Red X
Ch09
It takes only three days for Bruce Wayne to recover from his bullet wound to the shoulder. He feels relieved that he will now be able to begin taking down the people who escaped a breakout from Arkham Asylum. Apparently a series of bombs went off inside the asylum while he was busy elsewhere and a large group of people escaped. Among the list where Twoface and Bane, who where still on the loose. Arkham had been acting as Batman by piloting the Bat Mobile around town and taking down the smaller disturbances while Bane and Twoface are in hiding. In his fight with Red X Wayne received a bullet to his shoulder and several hundred lacerations from flying X's as well as a few burns from lighting off smoke bombs a little too close to himself. Now Batman is rested and back in business.
Wayne walks down into his cave, nodding towards Arkham who spins around in his chair with a big smile on his face. "Guess what I just made." Arkham points over to a Batman costume laying out on a table. "Increased defensive plating with half of the weight of your old suit. I packed some armoured knuckles into your gloves and added a bit more striking power with some of the equipment we picked up from the Jeffries organization. I've also increased the launching speed of your grappling hooks so they can keep up with his accelerators." "Good work." Wayne looks over the suit. "Alfred helped." Arkham says as he tosses Wayne a USB. "What's this?" "The contents of the USB you gave me before. Looks like I know what our little rich boy next door is up to tomorrow night."
Wayne puts the USB into his computer and looks through the files. "If this hasn't been changed then this means that Jeffries is going to use the confusion from the breakout to bring in the largest supply of smuggled drugs to hit Gotham." "And our drop down point is tomorrow. That means that we rest up today and go for it tomorrow with full force." "Why should we rest today?" Wayne asks Arkham. "You just got out of bed from bullet wounds and high blood loos." Arkham gives him a look as he taps at the Bat Computer. "Take the night to get used to the new suit and check out any bumps you might have in that shoulder. If you go out now you'll be tired for tomorrow and more likely to get another injury from the criminals out there. I called in Batgirl and Batman version two. They can take this and give us backup when all hell breaks loose tomorow." "Maybe I should have gotten a secretary a long time ago." Wayne says. "You take the night off too and you have a deal." "Deal."
The day goes as planned. Dick Grayson and Stephanie Brown take care of the city while Wayne and Arkham rest up for the big day. Then it happens.
The drop off day arrives and a rush of crime erupts over Gotham. It gets so bad that Arkham calls in Catwoman and Huntress as well as Robin and Red Robin to help take care of the crisis. All this time Batman has been watching the harbour.
When the three boats arrive at Gotham harbour Twoface and Bane come to greet them as well as the older Jeffries who begins ordering the crew around. Batman calls in to Arkham who already has Grayson and Drake moving towards his position. Now they begin their attack.
Batman makes the first move by tossing knockout gas into the area at certain points to prevent escape. His goal is to make certain that the drugs stay on the ship so Gordon and his men can take it into police custody. Gordon's men appear just in time to close off any escape routes not covered in gas. "I thought you'd be here." Jeffries calls out to Batman who found his way onto one of the ships. "But now you're dead." Batman is surrounded by the ships crew who are obviously under the influence of the Xenothium drug. "So, that's what you're doing." Batman says. "Having your son lure me out with this and then taking me out." "Kyle told me you where looking for me so I should lead you here where we can finish you." "What?" Batman is confused. He'd never had his eye on Jeffries head. He begins to see another underlying web. "It seems you where set up Jeffries." He says. "I don't think so." The fat pig of a man lights a cigar and takes a gun from his pocket. "That little S#!+ of a son might've been born from that skank but he's got my blood too. He turned out to be so useful. I guess I made the right choice in not getting rid of him as a child." Things start falling into place. Unanswered questions die off as new ones grow in their place. Batman tries to talk to Jeffries but is hit with a devastating fist from the side. "You've seen what Xenothium can do to a person who takes the drug in a higher does that recommended, haven't you?" Jeffries laughs. "See what my boy did to make these loyal lackeys even more useful? Crush the bat." He commands and the hulking creatures lumber towards Batman, who goes to jump over one but he grabs his cape and slams him into the ground with enough force to crack his back. He'd be dead if it weren't for Arkham's new suit. "Listen to me!" Batman calls out. "You don't know what you're doing!" "Like hell!" Jeffries laughs. "I made an empire back home in that S#!+ stain of a city and now I'm moving in on Gotham. Once these drugs start spreading through your streets your people will become as addicted as the junkies back home and I will build a new empire here! And the only people to link me to the crime are all here waiting to die by the hands of my Xenothium powered army! All I need to do is make sure you people die and Twoface and Bane do their jobs in spreading my drugs to the general public." "That's not what's going to happen." Batman tosses an amped up punch into the stomach of the closest ship worker and knocks him into the water. Then he takes down the rest of them with ease. One of them falls beside Jeffries who orders it to get back up. When he does the creature which used to be a man reaches up to choke him to death but one of Batman's Batarangs knocks the hand away. Jeffries runs off while Batman starts to be overpowered and tries to make his escape. "He's beating them!" Jeffries calls out.
The fat man has been running for a while and finally gets away from the rest. "This isn't how it's supposed to be. Why am I here?" He starts to panic. "This isn't how he said it would be." He spins around when he hears a step behind him. Red X walks out from the shadows and takes off his helmet. "Hello father." The younger Jeffries says with his usual serious expression. "What the hell is going on!?" Jeffries yells at his son. "You said those things could kill Batman!" Jeffries son doesn't say anything. "Talk to me you piece of S#!+!" Kyle starts to laugh. "It must be hard for you 'dad' being the helpless one this time. Watching your whole life fall around you. Seeing your death right in front of your eyes." "One of those things tried to kill me!" "The same way you tried to kill my mother?" Jeffries begins to understand now. "You knew about that?" "My mother's dead because of you." "That happened a long time ago." Jeffries tries to talk to his son. "I was the one who raised you. I took you into my home. I made you the head of my security for a multimillion dollar corporation. I'm the reason you're alive!" "And the reason my mom's dead." "Who cares about that filthy hoar! You think she's a saint but she was just a dirty B!+(* looking to scam money from me!" "You B@$+@(&!" Kyle's face contorts into an expression of pure anger. He takes out one of the X guns and goes to fire but it's knocked out of his hand by a Batarang. "That's enough Kyle." Batman tells the furious young man who raises his other gun. "Shut up!" He calls up. "This fucking pig raped my mother and tried to poison her in the hospital when she got pregnant! He killed my mother and tried to kill me before I was even born! I made it through but my mother didn't. I found out the whole story. After he failed in killing me, word got out that he had a son and he raised me out of a need to preserve his image. I've wanted him dead since I was ten years old so don't tell me I need to think this through or that I can't waste my life on this because I was born to kill him!" "I understand that's what you feel but this isn't how to get back at him. Let him be tried for his crimes." "No! He doesn't deserve a trial! He needs to die, not be pampered by a lenient justice system which tends to the rich! This whole thing was organized to drag him out to the gutters of the streets to die with the rats of the city! I'm gonna kill him slowly. I'll make him suffer like my mother did." He tightens his grip on his gun. "And I wont let you stop me."
A flurry of bombs, Batarangs, bullets and flashes erupt the alley ways as Wayne fights Kyle. Kyle launches X's from his belt, slashing at the new Bat Armour, which deflects it. Batman dives in and goes for a shot to the face but feels the sharp pain of a bullet in his lower left calve muscle. He screams out as Kyle punches his head with an amped up fist. Kyle sighs heavily under the pressure of keeping up with Batman, who punches his face repeatedly over the course of their fight as it is the only unprotected part of him at the moment. Kyle is bested by Wayne who knocks away his gun and pins him against a wall. "You're out of options." Batman tells him. "Let's take him to justice." Kyle sighs. "Thank you for trying mr.Wayne." He says with blood running down his lower lip. "But not everyone believes in your justice." Wayne looks down at Kyle's hand. A hand held X opens up and begins to light up little bulbs at its sides. "You might want to run." He tells him and Batman swats the explosive from his hand, trying to pull him along but Kyle pushes him off and out of the alley. Kyle tosses the explosive at his father, who it sticks to. The man screams in terror as the explosive beeps and he is surrounded in flames. Batman tires to go in to save Jeffries who is burning alive but Kyle goes to stop him. Batman overpowers Kyle but is too late to stop his father from dying. "He's dead?" Kyle asks Batman. "Yes." He responds, taking out handcuffs from his belt. "And you are going to jail." "I understand." Kyle holds out his arms.
The drug bust goes well from that point on. Arkham's plans kept Gordon's men one step ahead of the drug smugglers and everything was put back into place. As Kyle Jeffries is placed in one of Gordon's police vehicles to be taken to jail he looks up at Batman with his usual face and says "I knew it." "Knew what?" Batman asks. Kyle looks him dead in the eyes and smiles. "I knew could pull it off." They close the doors and drive him off. "What did that mean?" Gordon asks Batman who scowls as the final pieces begin to come together.
The Bat Mobile flies through the entrance to the cave. Batman jumps out before the platform stops spinning and runs over to the Bat Computer. What he finds is an unconscious butler in place of Alex Arkham, bandages and a note. He wakes Alfred who groans before realizing what happened. "Master Bruce. I'm afraid young master Alex" "He knocked you unconscious." "Yes sir. But I cannot understand why." Wayne picks up the letter and bandages. "This was what he used to bandage his arm after the incident with the Mad Hatter." "Why would he leave that behind?" Alfred asks getting to his feat. "To tell me that he could use his arm the whole time. If I'd known his arm was better I'd have started teaching him more martial arts moves." "Wy would that be a problem, sir?" "Because a person's way of fighting is like a finger print. He didn't want me to be on the receiving end of his fighting style. I believe it's because Red X has a habit of attacking his opponents in an X formation which he attacks with his blades and flying X's. He left this to clarify that." "Sir?" "There where so many hints. Clues he'd left behind. I can't believe I didn't see it." "Sir. Please. Don't beat yourself up over this. None of us wanted to see this happening. Master Alex was much like master Dick when he was young." "But that wasn't completely him. He used some of his own personality traits to create an alternate persona which was believable. And he played us." Wayne opens his costume chambers. "And it was all to have fun, making a fool of the Batman. He played me for sport and took a prize along with him." "What prize sir." "Take a look." Several gadgets and suits are missing. "He wanted to gain further access to the Batcave, so he could steel my suits." "Mostly Nightwing models and the older Batman armours." "He said he loved armour." Bruce sits down in his chair. "How did I let this happen? He orchestrated the whole thing." Alfred puts a hand on Wayne's shoulder. "I know sir. I was also growing fond of him."
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