Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #123

Issue Details

Synopsis

NO MAN'S LAND PART 61: UNDERGROUND RAILROAD PART 1 A street gang is about to attack an astray family when they are ambushed by a group of people led by Mackenzie Bock. The people almost take out all of the gang except for one man. The man is about to attack an old person when Batman arrives and knocks him down. Hardback tells the gang to never come back to his territory. Batman is proud for what they did and leaves them.  Bock returns to Westside High; the place he and other folks are using as headquarters, as a school on survival techniques and as a medical center for all the injured people. Bock talks to the nurse named Vanessa DeVries; a young woman who used to be a veterinarian before the quake. Vanessa tells Bock that she is running out of medicine and asks him to go with her to the market zone in Gotham. Bock agrees and he goes to find some valuable goods among the debris and dead people around Gotham, along with other folks, to exchange them in the market.   The next day, Vanessa and Bock arrive at the market, a free territory used for exchange goods between the Gotham gangs. They notice all sort of things happening, including a man begging to another man for something to happen that night. Bock is intrigued but he gets distracted by Vanessa when she talks and tells him that there are no medicines and that the only place they haven't visited is Penguin's place. Bock and Vanessa go there and find a public match going on. It is a brutal fight and all the bets are on the man called Angel; who is beating his opponent. Vanessa and Bock find Penguin and explain their problem. Cobblepot isn't willing to give away his products just like that. He demands something in exchange; he asks for Vanessa's knowledge on animals to help him with his precious birds. She tells him all that he needs to do to take care of his pets and he gives them the medicines. Once Bock and Vanessa leave, Penguin receives a visit from the Joker; who tries to convince Penguin to double-cross Bock and the girl. Penguin refuses and Joker leaves, but not without killing an innocent bird first.   The next day, Bock trains some self-defense with Vanessa's father, Alfonso and at night, he and a group of men go to scavenge a half-collapsed building looking for more valuables, but when they step inside, the building falls apart on top of them. Bock is badly injured and some of his peers die crushed by the debris. Vanessa does her best to heal Bock's injuries but the accident has left them without medicines again. They think about going back to Penguin when Bock sees a man on the TV news. The anchorman is the same man that he saw at the market place, begging for something. Bock is shocked and wants to know how the man got out. Bock and Vanessa decide to pay Penguin a visit and ask him about the situation.   They go to the Penguin's place and again Penguin refuses to give anything for free. As they have no money, Bock and his partner are leaving when Penguin tells them that he might help them if Bock is willing to enter a cage and fight against Angel in a public match. Despite his recent injuries, Bock agrees with the condition that, winning or losing the match, the kids in his care get the chance of leaving Gotham with Penguin's help. Penguin agrees and plans the match for the next day; revealing that Penguin is in fact the responsible for getting people out of Gotham using methods only known to him. As Bock and Vanessa are leaving, they come across Angel, who mocks and laughs at Bock in his injured state.   The rest of the day, Bock spends training with Alfonso the art of siloh; which is a technique in which the body becomes motionless and painless. To achieve that state, the person must perform a series of movements until his body feels nothing at all and can not move. Bock manages to reach that state and while he is lying motionless, Alfonso tells him that he will teach him how to move and fight without feeling pain.