The scene opens with a young Bruce Wayne on a school field trip to the zoo. He lingers in front of a sign that reads “Bat Habitat,” his eyes locked on it with a quiet curiosity. Just as he steps closer, however, the teacher ushers him along, promising that there’ll be time to see the bats later.
The story cuts abruptly to the dead of night: a man speeds through the streets of Gotham on a motorcycle. The city is drenched in a cold, dystopian haze. The man reflects in silence that it’s been a while since he’s been to Gotham, but remembers a time when it wasn’t all chaos. It’s then that the voice is revealed to be Alfred Pennyworth, and he explains that he’s not here on good terms.
He makes a brief stop at a corner shop, picking up a box of tea before descending into one of several hidden bunkers scattered throughout the city. Once inside, he logs into a high-security terminal, and a voice appears on the other end.
The informant briefs Alfred on a violent new gang calling themselves The Party Animals. Their crime spree has sent Gotham’s criminal activity soaring a 700% increase, all centralized around gang operations. Alfred’s mission: gather intel, no direct engagement, but there’s a complication. An unknown outside has also been tracking the gang. Alfred receives revised orders: if contact is made, engagement is authorized. He prepares to move out- only to discover his motorcycle is gone, the chain sliced clean through.
Cut to a dimly lit gym. A man is training, throwing punches into a sandbag. An older Bruce Wayne walks up from behind, ushering him to move aside and it’s then when Bruce begins hammering the bag with a strong, alarming intensity.
Between punches, Bruce reminisces about the zoo trip mentioned earlier. He’s in a light heartened conversation with the teacher who’s revealed to be his father, Thomas Wayne a sound eerily close to a gunshot sounds throughout the exhibit, matching the timing in which Bruce’s final punch runs through the sandbag, spilling sand across the gym floor.
The owner of the gym, Waylon can only smirk while he informs him that it’ll be 120 dollars for the damage before telling him to stop by for a game of poker but Bruce remains distant.
It shifts to the view of a cruise ship where a group of people are having a dinner party over loud blaring music, which two of the men ask to be turned off. The two of the men are revealed to be guests that run the mafia, and they inform one person that they know of the man being the head of the party animals before quickly issuing a threat to the man to pay respects to their history and territory and leave Gotham by dawn or face severe consequences. The tone shifts as the leader abruptly shows them his array of masks, telling them that he has an established collection. He shifts through the faces of numerous notable figures before stopping at two masks that greatly resemble the two’s close family, sending a quiet but effective message that he had already begun to mow through their operation. He extends an invitation for the two mafia members to join their relatives before ending the party in a swift but violent execution.
At the town hall we see Mayor Gordon assuming a position for speech and the citizens of Gotham are outraged, exclaiming that Gotham is the most dangerous it’s ever been. Outside we can see the Party Animals preparing for an ambush while Alfred is forced to oversee the next events unfold, stationed by order at his post.
A grenade falls through the ceiling of the Town Hall before an explosion sounds throughout the building. The party animals emerge and begin to open fire on Mayor Gordon. He’s hit and instructs his daughter, Barbara Gordon to get the people together and flee, but before the party animals can proceed into the building they’re immediately apprehended and flung back by an unknown force.
The party animals, dazed, immediately spot the culprit hanging to the ceiling and open fire, but the bullets merely bounce off his cape of reinforced steel and the man revealed to be The Batman drops a smoke pellet to the ground through an opening in his steel cocoon before beginning his descent.
He swiftly dispatches the gunmen with brutal efficiency, moving like a predator through the hazy smoke. Alfred watches from above, intrigued. The Batman moves like a force of nature- silent, lethal, and using every piece of his battle suit as a weapon for combat.
The gang leader charges, blade in hand, but before he can close the distance, Batman slices off his hand in a single, fluid motion with a blade of his own. Turning to the remaining gang members, Batman growls a warning, offering them a fleeting chance to escape. But as they scatter, the ground beneath them erupts—set off by pre-placed explosives and dust and unconscious grunts cover the floor.
As Batman examines the mask of a fallen grunt, Alfred seizes the moment. He takes aim and holds Batman at gunpoint. But before he can act, a swift kick knocks him off his vantage point. Batman disarms him in a flash and vanishes into the night.
Later, Alfred begins investigating the man behind the mask. He discovers that Bruce Wayne is a 24-year-old civil engineer with a near-genius IQ. In fifth grade, one of his projects had earned his class a special trip to the Gotham Zoo—an event that marked a beginning spiral into Bruce’s descent into a brooding vigilante.
The scene shifts to that same day at the Gotham Zoo. A violent shootout erupts—gunfire echoes as bodies collapse to the pavement. Thomas Wayne, calm amidst the chaos, orders the children to hide inside the bat house, but stops outside the door. He calls the class and tells them to never leave this room no matter what happens, and with one hand bracing the door shut, he turns to confront the approaching gunman.
A final shot rings out.
Thomas Wayne’s hand goes limp, sliding from the doorframe.
From that point on, Bruce struggled with his loss. Grief consumed him, and for years he lashed out at the world. His anger earned him a criminal record, and he seemed on a path of self-destruction. But something—unspoken and buried deep—shifted inside him. Without warning or explanation, he redirected his pain into purpose. He disappeared from public life, studying various fields of science, engineering, and criminal psychology. When he returned to Gotham, it was quietly—working beneath the city as an infrastructure engineer, learning every tunnel, circuit, and shadowed corridor the city had to offer.
Later, Bruce stands atop a towering structure, his silhouette framed against the Gotham skyline. He records a personal log on the party animals, speaking into a device before he’s interrupted by a familiar presence. It’s Alfred, and he tells Batman he’s closing him down.
Without hesitation, Batman pulls out a shotgun. In one fluid motion, he fires—point blank. Alfred stumbles back, stunned, but not dead. The blast hadn’t been lethal. Dazed, Alfred processes three things in rapid succession:
His shotgun had been modified—it was nonlethal.
The weapon is already discarded, lying abandoned at his side.
He hears the distant but unmistakable roar of his own motorcycle—long thought stolen.
But before he can make sense of any of this, the Batman is astride the bike, already throttling toward the edge of the platform and the bike soars off the tower, vanishing thousands of feet above into the night sky.
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