LOG:An Attempt At Reason

## **Details**

Summary: **April 24th 1928**: Batman tries to find a way to reason with the punisher.

**Characters:** Frank Castle, Bruce Wayne

## **Log**

Coventry. Gotham City. It's raining....as usual.

Frank was walking through the streets on a standard patrol, while also coming up with a small game plan in an effort to think about how to tear through the Joker's headquarters without being captured and or killed. More than enough, for him....but he needs to think. Though more than likely hge'll just need lots...and lots of grenades.

Alas, he's not paying attention to the rooftops...since nobody really hangs up there anymore aside from people who want to suicide and people who are smoking something or people who are trying to get warm by a trash fire.

But presently? Frank is in deep thought.

It's a mostly quiet night for it to rain. Was it even night? In a city so covered in the smog of a hundred factories or more it was hard to tell sometimes if it was day or night. It all looked the same. The rain is almost pitch black from the smog coming down in sheets. It's not as hard as it could be, but there's certainly no hiding the truth that the rain has driven most the decent folks from the streets. The only ones left are Frank, and the occasional vagrant passing through this part of town on his way back to his squatting den.

A policeman stands on the corner, his raincoat covers over his black police uniform with the GCPD logo on one shoulder, the 48 star American flag on the other, one for each state. A small whistle hangs around his neck occasionally catching the light of a streetlamp causing it to flicker.

The city is quiet, and this place being middle class there's not much here in the way of crime. It's honestly one of the safer places in Gotham all things considered.
Frank just keeps walking then as he sees the Police officer. He simply nods to him as he passes by. Here's hoping the cop doesn't try to pick a fight wit hthe punisher and try to rough him up to just be a mean cop. Either way, he looks around.

He keeps moving then for a small moment as he takes in his environment, seeing people move to their dens, and people just moving from point A to point B in gotham city.

"Officer." he says in passing in only small greetings.

He's aware of his environment though...and who knows what could decide to drop on him.

The cop tips his hat slightly having been stationed on this street corner for the time being he doesn't seem too bothered by the rain. Doesn't say much though instead just offering a bit of a friendly smile to try and defuse a potential situation as he stands hands folded one inside the other keeping an eye out for anything going on in this rather decent part of town.

As Frank moves along down the rode there's no real feeling of being watched no strange motions above or bellow it's just another day in Gotham. That is until a voice calls out. "Punisher. Or should I call you by your real name?" The voice is deep, gruff, and intimidating. The kind of voice you'd expect from someone who'd spent a lot of their life smoking. A cold distance to it. "You've been making a lot of noise here in Gotham."

Frank keeps moving until he hears that voice coming from behind him...gruffy and deep, Punisher pauses in his step, though what he does do? Is turn his head slowly to see the being who happens to have been tailing him this entire time. He turns fully to face him. "Apparently not enough if they send someone like you after me."

He turns fully, looking the man in the eyes (if he's still there). "Why are you here? Take a shot at the big bad Punisher?" he asks him then, apparently either fearless or not caring who stands before him.

Even the Punisher has heard about the Bat of Gotham.

There's no one there. He should have been standing right behind The Punisher but there's not a trace of a person. Just the cop down the road quietly twiddling his thumbs trying to pass the time. "If I wanted you dead, you would be right now." Cold and calculating words. "That's the difference between the two of us, I don't need to kill to see justice for my dead family."

The voice now coming from a different direction. It's a calm and collected tone more then a taunting one, a tone that shows a full control over the situation. "You had a bad day, one that pushed you over the edge." Then the voice is coming from another direction. "Tell me Frank, would Lisa or Maria be proud of the man you've become?"

Frank notices that there's no one there, but nonetheless, he simply scoffs when the Bat seems to be trying to play mind games, so he walks through the alleys and the shadows as if to Lure the Dark Knight into his playing field. He unzips his jacket to reveal the Punisher logo on his chest along with a multitude of military equipment.

Where did Batman fuck up?

He mentiond his family.

Frank comes to an immediate stop them. "...you don't deserve to mention their names." he turns around then as if to look for the Dark Knight.

"And you don't deserve to murder anyone who disagrees with you." Batman counters his voice coming from another direction as he follows along from the shadows moving silently from one rooftop to the next. "The world doesn't revolve around you anymore then it does me." His voice doesn't sound angry or defensive as he states his own opinions.

"When you go on your little murder sprees you make life harder for everyone. Draw attention to the rest of us, from the police, the government, the mob, and more importantly from him." That last word is spoken as if it should already say all that needs to be said. "Innocent people are dieing thanks to your little crusade, and someone's started killing masks."
Frank looks around then, scoffing a bit. "Really? Do tell." he says in his own grizzled voice as he just waits for the Dark Knight to make his dramatic entrance. Theatrics...mind games, Frank has trained himself to deal with things like this...to not take the bait. He does shake his head then. "You really think I'm targeting randoms? You don't know me, fucking spook." he starts walking then again.

"I'm after the Gangs. I'm after scum like CHarles Xavier. I'm after all those who laugh at the law. I'm after the Clown. They killed my family. They all go down. and this system is too fucked up to do anything about it. and unlike you? I'm a bitch to wear a mask." he then turns as if to start walking away, apparently not one to keep talking with someone who will likely never understand him. As far as he was concerned?

Frank Castle died with his family.

"If I thought you were, you'd be in Arkham already." The voice echo's again as they make their way to the edge of the middle class district. "But innocents always have a way of suffering the fallout of your little attacks: Joseph Grabel age 15, died of shraptnel caused by your little carbomb that took out Elia 'The Butcher' Panicucci. Sarah Masterson Age 18 ricochet to the temple when you took out Remigio Trentini, Zucco's brother in law." He pauses. "More collateral damage, the more the government comes down on us, more chance you'll get a visit from the blue boy-scout."

There's a long pause. "What's the name Agent Orange mean to you?"
Frank Castle keeps walking. "Good luck with that." he replies to the Arkham comment, before Batman starts naming off the people that Frank crossed off the list...and the collateral danage that went with it. Frank ends up scoffing a little bit. "As if the government really cares. They don't care about one or two people dying when the big names start dropping." he doesn't show any kind of regret for his actions, purpose or accidental. But then Superman is mentiond, and he nods. "I know about Luthor's little pet, and I'm working on alternatives to dealing with him, should he the President also be just anotehr scumbag."

Then Agent Orange is mentioned.

"I'm a detective first and foremost." Batman offers from the shadows. His voice echoing out as the rain makes the shadows darker then normal. "Finding what people don't want found is my forte."

"You worked with him back in the war right?" The voice coming from a different building. "Did you know he was using the corpses of your fellow soldiers to smuggle drugs back to the states and pay for your little team?" The voice coming from another building. "Or the fact he was using your operations as a smoke screen for his opioid sales"

"He certainly thought you did at least." There's a long pause. "Interesting the lengths a man will go through to try and cover his tracks." A shorter pause. "Isn't it?" Barely even a heartbeat before he continues. "What do you think a man like that would do in order to make sure no one squawked? Think he'd be above organizing for a family to get cought in the crossfire of a gang war?"
Punisher then turns his head towards the Batman as he speaks. "...no. I found that out recently..that we were just cover for his drug trade." he growls then. "It was my last tour. Made it into special operations. Guess now I know why." then he grows angered when he connects the dots that it was Agent Orange who killed his family.

"Just point me in the right direction. And are you going to hide forever or are you going to show your face?" he says then, a rage in his voice.

New Target.

"You came all the way here to point me in the direction of whose name is on my bullet?"

"It's a trade" The voice of Batman calls out from the city. "I tell you where to find him, and you stop killing people in my town." The next time Frank turns around there's a man standing in front of him. There's a black leather cowl that obscures most of his face, a thick black cape that's draped over his shoulders completely hiding his body. It makes him look almost as if he's floating in place as he looks towards the other man.

The eyes of the cowl are pure white, no easy way to see if he even has normal eyes beneath. He looks like some sort of demon dressed in grey and black. His motions were completely silent not even a footstep to show that he'd managed to move so far in such a short stint of time. "I feel it's more then a fair trade."
Frank keeps his eyes on Batman as the dark knight tries to use a bargaining chip. "You realize you arn't the only one who knows how o find someone, don't you?" He watches Batman like a hawk before he just sighs.

"I'll stop the killing when every last Zuccho, every last gangbanger, every last murdering psychopath is gone. It all has to go. Thanks but no thanks. Now I know who I need to kill." And he'll turn to walk away from Batman.

"one batch....two batch...penny and dime." He mutters to himself.

As Frank walks away Bruce just quietly shakes his head. "Alright, that's how you're going to play it." And in a moment he's gone back into the shadows vanishing into the night.

That's exactly how Frank was gonna play it.

 He has nothing but a war inside, vengeance breathes in him. He wasn't like Bruce. they both know the pain of loss...but clearly, it hurt Frank more. His war was only just beginning.