The supernatural.
After Inque, Spellbinder and Ra's, I figured it was real.
But is it controlled only by us?
Or are there demons among us?
BATMAN BEYOND REVISITED
EPISODE:
CHARLIE CHARLIE
"What is this schwarbage?" I asked myself, setting my tablet down.
"What is it?" Barbara asked.
"Some ridiculous trend. Something called Charlie Charlie."
Barbara and Dick looked at each other.
"Did you say Charlie Charlie?" Dick asked.
"Yeah. Why?"
"Nothing. Just an old fad from 2015."
I nodded and leaned back in my chair.
"So, anything new happening, Barbs?"
Dick frowned at me as I said that.
"Yes." she said. "Two teenage girls at the Vintall Hotel were killed."
"I'm on it."
I suited up and got in the jet.
"Which room?"
"215."
"Got it."
Dick has been learning to not snap at me so much the last few months.
I like the change of pace.
I started the jet up and flew to the building.
I looked around and found the room blocked off by police tape.
I ripped it open nonchalantly and walked in, switching to detective vision as I surveyed the room.
I saw a piece of paper on the floor with two broken pencils.
"Yes, no, no, yes?"
The girls must have been playing the challenge when they died.
I scanned the room for any possible leads like fingerprints or signs of struggle.
Nothing.
Everything was in place and the only fingerprints in the room belonged to the two girls.
"Oracle, I can't find anything sus-"
"FREEZE!" a cop yelled.
Dammit, how didn't I hear him coming?
"The criminal always comes back to the scene of the crime."
He pulled out his gun.
I threw a smoke pellet at him and took off through the open window.
Back at the batcave, I gave Oracle the video card kept in the cowl so she can see what I saw in the hotel.
"Absolutely nothing is out of place here... This is impossible. Not a mark on their bodies, either. No blood, nothing crushed. No bruises on the neck."
Dick frowned at the screen.
"What is it?" I asked him.
"I had a friend back when I was nine. He did this same challenge back in 2015, when this fad was still new. He was killed, just like that. No signs of struggle, blood, nothing. Same thing happened to one of my old teachers a month later."
This was making me feel uneasy.
"So, this happened three times?"
"Yes."
I looked at Dick, unbelieving.
"You're not saying you believe Charlie Charlie is real?"
"No. I don't believe in that crap. He's a myth."
He was lying.
I could hear it in his voice.
It wouldn't help him to push it, though.
This is clearly heavy on him.
I sat next to Oracle at the computer, watching her scrub through the video.
"So, what are we going to do?" I asked.
"About?"
"The police thinking I did it."
"You think the cops would arrest someone trying to take the name of Batman and stop crime all because you were at the scene of a crime after it was committed? You think the cops will consider someone barely trained killed two teenage girls without leaving behind any traces, leaving the apartment completely in tact, without alerting anyone else in the building and without leaving any sign of how they died? Not going to happen."
"Right." I said as I got off my chair. "I need to go think about all this."
I walked out to the cliff by the manor when I heard something weird in my head say "Stop chasing me."
And I was certain I wasn't imagining it.
