As soon as the cops realized the Bat-Man was already on the bridge surface, the first order Captain Branden gave his squad was to retreat there. To avoid arousing suspicion, Gordon was forced to follow his colleagues. Back on the bridge, the target of their fire also shifted from the flying figure with the flamethrower to the Bat-Man.
Total chaos reigned on the bridge in every sense of the word—the bridge was cut into two parts, both engulfed in fire and smoke, and the police were firing at two targets simultaneously, who weren't just staring at each other either.
Realizing he might not get another chance, taking advantage of the pandemonium, Gordon approached Captain Branden from behind, who was standing some distance from the rest of his squad, grabbed him in a chokehold, and they both fell to the ground. With the noise of explosions, gunfire, and screams, they couldn't be heard at all, especially from that distance.
Captain Branden, slightly panting from the hold: "Gordon, have you lost your goddamn mind!"
James Gordon, slightly panting too, but from the exertion: "Why… why aren't you told me about you're here for the Bat-Man?"
Captain Branden: "What, you want in on the action too? Listen, let me go, and you'll get a cut!"
James Gordon: "Yeah, like I'd believe you."
Seeing words wouldn't work, Branden elbows Gordon hard in the side a couple of times, forcing him to lose his grip. While Branden was still getting up from the ground and drawing his pistol, Gordon had already managed to scramble behind the nearest car, so Branden's two shots hit nothing.
Gordon also drew his pistol, though he knew his opponent currently had the advantage.
Captain Branden, slowly approaching the car Gordon was hiding behind: "Listen, we still have a chance to work this out."
James Gordon, from behind the car: "You understand I'll turn you in to Commissioner Grogan?"
Captain Branden: "Yeah, I know. You know I'll have to kill you if you refuse."
James Gordon: "And what makes you so sure you won't kill me even if I agree?"
Captain Branden: "I don't know; it's your call."
By that time, Branden was almost right next to the car Gordon was hiding behind the trunk of. He decides to attack anyway, but circling the car from the hood, he sees no one there. Not a second passes before Gordon, who had managed to crawl and hide behind the car's rear bumper, emerges from cover and fires one precise shot into the upper left side of Branden's chest. In the same instant, Captain Branden's body collapsed to the ground, the sound of his fall lost in the bridge's chaos. Gordon didn't even approach the body, merely taking the pistol that had fallen from his hand.
Meanwhile, at the edge of the bridge's gap, the Bat-Man was trying to line up the right angle to throw one of his bat-shaped throwing weapons. His target was the jetpack on the back of the yellow-and-black figure with the flamethrower. Understanding the police were already firing at him, he couldn't risk descending to ground level and stayed on the bridge's high support beams.
The firebug perfectly understood the Bat-Man's plan, so his goal now was to move the fight to the ground immediately. His best idea was to fly to the edge of the bridge on the other side of the gap, where there was still a crowd of cars with drivers trapped inside by fire and smoke, and unleash another fiery blast at the vehicles.
Seizing the moment when the firebug turned his back to him, the Bat-Man makes one, precise throw of his throwing weapon, and it hits its mark, striking the right wing of the firebug's jetpack. While the hit wasn't enough to make him lose altitude, his equilibrium and balance in the air were noticeably weakened.
The Bat-Man immediately drew a second throwing weapon to similarly disable the left wing, but he was stopped by the visible situation of the cars ahead of him. Knowing his opponent was weakened, the Bat-Man, using a single grapple-assisted jump, was now on the other side of the bridge gap. He still held the same throwing weapon he hadn't thrown yet, but it took him only a second to find another use for it.
Although the police were still trying to hit him from the other half of the gap, the fire, smoke, and the Bat-Man's own speed made it literally impossible. He was slicing open car roofs with the blade of the throwing weapon, then with one grip pulled all the people inside the vehicles and carried them a few dozen meters away, where there was no more fire (he extinguished what remained with his cape) and the smoke was almost imperceptible. Of course, those inside that blue Nexia were also among the people rescued.
Knowing nothing was holding him back now, the Bat-Man drew his grapple, stood on the nearest support beam of the bridge, and fired one precise shot at the same spot his throwing weapon had hit—the right wing of the firebug's jetpack. Since his grapple line was fire-resistant, and with only one of the jetpack's two engines working, limiting its thrust, the Bat-Man applied a considerable amount of raw strength to pull the firebug down to the ground. To maximize his effort, the Bat-Man descended from the beam to the ground and applied raw force once more, causing the firebug, who was already struggling to stay airborne, to crash onto the bridge on the other side of the gap. He landed on his stomach; his mask with the attached gas canister was knocked off his face by the impact. A second later, he felt someone's very strong grip stomp down on his left hand, where the jetpack's control button was. Seeing the firebug's face under the mask—the same firefighter he'd saved a couple of days ago—the Bat-Man merely uttered "pity" without a trace of sympathy.
While the Bat-Man stood on the ground, the cops on the bridge surrounded him in a semicircle, aiming their pistols at him (Gordon wasn't among them). the Bat-Man didn't say a word to them, even though they clearly intended to take him to the station or, if necessary, open fire. Instead of words, the Bat-Man merely did a backflip and then a jump into the air, dodging the police bullets, then descended under the bridge to the railway. Even when the cops approached the edge of the gap to see where he'd gone, they saw he had vanished without a trace, as if he'd never been there.
Seeing his chance, Lynns, who believed the Bat-Man was surely a corpse by now (obviously, the smoke and dizziness from the jetpack had seriously clouded his mind at that moment), and with all the cops behind him, restarted his jetpack and, before the cops could open fire while he was still vulnerable, flew under the bridge and grabbed something resembling a horned human head before it could fall into the water.
Even with only one working engine, Lynns still managed to escape police pursuit and reach his destination. There, as last time, he allowed himself to be searched, then placed the bag with the goods on the table.
Garfield Lynns: "You can sleep in peace now."
Carmine Falcone, barely glancing at the bag: "Still came for the reward."
Garfield Lynns, insisting: "How about you give me my one and a half million before we part ways."
Carmine Falcone: "Watch your tone. Don't like it when some two-bit punk raises it in my direction."
Garfield Lynns: "Give me the money, and another one of your problems will disap—" Before he could finish, two bullets entered the back of his head. Behind him stood two of Falcone's bodyguards, who had only been waiting for his silent signal.
Carmine Falcone, looking at Lynns's corpse from across the table without even getting up from his chair: "Tell anyone you meet over there—if Jesse James asked you to take out the trash, doesn't mean you can start giving him orders now."
Falcone took out the contents of the bag Lynns had brought him, seeing inside only an obvious fake the Bat-Man head. In Lynns's smoke-fogged, jetpack-addled vision on the bridge, it had seemed quite real to him. Falcone merely tossed the fake to one of his nearby henchmen.
Carmine Falcone: "Clean this up. Dump the body and this crap. Keep the thing on his back; I have a couple of fellows who could make use of it." He says, sitting back down at his desk.
By around 7:30 AM, that police squad was still on the bridge, helping clear the aftermath of the night and examining the crime scene. By then, they had found Captain Branden's body, which was completely charred and lying on the railroad tracks under the bridge—surprising Gordon, as he'd shot him on the bridge, not under it, though he was already anticipating the consequences of killing his colleague. Gordon had also managed to see his wife and son again. Though he most wanted to leave with them for home on the bus, due to the need to stay at the crime scene, he was only allowed to walk them to the bus stop. Looking at the scene before him, Gordon didn't much want to dwell on it and merely took a cigarette from his winter coat, lit it in his mouth, leaned on the bridge railing a bit away from his colleagues, and waited for sunrise.
Bat-Man: "You killed Captain Branden."
That voice, coming from a lamppost near him, was the last thing he expected to hear at that moment.
James Gordon: "How do you know?" Gordon knew trying to lie that it wasn't him was pointless.
Bat-Man: "The support beams here give a good view."
James Gordon: "Well, what's done is done."
Bat-Man: "You're lucky. The bullet went clean through."
James Gordon, after a slight pause: "So it's you took him under the bridge and burned him?"
Bat-Man: "Didn't burn him. Just dropped him into the last fire. They have no evidence it was specifically you who killed him now. All the cops use the same caliber, the bullet hole in his body could have been made by any of your friends."
James Gordon: "Thanks for that. And for saving my family too. Sorry that I have nothing to repay you with."
Bat-Man: "I have nothing to ask from you in return. You won't give me what I needed anyway."
James Gordon: "Thanks for that too." A slight pause followed. "Listen, how did you know Captain Branden was here for your head?"
Bat-Man: "I heard him briefing the other cops on what to do when I showed up."
James Gordon, accepting this: "I see."
Bat-Man: "And I also monitored the police radio traffic from the moment you were first dispatched to the bridge. He never received a fire call from dispatch; he came here on his own. Plus, only people from his squad were on the bridge. His target was me from the start."
James Gordon: "And why do you think?"
Bat-Man: "To turn me down for Falcone's money. The firebug was trying to do the same."
James Gordon: "Hmm. That's… kind of sad, you know… Listen, what should I call you? Do you have a name?"
Bat-Man: "Those like me have no name. Only a byname to be known among people."
James Gordon: "Then I'll keep calling you Bat-Man, okay?"
Bat-Man: "Call me whatever you like. It's not important to me."
James Gordon: "Fair enough." He says, continuing to smoke his cigarette, leaning on the bridge railing, facing the water.
By then, the sun was beginning to rise bit by bit. Though the sunrise was barely visible, blocked by the buildings, since the bridge ran east-west, the angle still allowed a glimpse of the shining sun's edge over the small houses of the East Island.
James Gordon: "Listen, maybe you, ah, I don't know, need a lift, or…?" He turns again toward the lamppost, but no trace of his interlocutor remained.
James Gordon: "First rays of light appear, and the bat returns to its cave." Gordon said to no one, chuckling slightly into himself.
At that moment, despite the tobacco noticeably dulling his thoughts, something was still on his mind, starting from the very moment he had approached Gotham on the train.
Back then, he did ask himself—what sin had he committed to end up in this hell called Gotham? And maybe now he understood something else. Is sin really the only reason a person can end up in hell? Maybe there's another reason? Like, to help an angel already there turn that hell into a better place?