Author's Note: The 365 Project is an experimental multi-fandom project to write and post at least one short every day for the next year, not including my semi-regular bi-weekly updates. For more details, see the relevent section in my profile. This is The 365 Project, 4 December.
In the immortal words of Samuel L. Clemens... "Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot. BY ORDER OF THE AUTHOR."
Disclaimer(s): See end of chapter...
-o0O0o-
"Heroes United"
'Kid And Bug'
By J.T. Magnus, 'Turbo'
-o0O0o-
Legally, his name was now Dick Tracy, Jr., most folks just called him 'Kid', though - only his adoptive father-figure called him anything different and even then the senior Dick Tracy just called him 'Junior'. Officially, he was a middle-schooler who happened to be the adopted son of the best detective in the city - officially. Unofficially, the Kid also happened to be the police department's best sketch artist and a pretty good pickpocket when he wanted to be - a skill from his old life that he'd never bothered to let get completely out of practice. It was one of the first lessons he'd learned from the detective; sometimes, a good man has to have a bit of the dirt in him to get things done, he just has to make sure he uses it and it doesn't use him. Because of this, it was usually his habit to stop off by police headquarters as soon as he got out of school, both to see if anything worth knowing about had gone down while he was in and because it was that or be home alone until the senior Tracy's fiancee got off work at the greenhouse.
Casually, the Kid opened the door to one of the distinguishing features of the city's police department; the laboratory where department scientists worked on creating new tools to help the officers and detectives of the force fight crime - the two-way radios in the patrol cars of the department and even the wrist-radio that the Kid's own adopted father used were just two of the creations that had come from the funding of millionaire industrialist and police supporter Diet Smith combined with the support of Chief of Detectives Tracy and Police Chief Brandon and the minds of Diet's son Brilliant Smith and police electronics technician 'Bug' Bailey.
"Hey, Bailey," the Kid called out, knowing that the man wasn't exactly fond of the sobriquet 'Bug', "Anything happening?"
The bespectacled man, no taller than the Kid himself despite being twice the junior Tracy's age, shook his head, "Sorry, Kid, you know how it is right now; with Big Boy dead and most of the other big names in jail, there's just nothing going on besides the usual, nothing 'Major' for the 'Major Crimes Unit' to investigate."
"Yeah, I know," the Kid said with disappointment in his voice, "I don't want anything bad to happen to anyone, not really, but I just wish something would happen already - it's getting to be downright boring... So, what you working on, Bailey?"
"I'm doing a favor for a friend on the New York police force, actually," Bailey answered, "They've been picking up some kind of strange radio signals over the last few years. The thing is, no one's supposed to be using that frequency that anyone knows of and every time they try to listen it, the signal doesn't seem complete."
"What do you mean, doesn't seem complete?"
"Like..." Bailey thought for a moment, "Like a picture with all the details, but no outline, Kid - scrambled and confusing with no way to tell what goes where."
"Like you said," the Kid nodded, "Strange. Any idea where Pops is? I looked in his office and he ain't in there?"
"I think he had to go over to the courthouse, Kid," Bailey replied, "He's still trying to work things out with the new D.A. that replaced Fletcher."
"Fine, I'll see him when he gets back," the Kid walked over and perched himself on one of the stools next to a workbench, "So, let's hear this 'strange radio signal' of yours, huh, Bailey?"
-o0O0o-
Author's Note; To reduce confusion, the 'strange radio signal' the NYPD is picking up and Bug Bailey's studying is the 'picture-by-radio', i.e. television, signal that The Shadow recieves from Burbank.
-o0o-
Disclaimers:
"The Shadow" belongs to Street and Smith Publications and is used for entertainment purposes without permission or intent to profit.
"The Phantom", "Mandrake The Magician" and "Lothar" were created by Lee Falk and are used for entertainment purposes without permission or intent to profit, I believe current ownership rights rest with King Features Syndicate, but I'm not sure.
"The Green Hornet" is the creation of George Trendle and Fran Striker, I'm unsure who currently owns the rights to the character. Possibly Sony/Columbia since they made the 2011 Live Action film...
"Zorro" belongs to New World Entertainment and whomever else owns the rights to the concept and is used without permission or intent to profit. The 'Vicky Vega/Victoria de la Vega' version of the character, as previously appeared in my NW Zorro story "Five Greetings", is my own creation though.
"Dick Tracy" and associated characters and situations were created by Chester Gould.