Tag: Carmine Falcone

CHAPTER 31

May 19, 2022 / Dave Heilker

“This place has gone to hell in a ham sandwich since they eighty-sixed the dress code!”
Col. Hunter Gathers

The Invisible Hand Of Fate

A barrage of faster-than-a-blink punches to a heavy bag.

Fury.

A strand of pearls bouncing across the street and into the gutter.

Panic.

“You can stay over if you’d like, it’s jus–”

“No, no, Bruce! You’re going through so much. I totally, well I wish there was something else I could do. If you need to talk, will you call me?”

Mourning.

“It’s at least dislocated, maybe worse. Can you move it?”

“…”

“If you’re still insisting on not drinking, then you’d better bite down on this.”

Pain.

CHAPTER 25

December 30, 2021 / Dave Heilker

CONTENT WARNING:
graphic violence against the mentally ill • violent death

“Sometimes you make up your mind about something without knowing why, and your decision persists by the power of inertia. Every year it gets harder to change.“
Milan KundeRA • THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING

Inertia

TOP COP GELIO: “BATMAN IN CUSTODY”

By Lois Lane

Nov. 1 – (GOTHAM) Commissioner Yiannis “Johnny” Gelio, the top cop at Gotham City’s Police Department, claims to have the so-called “superhuman” vigilante and alleged child-killer known as The Batman in custody, according to an exclusive interview granted to this reporter.

“Today, Gotham City becomes the first city in the world to have peacefully apprehended a superhuman,” Gelio said. “The costumed criminal has terrorized our citizens long enough. We have the Batman in custody.”

CHAPTER 24

December 30, 2021 / Dave Heilker

CONTENT WARNING:
gun violence • death • police violence

“Well, here we are, Mr. Pilgrim, trapped in the amber of this moment. There is no why.”
Kurt Vonnegut • Slaughterhouse Five

Parallels

Sitting in the Commissioner’s office, hued a high blue-green by the fluorescent lighting, Aurelio Liberatore considered the work he was doing. Aurelio wore a badge and had access to every police building in Gotham, but he wasn’t truly an officer of the Gotham Police Department.

The job paid well, and he got to keep himself in fighting shape. But the title of officer wasn’t extended to contract workers. Contractors – like Aurelio – were placed with the department through a company called “Henshaw Allied,” a multifarious organization with a speciality in “private security services.”

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.

ORIGIN STORIES: MARIO FALCONE

October 14, 2021 / Dave Heilker

CONTENT WARNING
suicide

Labor Day (September 5), 1927

“Louisa, give me a name or I can’t help you!”

Occasionally, Mario Falcone heard his father and mother argue, but what made this scary, was how rare it was to hear his father – who people called “Little Caesar” – raise his voice.

“What would you have me do? Be excommunicated for murder?” Mario didn’t know what “excommunicated” meant, but his mother’s tone and his father’s shouting indicated that whatever it was was not good.

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.”