City of Sin

City of Sin was a roleplay that resulted in the debut of the Batman, as Gotham's protector. This also was the debut of James Gordon in Gotham City.

Synopsis
City of Sin is a Batman storyline starring Batman and James Gordon. It was written as part of Phase One, following the timeline reboot in Darkseids Reign. It establishes Batman's position in the new continuity and begins James' story on becoming Commissioner and fighting corruption in Gotham.

Return
After training across the globe, a reformed Bruce Wayne returns to Gotham City after a 6-year disappearance. Meanwhile, Lieutenant James Gordon has just arrived in Gotham. He's greeted by Arnold Flass and the two ride off until Flass tells Gordon to stay in the car. Flass exits the car and enters an alley where he helps thugs beat up a stranger. This introduces Gordon to the corruption of GCPD. The two arrive at GCPD where Gordon is called into Commissioner Loeb's office. Gordon reports Flass to the Commissioner who tells him to leave his office and call in Flass. Flass enters and the two talk how Gordon's a 'softie' and needs a lesson.

Start of vigilantism
Shortly after his return, in the Wayne Manor, Bruce talks to Alfred about the current state of the city. Bruce tells him that this city needs to see the light and it's crime-ridden. He then told Alfred he's the only one capable of saving this city, though Alfred assures him that not even his wealth could repair the current state of the city. Bruce tells him that he went on a global sojourn to master numerous fields, for this very reason. Rather than disagreeing, Alfred understands Bruce's stance and he tells him he will be backing him every step on the way, though still sceptical of how Bruce intends to do this. Later that night, Bruce dons a disguise and ventures out into the East End where he discovers a young woman being assaulted in an alleyway. Bruce arrives to save the young woman, the thugs try to beat Bruce but he beats them with combat. He manages to escape before the cops could get to him though, and it further solidifies Bruce’s opinion on Gotham having lost its way.

Corruption
As for Gordon, he's off-duty at the time and is taking a stroll throughout Gotham. During his stroll, 4 masked men attack Gordon. He recognizes one of his attackers as none other than Detective Flass and it doesn’t surprise him in the slightest. After returning to work, Gordon makes his way to Flass and tails the dirty cop to a secluded location. Once there, Gordon confronts Flass and proceeds to beats him.

Debut of Batman
Penguin is sitting in the Iceberg Lounge surrounded by a plethora of Gotham's Elite, including but not limited to Carmine "The Roman" Falcone and Commissioner Loeb. Penguin and Falcone are attempting to negotiate a deal on what territories will be run by who, but the two end up not coming to an agreement. As the two wrap up their less than ideal meeting, the lights suddenly go black. A dark, looming silhouette of a Bat then paints over the Lounge before Batman suddenly appears out of nowhere inside the place. Then, Batman speaks, giving them a direct warning to either give it up now or suffer the fate of a collapsing empire. The mobsters are about to shoot him, but Batman then drops a smoke pellet and vanishes from the area. Later that morning, Commissioner Loeb demands the GCPD to focus their efforts on catching Batman. Gordon does a briefing on Batman's recent acts of assault on the people of Gotham and Flass steps up as a witness. Flass describes his 'encounter' with the Bat and after this, Loeb partners Gordon up with Sarah Essen and assigns the two with tracking down the Batman. Meanwhile, in the Batcave, Bruce is attempting to track down Penguin and his rackets that are spread all over the city. Alfred tries to talk Bruce out of being Batman, but Bruce is persistent and is assured about Gotham needing his protection.

Warehouse Showdown
Bruce locates a Penguin weapons cache hidden in a warehouse and instantly travels to the area in the Batwing. Batman enters the room and knocks all the criminals out, but one. The survivor pulls the fire alarm and runs, forcing the GCPD to arrive on the scene ASAP. The police arrive and surround the area before Batman can even catch the criminal and is forced to plan his escape. The SWAT Team then starts priming explosive charges on the weapons caches, despite the Penguin thugs and the GCPD being in the vicinity. Gordon would be outside and Branden (the SWAT Team Commander) assures him that nobody but Batman is in the room.

Daring Escape
Over in the East End, Selina Kyle is up late watching TV when she suddenly switches to the news and sees a stand-off between the GCPD and the unresponsive Batman vigilante. Selina is filled with intrigue and decides to go see the action for herself. She arrives on the scene but is immediately held back by various officers who put a barricade up for civilian protection. Batman escapes through a ceiling vent and his prototype aircraft awaits him. As Batman makes his daring escape, Selina is awestruck by both his finesse and grace and goes home inspired by this Bat vigilante. Batman makes his way back to the Batcave after this stand-off and continues his investigation. Back at the GCPD though, Gordon is starting to doubt the true strength and authenticity of the police force and debates quitting.

Aftermath
The next day, everyone in GCPD is talking about Batman besides one Jim Gordon who is speaking to Harvey Dent. After the events of the raid, he felt he had to build a case against Commissioner Loeb and Harvey agrees to work with him, agreeing that the corruption needs to come to an end. Bruce, however, is just trying to recover from the raid. He was badly injured and had several bullet wounds littered around his body. Through the pain though, he still trained. Alfred seeing the state Gotham was in now, was completely behind Bruce on his Batman crusade.

Start of something bad
Over at the Iceberg Lounge, Penguin’s telling his gang that he believes Falcone told Batman and Loeb about the warehouse that blew up and because of this, they need to manufacture better weapons, for they were now going to wage war on Falcone and the GCPD. Falcone, however, tells two thugs that he needed them to raid Ace Chemicals. And to do that, they needed someone who knew his way around the place. Fortunately, the two knew of a man by the name Arthur Fleck. Falcone mentioned nobody must know it’s Fleck. They find him at Gotham’s Comedy Club, telling awful jokes. After collecting him, they gave them a case containing the Red Hood dome for Arthur to wear. Arthur puts it on and is now wearing the Red Hood helmet with an added cape. Things are going well for the trio but when they finally get to the things they need, they're then spotted by a cop. This was all an elaborate setup by Falcone and this ordeal quickly escalates into a violent shootout.

Ace Chemicals Shootout
Gordon gets word of this shootout and starts heading to the Ace Chemicals. Batman, hearing all this over the radio, makes his way to Ace Chemicals as well, arriving long before the GCPD do. The two Falcone Thugs accompanying Arthur were killed in the shootout and Arthur was left alone on a catwalk looming over highly volatile and toxic chemicals. Batman drops down onto the scaffolding and scares Arthur, prompting the comic to shoot at him. Aim clearly wasn't Arthur's strong spot because he missed completely despite being only feet away from Batman. Batman strikes at the comic and knocks him over the railing. He tries to catch Arthur, but he drops him by accident and Arthur is sent plummeting to his presumed death. Batman is now a wanted criminal and things are starting to quickly turn sour for the Dark Knight.

Featured Characters:

 * Bruce Wayne
 * Jim Gordon

Supporting Characters:

 * Arthur Fleck
 * Arnold Flass
 * Alfred Pennyworth

Antagonist(s):

 * Carmine Falcone
 * Oswald Cobblepot
 * Commissioner Loeb

Other characters:

 * Harvey Dent (Cameo) 
 * Selina Kyle (Cameo)
 * Sarah Essen (Mentioned only)
 * Superman (Mentioned only)

Location(s):

 * Gotham City
 * Gotham City Police Department
 * Selina Kyle's apartment
 * Carmine Falcone's Penthouse
 * Iceberg Lounge
 * Wayne Enterprises
 * Ace Chemicals
 * Wayne Manor

Vehicles:

 * Batwing (Prototype) 