Batman: TAS The Consequences of the Phantasm
Chapter two: Truth serum high interrogation, and Blüdhaven's first sidekick.
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Selina Kyle's apartment
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Bruce comes out of Selina's bathroom dressed in simple black cotton pajama pants and a sleeveless black t-shirt that is a bit tight on his massive frame. He is carrying his batsuit and takes the time to pack it up, keys the hidden button on his cowl twice to let Alfred know to retrieve the drone. Selina had loaded the dart in the box Alfred sent well Bruce was in the shower.
"Mewstress, can we order food? I am hungry?" Bruce asks as he sits down in one of Selina's chairs with a smile on his face.
"Yes, I am hungry too…pizza?" Selina asks after thinking for a moment.
"I could go for pizza, but I am paying," Bruce says with a smile as he pulled his wallet from the pocket of his pajama pants. Alfred was kind enough to pack it along with his actual cellphone, and he sets both on the coffee table.
"Yes, you will be paying for it. How does Tony's Italian Restaurant sound?" Selina asks as she pulls out her phone.
"Yes, get me a large thin crust with mushrooms, black olives, sausage, Canadian bacon, spicy pepperoni, salami, and bacon bits," Bruce says with a smile. Selina dialed her favorite pizza restaurant and ordered two of her usual pizzas, one with extra bacon bits, which is quickly amended to two of her usuals. Selina then plugs her phone into her charging station, ensuring the phone's camera has Bruce in the frame she begins recording. She sits in a chair across from Bruce as Isis jumps up to her lap.
"Time for your interrogation under truth serum Mr. Bruce Wayne, better known to the criminal underworld as Batman. Your interrogator is the fabulous and lovely Selina Kyle, newly ex-thief Catwoman," Selina says with a smile as she begins stroking Isis like a Bond villain.
"My first question: Why did you not go after me when I threw the stuffed Tasmanian tiger into the fire?" Selina asks Bruce.
"You wanted me to save the taxidermy specimen, as you said it was extinct and would have suffered a second indignity by going extinct again," Bruce says with a smile.
"True, next question is this: why did you not look back at me after I scratched that bitch Amy Mercedes? Were you ashamed of me, knowing I have a darkness in me that I tried to hide from you?" Selina asks, all traces of playfulness gone. Bruce busted a gut as he laughed, causing Selina to glare at him.
"What's so funny, Mr. Wayne?" Selina hisses at him in anger, Isis hissing for added effect.
"Selina, I knew you were capable of doing something like that the first time we fought as Batman and Catwoman. I may expect better from you, but it's because I know deep down, you're good, you may not be a good person, but neither am I. I do not know if you have noticed, but I have darkness myself. I mean, it's not like I go out and beat up criminals with my bare fists well dressed up as a bat…wait, I do. You deeply care about both the downrated and animals, especially cats. It was not a surprise to me that you scratched Miss Mercedes after she kicked that poor cat. It was a pleasant surprise that you held that temper of yours so long." Bruce gives her a smile only Catwoman and Selina Kyle have seen on this man.
"By the way, all the cats used to test Miss Mercedes products made a full recovery and are with kind owners, I made sure of it. I also watched as you climbed up to the rafters before turning my attention back to Miss Mercedes. You had left 30 seconds later, and you were out of town by the time I finished getting her medical attention and arrested. She is currently in Blackgate prison. Wayne Enterprise bought up Mercedes cosmetics. The data on the products was beneficial in treating the cats." Bruce says with a charming smile. Selina just stared at Bruce with wide eyes. She had never considered that he had anger issues like she did and felt stupid for it.
"So, do you enjoy being Batman?" Selina asks her next question with an I can't believe I was that foolish grin on her face.
Selina loved the thrill of being Catwoman, the thrill of pulling off an imposable theft, then the moment when the plan came together, and she executed it with perfection. However, what she loved most about being Catwoman was dancing through the night and the freedom it brought her.
"As a whole, no, I do not, there are parts I enjoy, but I mostly do it to fulfill a vow I made at age eight," Bruce says with a frown. Selina filed that information away for later.
"What parts of being Batman do you enjoy?" Selina asks with a grin, wanting to know.
"Working on a new gadget, running the rooftops one with the knight, driving the batmobile, and chasing you," Bruce says with a smile that belonged on a stoner rather than Bruce Wayne or Batman. Selina blushed happily at the last thing he enjoyed.
"So, do you know the thrill of stealing?" Selina asks her next question as she begins petting Isis again.
"Yes, I intentionally lived on the streets for a year under the name Knute Brody…Yes, the Bubbling henchmen who tend's to screw up heists is, in reality, highly competent, trained by Momma Fortuna in pickpocketing and her lover Stark in all things dealing with burglary. Along with everything else the Batman is." Bruce revealed to a wide-eyed Selina with a smirk.
"God, your three people I had a crush on," Selina screams in shock.
"Yep, I had a huge crush on you. It took me a while to figure out Selina was really Selina Kyle. But, then again, you were dying your hair when we met as adults, and I was dying my hair when we met as teens." Bruce states with a nod.
Selina is from a wealthy family, and they were happy for a time. Her mother had been a ballerina; however, a traffic accident took her ability to perform away from her when Selina was eight, and Maria Kyle became depressed. Four years later, when Selina was twelve, her mother committed suicide in the bathtub. Selina was the one who found her mother's body. A few months later, she started acting out, eventually joining Momma Fortuna's gang, The Strays in Alleytown. At age thirteen, she started learning to be a cat burglar from Momma's lover Stark, and she also met 'Knute Brody'. Just before her fourteenth birthday, Selina got caught and arrested. However, her father, Brian Kyle, who fell into depression after her mother's suicide, still cared enough not to make the charges against Selina go away. Selina spent six months in Spring Hall Juvenal detention center. When she got out, her father forced her back into gymnastics, got her fighting lessons with Ted Grant, Delores Maddigan, and Richard Dragon before leaving for college. Selina went to Cambridge in college, and her father made sure she continued learning more fighting styles and continued with gymnastics. When her sister Magdalene 'Maggie' Kyle began training to become a nun, her father drank himself to death.
"So, what does the Batman fear most?" Selina asks, still building up the nerve to ask the questions she really wanted to.
"Being happy, I do not deserve to be," Bruce says, frowning, his answer shocking the hell out of Selina.
"Where is Batgirl?" Selina asks the first question that came to mind in shock, not wanting to think about what Bruce just said.
"After what happened with Jason, I decided I was not going to let Gotham calm any more of my loved ones, so I fired her and then ran her out of town the night I broke The Jokers back and a month after I failed to run you out of town. I hate that I am too selfish. I could not bring myself to do what I would need to do to run you out of town. Did worse to Dick in order to keep him from coming back…I broke my son's bones to make him think I had snapped. Had Alfred waited a few minutes longer before confronting me, I would have gotten him to leave too. Dick and Babs (that's Batgirl) There both living in Blüdhaven Dick is still Nightwing and Barbara is now going by Oracle." Bruce says as a tear falls from his eye at the memory. Selina felt bad at bringing up what had to be a hard memory for Bruce, so she again just said the first thing that came to mind.
"What's your favorite kind of ice cream?" Selina asks with a panicked look on her face.
"Chocolate, you?" Bruce says, smiling again.
"Mint chip," Selina says with a smile. Buzzzzzzz
"AHHHH/Ghaaaaaa." Both jump at the sound of the door buzzer to Selina's apartment. Bruce hands her his wallet, and she paid for the pizzas leaving a generous tip of all the cash he had in his wallet.
Selina paused the recording, and the pair ate in quiet. After they finished their pizza's Selina starts the video again.
"So, what makes you happy?" Selina asks, her curiosity getting to her.
"Family, although I burned that bridge with Dick and Jason. And you make me happy, Selina." Bruce says with a sad smile. He went on to explain about the perfect world Mad Hatter trapped him in.
"Then there's the world the Phantom stranger showed me. A world where my parents lived, we moved to Europe, hmm you robbed me, I covered it up, and a few more of your crimes, we got married with two sons and a third child on the way. Jason had become a member of the Jokers Gang, who get into a turf war with Tony Zucco. Dick works for the latter. Barbara becomes a cop and loses her father in the war. Barbara and Dick proceeded to get revenge on The Joker and Zucco. Babs ends up pregnant with Dicks child and in prison, as Babs kills The Joker. Dick and Jason end up killing each other. Gordan was dead, and my sons were dead. After Barbara gives birth in the same hospital as you, Harley Quinn would kill Barbara. I was happy, but Gotham was worse off than even before I became Batman, and those I care about other than you were all miserable or in the ground. We take in Babs's daughter and raise her as our own. For you and them, I would relive the tragedies of my life that made me Batman every time." Bruce says, determination in his voice and body language.
Selina made up her mind about how Bruce was going to make it up to her.
"Oh, that reminds me I am sorry about Jason," Selina says with a sad frown.
"Don't be Jason is alive; I found him in a place called Blue Valley a few days after I broke The Joker. I gave him a bank account with a good amount of money, paid his hospital bills, and left the newspaper about Joker being paralyzed from the neck down. Unfortunately, I did not stick around long enough for him to come too. I also do not have access to the account I left him." Bruce says with that stoner grin back on his face.
"I sent Helena there after…." Selina starts to say in shock before cutting herself off.
"After She killed the first of her parent's murderers Santo Cassamento using the skills you taught her. Yes, I know. No, I did not investigate it any farther." Bruce says with a frown.
"Why?" Selina asks.
"Because you sent her away because of what she did, I still feel guilty about having you arrested after you helped with the first Red Claw case," Bruce says with a frown.
"Well, I forgave you for being a judgmental jackass than a long time ago," Selina says with a small smile.
"Well, (yawn) it's getting late. So here is your punishment, you're marrying me in Vegas tomorrow. You're going to make an honest woman out of me and are going to be happy." Selina says with a grin.
"Punishment accepted," Bruce says with a grin.
"So where is the linin closet? I have never actually rummaged around in your home, so I have no clue were…" Bruce starts to ask, figuring he would be sleeping on the couch. However, his ramblings were stopped as Selina puts her right index finger to his lips.
"Hush…You're not spending the night on the couch, we are not having sex ether, but I want you keeping me warm tonight." Selina says with a smile as she grabs his hand and takes him to her bed. She positions him how she wants him, then lays down on top of him to get some sleep. Bruce pulls the blanket up over them and wraps his arms around her. Isis joins them as they fall asleep. Both have good dreams for the first time in a long time. They head to Vegas in the morning with Alfred picking up Isis so the kitty can get used to Wayne Manor. They plan to spend a couple days at a cabin Bruce owns as a houney moon so Bruce has Alfred warn Jim Gordan.
Two days later, well, the Waynes are still away from Gotham, Penguin hired firefly to firebomb Selina's apartment in retaliation for stealing back Scarface. Selina Kyle is declared dead. Bruce is seen holding a balling Maven at Selina's funeral. Dick and Barbara would visit her grave the next day to avoid Bruce, and Maven would get a job with the mysterious new Mrs. Wayne. A new Bat is seen patrolling Gotham with Batman, A woman in gray and black with long red hair that is obviously a wig the press dubbed Batwoman, who is two inches taller than the missing Batgirl.
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a brownstone in Gotham Village
three months later
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Agnes Crystal Brown Nee Bellinger is 38 and preferred to go by her middle name of Crystal. She is an attractive woman with light brown hair worn in a bob, blue eyes with large, almost B-cups breasts, a fit power walker's physique, and a large jiggly booty her daughter inherited. She is dressed in a blood-stained white shirt, a pair of blue jeans, and wireframe glasses. She wiped the sweat off her brow as she finished shoving the dead body of her husband Arthur Brown AKA the B-list Rouge Cluemaster, into the freezer in her basement. Her Ten-year-old daughter Stephanie 'Steph" Brown had witnessed him plotting another of his crimes. Thinking she had not been caught, Steph confided in her mother then went to bed.
Crystal called in sick, sighting Stephanie was ill, and waited. When her husband made his way to their daughters' room with a knife, Crystal was waiting with a syringe and hypodermic needle. She injected her husband with an air bubble into his neck along with enough of her hydrocodone prescription ground up and dissolved in water to kill a horse. The combination would act fast; however, it still took time to hit her husband.
Crystal had hastily bandaged the wound on her arm then dragged her husband to the freezer. She would not have much time, a day or two before someone from Arthur's gang came looking. Fortunately, well waiting in the dark for her husband, she had developed a plan and would only need at most twelve hours depending on the first step. Crystal grabbed one of the suture kits she nicked from work and checked the clock. Seeing it was three in the morning, she knew the person she needed to call would be just getting home from her second job. She quickly dialed her friend's number.
"Crystal, hi, it's been a while. How are you and Steph?" The voice of Barbara Gordon comes from the phone. Crystal begins numbing her arm around the cut.
"Good; however, I need to cash in a favor for patching you up early on in your carrier before the bat gave you his approval. Steph's daycare is closed due to a chickenpox outbreak, and I can't get a sitter. There is no way I trust Arthur with watching Steph well; I am at work. I am pulling a few double shifts this check so I can get Steph some new clothes before school starts." Crystal begins explaining as she finished numbing the wound. Thankfully, the injury was on her upper arm, so she would be able to hide it with her regular scrubs.
"Dick and I can watch the munchkin for a few days. Bring her to Haven." Babs says with her usual sass.
"Do you mind if I bring her over now? Arthur came home drunk and woke me up, and I could not get back to sleep, thankfully he did not wake Steph; I hate it when she sees him drunk. I would like to get a nap in before I got to start my first double shift. Do you and Dick need more suture kits?" Crystal asks as she finished stitching her cut shut. She snips it before throwing the box away. She slaps a large bandage on it then begins cleaning her arm off.
"Sure, we will be up for a bit longer. Yes, we do." Babs says with a smile. Crystal pours a travel mug of coffee.
"I need to pack a bag for Steph, and I will throw a few in the bag. I will be there in about an hour and fifteen minutes. See you two then." Crystal says false cheer as she hangs up. Crystal then gets her daughter's large eggplant purple duffle bag and packs a few day's worth of clothes for her daughter with some extra's as she wanted to make sure her daughter would have her favorite clothing. Next, crystal throws in her stock of suture kits before picking up her little angel, a four-foot four-inch-tall blond-haired girl, her blue eyes shut and hair at chin length. She is dressed in an oversized eggplant purple batgirl t-shirt. She carries her daughter, coffee, and the bag out to her car.
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An hour later Blüdhaven
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Crystal pulled into the parking lot of the apartment building of Dick Grayson and Barbara Gordan. As she pulled up, Dick dressed in a pair of sweatpants and a tank top along with some sandals stepped out of the doorway with Babs holding it open. Babs is in pink pajama shorts, a Black Canary (band) t-shirt, slippers, and horn-rim glasses. Crystal smiled at Dick as he opened the door and grabbed the bag and her daughter with ease.
"We have a fresh pot of coffee upstairs if you want to refresh your mug, Mrs. Brown," Dick says with a smile.
"Thank you, Dick, yes, I would," Crystal says with a smile, and the group makes their way to the elevator and up to the penthouse.
"We will put her in the guest bedroom if you want to tuck her back in." Dick ever the softy says quietly as he heads to the bedroom.
"Yes, thanks for carrying her for me." Crystal let slip as she follows Dick to the guest bedroom.
"Well, you do that; I will refresh your cup, Crystal," Babs says with a smile.
"Bless you, you sassy thing," Crystal says with a smile as she hands the girl her travel mug. Dick had set the girl on the bed and left the covers open for the mother to cover the girl. He then leaves to give them privacy. Crystal gently shakes her daughter.
"Hmm, five more minutes, Mama," Stephanie says, tired and cutely.
"Mama has to go to work. She just wants you to know she loves you very, very much. You will be staying with Aunt Babs for a while." Crystal says as she covers the girl and kisses her forehead.
"Hmm, love you too, Mama. Night, night, Mama," Steph says with a smile as her Mama covers her with a warm blanket, and she falls back to sleep.
Crystal says goodbye to the young couple, and once she got in her car, she broke down crying before a look of pure determination is fixed on her face. She had one more monster to kill before she turned herself in.
She stopped at a lawyer and had papers drawn up to appoint Barbara Gordon the daughter's guardian, should she be incarcerated or killed. She also paid to have them curried to Babs. She would have just enough time to finish what she felt needed to be done.
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Gotham West Mercy Hospital
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Crystal had change into one of her plainer scrubs consisting of an eggplant purple top and pants. She made her way to a refurbished and armored room for the most dangerous patient in the hospital's prison ward. The Joker well was in a coma, his psyche having been shattered worse than ever by the brutality of Batman's actions. The room he was staying in was paid for by Bruce Wayne personally to have modified to make sure The Joker would not be rescued from it. The only thing the monster would be able to do is blink if he ever recovers. However that could still be dangerous with a monster like Joker, she grabbed a few things she would need from a few supply carts.
With what she grabbed, combined with what was left of her pain medication for her back, was all she needed. She was glad she never tried oxycodone as her brother was an addict. Mixing her lethal cocktail in the lady's room, she then grabbed a bucket and sponge well, slipping the large capped syringe between her impressive butt cheeks.
"Good morning, Detective. I am going to give the monster his bath," Crystal says with a flirty smile at Detective Harvey Bullock. Harvey Bullock is a heavy-set man standing 5 foot ten inches tall with graying black hair and black eyes. Although not a handsome man, he was also not exactly ugly either. He is dressed in a cheap gray suit and tie. He had volunteered to keep watch on the Joker's room. Well, not as young as she used to be, Crystal was still an attractive woman, and her flirty tone throws the man off. He checked the RN's bucket and sponge before letting her into the room with the key. Harvey did not think to pat the woman down like he had been the male nurse that had been caring for the Joker until now, nor did he question the fact that she was giving the monster his sponge bath. Even if he had, he would not have checked where she hid her weapon. He also checks out the woman's big heart-shaped booty as she enters the room. He then closes the massive steel door behind her. It would take superman himself to get through the door.
Crystal pulled down the privacy screen and filled the bucket with hot water from the nearby sink. Next, she quickly attached leads that were monitoring the Joker and attached them to herself before quickly connecting the heart rate monitor to herself. Then pulled out the syringe from between her impressive cheeks, pulled in a bit of air with the lethal cocktail of drugs, and injected it all into the Joker's neck before going about giving the monster his last bath. By the time she finished, the Joker was dead. Completing her task, she spits in the slayer monster's face, then she detached the leads and switched off the heart rate monitor. Finally, she knocked on the door per the protocols. Harvey quickly opened the door, not wanting to leave the attractive woman with the monster longer than she needed to be.
"Detective Bullock, I need you to arrest me, I just killed The Joker, and earlier today, I killed my husband Arthur Brown, AKA Cluemaster, when he tried to murder our daughter when she stumbled on him plotting a crime. So I shoved him in the freezer in my basement." Crystal admits calmly and matter-of-factly.
"WHAT!" Harvey yells as he rushed into the room that was just vacated to find that, indeed, The Joker was dead.
"Make sure you read me my rights, Detective Bullock," Crystal says, still calm as death as she holds out her hands.
"You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney and have them present during the interrogation. If you cannot afford a lawyer, one will be appointed to you free of charge. You can waive your right to be silent before or during an interrogation, and if you do so, the interrogation must be halted. Finally, you can invoke your right to have an attorney present, and until they are is present, the interrogation must be halted. Do you understand these rights as I have stated them?" Harvey informs the woman with a sad frown.
"Yes, and I will say it again; I killed The Joker, and I killed my husband last night. I will give a full statement at the station. I do…" Crystal begins to say when Harvey interrupts her.
"What you want a lawyer. FINE, YOU WILL HAVE A GOD DANM ATTORNEY PRESENT! So even if you're giving a full confession, you will have an attorney present." Harvey interrupts Crystal talking over her before whispering to her the last bit with a frown. Harvey was not a cop. He is a Police Officer. However, he will turn his badge in before letting this woman be railroaded to kill the monster who terrorized Gotham for the last ten years. They had found plans to attack the commissioner's daughter in an attempt to drive the commissioner insane in Joker's hideout. It was sheer dumb luck that stopped the monster's plan. He called the best lawyer he knew for the woman as he drove her to the station.
…
The News would interrupt the currently scheduled program on multiple channels to announce that The Joker is dead. Two beautiful women watched the News with frowns; one woman is blond and the other a redhead. They watched the report before one of them throws a fine crystal drinking glass into tv. Crystal Brown would be found dead in her holding cell a few hours later. A ten-year-old-girl makes a vow to spoil the crimes of criminals.
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To be continued
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