Gotham Gazette November 10th, 2008
Not a Joke By Roger Mortimer
A traffic jam on the mainland highway, caused by many leaving their homes in the seemingly condemned Pink District
Yesterday the Joker issued an ultimatum. We kill our newly elected Mayor Thorne, or he will release Sarin gas, the same gas used in the deadly Aum Shinrikyo Subway attacks in Tokyo thirteen years ago. He has given us a deadline of tonight before he’ll release it. While he originally claimed to release it in Gotham and Blackgate penitentiary, he has since switched the location to the Pink District.
This is the second time the Joker has issued an ultimatum. The first time he said he’d bomb our schools if we didn’t close them down. We closed them down, he didn’t bomb the schools. By track record it would seem that he keeps his word, and would lend to us wanting to comply. But asking for regular citizens of Gotham to murder instead of having a day without school is different. While the Joker has made unproven claims of Thorne’s corruption, either way Thorne has yet to do anything that would deserve his death. It is suspicious that both of his candidates in the race were publically assassinated by the same man, who has twice claimed to have been paid by Thorne to do so, and has left Thorne alone. While he made claims of trying to kill Thorne, he has yet to actually do so. While he did raid the Wayne fundraiser, he let Thorne escape and didn’t bother trying to run after him, but instead went through great efforts to kill the other mayors, both ramming through a police barricade and kidnapping one under high security. Thorne has, in a way, benefited from the Joker’s rampage. However, I’d like to remind readers that there is no proof and this paper is making no accusation of Mayor Thorne.
The Pink District has been hit hard by the news, as thousands flee the area in response. There is no official evacuation going on, the citizens are simply taking it upon themselves to leave the area. Businesses are being closed down as the owners and customers leave the area for hotels or friends in other districts.
“It’s insane. A domestic Terrorist threatens to release Sarin Gas in our home, but when we want to leave we have to leave by ourselves? There is no government aid?” said Matt Hawkins, a father of three who lived in the Pink District. “I had to load our car up with whatever I could, but almost everything is still left. There are looters on the streets taking advantage of this, breaking into houses stealing the valuables, knowing the police have too much on their hands to bother. It’s chaos.”
While Mayor Thorne has not issues an evacuation of the Pink District, probably out of doubt that the Joker told the truth, he has announced that the Red Cross has agreed to help Gotham, and that the National Guard is helping to secure several locations. His office also released the symptoms of exposure to Sarin, as well as supposed antidotes. He also announced that it’s best if the citizens of Gotham stay to high ground.
The location of the Mayor is currently disclosed, so there could be no interview with him nor could we inform him of this article beforehand to allow him to state his own viewpoint. Specifics were also not announced, such as exactly what the Red Cross and the National Guard would be doing.
“Personally, and I just mean this personally” said Jerome Sheperd, a businessman in the Pink District, “I just mean personally I have to wonder what the Mayor thinks his job his. He’s suppose to help protect us. He wasn’t fairly elected, I mean who were we suppose to elect? He was the only goddamn candidate that survived. It’s just fishy to me. And now we’re all suppose to die so he can save his own skin? It’s ridiculous. And I just mean this personally, but god save me I hope someone kills him. I’m a pacifist, but when it’s one corrupt person or thousands, then it’s an easy choice.”
Jerome’s view is common amongst those fleeing from the Pink District, though it is not so common elsewhere.
“We can’t bow down to terrorists” said Kate Walker, who lives in the Brown District. “We kill a mayor and the Joker would have turned all of us into his personal hitmen. So the Pink District dies as a result. Good riddance. The people there are basically animals. They just rob and murder and ****. The Mayor is a good man and shouldn’t have to be threatened by this.”
Sarin Gas is a nerve agent, labeled as a weapon of mass destruction by the United Nations in UN Resolution 687. It works by attacking the nervous system of living organisms. It’s an extremely potent irreversible cholinesterase inhibitor. Initial symptoms are a runny nose, tightness in the chest and constriction of the pupils. Soon after, the victim has difficulty breathing and experiences nausea and drooling. As the victim continues to lose control of bodily functions, the victim vomits, defecates and urinates. This phase is followed by twitching and jerking. Ultimately, the victim becomes comatose and suffocates in a series of convulsive spasms. Sarin has a high volatility relative to similar nerve agents. Even vapor concentrations immediately penetrate the skin. People who absorb a non-lethal dose but do not receive immediate appropriate medical treatment may suffer permanent neurological damage. Death may follow in one minute after direct ingestion of about 0.01 milligram per kilogram of body weight if antidotes are not immediately administered.
The Galactic Disappearance By Vicki Vale
The empty foundations, where the Galaxy Credit Union once stood
On November 2nd, terrorists working with the Black Mask took heavily armed vans to rob Gotham First National Bank and the East Coast Banking Center. Only a couple of days ago on the 8th, Antoino “Bane the Breaker” Marcos tore the People’s Bank apart, single handedly murdering everyone inside and making away with over thirty-five million dollars. But as bankers, tellers, and customers woke up this morning to go to work at the Galaxy Credit Union in Pinewood Place, they recognized that the entire bank had disappeared.
All that was left of the GCU, located just down the street from the Knight’s Center, was a slim margin of lowest base of the building’s foundation – the walls, the roof, the rooms inside, the vault… the building was stolen in its entirety. GCPD investigators claim that the outgoing alarms and security connections were severed sometime in the middle of the night, though they claim that a majority of the work to move the building could not have been done in one night. Apparently, the bank was stolen right under our nose, plainly in front of the public eye, the work disguised as reconstructive maintenance and construction work to repair damage from the riots that broke out earlier in the week.
Sitting on the concrete foundation where the bank once stood were the four security guards who were on duty protecting the facility, all tied together, gagged, blindfolded, and drugged out of their minds. Black spray-paint under where they sat read the statement, “Impossibility is an invitation, not a declaration,” and it was signed with a childlike drawing of a cat’s face, similar to the newly vandalized appearance of the Bat-, or should I now say Cat-, signal. Written on the hand of Jonathan Lunati, one of the four policemen found at the scene, were the words “cute kid” and “get some health insurance.” Upon interview, the man shyly admitted that he had no insurance card to show us, but did have a picture of his young daughter in his wallet; missing, however, was his security keycard.
The monetary value of the contents of the vault reaches over twenty million dollars, but the real cost to the city will be the replacement of the entire banking facility. Construction will have to commence immediately, yet we can only assume that somewhere in the city, the bank that must be rebuilt is hidden where one deviously expert thief will never have to wait in line at the ATM again.
Phoenix Pharmaceuticals Targeted By Stanton Kiel
An aerial view of the chaos in downtown Gotham
Earlier today over the radio, the Penny Plunderer announced that he had left a present for Bruce Wayne and Dr. Melvin Taransky at Phoenix Pharmaceuticals. That present was another bombed L-Train, with massive amounts of pennies found scattered over the scene and in the train itself.
Well-places explosives were used to knock the train off its rails and into the Phoenix Pharmaceuticals building. It crashed into the third and second storeys. A nearby officer, Spencer Wilcox, immediately evacuated the passengers on the rear of the train who survived the impact.
Rescue workers appeared on the scene immediately, however things were still looking to get worse as it seemed the badly damages third floor would collapse onto the second, killing the workers trapped inside by the rubble. Some cars of the train were hanging from the tracks down into the building and the passengers inside were trapped.
Then Batman appeared, and completely contrary to what one would believe about him due to treatment of a DeLorean yesterday, he must be a bit of a car collector as he arrived in a fresh Batmobile despite one being destroyed very recently by The Joker.
He put the Batmobile to use right away, riding along the tracks and attaching cables to the train. The Batmobile then fired its jet-like boosters and the train slowly creaked back up onto the tracks, allowing the survivors trapped in the suspended cars to evacuate.
Batman the rushed into the building along a zipline and began lowering survivors down it. Just as the ceiling was collapsing with Batman inside, he leapt out carrying three survivors and lowered them to the ground safely using the zipline. Batman flatly stated that those three survivors he carried out were the last in the building, then he disappeared.
Police Comissioner Jim Gordon was on the scene organizing the rescue efforts afterward.
When asked for comment, Ronald Phoenix stated, "I've been advised against speaking indepth with the media, however I will say that if this was an attack on the good things my company is trying to do -- to the person that did this, you're nothing but a speed bump."
Recent events call to mind the question. "What's happening at Phoenix Pharmaceuticals that the public doesn't know about?" Bane the Breaker accused them of being one of the companies that produced Venom, a lethally addictive drug. The mysterious firing of the brilliant Dr. Melvin Taransky also comes to mind. And now they've been officially targeted. Does the Penny Plunderer have a vendetta against Phoenix, like Bane seemed to, or was it just wanton destruction against a valuable target?
D.A. Incites Gang War? By Alexander Knox
The inside of Samovar, as seen after the fire had been put out
Around 7:30 last night, a tall man with an Italian-American accent entered Samovar. Samovar is a restaurant patronized mostly by Eastern Europeans, especially members of the gang run by "the Chechen". As such, the tall man's presense here was unusual.
His next actions were even more so. He approached Jirka Brodsky and Lomy Slegr, two member's of the Chechen's gang, and began demanding information on Gotham District Attorney Harvey Dent, who recently disappeared under mysterious circumstances. The conversation was heated from the start, and it quickly escalated into violence. One of the two gang members attacked the tall man, but he was able to knock both onto the floor before making a quick exit.
Seconds afterward, a small explosion shook the restaurant, splattering a Napalm-like substance over the restaurant and many of the patrons. Six people died, including the two gang members. One man is hospitalized in critical condition, suffering from widespread second degree burns. Many more suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
Within minutes, the GCFD had arrived, and the fire was put out almost twenty minutes after it began. However, by that time the Samovar was little more than a burnt out husk, and the lives of six Gotham residents had been burnt out as well.
Police are asking anyone with information about the perpatrator to come forward. He is described as a tall, medium-build man. He is caucasian with a slight tan, wavy black hair, and brown eyes. His weight is estimated at around 180 pounds, and he stands about 6'1" tall. The terror that Gotham feels right now will not go away unless Gothamites are strong enough to act against it.
Today's Population: 5,590,040
Not a Joke By Roger Mortimer
A traffic jam on the mainland highway, caused by many leaving their homes in the seemingly condemned Pink District
Yesterday the Joker issued an ultimatum. We kill our newly elected Mayor Thorne, or he will release Sarin gas, the same gas used in the deadly Aum Shinrikyo Subway attacks in Tokyo thirteen years ago. He has given us a deadline of tonight before he’ll release it. While he originally claimed to release it in Gotham and Blackgate penitentiary, he has since switched the location to the Pink District.
This is the second time the Joker has issued an ultimatum. The first time he said he’d bomb our schools if we didn’t close them down. We closed them down, he didn’t bomb the schools. By track record it would seem that he keeps his word, and would lend to us wanting to comply. But asking for regular citizens of Gotham to murder instead of having a day without school is different. While the Joker has made unproven claims of Thorne’s corruption, either way Thorne has yet to do anything that would deserve his death. It is suspicious that both of his candidates in the race were publically assassinated by the same man, who has twice claimed to have been paid by Thorne to do so, and has left Thorne alone. While he made claims of trying to kill Thorne, he has yet to actually do so. While he did raid the Wayne fundraiser, he let Thorne escape and didn’t bother trying to run after him, but instead went through great efforts to kill the other mayors, both ramming through a police barricade and kidnapping one under high security. Thorne has, in a way, benefited from the Joker’s rampage. However, I’d like to remind readers that there is no proof and this paper is making no accusation of Mayor Thorne.
The Pink District has been hit hard by the news, as thousands flee the area in response. There is no official evacuation going on, the citizens are simply taking it upon themselves to leave the area. Businesses are being closed down as the owners and customers leave the area for hotels or friends in other districts.
“It’s insane. A domestic Terrorist threatens to release Sarin Gas in our home, but when we want to leave we have to leave by ourselves? There is no government aid?” said Matt Hawkins, a father of three who lived in the Pink District. “I had to load our car up with whatever I could, but almost everything is still left. There are looters on the streets taking advantage of this, breaking into houses stealing the valuables, knowing the police have too much on their hands to bother. It’s chaos.”
While Mayor Thorne has not issues an evacuation of the Pink District, probably out of doubt that the Joker told the truth, he has announced that the Red Cross has agreed to help Gotham, and that the National Guard is helping to secure several locations. His office also released the symptoms of exposure to Sarin, as well as supposed antidotes. He also announced that it’s best if the citizens of Gotham stay to high ground.
The location of the Mayor is currently disclosed, so there could be no interview with him nor could we inform him of this article beforehand to allow him to state his own viewpoint. Specifics were also not announced, such as exactly what the Red Cross and the National Guard would be doing.
“Personally, and I just mean this personally” said Jerome Sheperd, a businessman in the Pink District, “I just mean personally I have to wonder what the Mayor thinks his job his. He’s suppose to help protect us. He wasn’t fairly elected, I mean who were we suppose to elect? He was the only goddamn candidate that survived. It’s just fishy to me. And now we’re all suppose to die so he can save his own skin? It’s ridiculous. And I just mean this personally, but god save me I hope someone kills him. I’m a pacifist, but when it’s one corrupt person or thousands, then it’s an easy choice.”
Jerome’s view is common amongst those fleeing from the Pink District, though it is not so common elsewhere.
“We can’t bow down to terrorists” said Kate Walker, who lives in the Brown District. “We kill a mayor and the Joker would have turned all of us into his personal hitmen. So the Pink District dies as a result. Good riddance. The people there are basically animals. They just rob and murder and ****. The Mayor is a good man and shouldn’t have to be threatened by this.”
Sarin Gas is a nerve agent, labeled as a weapon of mass destruction by the United Nations in UN Resolution 687. It works by attacking the nervous system of living organisms. It’s an extremely potent irreversible cholinesterase inhibitor. Initial symptoms are a runny nose, tightness in the chest and constriction of the pupils. Soon after, the victim has difficulty breathing and experiences nausea and drooling. As the victim continues to lose control of bodily functions, the victim vomits, defecates and urinates. This phase is followed by twitching and jerking. Ultimately, the victim becomes comatose and suffocates in a series of convulsive spasms. Sarin has a high volatility relative to similar nerve agents. Even vapor concentrations immediately penetrate the skin. People who absorb a non-lethal dose but do not receive immediate appropriate medical treatment may suffer permanent neurological damage. Death may follow in one minute after direct ingestion of about 0.01 milligram per kilogram of body weight if antidotes are not immediately administered.
The Galactic Disappearance By Vicki Vale
The empty foundations, where the Galaxy Credit Union once stood
On November 2nd, terrorists working with the Black Mask took heavily armed vans to rob Gotham First National Bank and the East Coast Banking Center. Only a couple of days ago on the 8th, Antoino “Bane the Breaker” Marcos tore the People’s Bank apart, single handedly murdering everyone inside and making away with over thirty-five million dollars. But as bankers, tellers, and customers woke up this morning to go to work at the Galaxy Credit Union in Pinewood Place, they recognized that the entire bank had disappeared.
All that was left of the GCU, located just down the street from the Knight’s Center, was a slim margin of lowest base of the building’s foundation – the walls, the roof, the rooms inside, the vault… the building was stolen in its entirety. GCPD investigators claim that the outgoing alarms and security connections were severed sometime in the middle of the night, though they claim that a majority of the work to move the building could not have been done in one night. Apparently, the bank was stolen right under our nose, plainly in front of the public eye, the work disguised as reconstructive maintenance and construction work to repair damage from the riots that broke out earlier in the week.
Sitting on the concrete foundation where the bank once stood were the four security guards who were on duty protecting the facility, all tied together, gagged, blindfolded, and drugged out of their minds. Black spray-paint under where they sat read the statement, “Impossibility is an invitation, not a declaration,” and it was signed with a childlike drawing of a cat’s face, similar to the newly vandalized appearance of the Bat-, or should I now say Cat-, signal. Written on the hand of Jonathan Lunati, one of the four policemen found at the scene, were the words “cute kid” and “get some health insurance.” Upon interview, the man shyly admitted that he had no insurance card to show us, but did have a picture of his young daughter in his wallet; missing, however, was his security keycard.
The monetary value of the contents of the vault reaches over twenty million dollars, but the real cost to the city will be the replacement of the entire banking facility. Construction will have to commence immediately, yet we can only assume that somewhere in the city, the bank that must be rebuilt is hidden where one deviously expert thief will never have to wait in line at the ATM again.
Phoenix Pharmaceuticals Targeted By Stanton Kiel
An aerial view of the chaos in downtown Gotham
Earlier today over the radio, the Penny Plunderer announced that he had left a present for Bruce Wayne and Dr. Melvin Taransky at Phoenix Pharmaceuticals. That present was another bombed L-Train, with massive amounts of pennies found scattered over the scene and in the train itself.
Well-places explosives were used to knock the train off its rails and into the Phoenix Pharmaceuticals building. It crashed into the third and second storeys. A nearby officer, Spencer Wilcox, immediately evacuated the passengers on the rear of the train who survived the impact.
Rescue workers appeared on the scene immediately, however things were still looking to get worse as it seemed the badly damages third floor would collapse onto the second, killing the workers trapped inside by the rubble. Some cars of the train were hanging from the tracks down into the building and the passengers inside were trapped.
Then Batman appeared, and completely contrary to what one would believe about him due to treatment of a DeLorean yesterday, he must be a bit of a car collector as he arrived in a fresh Batmobile despite one being destroyed very recently by The Joker.
He put the Batmobile to use right away, riding along the tracks and attaching cables to the train. The Batmobile then fired its jet-like boosters and the train slowly creaked back up onto the tracks, allowing the survivors trapped in the suspended cars to evacuate.
Batman the rushed into the building along a zipline and began lowering survivors down it. Just as the ceiling was collapsing with Batman inside, he leapt out carrying three survivors and lowered them to the ground safely using the zipline. Batman flatly stated that those three survivors he carried out were the last in the building, then he disappeared.
Police Comissioner Jim Gordon was on the scene organizing the rescue efforts afterward.
When asked for comment, Ronald Phoenix stated, "I've been advised against speaking indepth with the media, however I will say that if this was an attack on the good things my company is trying to do -- to the person that did this, you're nothing but a speed bump."
Recent events call to mind the question. "What's happening at Phoenix Pharmaceuticals that the public doesn't know about?" Bane the Breaker accused them of being one of the companies that produced Venom, a lethally addictive drug. The mysterious firing of the brilliant Dr. Melvin Taransky also comes to mind. And now they've been officially targeted. Does the Penny Plunderer have a vendetta against Phoenix, like Bane seemed to, or was it just wanton destruction against a valuable target?
D.A. Incites Gang War? By Alexander Knox
The inside of Samovar, as seen after the fire had been put out
Around 7:30 last night, a tall man with an Italian-American accent entered Samovar. Samovar is a restaurant patronized mostly by Eastern Europeans, especially members of the gang run by "the Chechen". As such, the tall man's presense here was unusual.
His next actions were even more so. He approached Jirka Brodsky and Lomy Slegr, two member's of the Chechen's gang, and began demanding information on Gotham District Attorney Harvey Dent, who recently disappeared under mysterious circumstances. The conversation was heated from the start, and it quickly escalated into violence. One of the two gang members attacked the tall man, but he was able to knock both onto the floor before making a quick exit.
Seconds afterward, a small explosion shook the restaurant, splattering a Napalm-like substance over the restaurant and many of the patrons. Six people died, including the two gang members. One man is hospitalized in critical condition, suffering from widespread second degree burns. Many more suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
Within minutes, the GCFD had arrived, and the fire was put out almost twenty minutes after it began. However, by that time the Samovar was little more than a burnt out husk, and the lives of six Gotham residents had been burnt out as well.
Police are asking anyone with information about the perpatrator to come forward. He is described as a tall, medium-build man. He is caucasian with a slight tan, wavy black hair, and brown eyes. His weight is estimated at around 180 pounds, and he stands about 6'1" tall. The terror that Gotham feels right now will not go away unless Gothamites are strong enough to act against it.
Today's Population: 5,590,040
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