wasn't his fellow enforcers, he picks up the pace. Finally he makes it to the twentieth floor. There are two guards on this floor. They're large, muscular identical twins. Once they were pro wrestlers, but like the twin porn stars, their heavy partying prematurely ended a promising career. Now they feed their massive drug habits, which among other things includes Bane's super steroid known as Venom.

"What the Hell's goin' on down there?" asks one twin.

"Sounds like World War III," says the other.

"That . . . vigilante," says the thug, "The one . . . killin' everyone . . . He's . . . here."

"So he's dead?" asks one of the twins.

"Dunno . . . maybe," admits the thug, "Or . . . he might . . . be on . . . his way up."

"Should we wake the boss?" asks one twin.

"He said he didn't want to be disturbed," says the other.

"Does he want to be shot on his feet, or in his bed?" asks the thug who had just managed to catch his breath.

"Why?" asks the first twin.

"Because whoever this guy is in the skull shirt is, I doubt that he'll care if Two Face is awake or asleep when he shoots him in the face."

"Good point," says the twin.

He takes a moment, a deep breath, then knocks on Two Face's door.

"What is it?" asks Two Face, "I specifically said NO INTERUPTIONS!"

"The killer vigilante," says the twin, "I think he's on his way up."

"Then stop him!" says Two Face, "What do you think I'm payin' you for?"

"Right boss!"

The twin pulls out his syringe of Venom and injects it into his arm. His brother quickly does likewise. They both pull out pump action 12 gauge shotguns, and aim them down the hall. The thug who ran up the stairs to warn them pulls out a .44 magnum and aims it down the the hall as well. Minutes later they see a figure coming around the corner. They quickly open fire on him, emptying their weapons at the vigilante. They quickly start reloading their weapons. As they try to finish loading the guns, The Punisher steps out into the hallway. He had managed to duck out of their line of fire and waited for them to reload. He aims his grenade launcher down the hall at the thugs and fires, killing all three of them.

The Punisher drops his M-203 automatic assault rifle, draws his Smith & Wesson 500, and walks down the hall. The door to Two Face's suite has been blown off its hinges. Castle walks through the door. Sodom and Gomorrah are standing there, in their underwear, in fighting stances. Two Face is behind them, wearing his dress shirt and boxers, holding a double barreled shotgun.

"We warn you!" says Sodom.

"We know karate!" adds Gomorrah.

The Punisher shoots them each in the head. "I know Smith & Wesson," he says.

"You son of a bitch!" shouts Two Face, and he empties both barrels into the skull emblem on his chest.

Frank slams against the wall and slides down to the floor. Two Face breaks open the shotgun and empties the spent shells. Pulling two fresh shells out of his breast pocket, he reloads the shotgun. The second he snaps the shotgun closed, Castle raises his revolver and empties the last three bullets into Dent's chest. The force of the gunshots knocks Two Face right out of the Presidential Suite window, to fall twenty stories down to the concrete below. As Frank gets back to his feet, he can hear police and firetruck sirens in the distance and getting louder. The vigilante holsters his revolver, grabs his assault rifle, and heads up to the roof. He climbs down the fire escape, runs to The Battle Van, and drives off as fast as he can without drawing suspicion to himself.

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