The clanking of chains echoed through the Batcave. Bruce, shirtless and soaked in sweat, strained against the weight of a massive tire as he dragged it across the polished stone floor. His muscles, bruised and scarred, flexed with raw power. He finished the run and moved to the salmon ladder, ascending the rungs with practiced speed, each pull-up explosive, the iron bar rattling as he launched himself higher.
He landed, breathing heavily, then walked to the mirror.
The reflection stared back with his body chiseled by pain and discipline, bruises coloring his ribs and forearms like war paint. He could still feel the ache from the last encounter. Still feel the hits he let himself take to win.
Not enough, he thought.
Then a sharp alert cut through the silence.
He turned to the Batcomputer. Red lights flashed across the monitors. One word scrolled in block letters: BLACKGATE PRISON – BREACH.
Bruce's eyes narrowed. He walked over, pressed a panel on the desk, and the floor parted with a mechanical hum. From below rose his suit that was sleek, black, armored. The Bat.
Moments later, the Batwing roared to life and shot through the concealed exit hidden behind the waterfall that spilled over the Wayne estate cliffs. The city spread before him was Chicago, cold and gray, wrapped in mist and shadow.
He banked low toward Blackgate. Alarms blared in the distance like wailing ghosts.
The moment the Batwing hovered above the prison, he ejected. The cockpit released a pod, and Batman dropped like a missile.
He landed with a thunderous crash on the outer wall, cape snapping open like wings. Smoke hissed from the boots of his suit.
The yard was chaos.
Guards screamed.
Fifteen men that was Black Mask's crew moved like wolves, stomping and beating down the prison staff. Blood slicked the concrete.
Batman moved.
One thug swung a bat and Batman caught it mid-swing, twisted, and snapped the weapon in two. He drove his forehead into the man's face CRACK and the thug collapsed, teeth flying.
Another charged with a crowbar.
Batman sidestepped and countered with a spinning heel kick that flipped the attacker midair.
A third came from behind.
Batman, already turning, smashed his elbow into the side of the man's skull. The thug staggered and then Batman swept his leg, and the man landed on his back.
A fourth pulled a knife. Batman blocked with his gauntlet, caught the man's wrist, and drove it into the wall with enough force to break bone. The blade clattered.
Two more rushed him one with chains, one with fists.
Batman slid low between them, caught the chain's end, yanked, and spun the wielder into the other thug like a human wrecking ball.
He was surrounded now.
Seven, maybe eight left. They closed in. Coordinated.
Batman threw a flash grenade POP and the explosion blinding them.
In the split-second of confusion, he exploded forward.
Fist to throat.
Palm to sternum.
Knee to jaw.
Boot to kneecap.
Bones crunched. Bodies dropped.
One thug grabbed him from behind. Batman twisted, slammed the back of his head into the man's nose, then tossed him over his shoulder and stomped on his knee until it snapped like a twig.
He grabbed the last thug by the collar and slammed him against the wall.
"What happened here?" Batman growled through his voice modulator asking the bloody guard.
The guard, bloodied and trembling, looked up. "You're… you're real. It's Black Mask. He brought a freak show with him. It's chaos in there."
Batman nodded. "Stay down. Call CPD."
He walked deeper into Blackgate.
Dead guards lay in the corridors, eyes wide open, mouths frozen in terror. Some had been strangled. Others Batman knelt to inspect had no visible wounds, but their skin was pale, almost gray.
Like something drained them, he thought.
Then a whirring noise.
A drone buzzed past.
Batman threw a batarang CLANG! It clattered to the floor, sparking.
He knelt, retrieved a chip from its frame. Russian design. Modified. Military-grade.
Then a scream.
Batman looked up sharply, spotted a vent. He sprang, gripped the ledge, and pulled himself inside.
He crawled through the air ducts and peered through the grated panel.
Below him: the execution chamber.
Black Mask stood near the gas chamber controls, surrounded by his men. Beside him was a figure in crimson that was a pale-skinned man in red armor with metal coils snaking from his back.
He was standing over a guard draining him. The guard's skin withered as if his soul were being pulled out. The man's eyes rolled back, his body convulsing.
Commissioner Loeb was there too, pleading.
"You said if I got you in, you'd let her go!" Loeb cried. "You promised!"
Black Mask turned to him. "And I promised a lot of things, Loeb. But business is business."
Loeb looked at the red figure. "Who the hell is he?!"
"Name's Omega Red," Black Mask smirked. "And he doesn't do refunds."
Without warning, Omega Red's tentacles snapped out and wrapped around Loeb.
"No….wait!"
He was hurled into the chamber.
Then one of Black Mask's men flipped the switch.
Gas hissed from the vents.
Batman slammed his fists into the glass once, twice, three times until it shattered.
He dropped in, cape fluttering, but the room was empty.
Loeb lay dead. Omega Red and Black Mask were gone.
Batman clenched his fists. His breath came hard. His jaw tightened.
"Another person I couldn't save," he whispered.
Then—
Movement.
Ten of Black Mask's thugs stepped into the room.
Batman turned. His eyes glowed.
And he attacked.
He charged the first, chopping the man's throat. The thug dropped, gagging. Batman spun, dropped low, and swept two more to the floor.
A fist caught him in the ribs. He staggered but responded with a brutal hammerfist that shattered the attacker's cheekbone.
Another thug lunged with a knife Batman grabbed his wrist and drove his elbow into the man's forearm and the bone cracked. He used the dropped blade to pin the man's jacket to the wall, then punched him out cold.
Three surrounded him with pipes and clubs.
Batman triggered an EMP from his gauntlet BZZT with their weapons overloaded, exploding in their hands.
He used the distraction to elbow one in the throat, uppercut the next into the air and catch and throw him into a wall, and drive the third through a table with a spinebuster.
Only one remained.
The man tried to run.
Batman tackled him, mounted him, and slammed his fists into the thug's face again. And again. And again touring with rage.
Blood splattered.
Batman stood, breathing hard. Chest heaving.
He closed his eyes. Centered himself.
A low groan broke his focus.
One thug was still alive, crawling away.
Batman grabbed him by the throat, lifted him with one arm.
"WHERE'S BLACK MASK GOING?!"
The thug coughed. I-I ain't saying anything, freak!"
Batman's white eyes narrowed.
He dragged the man toward a nearby cell, kicked the door open, and slammed the thug's body against the corner.
Then he slammed the metal gate into his ribs.
"TALK!"
"No!"
Batman did it again. "TALK!!"
"OKAY! OKAY! The helipad! He's taking the chopper! That's where he's going!"
Batman dropped him, then slammed the man's head into the wall once, twice, three times until he slumped unconscious.
Batman raced up the stairs.
From the shadows above the prison, he perched and scanned the helipad.
There Black Mask. Six armed guards. A helicopter descending from the sky.
He tossed down a smoke grenade.
Fssshh!
Smoke billowed.
Batman dropped into the chaos.
The first thug didn't even see him before he was lifted and thrown into the wall bouncing off and collapsing knocked out.
The second was yanked into the fog and silenced with a chokehold.
The third fired blindly Batman punched through the muzzle flash and knocked his helmet off with a spinning elbow.
The fourth and fifth tried to flank him.
He disarmed one, stabbed the other with the taser tip of his gauntlet, and used the shock to send both sprawling.
The sixth dropped his gun and tried to run.
Batman hurled a batarang and it struck the man in the knee and he fell down screaming and Batman walked over stomping his head three times and knocked him out.
The smoke cleared.
Black Mask sat trembling against the wall.
Batman stalked forward.
Grabbed him.
SLAMMED him into the wall.
Then hurled him across the pad.
"Where is she?" Batman barked. "Loeb's daughter what did you do?"
"Don't know. Don't care!" Black Mask wheezed. "She's leverage. That's it!"
Batman stepped forward and began punching one, two, three, four times
Until—
CLANG!
A metal tentacle wrapped around his torso.
He was yanked backward, slammed through a wall, and dragged into the cell blocks again.
He rolled and groaned, armor dented.
Across from him, Omega Red stepped forward.
"You fight well, Bat," he hissed. "But you are nothing compared to me."
"Who are you?" Batman growled, rising.
"Your end," Omega Red grinned.
He lashed out with his coils Batman dodged, rolled, and landed a punch to the Russian's jaw.
Nothing.
Omega Red grinned wider, then delivered a thunderous kick that sent Batman flying into the wall.
He charged, tentacles slashing.
Batman ducked, rolled, and drove a punch into a nearby electrical box and sparks flew causing Omega Red to recoil and hiss in pain.
Batman's eyes narrowed.
Electricity.
He activated his shock gauntlets with blue arcs crackled across his fists.
"Round two," he growled.
They collided.
Fist met coil. Electricity surged. Omega Red screamed as Batman landed a flurry of electrified punches chest, stomach, ribs. Each hit slowed him.
But Omega Red grabbed him lifted him and slammed him into the floor.
Batman grunted.
Used a gadget a mini EMP mine to shock the coils again.
Boom!
Omega Red stumbled.
Batman charged, using a grapple-assisted punch to crash into Red, slamming him into the floor. He mounted him, fists flying shockwaves pulsing through each strike.
Omega Red finally collapsed.
Batman knelt over him.
"Where's Black Mask going?"
Omega Red coughed, smiled.
"You think this is over?" he rasped. "I'm just one of seven. He hired assassins. I'm only the beginning."
Batman's fists sparked.
He drove one last punch into Red's skull, knocking him out.
The sound of sirens filled the air.
Police were closing in.
Batman stood, cape torn, suit scorched but alive.
He disappeared into the shadows as the first CPD squad burst in, guns drawn.
And somewhere above, the helicopter carrying Black Mask vanished into the night.