The Gray Ghost
The fog rolled in from the docks. It was past midnight, and the night watchman was making his rounds. He never saw the shadows lurking behind him. He never heard the foot falls behind him, but he did feel the butt of the pistol strike him across the back of his head. Landing on the ground in front of his attackers, his breathing and pulse was assessed to be normal by the man who didn't hit him, guaranteeing he wasn't dead. He didn't sign on to kill anybody, especially not in this town. The police denied his existence, but every hood and thug swapped stories about the "Bat" and how he dealt with murderers. The guard was breathing and had a steady pulse. The two attackers dragged the unconscious man to the shadows tied him up, and hid him under a tarp. They made there way to a building near the rusting cranes and jimmied their way into an office. Tony O. and his vicious partner, JD, were ransacking the office and searching files.
"Hey JD, why are we do' in this any way? What about the Bat?"
"The Bat ain't been around lately, and the boss wants this done, that's why." JD answered.
"But the Bat has partners, Nightwing, Robin, and what about Batgirl? Word is they're out in force since the Bat disappeared." Tony Pleaded.
"They been busy all over Gotham and don't have time to get out here, what with all the nut jobs out there, like the Joker." Another shadow appeared unnoticed.
"Good thing I'm not too busy." The voice sounded eerie and ominous. The hoods turned to see a figure standing in the doorway. He wore a gray fedora hat and open trench coat. Actually he was gray from head to toe with smoke tinted goggles over his eyes.
" You boys have been naughty. You better put your toys away then march right off to bed." The gray figure taunted.
The two criminals looked at each other and began to laugh.
"You ain't nobody, who you suppose to be?" JD shouted.
"I'm new in town, you can tell all your friends in jail that I'm the Gray Ghost" the figure replied.
"The Gray Ghost, huh, you have no idea how right you are" JD said. With that, JD pulled his gun and aimed at the Gray Ghost.
"You don't want to do that," the Ghost cautioned, then JD pulled the trigger, as the bullet passed right through the Gray Ghost, rings of gray smoke rippled from the would be wound, as a pebble dropped into a pond, and busted out the window behind him. The Ghost raised his hand and brought it across his chest and the gun flew across the room and landed in a toilet several feet away. Both men looked at each other again, this time with fear.
"What are you!" Tony screamed
"I told you, I'm the Gray Ghost." The Ghost answered. With that he puffed into a cloud of smoke and reappeared behind Tony, grabbing him around his arms and chest in a bear hug and they both disappeared. The Ghost and his victim returned instantly on the other side of the room, the crook disoriented and passed out. The Gray Ghost turned his attention to JD and said "your turn."
"What did you do to him? Is he dead?" JD shrieked,
The Ghost walked towards JD and pulled a pair of nylon handcuffs from his pocket. Tossing the cuffs to JD, the Ghost orders " save yourself from having to find out the hard way and put these on."
"No way, I ain't goin back." JD shouted as he dove for the window behind the desk. He had crashed through and found himself in the arms of the Gray Ghost. Before he passed out, he remembered the smoke all around him and the dizziness and nausea set in immediately. When he awoke, he was wearing the nylon cuffs and was sitting in front of the shabby dockside office. Tony was sitting there too, and approaching them was the familiar blue and white squad car of the Gotham PD.
As the police car came to a stop, a large and grungy looking detective with a fedora and overcoat, and stubby cigar stepped out. Harvey Bullock. The large detective walked up to the pair of gift-wrapped thugs and chuckled to himself.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here? Looks like the Bats not long gone after all, eh Smitty?"
"Not the Bat, the Ghost" Tony cried "the Gray Ghost!"
Sitting alone in a dark apartment, a young man stares at a gray fedora hat and a pair of smoke tinted goggles lying on his bed. There is an old country music song playing softly in the background, Hank Williams "your cheatin' heart." The room is tidy, with the exception of the costume next to the hat. The young man stands up and carries the gray suit and overcoat to a wall next to his closet, reaches through the full length mirror on the solid wall and hangs the clothing up in a hidden closet, made just for the outfit. He returns to the bed and grabs the hat and goggles. He places these in the hidden closet in their respective homes. The young man turned off his radio, grabbed his brown leather jacket and black ball cap and left his little apartment.
The young man, in his mid-twenties and blonde-haired, headed to a little café down the block. He needed to eat something; his "jumps" as he called them always took a toll. He hadn't been like this his whole life. There was a time when Simon Trent was like any other person. But now, he was different. Jason arrived at the small diner and ordered up his eggs and coffee. He was reading a newspaper that had been lying on the table, when two of Gothams' finest had wandered in to the café and sat at the counter. Jason then pretended to read as he listened in on the cops' conversation with an attractive redheaded waitress that had been wiping down the counter. He was listening for anything that they might have had to say about the Batman's disappearance or the arrival of the Gray Ghost. Simon sat in this same diner and listened to these same two cops flirt with the waitress regularly for the last few weeks. This was pretty much how Jason got his info. Usually nothing very big, but he had to admit, he didn't have a search light on top of police headquarters' with his name on it, so he took what he could get; which wasn't much. It was too early to hear of his most recent public appearance, but there might be something worthwhile. When Simon saw that there would be no news this morning, he finished his eggs, paid his bill, and left.
Simon headed towards his apartment, when he was side tracked by a couple of purse-snatchers on a motorcycle. They had veered up onto the sidewalk and grabbed the laptop of a young brunette woman in a wheel chair. Simon saw this pulled up his gray hoody and quickly "jumped" reappearing on the back of the motorcycle taking hold of the laptop and the bike and "jumped" again teleporting the bike with him, sending the crooks crashing into the pavement. He had the laptop back in the woman's possession in seconds. Simon watched the woman in the wheel chair leave the street by way of cab from the rooftop. He knew her. Barbara Gordon. She was Commissioner Gordon's daughter, put in that chair by the Joker. He had shot and tortured her while he made her father watch. What was she doing in that neighborhood, Simon wondered. As he looked towards the great big clock tower not that very far away. When he saw that she was safe in the taxi, he "jumped" from the roof taking the bike with him, to the nearby alley and rode the motorcycle home.
Barbara Gordon had seen the events that had occurred, but could not see the face of the man who had helped her. She made a call to Dick Grayson.
"Nightwing"
"Go, Oracle" Nightwing replied
" I think I just found the new player in town, puffs in and out with a cloud of gray smoke"
"Did you get a good look?" the detective inquired
"No, he had a gray hooded sweat shirt covering his face. He wasn't in any costume, but I think it was the Gray Ghost. I've been getting reports on him from my agents; Huntress reported some work had been done on some hoods on the docks before she could get there. Seems this guy is on our side"
" Anything else?" Nightwing asked
" Nothing, what do you want to do about him?" Barbara replied
" Have Robin start watching that neighborhood, if you saw him this early, he might be a local. He should pop up in a night or two. I want to know what I can before I meet him"
"When do you plan on that?" she asked
"As soon as I can, with Batman out, we need complete control of these streets, especially any new fighters who have any thoughts about setting up shop in this town. You know how particular the old man is"
"Sure do" the former Batgirl answered. " Anything else"
"Have you heard from him?"
"No word in days, but my agents around the world are keeping their eyes and ears open. I'll let you know when I know"
"Got it, Nightwing out." As Dick Grayson puts down his comm. Unit, he picks up his cup of coffee and asks him self, "where are you, Bruce?"
That was the same thought Simon Trent had, But he had Batman in Bruce Wayne's place, not knowing that the two men were one and the same. Simon had promised the Batman that he would give up playing superhero when they had last met, five years earlier. But with Batman missing, Simon felt he needed to help protect the streets until the Dark Knight reappeared. Some things, Simon felt, were more important than promises made to men in masks, no matter what you owed that masked man.
That night Simon reached through the solid wall next to his closet and pulled out his costume, though he preferred to think of it as a uniform. True, there was nobody else out there wearing this particular get up, the word costume was too much like pretend, and he was doing a lot more out there in the last two weeks than pretend. With his uniform in hand, he quickly, but ceremoniously changed his clothes, leaving the goggles and hat for last. Looking in the mirror against the wall, he mentally prepares himself for the task ahead off him. He puts on his goggles and hat ands "jumps" to the alley behind his apartment where he had the bike hidden. He knew this was wrong, but he figured the motorcycle could be put to better use than purse snatching. He needed wheels and didn't have the resources the Batman seemed to have. He had spent a couple of hours in his kitchen giving the bike a tune up and removing the License plate and VIN numbers. The paint job he was considering would have to wait until he had found somebody he could trust. Plus he wanted to make some modifications to the bike and to his apartment before he put his name all over the thing. He could "jump" the bike anywhere he needed, to keep people off his tracks but it would be better on his body and health if he kept that to a minimum. The Gray Ghost pulled the tarp off the bike that was hiding behind a dumpster and climbed on, he started up the bike and began his patrol.
He kept his hat on his head, with his telekinesis power, with little effort. This was a trick he had practiced a lot living in Chicago and not wanting to go chasing after his hats or holding the top of his head like everyone else in the city. As the Gray Ghost rode his newly acquired bike though Gotham city, he didn't see that the Red Bird was tailing him, Robin's own car, until he had turned a corner and saw it from the mirror. The Gray Ghost let Robin follow him for eight blocks, turning left and right at various time, just to make sure it was him the Boy Wonder was tracking. Finally, the Gray Ghost pulled his bike into an all and "jumped" to nearby fire escape. There he watched the Redbird pull up to the alley. Robin got out of his car and pushed a button on the side of his mask as he looked down into the shadows, bow staff in hand. Robin kept his back to the Redbird. The Gray Ghost "jumped" to the passenger seat of the Redbird and waited for Robin to get back in. Robin was still watching the alley when he eased in to the drivers' seat, that's when he saw the Ghost.
"Can I help you?" the Gray Ghost asked
Robin jumped back and pulled a box from his utility belt. Before he could aim the device at the intruder, the Gray Ghost raised his hand and the box flew to it.
"Relax kid, you're the one who's following me."
"How did you do that?" Robin asked, nervous at the situation he now found himself in. outside the car, he could have fought, but the car was cramped and he had few options as he sat there. He weighed them while he waited for the right moment to present itself.
"Why are you following me, Robin?" the Ghost ask being very polite
Robin just watched to intruder.
"I'm not going to hurt you, I know you work with Batman. I just want to help, while he's away, I know you and the others have your hands full."
"Why should I trust you" Robin asked
"Batman saved my life, a couple of times. I just want to repay the favor"
"What do you mean?" the boy Wonder asked
But, before he could get an answer, the Ghost disappeared in a cloud of gray smoke. Robin started chocking and climbed out of the Redbird, looking into the alley he saw that the bike was gone. Fortunately, he had planted a tracer on the bike while he was in the alley. Robin climbed back into the Redbird and started following the tracer's signal.
Robin flipped a switch on the dash board and said
"Nightwing are you in?"
Across town Nightwing was tying up cat burglar and answered to communication unit in his ear.
"Nightwing here, report"
"Just spoke to the Ghost"
"What do you mean, spoke, you were just suppose to tail him?" Nightwing demanded
"Well, he spotted me and the next thing I know, he's in my car talking about wanting to be friends. Says Batman saved his life and he just wants to help out."
"How did he get in your car?"
"Just like Oracle said, he puffed with gray smoke. This guys better than Batman with the 'now you see me, now you don't''
"Where is he now?" Nightwing asked
"I planted a tracer on his bike, I'm following it now."
"Send me the beacon freq, I want to meet you there, I'd like to have a word with him, myself"
"In route…you got it" Robin asked.
"Got it" Nightwing answered as he walked back to the Batmobile, parked nearby. Nightwing punched the controls and had the sleek, black car racing across town to meet the signal and his young partner.
When they converged on top of the signal, they found it on the back of a Gotham police Cruiser.
"He must have found it" Robin said
Nightwing just stared at the little black bat.
"Well, what next" the new Robin asked the former Robin
"Back to patrol," Nightwing answered, "if he's on the up and up like he says, he'll turn up soon."
With that, both costumed crimefighters returned to their vehicles and resumed their search for justice. They didn't see a gray shadow watching them from behind. When the little red light on the bat tracer stopped blinking, the ghost assumed they had stopped tracking, and he retrieved it. Placing it in his pocket, he returned to his bike and rode to Crime Alley.