Batman Issue 684

"Last Days of Gotham (Part II of II)"
The morning after the warehouse fire, Nightwing sheepishly recounts to Alfred how it was in fact the pizza delivery boy who saved his life and not the other way around. The delivery boy (a trained champion gymnast himself) got Nightwing to his feet and actually was able to help himself out of the inferno. Once outside, Nightwing would once again have to rely on the unassuming pizza boy - this time for a ride home as he finds that someone had stolen the motorbike he arrived with.

Utterly defeated, Nightwing wonders if he will ever be able to step into the giant shoes left vacant by Bruce. While it remains to be seen if Dick will take on the mantle of the Bat, with his motorcycle stolen, he's left with no other option than to use Bruce's car - the Batmobile to respond to the Bat-signal lighting up the Gotham skyline.

As Nightwing arrives on the scene, Gordon is barely able to hide his disappointment that his old friend was not the one responding. It turns out that Gracchus has continued his crime spree posing as Two-Face and Gordon fears that he may try to interfere with the Mayor's reception down at City Hall. Working on a hunch, Nightwing decides to talk to Millicent Mayne, the Face of Gotham recently left scarred after her encounter with the Faux-Dent.

Mayne spends her time haunting the decrepit corner of Gotham that yet remains un-repaired from the damage of the quake. He finds her standing on top of the rubble of the theater she was in the night of the seismic upheaval. Nightwing soon finds that his hunch was correct as he spies Gracchus coming that way as well. The entire crime spree he had been engineering was nothing more than a distraction that would allow him access to what remains of the condemned theater building. With the police usually guarding that part of town sent to double up security on the Mayor's event, Gracchus planned on sneaking back in and retrieving the diamonds he had originally been after during his very first encounter with Ms. Mayne.

Nightwing focuses on the lessons he learned under Bruce's tutelage and easily defeats Gracchus and turns him over to the police. Gordon, while happy to have the thug behind bars is left still wondering if the Dark Knight will ever return to his forlorn city. Later, Nightwing returns to the theater to find Millicent still standing there. They spend the evening discussing their theories behind good and evil and talking of the city they both love so dearly.

Individuals

 * Dick Grayson
 * James Gordon
 * Alfred Pennyworth
 * Harvey Bullock
 * Millicent Mayne
 * Gracchus

Locations

 * Gotham City
 * Gotham City Police Headquarters
 * Wayne Manor

Vehicles

 * Batmobile