Brother Eye descending upon Neo Gotham.
| “ | Funny how things work out. Of all of us, I figured I'd be the last one... to end up as Batman. | ” |
The Battle of Neo Gotham was the defining battle of the Eye War, as the Bugs of Brother Eye finally descended upon Neo Gotham, the only place that ever eluded them. The battle was intense one that fought for the very soul of Gotham City. The final battle of the Eye War, it literally determined not only the fate of Gotham, but the fate of the entire human race. With superheroes and supervillains all united against Brother Eye, the battle gave new breath to humanity.
Background[]
After injected itself into the Batsuit during the Second Battle of the Lodge, Brother Eye was carried into Gotham City. There it managed to take down the Veil and finally obtain the city's coordinates. Sending them to the Bugs, Eye prepared to finally try and take over the world.
Battle[]
As Batman and Micron contemplated what happened, Brother Eye's drones began to fall into Neo Gotham. When the Bugs proceeded to come out of the drones, the Jokerz began to riot in the streets. Making his way down to the city, Micron grew in size to combat the threat. Barbara Gordon, preparing for war, called out every living officer to have ever worked for the city to fight. After a short conversation with Barbara Gordon, Batman made his way down to prove himself to the world. Rescuing a lady and her child from Processing, Batman realized that Brother Eye was able to target him through ALFRED.
After ALFRED was unable to turn himself off, Batman ripped the intelligence out only to be caught by an acolyte of Brother Eye. Rescued by Micron, Batman got back in the action. Shortly after this, though, Micron was taken down. The GCPD, specifically the Burnside Precinct, began to take control on the streets against the Bugs. Gordon was nearly taken by the Eye, only to surprisingly be rescued by Inque, who decided to join in the fight to rescue her daughter. Despite their rivalry, Gordon left the GCPD under Inque's control in order to get more gunpower. Supervillains like Spellbinder and Shriek also joined in the fight against the Eye. With the first wave of Brother Eye's Bugs firmly in the city, the second wave, comprised of the cyborg Justice League, prepared to launch.
As Batman and Micron kept fighting, the former realized with horror that his utility belt had gone empty and his suit out of power. Surrounded by the Bugs and nearing defeat, Batman managed to fight back long enough for Barbara to arrive and pick him up. Forced to retreat to the Batcave, Batman marveled at how Bruce had changed it but forced himself to stay focused. Realizing that he would have to make do with another Batsuit, Tim was surprised to find out that it was none other than the original mecha-suit of Jim Gordon.
With the arrival of the cyborg Justice League, the tides began to turn and Brother Eye's Bugs started to take control. Eye, enraged that Batman was not present, decided to head down to Gotham itself. By this point in time, the villains Spellbinder and Shriek joined in to fight off the Bugs. Batman arrived in the mecha-suit and pummeled the John Stewart Bug, after which Matt McGinnis retrieved the Ring of Willpower. This drew the attention of the Wonder Woman and Superman Bugs, the former of whom was destroyed by Micron and the latter by Batman with a Kryptonite Ring.
Tim defending the Court of Owls safehouse.
Batman then retreated to a Court of Owls safehouse and Barbara Gordon began to prepare an old Justice League teleporter to allow him to go to the moon. Frustrated, Brother Eye sent his Bugs to converge in on Batman who barely managed to hold them off at full firepower. However, due to the timely arrival of Inque and Micron, Batman was able to get the teleporter ready. Aware that Brother Eye's base on the Moon was formerly the Watchtower, Barbara sent Batman to the teleporter room with Inque hiding in the armour. Upon his arrival, Brother Eye was instantly notified. Barbara proceeded to hold the fort at the safehouse while Batman battled Brother Eye.
Brother Eye and Batman proceeded to battle each other, with Eye gaining the initial advantage through the element of surprise. Batman, however, brought Brother Eye to the knees using flame. Brother Eye, however, quickly rebounded only to fall into a sonic attack. Proceeding to stab Brother Eye through the head, Batman caused an explosion by the AI's head to try and keep it down. Once again, though, Brother Eye rebounded and proceeded to dismantle Batman's suit. Managing to use thrusters to temporarily knock Brother Eye down, Batman called Inque for help. Inque proceeded to envelop Brother Eye, compromisng the machine's inner core and causing all the Bugs to shut down. The moon base, however, also began to collapse, forcing Batman and Deanna to escape while Inque destroyed Brother Eye and herself.
Aftermath[]
| “ | I need all of you to listen to me. Both sides. Each and every one of you. You must stop this petty tribalism and realize that we are all that we have left, and that we can't continue to tear down our world. We must rebuild it. The Justice League is back, and we pledge to you that we will do everything we can to make your lives better. But you have to do your share as well. All of you have skills, talents and abilities of your own. You must use those talents to work together to rebuild Earth and make it better than it was. Use your different experiences to make sure you all have what you need. Don't focus on yourselves as individuals. Unite. Join together so we can live and shape our future in unison. | ” |
—Superman | ||
The destruction of the moon base ended the Battle of Neo Gotham as all the Bugs shut down and finally brought an end to the destructive conflict of the Eye War. Although an angry Deanna confronted Batman afterwards, he was quick to comfort her. Confused about his own situation, Batman wondered what he would do in a world where he did not belong. Until the city could maintain proper functionality again, a rationing effect was put in place for all citizens. Any and all "Eye-tech" was also illegalized for citizenry.
In the days following the battle, Micron began to help with rebuilding the city. Mayor Luke Fox also faced the conundrum that two thousand refugees had piled up outside of Neo Gotham. Aware that the number of refugees could reach at least fifteen thousand, Fox refused to let them into the city in order to avoid a socioeconomic collapse. Deciding instead to have the police be wary of them, Fox began to try and devise a new solution to try and take care of them. As casualties began to mount outside of Neo Gotham, relief shipments received were not nearly big enough to help.
As a result, the refugees blew up one of Neo Gotham's walls and began to flood the city to seek supplies. Despite Micron's pleas, the refugees refused to believe that Neo Gotham hardly had any food. Many officers of the GCPD saw the refugees declaring war and desired to act against Gordon. Despite Micron's attempts, Barbara was unable to get the GCPD to stand down and fights began to happen over food as small as bags of rice.
The fighting was quelled by the return of the Justice League, with Superman making a proclamation promising peace and equality for all. Declaring that all men and women would have to work together, the Kryptonian brought an end to Neo Gotham's violence.