Well, I began documenting myself about DC for my crossover stories, and so I came upon many of the most interesting sagas I've ever chanced about, and Batman has many of these. War Games, Under the Red Hood, and the jewel that is the saga spanning Cataclysm and No Man's Land.
After much tribulation and mainly thanks to the recent prequels made by Judd Winick, I noticed something. Jason was very much alive while everything went down: the earthquake, the isolation, the gang war, everything major that has ever happened to Gotham. At least the second one should have made it into the international news. See where I'm going?
So, it brought to me an idea. Just what would have changed had Jason decided to come back home early? More importantly, why would he want to go back home early.
So, here we go. One Man's Land, a Batman fanfiction, a No Man's Land rewrite. Enjoy!
Prologue
ôKiddo, are you serious about this?ö
ôI paid you in advance, and only to transport me.ö He checked all his equipment once again. His backpack first, containing all the tools he would need for survival. Solar rechargeable batteries, a flashlight, rations, chemicals to sterilize water, first aid kit, rope... Then, he went to his weapon, or better, weapon. ôYou're not paid to worry about my feelings or safety, aren't ya?ö
ôSee if I care, boy. I just say it sounds nuts to me.ö The only one he had brought with him along with what he needed to keep it in shape, his knife. The guns would soon run out of bullets, and then they would just be useless pieces of junk, heavy to carry around, unsuited even for trading. ôDropping off in that hellhole... With a parachute, nonetheless.ö
ôLess talking, more flying.ö That would keep him to stealth and close quarters combat, but with all the rubble and a whole city he was sure he would be able to produce some makeshift long range weapons. He could just throw rocks, if he really needed.
ô... Alright. It's in sight. Bask your eyes in the figure of hell on earth, once known as Gotham City.ö He raised his head and put back the blade into its sheath, then settled his eyes on the city he had been born into for the first time in years, and what he saw, he didn't like one bit. Long gone was the towering metropolis, now ruined maybe forever, whole blocks reduced to mountains of debris with who knows how many people buried under it in the wake of the quake. He wondered if they ever dug out everyone...
"Alright, this is as far as I go at normal speed." The 'delivery' he had arranged was going to be the first challenge. Dropping off a high speed travelling aircraft, augmenting the speed to throw off before opening the parachute. The alternative was becoming an easy target for the army's helicopters. "Opening the hold now."
"... Home, sweet home." As he strapped the parachute on his shoulders, strapping his backpack in front, he observed as the cargo hold opened, letting in wind and the sight of a destroyed Gotham. He had seen it from above before, and even that point of view showed just how badly the city had been damaged by the quake. Then, the plane sped up. It was time.
"Well, I don't usually wish people good luck, but you're going to sorely need it, boy!" He put on the last piece of clothing he needed, his helmet, his 'hood'.
"... Probably. Just a little. But, hey..." He flexed in a running start, jumped forward and dropped out of the cargo hold, towards the skies of Gotham. "I got back from the dead. I should have at least a little bit of luck on my side, right?"
One man's land
Chapter1: The hood goes back home[\B]
51 Days Earlier
"...peal has fallen on hard hearing ears. The decision is almost unanimous, barring the surprising opposed vote of chief justice Osgood Rockfirth, who had been till the day of the vote the most supportive of the decision that has still come out of the vote: Gotham will be shut down. Following, weather and sports...ö
ô... And here I thought your da' was heartless.ö
ôI have yet to ask him, but I think he does approve. It's after all, the logical decision.ö Talia poured herself a glass of wine while Jason fatigued to restrain himself from cracking his own glass with his bare hand.
ôShutting down a whole city?! Trapping forever inside the people who don't want to or can't leave?!ö He settled for throwing it to the ground, fortunately empty.
ôDon't you forget that they're prohibiting anyone with a criminal record or mob associations to exit the city.ö She got the glass off the ground and put it back on a nearby table.
ôHence trapping innocents together with madmen.ö Jason turns off the television before the instinct of simply smashing it in half took over his common sense. ôThey're turning Gotham into a sick version of Escape from New York... Only, it's a no fly zone. No risk of the president accidentally dropping in town and Kurt Russell following suit.ö
ô... You have to realize that I have no idea of what you're talking about.ö Jason raised an eyebrow at that as he turned to observe Talia's face.
ôSeriously? You've never... Of course you didn't.ö Sometimes Jason forgot just who he was talking to. He shook his head. ôThe point is... This. Is. Bullshit.ö
ôSo, explain to me, Jason... Are you angry because of the tragedy that has befallen your hometown and its citizen... Or because this whole situation has deprived you of your vengeance? Of your plan?ö The woman brought the glass to her lips, observing as Jason struggled with himself, trying to find a suitable answer to the inquiry.
ô... A little bit of both.ö The teen walked slowly to the window of the small house they were currently holding their meeting in, a few kilometers out of Orleans, France. "There's of course the fact that without a Gotham... All my plans have just gone into the gutter. Damn it..."
"... Really? I'd say..."
"My old plans, Talia. This is just a setback at worst... An opportunity, at best." He said, looking at the setting sun far into the horizon. "Gotham needs someone now more than ever. Also..." A grin surfaces to his lips. "Think of his face as he sees me, the saviour of his city, back from the dead and having done what he has always only dreamed of..."
"... So, you're going back home, after all." Talia commented, a malicious smile on her lips.
"After due preparation. Gotham is gone from being the city with the biggest crime rate in the States to a war zone. It won't do plunge in head first..."
-Breakline-
"Last famous words..." Jason thought back of that conversation that spawned his whole intention of heading back to Gotham a few months before he had originally planned, since he was indeed plunging head first towards Gotham, gaining speed so that eventual overzelous soldiers couldn't even think of aiming at him.
The worse came right after that, since he now had to lose all the speed he had gained, or it would be a very short comeback. Once he passed a certain altitude, he opened his arms and legs wide, so activating special kevlar wings, which opened inbetween his appendages. The jerk was strong, but he had already lost a good deal of speed, and he kept on slowing down, even if he could already hear the fabric tear itself apart.
Not yet... he kept on counting the meters he was going down as he sky rocketed towards the ground, aiming seemingly towards his old neighbourhood. He could make out what seemed like a bunch of tents all bundled together among all the rubble. A settling of sorts.
When the details became distinguishable and the kevlar broke, he began to focus on his landing zone... And found nothing free of danger, as he suspected. He would have to improvise.
He opened the parachute and his descent slowed again, enough for him to direction himself. He found the perfect target in a tall building with one of the few still standing gargoyles in the city. He picked out of his backpack a grappling hook and began to rotate the rope in his right hand.
Once his altitude dropped enough, he launched the hook and undid the straps of his parachute, effectively dropping it. Then he felt the rope went tense in his hands. "... An earthquake, weeks of lawlessness, and there are still windows without broken glass?"
As he swung towards a nearby window, he couldn't help but notice that little detail. He let go of the rope and curled into a ball just before the impact, even if it wasn't like glass shards could cut through what he was wearing, but he still preferred not to smash through a window feet first unless there was someone behind it.
He rolled on the floor of the room and came to a sudden halt, back first, thanks to a providential wall. "Ow." Jason slowly slid to the ground to a sitting down position with a groan. He collected himself off the ground and checked himself for injuries. "Gotta work on my landings... If I was planning on doing stuff like that ever again, that is. Then again, you never know."
He slowly walked to the window he had just crashed through, remembering its height and knowing that he could get a very good view. "... God, it's worse than what I thought."
He believed he would have been prepared for that. He had seen images on the tv, pictures on the net, read articles... But he was wrong. Seeing it in first person was something else entirely.
The skyline was changed beyond repair. Many buildings he had familiarized himself with during his 'ornithological' years had disappeared. The smog production had come to a halt months before, and thanks to that, the stars shone bright on a darkened city, light provided only by the occasional fortune fires and he guessed some generators.
The smell had changed beyond recognition as well. He could faintly smell human escrements. Faintly because he was currently on a high place. Again, months without functioning electricity had done wonders for the environment. If it wasn't for the smell, that would the cleanest air he had ever smelled in Gotham.
He tried to persuade himself that the reason he suddenly felt nauseous was the smell, but he knew himself better than that. He knew that what nauseated him was the state of his hometown. The city where he was born and had lived, which held many memories, that he wanted to save... Only to shove it in Bruce's face, of course.
"... There's a lot of work to do, it seems." He took off his backpack and strapped it on the right way, and he slowly began to make his way out of the abandoned apartment and down the stairs of the building. "Day 49 of No Man's Land. The Red Hood enters the game."
-Breakline-
"... A person. It was definitely a person." Barbara Gordon, the omniscient Oracle, ever since the earthquake, had had to change her information gathering system when it came to Gotham city, having found herself, as she said, a high-tech girl in a low tech world.
She had traded microphones and spy cameras for the eyes and ears of Gotham's denizens, and occasionally her own ones. She had been drinking some tea by the window of her apartment, being unable to sleep because of a recurring dream, and that was how she witnessed a small jet zooming over the city's skies at high speed and dropping something.
Got a hold of her binoculars, she had discovered this something to be someone, a male wearing a disguise, dropping down in her city with a parachute and kevlar wings.
At first she thought it could have been him, but she was proven wrong by the person's appearance and also his modus operandi. Hiring a mercenary to drop him wasn't in his style. Also, he would have contacted her. "... But maybe he wants to stay hidden for the time being? Is that why..."
Groaning in defeat, the redhead brought a hand to her forehead. There was just almost no way of predicting Bruce's action. She just wished, though, that he would show himself or make himself heard. Returning to the newcomer, though... "Bruce or not, there's someone new in town."
-Breakline-
"Well... I was right. The smell is really something." He thought as he activated the airfilters in his helmet, making a mental note to keep it in optimal conditions and to never detonate it unless it was strictly necessary. It wasn't like he would have the means to easily get or make another one.
The smell out of the way, he went through his plan yet again. The first objective was to get information on the actual state of the city. Not even Talia's men had been able to get much, because there was basically no way of getting out of Gotham easily at the moment, be it with information or not.
If he was to take control of and save the city, he needed to know just who he was going to deal with and where. The one thing he was sure of was that Gotham was split in many pieces, each one controlled by a different person.
Also, he knew that Arkham had emptied itself into the city, so he had a few hunches as to the identities of the 'sugar daddies'. ôI'll need to talk with the residents. No way around it... The first stop is the tent-opolis I saw as I dropped down.ö It was right in the middle of Crime Alley...
After much tribulation and mainly thanks to the recent prequels made by Judd Winick, I noticed something. Jason was very much alive while everything went down: the earthquake, the isolation, the gang war, everything major that has ever happened to Gotham. At least the second one should have made it into the international news. See where I'm going?
So, it brought to me an idea. Just what would have changed had Jason decided to come back home early? More importantly, why would he want to go back home early.
So, here we go. One Man's Land, a Batman fanfiction, a No Man's Land rewrite. Enjoy!
Prologue
ôKiddo, are you serious about this?ö
ôI paid you in advance, and only to transport me.ö He checked all his equipment once again. His backpack first, containing all the tools he would need for survival. Solar rechargeable batteries, a flashlight, rations, chemicals to sterilize water, first aid kit, rope... Then, he went to his weapon, or better, weapon. ôYou're not paid to worry about my feelings or safety, aren't ya?ö
ôSee if I care, boy. I just say it sounds nuts to me.ö The only one he had brought with him along with what he needed to keep it in shape, his knife. The guns would soon run out of bullets, and then they would just be useless pieces of junk, heavy to carry around, unsuited even for trading. ôDropping off in that hellhole... With a parachute, nonetheless.ö
ôLess talking, more flying.ö That would keep him to stealth and close quarters combat, but with all the rubble and a whole city he was sure he would be able to produce some makeshift long range weapons. He could just throw rocks, if he really needed.
ô... Alright. It's in sight. Bask your eyes in the figure of hell on earth, once known as Gotham City.ö He raised his head and put back the blade into its sheath, then settled his eyes on the city he had been born into for the first time in years, and what he saw, he didn't like one bit. Long gone was the towering metropolis, now ruined maybe forever, whole blocks reduced to mountains of debris with who knows how many people buried under it in the wake of the quake. He wondered if they ever dug out everyone...
"Alright, this is as far as I go at normal speed." The 'delivery' he had arranged was going to be the first challenge. Dropping off a high speed travelling aircraft, augmenting the speed to throw off before opening the parachute. The alternative was becoming an easy target for the army's helicopters. "Opening the hold now."
"... Home, sweet home." As he strapped the parachute on his shoulders, strapping his backpack in front, he observed as the cargo hold opened, letting in wind and the sight of a destroyed Gotham. He had seen it from above before, and even that point of view showed just how badly the city had been damaged by the quake. Then, the plane sped up. It was time.
"Well, I don't usually wish people good luck, but you're going to sorely need it, boy!" He put on the last piece of clothing he needed, his helmet, his 'hood'.
"... Probably. Just a little. But, hey..." He flexed in a running start, jumped forward and dropped out of the cargo hold, towards the skies of Gotham. "I got back from the dead. I should have at least a little bit of luck on my side, right?"
One man's land
Chapter1: The hood goes back home[\B]
51 Days Earlier
"...peal has fallen on hard hearing ears. The decision is almost unanimous, barring the surprising opposed vote of chief justice Osgood Rockfirth, who had been till the day of the vote the most supportive of the decision that has still come out of the vote: Gotham will be shut down. Following, weather and sports...ö
ô... And here I thought your da' was heartless.ö
ôI have yet to ask him, but I think he does approve. It's after all, the logical decision.ö Talia poured herself a glass of wine while Jason fatigued to restrain himself from cracking his own glass with his bare hand.
ôShutting down a whole city?! Trapping forever inside the people who don't want to or can't leave?!ö He settled for throwing it to the ground, fortunately empty.
ôDon't you forget that they're prohibiting anyone with a criminal record or mob associations to exit the city.ö She got the glass off the ground and put it back on a nearby table.
ôHence trapping innocents together with madmen.ö Jason turns off the television before the instinct of simply smashing it in half took over his common sense. ôThey're turning Gotham into a sick version of Escape from New York... Only, it's a no fly zone. No risk of the president accidentally dropping in town and Kurt Russell following suit.ö
ô... You have to realize that I have no idea of what you're talking about.ö Jason raised an eyebrow at that as he turned to observe Talia's face.
ôSeriously? You've never... Of course you didn't.ö Sometimes Jason forgot just who he was talking to. He shook his head. ôThe point is... This. Is. Bullshit.ö
ôSo, explain to me, Jason... Are you angry because of the tragedy that has befallen your hometown and its citizen... Or because this whole situation has deprived you of your vengeance? Of your plan?ö The woman brought the glass to her lips, observing as Jason struggled with himself, trying to find a suitable answer to the inquiry.
ô... A little bit of both.ö The teen walked slowly to the window of the small house they were currently holding their meeting in, a few kilometers out of Orleans, France. "There's of course the fact that without a Gotham... All my plans have just gone into the gutter. Damn it..."
"... Really? I'd say..."
"My old plans, Talia. This is just a setback at worst... An opportunity, at best." He said, looking at the setting sun far into the horizon. "Gotham needs someone now more than ever. Also..." A grin surfaces to his lips. "Think of his face as he sees me, the saviour of his city, back from the dead and having done what he has always only dreamed of..."
"... So, you're going back home, after all." Talia commented, a malicious smile on her lips.
"After due preparation. Gotham is gone from being the city with the biggest crime rate in the States to a war zone. It won't do plunge in head first..."
-Breakline-
"Last famous words..." Jason thought back of that conversation that spawned his whole intention of heading back to Gotham a few months before he had originally planned, since he was indeed plunging head first towards Gotham, gaining speed so that eventual overzelous soldiers couldn't even think of aiming at him.
The worse came right after that, since he now had to lose all the speed he had gained, or it would be a very short comeback. Once he passed a certain altitude, he opened his arms and legs wide, so activating special kevlar wings, which opened inbetween his appendages. The jerk was strong, but he had already lost a good deal of speed, and he kept on slowing down, even if he could already hear the fabric tear itself apart.
Not yet... he kept on counting the meters he was going down as he sky rocketed towards the ground, aiming seemingly towards his old neighbourhood. He could make out what seemed like a bunch of tents all bundled together among all the rubble. A settling of sorts.
When the details became distinguishable and the kevlar broke, he began to focus on his landing zone... And found nothing free of danger, as he suspected. He would have to improvise.
He opened the parachute and his descent slowed again, enough for him to direction himself. He found the perfect target in a tall building with one of the few still standing gargoyles in the city. He picked out of his backpack a grappling hook and began to rotate the rope in his right hand.
Once his altitude dropped enough, he launched the hook and undid the straps of his parachute, effectively dropping it. Then he felt the rope went tense in his hands. "... An earthquake, weeks of lawlessness, and there are still windows without broken glass?"
As he swung towards a nearby window, he couldn't help but notice that little detail. He let go of the rope and curled into a ball just before the impact, even if it wasn't like glass shards could cut through what he was wearing, but he still preferred not to smash through a window feet first unless there was someone behind it.
He rolled on the floor of the room and came to a sudden halt, back first, thanks to a providential wall. "Ow." Jason slowly slid to the ground to a sitting down position with a groan. He collected himself off the ground and checked himself for injuries. "Gotta work on my landings... If I was planning on doing stuff like that ever again, that is. Then again, you never know."
He slowly walked to the window he had just crashed through, remembering its height and knowing that he could get a very good view. "... God, it's worse than what I thought."
He believed he would have been prepared for that. He had seen images on the tv, pictures on the net, read articles... But he was wrong. Seeing it in first person was something else entirely.
The skyline was changed beyond repair. Many buildings he had familiarized himself with during his 'ornithological' years had disappeared. The smog production had come to a halt months before, and thanks to that, the stars shone bright on a darkened city, light provided only by the occasional fortune fires and he guessed some generators.
The smell had changed beyond recognition as well. He could faintly smell human escrements. Faintly because he was currently on a high place. Again, months without functioning electricity had done wonders for the environment. If it wasn't for the smell, that would the cleanest air he had ever smelled in Gotham.
He tried to persuade himself that the reason he suddenly felt nauseous was the smell, but he knew himself better than that. He knew that what nauseated him was the state of his hometown. The city where he was born and had lived, which held many memories, that he wanted to save... Only to shove it in Bruce's face, of course.
"... There's a lot of work to do, it seems." He took off his backpack and strapped it on the right way, and he slowly began to make his way out of the abandoned apartment and down the stairs of the building. "Day 49 of No Man's Land. The Red Hood enters the game."
-Breakline-
"... A person. It was definitely a person." Barbara Gordon, the omniscient Oracle, ever since the earthquake, had had to change her information gathering system when it came to Gotham city, having found herself, as she said, a high-tech girl in a low tech world.
She had traded microphones and spy cameras for the eyes and ears of Gotham's denizens, and occasionally her own ones. She had been drinking some tea by the window of her apartment, being unable to sleep because of a recurring dream, and that was how she witnessed a small jet zooming over the city's skies at high speed and dropping something.
Got a hold of her binoculars, she had discovered this something to be someone, a male wearing a disguise, dropping down in her city with a parachute and kevlar wings.
At first she thought it could have been him, but she was proven wrong by the person's appearance and also his modus operandi. Hiring a mercenary to drop him wasn't in his style. Also, he would have contacted her. "... But maybe he wants to stay hidden for the time being? Is that why..."
Groaning in defeat, the redhead brought a hand to her forehead. There was just almost no way of predicting Bruce's action. She just wished, though, that he would show himself or make himself heard. Returning to the newcomer, though... "Bruce or not, there's someone new in town."
-Breakline-
"Well... I was right. The smell is really something." He thought as he activated the airfilters in his helmet, making a mental note to keep it in optimal conditions and to never detonate it unless it was strictly necessary. It wasn't like he would have the means to easily get or make another one.
The smell out of the way, he went through his plan yet again. The first objective was to get information on the actual state of the city. Not even Talia's men had been able to get much, because there was basically no way of getting out of Gotham easily at the moment, be it with information or not.
If he was to take control of and save the city, he needed to know just who he was going to deal with and where. The one thing he was sure of was that Gotham was split in many pieces, each one controlled by a different person.
Also, he knew that Arkham had emptied itself into the city, so he had a few hunches as to the identities of the 'sugar daddies'. ôI'll need to talk with the residents. No way around it... The first stop is the tent-opolis I saw as I dropped down.ö It was right in the middle of Crime Alley...
