Chapter 156: The Battle Begins
"Miranda Tate isn't as simple as you think."
While Catwoman Mia was examining and testing her newly acquired Batman equipment, Jake was briefing Batman on the upcoming confrontation—essentially giving him critical intelligence about what was coming.
Should they follow the original timeline where Batman gets brutally beaten, thrown into that hellish prison, then eventually escapes and defeats the villain?
While the movie's narrative arc was compelling, actually living through it would be unnecessarily painful and tedious.
Jake's plan was straightforward: tell Batman everything relevant, then the two of them—along with Mia—would overwhelm their enemies with superior force and tactics. Without any tricks or deception, Bane and Miranda Tate were manageable threats.
The process might get a bit messy, though.
"I mentioned before that someone escaped from that ancient pit prison, but it wasn't Bane who made it out—it was her."
"Her? Miranda Tate?"
Bruce Wayne's eyes widened in shock. He'd investigated this woman extensively and found her to be a brilliant, principled businesswoman with genuine dedication to clean energy—a rare individual whose vision aligned perfectly with his own.
"That's right, and her true identity is quite remarkable," Jake nodded, continuing. "She's actually your former mentor's daughter—the child of Ra's al Ghul, leader of the League of Shadows..."
Just as Jake was revealing these critical details to Bruce, the masked terrorist Bane had already detonated explosives throughout Gotham's underground and seized the clean energy reactor.
It was essentially a bomb with destructive power equivalent to a four-megaton nuclear warhead if it detonated.
Meanwhile, the Deputy Commissioner of the GCPD, having obtained what he believed was Bane's exact location, couldn't contain himself any longer and led a massive force of officers into the sewer system.
Upon initial reconnaissance, they discovered what appeared to be a small operations base underground.
"Time to end this," the Deputy Commissioner thought confidently.
However, reality has a way of crushing optimistic assumptions.
When hundreds of armed police officers entered the sewers, they weren't met with a cornered and desperate Bane, but with a devastating series of coordinated explosions!
The tunnel ceilings were blasted apart, and cascading debris rapidly entombed everyone trapped in the underground passages!
Several unfortunate officers were killed instantly by the blasts.
Throughout Gotham City, buildings in different districts began exploding from precisely placed charges!
The city rapidly descended into chaos and destruction!
Bridge supports were severed, buildings collapsed into rubble, and roads instantly became impassable obstacle courses, trapping countless vehicles.
It was a scene of utter devastation—like witnessing the apocalypse in real-time.
Even the bridges connecting Gotham to the mainland were systematically demolished!
Gotham City is built on an island, and its only physical connections to the outside world are its bridges.
With every single bridge destroyed, the only ways for people to evacuate were by boat or aircraft.
Clearly, Bane intended to trap and control everyone inside the city.
All of this carnage was orchestrated by Bane.
He'd hacked into every public address system, and for several terrifying minutes, his distorted voice was the only sound echoing throughout Gotham City.
The explosions had barely ceased when people were forced to suppress their fear and listen to this terrorist's proclamation.
"We are not here as conquerors," Bane's amplified voice declared across the city. "We have come as liberators!"
"We are going to return control of this city to the people—to you!"
"If we detect any signs of outside interference, or if any of you attempt to flee, then this anonymous Gotham citizen—this reactor technician—will trigger the device and detonate the bomb!"
Bane continued his broadcast. "Martial law is now in effect. Return to your homes. Stay with your families. Be patient, and all will be revealed in time."
Military forces stationed outside Gotham quickly intercepted Bane's transmission.
The commanding officer frowned deeply, considered the situation carefully, then issued orders: "Recall the fighter squadron. Deploy reconnaissance drones instead... and get me a secure line to the President immediately."
Just as military units outside the city were mobilizing tanks and attack helicopters to establish a perimeter around Gotham, preparing to respond at a moment's notice, Jake and Bruce finally reached a consensus.
They would confront Miranda Tate directly together. If her true identity was confirmed, they would eliminate the threat immediately.
Jake had expended considerable effort convincing the stubborn Dark Knight to agree to this more aggressive approach.
His original plan had been to locate the woman and eliminate her with a single headshot, but Bruce clearly derived some satisfaction from exposing villains' schemes before stopping them.
Boarding the Bat aircraft, Jake, Mia, and Batman immediately flew toward Wayne Tower!
Bane had completely seized control of Wayne Enterprises headquarters.
However, he needed to transport the weaponized reactor, so he'd already departed, leaving only hostages and a security force behind.
Suddenly, a dark shape appeared in the sky above the plaza—like a small storm cloud hovering directly overhead.
WHOOOSH! WHOOOSH!
Powerful downdraft buffeted everyone below.
Only then did the guards realize that what hung above them wasn't a cloud at all, but the distinctive silhouette of the Bat aircraft!
When they were still about ten feet from the ground, the aircraft's top hatch suddenly opened, and three figures dropped out in rapid succession!
Batman hit the ground in a tactical roll, absorbing the impact before rising smoothly to his feet.
Catwoman was even more graceful—she executed a perfect acrobatic landing that dissipated momentum with practiced ease.
However, Jake wouldn't bother with such techniques.
He simply dropped straight down from the aircraft, landing heavily on the pavement—a completely unassisted vertical descent!
The impact was thunderous as he landed without even bending his knees, shocking the assembled guards who stared in disbelief, wondering who the hell this man in the tactical suit was.
Bane had left a substantial security force at Wayne Tower.
The dramatic arrival of the Bat aircraft had instantly attracted significant attention and armed response.
"Try not to kill anyone!" Batman ordered, sweeping his cape behind him as he charged forward into combat.
Jake turned to look at Mia, only to find her looking back at him with the same uncertain expression.
Neither of them held human life as particularly sacred nor treated it carelessly—they didn't operate under strict moral codes about killing or not killing, instead acting based on tactical necessity.
"I can't make promises, but if anyone shoots at me, I'm putting them down," Jake said, surging forward into the fight!
In an instant, the three of them engaged more than thirty armed guards!
The battle erupted immediately. Jake flicked both wrists, and twin handguns materialized in his hands!
He'd learned gun kata from John Preston—the character this very same actor had portrayed in Equilibrium.
He hadn't expected to demonstrate those same techniques in front of Christian Bale again, albeit in a different role.
Gun kata combines numerous close-quarters combat techniques. Even without firing lethal rounds—just using the weapons as striking implements—Jake was devastatingly effective wielding dual pistols!
He incapacitated two guards in a single exchange.
The other two fighters were equally impressive—especially Catwoman Mia, whose flexible, acrobatic leg techniques instantly dropped two opponents, while Batman efficiently neutralized several more with brutal efficiency.
The fight started explosively and ended even faster, with only groans of pain and unconscious bodies left throughout the lobby.
Finally, the three of them stormed into Miranda Tate's private office.
This woman's first instinct was to portray herself as a helpless victim.
However, she was immediately confronted by Jake's pointed question: "Tell me—do you know Ra's al Ghul?"
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