I--- Batman Caballero De La Noche -

I--- Batman doesn’t flinch. He reaches into his zarape and pulls out a botella of mescal. Inside, a single, live murciélago flaps its wings. He uncorks it.

He snaps his fingers. From the shadows of the colonnade, they emerge: —five masked luchadors, their bodies augmented with smuggled cybernetics. One has a jaguar’s claw for a hand. Another spits acid from a tube grafted to his throat. They are the Junta ’s answer to the Bat’s myth. i--- Batman Caballero De La Noche

A festival where the cartels of the Junta sacrifice a rival boss on the steps of the Mission. Diego perches on the bell tower’s cross, his capa merging with the soot-stained sky. Below: mariachis play a mournful canción while a man in a white suit— El Sacerdote , the council’s high priest of extortion—prepares the sacrificial blade. I--- Batman doesn’t flinch

He leaves the man screaming, his gang dissolved, the Junta ’s ritual broken. As dawn bleeds over the adobe rooftops, Diego climbs the bell tower. He looks out over his city—his ugly, beautiful, cursed Gotham del Sur . The mariachis are playing a sad, hopeful tune. He uncorks it

" Buenas noches, buitres, " he growls, a voice like grinding gravel and rosary beads.

"Mercy," the priest whispers.