This Gray Weather Will Fade

The body fell in slow motion with a ringing thud to the cold cement floor. The men around it watched in shock and horror, no one wanting to move or make the slightest sound.

The small metal blade was dripping with the crimson color slowly onto the ground, and a white handkerchief was wiping the sharp knife clean with ease, not making an effort to care it had just killed it’s first victim of things to come.

The daring black eyes of the owner looked up at his men, crouching with fear no matter how hard they tried to hide it. A yellow toothy smile spread from ear to ear on the painted face, giggling at the panic in their eyes.

“Any one else, uh, want to start asking questions?” The man put his hands on his hips, the glint of the blade still being reflected by the light.

His men merely stared bak at him, some shaking their heads aggressively ‘no.’

He nodded his head and licked his lips in approval. “Great!” He smiled, before turning his back against them and jogging up the stairs of the warehouse to his room.

Slamming the door shut and laughing wildly, he walked over to his stack of papers tossed around messily on his desk. His mood suddenly changed more violently, as he ripped and angrily threw them off his desk.

He had no plan. Although, he never did. Why was this bothering him now?

He escaped, that was more than enough to scare Gotham into moving to different cities, according to the numerous newspaper articles he had read.

It wasn’t fair, he thought, how they would all run away before he even got started. People always ruined the fun in everything...not that he knew what he was doing anyways, but they didn’t even give him a chance.

He was stuck, to be quite honest. No one was showing the same courage and determination and Harvey Dent once did.

“Harvey, Harvey, Harvey.” He shook his head, fading back into his smile and giggling once more. Oh yes, he knew what really happened that night when he was caught. He knew Harvey had turned into what he had made him, what the Joker had made him become.

Sure, it was a bit unsatisfying to know that his plan worked but no one knew about it. That, to the Joker, just wouldn’t do. He would just have to do it again, and this time, hit harder.

But like I said, the Joker saw nothing in the people of this city. Not one person showed the same pride and honor as Harvey did.

The only thing he could do was sit and wait for someone to step up. There are plenty of people coming in and out of the city every day, someone has to shine brighter than the rest sometime.

“Keep low, keep low.” The Joker repeated, tapping his fingers on the desk. All he could do was keep low for now, and wait. And, maybe show Gotham a little reminder here and there that he was back, and the worst was yet to come.

-

Nora Gray sat comfortably at her newly appointed desk, biting lightly at the tip of her thumb. To her advantage, she got the best desk in the whole place, tucked quietly in the corner just like she asked. This way, when she investigated the Batman, no one could see what she was working on.

Yes, she made the decision to go ahead and find out who the Batman really was. Even though she was beginning to trust the guy, she still needed to know. It wasn’t fair he could watch her but she could’t keep an eye on him. What was the difference between him and her anyways? From what she found out from Commissioner Gordon, the Batman was dedicated to bring justice to the city, just as Nora was trying to do too. What gave him the right to spy on her?

So that was it, that was her reason for continuing her quest. And she knew exactly where to start. Nora had access to countless confidential files there in the office, and she was gong to use them to her advantage.

Nora took a deep sigh, not knowing how far her instincts would actually take her, and put her feet up on the desk with a file in her hands. Opening it, the pictures and her own memorized hand-drawn sketch of Batman’s suit fell onto her desk, and she looked over them inch by inch.

There was no doubt in Nora’s mind that building such a thing would be expensive, and there weren’t a lot of people in this city that could afford such a thing. He would of had it custom made, making it even more pricy. But Nora didn’t know the names of body armor or what prices it ran.

Nora sat up straight, grabbing the phone and dialing the number of the only person who could help her, Cho Wang.

“Hello?”

“It’s Nora.” She leaned back, smiling at the voice of her old friend. Cho Wang was the smartest guy Nora knew, he had moved out to Washington for government security work only a few months after being transferred to the Portman Police to help with an investigation dealing with this kind of stuff Nora was looking at now.

“Nora? It’s great to finally hear from you!” Cho laughed on the other end.

Nora kept smiling, “It’s great to hear from you too. Hey, I’ve got a favor to ask.”

“Investigation?” He asked knowingly.

“What else do I do?” Nora questioned.

“What do you need?” Nora pumped her fist in the air, Cho was always the one to cut right to the chase.

“I’m going to send you a photo. I need to know everything about it.”

“Ready.” Cho said, waiting for the email.

“Sent.” Nora said, clicking the button. There was a whistle on the other line, and Nora knew Cho could definitely help her now.

“Damn. That’s intense.”

“I know right?” Nora switched the phone over to her other shoulder and looked up at the other officers still rummaging around for what, she didn’t know.

“Well, this looks like high-tech military stuff here Nora. This has got to be comprised of more than a hundred separate pieces. It’s obviously molded pieces of flexible urethane and carbon fiber panels. They’re light, but incredibly strong and resistant. You want to find out what this is you’re going to have to look into military sciences, or even industries in China. It’s more than likely whoever built this structured it in different elements, you know, to throw off the trail if someone like you ever started to really investigate...”

“That reminds me...” Nora began, but was cut off by her friend knowing well what she was going to say.

“I know Nora, delete the file, don’t tell anyone, don’t ask anyone, the whole procedure is very dull.”

“You are more than helpful Cho. Thank you.” Nora said, finishing her scribbled notes on her notepad by her side.

“Any time.” Cho replied, and Nora hung up the phone before getting up and walking towards Gordon’s office.

Walking in without knocking was becoming a habit of hers, and Gordon was getting used to it too. The Commissioner looked up from his desk, standing over the files laid out in front of him.

“Miss Gray.” He said.

“Are there any forms of operating government military sciences in Gotham?” She asked, getting to the point.

Gordon looked off to the side to think before nodding and returning his gaze towards her, “Yes, Wayne Enterprises has been a huge part in being affiliated with that sort of business. They’re very powerful here. I don’t personally know if they are working for them anymore...what’s this all about?”

“Thank you Commissioner.” Nora said, not bothering to answer his question and strutting over to her desk.

Pulling up the files of Wayne Enterprises, Nora moved on to her next step: listing the most powerful people in the company, and those who could actually win in a fist fight.

Nora sat on the edge of her chair, typing away furiously at the keys in front of her. Suddenly, all 374 employees of Wayne Enterprises popped up in a single file on her screen.

“Damn.” Was all she could whisper. Well, there was a simple way to shrink the number. Nora advanced her search by narrowing the people who had access to the applied sciences section of their business.

“Seven. That’s more reasonable.” She said to herself, opening the file one by one.

“Okay. Harold Lufinger, thirty-seven years old...recently deceased by automobile accident.” Nora raised her eyebrows and crossed him off her list, clicking on the next suspect.

“Lucius Fox, head of department...makes sense...seventy-four years old. Just kidding.” Nora crossed off the name.

“Reese, Coleman.” Nora shook her head. “Too short.”

“Kyle Donahue. Assistant to Mr. Fox, twenty-nine years old...almost six feet...not married.” Nora shrugged and checked the name, the next two were simple, they were too elderly to be able to be as physically fit as Batman was.

Finally, Nora reached her last potential Batman. To have thought she could overlook him was impossible, since he did own the entire Wayne Enterprise business. “Bruce Wayne.” Nora had her chin resting in her hand, staring at the photo the file had on him. He was rather attractive to Nora, and she had to instantly stop from letting herself go into a daze and focus on what she was doing.

Looking down at her scrap of paper, she only had two possible men capable for becoming Batman. It was crazy to think, if she was in fact right, it was this simple to find out who this famous masked crusader was, after four years of people trying to figure it out for themselves.

Nora shook her head, “It couldn’t be this simple.” Once more, Nora got up from her seat and walked into the Commissioner’s office.

“Who was the girl that died?”

Gordon looked up, “Who?”

“The one Joker killed. Who was it?” Nora hadn’t even stepped into the room, but held the door open slightly so she could get her torso around it.

Gordon shook his head in remembrance, trying to figure out in his mind what Nora could possibly be looking up. “Rachel Dawes.”

In an instance, Nora had shut the door and made her way back to her desk, researching Rachel Dawes and her connection between the two men she picked out of the potential suspects.

“Oh my God.”