| Gotham City - September 29
Harvey Dent heard the knock at his window. It was a strange sound—his office sat three floors up, and armed guards patrolled every corridor; anyone trying to climb in would have been gunned down before they reached the sill. Still, the knocker had bypassed every precaution. Harvey already knew who it would be.
He opened the window to reveal his partner.
"Bullseye, my good man. Are you ready to target the bigger gangs? I'm thinking we should hit the Penguin first," Harvey said, his smile twisting his scarred and burned left side grotesquely.
Now that the parasitic second personality was gone, Harvey had considered reconstructive surgery. The thought lasted only a moment. The disfigurement terrified his men and steadied their obedience; fear was a form of power. For the time being, he kept it.
"I have a better idea," Bullseye said as he dropped through the window and landed without fanfare.
Harvey didn't know much about the man beside him. Even after asking around and probing contacts, Bullseye's past remained a tangle of rumors and gaps. He sounded in his mid-thirties, spoke with a Gotham edge, and was clearly enhanced—superhuman strength, agility, and some kind of psychic ability. Most importantly, he shared Dent's appetite for change in Gotham.
"If we go one at a time," Bullseye continued, "Batman will probably be onto us, and the other gangs won't sit idle. Give them time and they'll unite against us. In all cases, it will lead to war in Gotham and massive civilian casualties."
Harvey tilted his head. "What exactly are you proposing?"
Bullseye pulled out an object that looked like a black metal collar from behind his back. "This is an inhibitor collar—the same tech the headlines have linked to the Light. I acquired it with great difficulty."
Harvey became alert. "Are you—"
"No. I'm not part of the Light. Those bastards are trying to plunge the world into danger. I'm trying to protect my home," Bullseye said. Harvey inclined to believe him—after all, the man was from Gotham. What could the Light possibly want with this city other than to target Batman?
"Anyway, using this and some outside help, I made a nanotech mind-control system." Bullseye produced a handheld device that looked like a walkie-talkie and tossed it to Harvey, who caught it.
"The nanotech is injected into a subject. Within seconds, the subject responds to the commands of their handler. Commands come only from this handheld device, which recognizes only your voice and mine. The subject's personality remains intact, but they can't resist orders. I tested it on a drug dealer on my way here.
"I've traced the locations of all the major gang leaders through surveillance. I'll infiltrate and discreetly inject the nanotech into them. The Penguin, Carmine Falcone, Black Mask, White Shark, Tony Li, the cartel bosses, the Triads, the crime families, the Russian mafias—every major leader will be controlled.
"First we implement our rules—no hard drugs, no trafficking, no civilian casualties. Your job is to seize their assets under your banner. Then offer the remnants a choice: bend the knee and join us, or be eradicated. We'll control crime in Gotham."
Harvey's eyes widened at the immensity of the plan and the responsibility it placed on him. "And Batman?"
Before his disfigurement, Harvey Dent had been Gotham's white knight, a crusader for justice. The acid that birthed Two-Face had not just ruined his face but shattered his faith in law. His fractured second self believed justice was never blind—it was arbitrary, cruel, a coin toss.
Now, whole again, Harvey still yearned for justice. But he understood what Batman never seemed to grasp: Gotham was too rotten for half-measures. Its corruption ran deeper than the police or politicians—it was systemic, embedded in the city's economy and society. Gotham suffered from a hydra problem. Cut off one head—a mob boss, a gang leader—and two more rose to take its place.
Batman fought symptoms, not causes. His obsession with the no-kill rule meant criminals always returned. Imprisoned gang leaders still pulled strings from inside cells; escape was inevitable.
Batman was Gotham's hero. But Harvey believed he could be Gotham's cure. Someone willing to do what Batman couldn't—seize control, bear the sins, become the villain. Only then would Batman's heroism matter. Only then would the city's innocents truly be safe.
"Don't worry about him," Bullseye said smoothly. "Batman doesn't allow other heroes to operate in Gotham and the nanotech can't easily be detected by a psychic, so he won't know unless he performs surgery on one of the leaders and finds the device embedded at random spots in their body.
"And he'll never get the drop on you either. I have allies—people who helped make the nanotech, who can watch every security camera, set up encrypted comms, hack systems, manipulate digital currency to launder funds, and manage logistics." He pulled a phone from a pocket and tossed it to Harvey; a number was already dialed.
Harvey's brow rose. "You have outside support?"
"It makes sense," Bullseye said with a small, knowing smirk. "Someone like me doesn't work alone."
Harvey nodded slowly. A meta of Bullseye's caliber almost certainly had government strings attached. Perhaps some covert project had decided to intervene in Gotham's decay. Whatever the case, Harvey would take the help. If it meant ending the rot, he didn't care—even if it meant striking a deal with the Devil.
He picked up the phone. "Hello. Who am I speaking with?"
A robotic voice answered: "You may call me Worldmind."
**
Joseph had wasted no time.
Under a sky that had started to rain hard, he parkoured across rooftops—a dark blur infiltrating hidden gang hideouts discovered through Nova's advanced surveillance. He discreetly implanted nanotech at random locations in the bodies of their leaders after putting them and their subordinates in illusions.
He could have used the Speed State, but it disintegrated his nanites and regenerating them cost Nova Force he didn't have much of due to Atom's shrink tech and Nova's computing needs. He hoped the upcoming storm would help alleviate this problem.
Having Nova develop mind-control nanotech wasn't difficult—Nova had access to the Brain's memories, and the Brain had experience with mind control as could be seen with the mind controlled animals in india. Improving the design was a straightforward task for an AI with vast processing power.
'Nova, who's the nearest gang leader?' Joseph asked.
//Ekin Tzu, leader of the Lucky Hand Triad, and Manuel Escabedo, leader of the Escabedo Cartel, are both near you,// Nova replied, telepathically sending their locations.
'I'll do the Colombian boss first,' Joseph said.
With a long, effortless leap he cleared a gap between buildings and landed, rolling to disperse momentum. Then he felt it: a projectile arcing with deadly intent.
Between Joseph's enhanced senses, his energy detection, and his mastery of martial arts, ambushing him was almost impossible—only viable if he allowed it or if the attacker was faster. The former wasn't an option; the latter was unlikely in Gotham.
His body twisted, he landed, and rolled to bleed off momentum. During the roll he isolated the object: a batarang. He rose and looked across the building to see the silhouettes that always made Gotham hold its breath—
Batman and Robin.