E8: Gotham Knights #1 (Featuring Sentinel)

[Spider-Man Beyond]

E8: Gotham Knights #1
Sentinel of Justice
Part 1:
Life After the Cape

Written and Edited by Daniel Dyer

Featuring... Sentinel

"Hey, Bruce,” says a young man, standing at the grave of Bruce Wayne. The moon illuminates the graveyard as Tim Drake continues, “I know it’s been awhile since I’ve visited.” Tim then sits on the ground and leans against the side of the large headstone. “You know I’m in Bludhaven now. After you... died.” The word is hard for Tim to get out. This man, this myth, died? How do you kill a myth? “I should have come sooner. I was in town.” (*See E8: Batman #4). “I know that I shouldn’t visit only ‘because I’m in town’. Truthfully, this is hard on me.” Silence fills the night and then, “Never thought you’d die. You? And not just you but Clark. You two... The world’s in bad shape, Bruce. People die, I know, but you two... in two years’ time?”

Long moments pass and Tim stands back up, looking down at the grave. “I’m sorry, we should have been more help to you.” Tim raises his head and says, “Come out, Jason.”

From the shadow of a tree directly behind Tim, the Batman emerges.

“Bruce woulda never gave away his position,” states Tim.

“Unless he wanted you to know,” counters Jason.

“Can I help you with something, oh, great Dark Knight Detective?”

Jason stares at Tim for several long minutes, until, “I miss him, too.”

Tim’s taken aback by that. He’s not used to that tone coming from the Batman. Then he remembers this isn’t the Batman. The Batman died.

“Well, what are you going to do about it?” Tim asks.

“I’m doing it,” replies Jason. “I’m honoring him. What are you going to do about it?”

Tim remains silent for a moment, staring down the new Dark Knight. “I’ll be seeing you,” Tim finally says and begins to walk away.

“You were wrong,” Jason states, stopping Tim. “About the world. It’s not as bad off as you think.”

Tim turns to confront Jason, but finds him gone. “Heh,” Tim laughs. “Maybe I am,” he says to no one in particular. “I’ve been wrong before.”

***

[Spider-Man Beyond]

“You’ve failed me.”

“Tim!”

“You were supposed to continue on, after I’m gone.”

“I can’t,” Tim replies to the darkness. The darkness is all consuming, and the former Robin can only hear voices from its depths.

“You are my heir,” the voice continues. “My son.”

“Son?”

“I... I have a dad,” Tim replies.

“You are my child of the night.”

“You have your heir,” Tim tells the foreboding voice. “The night no longer needs me.”

“The night will always need you.”

“TIM!!”

Suddenly the 18 year old is pulled from the darkness, a bright light shining directly in his eyes, with his body shaking.

“Get up, son,” the voice of Jack Drake says he continues to shake his son. “Don’t want to be late for your first day of school.”

“I’m up, I’m up.”

“Breakfast is ready downstairs,” Jack tells him as he heads to the door. “Hurry up, college boy,” he says, beaming with pride and then leaves the room.

Tim sits up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. It was only a dream. A dream Tim has been having every night since his visit to Gotham, a month ago. If Tim were someone else, he may have believed that he was being haunted by the ghost of the Batman. But no, Tim knows that it is his own guilt over what happened. Of the part he played. Guilt over not being able to save Bruce. And guilt of not being strong enough to continue the fight.

Sorry, Bruce, thinks Tim, but I have to continue my own life first.

Tim showers and gets dressed, then packing his bags for school. He heads into the kitchen, grabs some toast and beacon, not stopping on his path to leave.

“Timothy Drake!” his stepmom shouts. “You sit down and have breakfast right now.”

Chewing on the toast, Tim replies, “Can’t, Dana.” Tim swallows and then continues, “Gonna be late.”

“But your dad...”

“I’ll see Dad tonight,” Tim tells her. “It’ll be a long day. Tell Dad that I’ll see him at diner,” and Tim’s out the door.

“Sure...”

***

[Spider-Man Beyond]

Hate to run out like that, Tim thinks later on, as he walks into a seemingly empty building, but I need to check in on Cass.

He presses his palm to a hand pad and an elevator door slides open. “The Nest,” Tim speaks into an intercom and the elevator descends lower and lower.

I still help out where I can, his thoughts continue. So what if I’m not out in the night? I still help.

The elevator stops and the door slides open. Tim walks into a large room. Along one wall is a large computer console, equipped with communication equipment, which he uses to talk to Cass, though it’s usually a one sided conversation. Another area is equipped as a state of the art crime lab. And still, elsewhere in this headquarters is a training facility. Tim may not be out fighting crime nightly, but that doesn’t mean he should get out of shape.

But in the center of the room resides a glass case. In the case is a mannequin, wearing a red tunic and green leggings. The mannequin had a black cape with yellow lining and on its head was a green eye mask. On left side of the chest on the tunic is a stylisized “R” in a black, slanted oval.

Tim looks at his former uniform in the war on crime and then goes to the computer console. He flips a switch and says, “Cass?”

“Here.”

“How you doing out there?” asks Tim. “Any luck locating Vic?” An assassin calling herself Lady Vic has been spotted in Bludhaven recently.

“Yes,” is Cass’s reply, saying nothing more.

“Care to share with the rest of the class?” Tim jokes.

“An attack,” Cass answers. “No deaths.”

“Apprehended?”

“Yes,” Cass says again.

“Were you able to get copies of the victim’s statement?”

Cass says nothing, but a fax begins to come through.

She knows the drill, thinks Tim as he grabs the fax. “Thanks, Cass, I’ll get to work on this. See if I can figure out who put a price on this guy’s head.”

Cass doesn’t respond. Tim didn’t expect her to. He knows the drill, too.

Tim then stands up. As he starts to leave, he looks toward a closet. No, he tells himself, Too early for Halloween... for me, anyway.

***

[Spider-Man Beyond]

“The criminal mind,” a professor addresses his criminology class, “can be twisted. ‘Most’ of you have a voice that tells you what is right and wrong.”

Yeah, thinks Tim as he listens to the lecture, mine usually sounds like Bruce.

“A criminal’s mind can at times mix up what is wrong and right,” the Professor continues. “They tend to associate momentary gain with right and simply being caught with what is wrong.”

“This doesn’t just go for criminals,” a female student puts forward.

“How do you mean?” questions the Professor.

Hmmm, thinks Tim, she looks familiar.

“Well, Sir,” she starts, “we see this every day. Especially in college. Initiations. Frat parties. The way so called outcasts are treated by proverbial gods of the campus.”

Essen? ponders Tim. Wow, long time.

“Ah, I see,” the Professor says. “We all have the ability to put our wants above what is right. The star of the football feed putting his popularity above simple human courtesies, as showing respect, dignity to those so called unpopular.”

“At what point does such behavior become criminal?” the girl asks.

“I believe that we are venturing outside of what the state would consider criminal,” the Professor puts forth. “Does that mean that it is not criminal? If something is criminal it is wrong, yet something that is immoral is also wrong. At what point does something that is immoral become criminal?”

“When police nail your ass,” a male student says, high fiving his buddies.

“Elegant,” the Professor says sarcastically, “but you are correct.”

“And if the police are wrong,” Tim says, joining the discussion. “What if the police are wrong?”

“You are referring to corruption?” asks the Professor. “Sadly, this does happen and it is...”

“No,” Tim says. “What if a law is wrong? What happens when a law is immoral?” Tim notices the girl he called Essen look up at him and sees recognition in her eyes. “I think we are all old enough to know that not every law is right. At what point should citizens step outside of the law to do what is right?”

“You speak of vigilantism. Characters such as the Batman or Bludhaven’s very own Batgirl?”

“I speak of individuals following their own moral compose.”

“Vigilantism is a crime,” the Professor says.

“But that doesn’t make it wrong,” Tim says. “You speak of laws as if everything illegal is wrong, but how is trying to help your fellow man every wrong.”

“Helping your fellow man by brutalizing...”

“By stopping those that would harm normal people who are unable to help themselves. People who are willing to put themselves at great risk to save lives.”

***

[Spider-Man Beyond]

Exiting the class, Tim hears his name being called from behind him. He turns to see Essen coming up to him.

“Hey Tim,” she says.

“Hey, Barbara. Didn’t expect to see you in class today.”

“Yeah,” she says. “Been what...? A few years.”

“Two years,” Tim answers. “Since I transferred to Bludhaven.”

“Do you believe what you said in there?” Barbara asks him. “That people should take the law into their own hands?”

“I believe that those who put themselves out there to uncover corruption should be honored,” Tim answers.

Barbara walks beside Tim, unsure what to say until, “You knew someone like that?”

Tim puts on a fake smile and laughs, “Of course not. I’m just your average college student. Who would I know like that? Come on, wanna grab a bite to eat?”

“Sure,” she says, smiling at Tim.

***

[Spider-Man Beyond]

The rest of Tim’s day passes with little significance. He remembers the old days with Barbara. Tim used to go to school with her back in Gotham. Tim left so abruptly that he never said good-bye.

After Tim’s last class, he returns to the next.

I promised Lane I’d check into something for her, thinks Tim as he sits at his computers. Time for Sentinel to log on.

Tim begins typing away, a blood red slender “S” appearing on the monitor.

Cass is only one of the people I’ve been helping out. People can’t know Tim Drake’s the one helping so I’m using the handle Sentinel. It fits, I’m playing the part of guardian and watchman, thinks Tim. Wait, someone’s been on the network? How could anyone...?

Suddenly an image appears on all of Tim’s monitors. A Oracle face.

“Sentinel,” a voice says over the comm-link.

“Who are you?”

“I am the Oracle,” the voice answers.

“And you want...?”

“To give you a warning,” the voice replies. “A man’s life is in danger this night. Jack Drake.”

Tim’s heart skips a beat and without a reply he leaves.

***

[Spider-Man Beyond]

When Tim arrives home, he finds cops outside the building.

“No.” His voice is soft, almost week. And then in a burst of energy he runs in side. The cops try to stop him but nothing deters the young man. He rushes into the apartment and sees a them putting Jack Drake onto a stretcher. “Dad?”

“Tim,” Dana says. She was talking to some cops, but stops to rush to Tim. “There was an attack. Must have been a robbery.”

But Tim’s not listening. As Dana hugs him, Tim can’t help but survey the room.

Window busted. The room’s a mess. There was a struggle. Dad... you put up a fight. Tim fights back a tear. Focus. What else? Murder weapon. How was he killed?

And Tim’s heart sinks as he sees an officer putting a blood soaked boomerang in a plastic bag.

Mercer...

Continued...