Category: Chapters (Page 3 of 5)

CHAPTER 23

December 16, 2021 / Dave Heilker

“Hades, all the fine suits in the world won’t change the fact that you stink of death.”
Rachel Smythe • Lore Olympus

Loose Ends

Gotham Police Commissioner Yiannis “Johnny” Gelio was spinning an ever-more-precarious number of competing plates.

There was his new position on the Board of Estimates. Three hundred Henchmen (Johnny hatedthe nickname, but it refused to come unstuck around the department) furnished by Henshaw Allied, which was in no uncertain terms, a shell corporation for Carmine “The Roman” Falcone. And those henchmen needed to be groomed into loyalty to him, to the work of Justice. The work of preserving the enlightened Man against the brute force of Gods.

Carmine Falcone represented the Old Way. Something unencumbered by the modern understandings of quote-unquote legitimate business, and Johnny was providing a modern take on police work with a mind on the future, corporatist organizing that was doing so well in Falcone’s homeland.

CHAPTER 22

November 18, 2021 / Dave Heilker

“Anyone who believes what a cat tells him deserves all he gets.”
Neil gaiman • stardust

Nine Lives

“Superman follows the law,” Mayor Basil Karlo explained. “Maybe they have some kind of code?”

“He’s a vigilante,” Councilman Jonah Jackson rebutted. “He breaks the law every day. What’s the use of this? People feel safer with Superman around.”

A beat.

“Do you honestly think that the Bat will just hang up his cape because we make a law against it? Murder is illegal, but he does that, too.”

CHAPTER 21

November 11, 2021 / Dave Heilker

“In these days of difficulty, we Americans everywhere must and shall choose the path of social justice…, the path of faith, the path of hope, and the path of love toward our fellow man.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt

Half The Sky

“I am pleased to announce that, this afternoon, with generous donations from The Pennyworth Foundation and Wayne Enterprises, the Project ALICE initiative has the funding it needs to operate for the next three years. In that time, it is our great hope that we will either have proven our program’s worth sufficiently to Gotham that our esteemed councilmembers will consider subsidizing a portion of our operating costs, or more optimistically, that we will, by that time, have ended poverty in Gotham altogether.”

CHAPTER 20

November 5, 2021 / Dave Heilker

“We’re just going around all day like unconscious machines, and meanwhile there’s all this rage and worry and uneasiness just building up and building up inside us”
Wally • My dinner with andre

My Dinner With Demigod

Dick Grayson winced as the alcohol touched the tattered flesh of his ribs, he held a cold compress against the burn on his chest.

“It was stupid,” Bruce chided. “We lost a suit, and very possibly a bike, and all for what?”

Dick didn’t respond.

“You knew it was a trap! We discussed how it was a trap! You risked so much!”

Bruce paced anxiously – he wasn’t anxious, but the way he stalked back and forth in the mine fomented anxiety in Dick.

“And that wasn’t a rhetorical question!”

“What wasn’t?” Dick asked, confused.

“What did you get from Fries?”

Dick glanced down and to the side.

CHAPTER 19

October 28, 2021 / Dave Heilker

“It is true, we shall be monsters, cut off from all the world; but on that account we shall be more attached to one another.“
Mary Wollstonecraft shelley • Frankenstein; or, The modern prometheus

And Into The Storm

A hail of brick and mortar pieces hit Batman in the back as he fell.

The only things he could hear were the tinnitus-muted murmuring of the gunman, and the low-volume static of a police scanner that had definitely had a wire knocked loose.

He’d plotted for a run from the rooftop, but he was falling toward the third floor of the speakeasy.

CHAPTER 18

October 22, 2021 / Dave Heilker

“I intend to leave after my death a large fund for the promotion of the peace idea.
“But I am skeptical as to its results.“
Alfred nobel

Out Of The Frying Pan

A simple note, written in haste:

Thursday, 10:00 at Welsh Cannery – Fries

Bruce had spent a day trying to work out what Dr. Fries, Gotham’s Coroner, could want to tell Batman. He pondered why it needed to be in person, and he considered whether it was a trap.

Thoroughly convinced that the note was an invitation to a trap, Bruce wanted to run it by his closest confidant, for a second opinion. However, with Alfred still being away with family, he would have to settle for Dick.

CHAPTER 17

October 7, 2021 / Dave Heilker

Stay out of the light,
Or the photograph that I gave you,
You can say a prayer if you need to,
Or just get in line and I’ll grieve you,
Can I meet you,
Alone?
Another night and I’ll see you,
Another night and I’ll be you,
Some other way to continue,
To hide my face
My chemical romance, “I never told you what I do for a Living”

Good Kid, Mad City

The Man of Steel floated above the yard, arms crossed in front of him. He looked down at Alfred like he’d looked down at Bill Bunson those many weeks ago – as if he were an annoyance, or a minor mischief to which he had to attend.

CHAPTER 16

October 2, 2021 / Dave Heilker

I’ve seen your face before, my friend,
But I don’t know if you know who I am.
Well, I was there and I saw what you did,
I saw it with my own two eyes!
So you can wipe off that grin,
I know where you’ve been –
It’s all been a pack of lies!
Phil collins, “In The Air tonight”

In The Air Tonight

There had been a plan, but it’s critical to remember that planning isn’t a match for preparation.

On the Kent farm, days stretched into weeks, and weeks stretched into months. Alfred Pennyworth absolutely lost himself in his assumed identity. He was a masterful actor, never overselling or under performing the role of Elias Clayton, and the performance had earned him the trust of many of Smallville’s current and former residents, including Martha Kent and her son, Clark.

CHAPTER 15

September 23, 2021 / Dave Heilker

“When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept”
MArc Antony, “julius Caesar”

The Devil’s Greatest Trick

“Am I in trouble, Ms. Rose?” Jeremy asked. “Which is to say, have I…done something wrong?”

Jeremy pulled his hat down low on his head.

“Jeremy,” Ms. Rose was firm, assertive. She shook her head and smiled. Jeremy didn’t return the expression, just looked down instead. “No, you’re not in any trouble. Once every other week, the girls and I have something like a tea party. We choose a topic we’re enthusiastic about, specifically economics, or poetry, or literature, or current events, and every time we have our tea, two of us share those topics, like a discussion prompt.”

CHAPTER 14

September 16, 2021 / Dave Heilker

Whoever fraudulently alters, defaces, mutilates, impairs, diminishes, falsifies, scales, or lightens any of the coins coined at the mints of the United States, or any foreign coins which are by law made current or are in actual use or circulation as money within the United States; or
Whoever fraudulently possesses, passes, utters, publishes, or sells, or attempts to pass, utter, publish, or sell, or brings into the United States, any such coin, knowing the same to be altered, defaced, mutilated, impaired, diminished, falsified, scaled, or lightened—
Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.
18 U.S. Code § 331 – Mutilation, diminution, and falsification of coins

Hobo Nickels & Heroin

The commissioner strode through the halls of Gotham Police Department like a Metropolis crime boss from a pulp magazine. No hair or man out of place, he was neatly flanked on all sides by a constituency of goons: thugs-for-hire at the dialing of an operator at what Gordon believed to be a shell corporation.

Lieutenant Jim Gordon walked behind the ocean of “trainees,” with his partner, Detective Selina Kyle walking in stride. Jim had misgivings about tonight, and the dubiousness of The Batman as a suspect was among the lowest among his concerns.