A Leap in the Knight
Part 1
By Kali
"Oh boy!" Sam Beckett was caught mid-swing, hanging by a relatively thin wire off of a 15 story building. Trying to get his bearings he wrapped the rope, wire, or whatever the hell it was, around his body forming a harness. "Al. Al?"
Feeling a little more secure he looked down at what he was wearing, a dark gray or black spandex suit, with a symbol of a bat on his chest. A long, dark cape flapped in the evening breeze. "Oh my God, I'm Batman!" No, that can't be! He's a fictional character, a comic book character! It's got to be some nut case, who thinks he's Batman. That has to be it! "Al? Al!"
"Right here, Sam," Al answered. As he looked downward a wave of vertigo hit him. "Oh my God, Sam!"
Trying to ignore his fears, Sam managed to start swaying himself back and forth. Finally, he was able to reach one of the ledges on the building he was dangling off of. His heart pounding fiercely in his chest, he clutched to the bare concrete wall like a babe to a pacifier. Catching his breath he managed to point a shaking finger at the nearest window. "Anyone in there, Al?"
"I'll check." Al 'walked' through the concrete wall to see. A few agonizing seconds later. Seconds that seemed like hours to Sam. "All clear."
"Good." Sam slowly reached down towards the belt on the bizarre Halloween costume. His fingers desperately grasping for something he could use to break the window with. He came up with something hard and metallic. Wrapping his right hand in the cape for protection against potential glass fragments, he swung the object hard. Nothing. He tried again, this time with a bit more oomph. A slight crack. Unfortunately, that minor victory came with consequences, he nearly lost his balance on his delicate perch.
"Sam! Be careful, that rope looks fairly strong, but I wouldn't take any chances."
"The sooner I get to mother earth's soil, the better." Another swing brings sweet victory. Or at least the sweet taste of getting off of the ledge, and away from the numbing feeling of vertigo. "Of all the situations I have leapt into, that has got to be one of the worst!"
Turning on the lights, Sam realized he was in an empty hotel room. Empty, but not vacant. A pair of black trousers and socks were strewn over a chair. A number of multicolored business shirts lay scattered unceremoniously on the king-sized bed.
He turned to look at the object in his hand, the one he had used to break through the glass. It was oddly shaped. Almost resembling a bat. "What is this?"
"A batarang. C'mon Sam, didn't you ever watch that old 60's TV series 'Batman' in reruns?"
Sam wondered why Al seemed to be regarding this seriously. As if he had actually leaped into.... No that wasn't feasible. He had leaped throughout the span of his lifetime. But always in the same dimension of reality. His reality. Not some fictitious one made up of the dreams, hopes, and ideals of others.
"'Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore.' Well, at least you aren't."
"Any idea why I'm here?
"Ziggy says that there is a 99% chance that you are here so that Batman......"
"Batman? You're kidding, right? You've got to be kidding. How is that even possible? He's a fictional character!" Sam spouted incredulous.
"Don't know. This is something right out of Ripley's," Al stated, scratching his head.
"Or the Twilight Zone."
"It sure looks that way, Sam. Anyway, according to Ziggy, there is a 99% chance that you are here so that Batman can fix a fatal virus that was hacked in through Ziggy's 'back door'."
"Ziggy doesn't have a 'back door'. I should know, I created her. I programmed into her the ability to fight off any contingency."
"I'm afraid not in this case. We're not exactly sure when it started, but Ziggy's been spouting random gibberish at times. Including the theme song to 'Gilligan's Island'."
"Why him, and not me?"
"Three guesses."
"The swiss-cheese effect," Sam cursed. It denied him of so much. His memories, hopes, and dreams were all but fleeting images that always fell backwards too quickly into obscurity.
"Let's get out of here, Al."
"Sam, wait, don't you think you should, ..... you know," Al said, pointing to the clothes lying on the bed.
Reaching down, he grabbed the trousers and attempted to put them on. They were unbearably tight. After a few attempts with the zipper, Sam hastily pulled them off. He looked around the hotel room for something less restrictive. As he entered the bathroom the reflection in the mirror caught his eye. He saw himself. Or in actuality, the man he had leapt into. Tall, well built, and muscular. And definitively, without a shadow of a doubt, dressed in a spandex batsuit. Reaching for the cowl, he slowly pulled it off. Revealing the hard, rigid features of the man beneath the masquerade.
"Definitively, not Adam West," Al quipped.
A noise from the other room, silenced any reply Sam was about to make. He quickly put the mask back in place. He had not wanted to be discovered, especially since he was not sure of how people viewed Batman, wherever the hell he was.
"What are you doing here?!" A woman, as weirdly garbed as he was, asked.
****************************************************************************
"According to Ziggy, that's Helena Wayne, also known as the Huntress. She's the daughter of Earth-2's Batman and Catwoman. 'Earth-2?' Oh God, this is weird, Sam. But, anyhow, she calls this world's Bruce Wayne, 'Uncle Bruce'. Apparently, technology allows her to travel back and forth between worlds."
"Helena."
"How dare you call me by that name! What right do you have? You've been trying to run me out of 'your' precious Gotham for several months! Just because I won't be a good little soldier girl, and tow the line. You arrogant piece of work! How the others put up with your domineering ways...."
"Or maybe not," Al said scrutinizing the hand held interlink's display. "This is.... weird, Sam. Now Ziggy's saying her name is Helena Bertinelli, and no relation to Bruce Wayne"
"Possibly a result of that virus she's been infected with."
"What are you talking about?" a confused Huntress asked.
"Look," Sam started, struggling to come up with a cover story. Something to get him out of the hotel room, and out of the spandex. "Let me be succinct. I have somewhere to be. But I have to do it ..... incognito. Without arising anyone's suspicions. To do that, I need some street clothes. Would you please help me locate some?"
""'Please'? Nightwing, is that you? I mean it has to be! Batman saying 'please'. That's got to be one of the signs of the Apocalypse!" she exclaimed, studying him closely. "Nope, wrong build. It's you all right. Your voice is slightly different, but it's you all right. Drat it all," She sighed. "Why don't you just have Oracle do that?"
Sam looked over at Al for an answer. He didn't disappoint.
"Oracle, also known as Barbara Gordon. Adopted daughter of James Gordon, the Commissioner of Gotham's police force. She was originally Batgirl until she was shot and crippled by the Joker. She's been paralyzed from the waist down, ever since."
"How?" Sam winced in regret, it was an idiotic question. The Huntress would realize the oddness of it, and become even more suspicious.
"Uh, through that trusty, comm-link of yours."
"It's broken," he said. A large beeping noise caused him to glance at his wrists. On it was something that resembled a digital wristwatch. "Well, it wasn't working a few minutes ago."
"You didn't get punched in the face one to many times, did you?"
"I don't have to explain myself to you," Sam stated sharply. Choosing the words carefully, trying to come off as cold and distant as she had earlier implied Batman to be with her diatribe.
"Whatever!" With that, she exited the way she entered. Leaving him alone with the beeping communicator.
Sam randomly pushed buttons, in an attempt to make contact. "Yes?"
"We have an emergency, Batman. Apparently there is a hostage situation in progress at Freya and Boon. Another domestic squabble gone wrong, I'm afraid. A man is holding his wife and three kids at gun point," Oracle replied. Her voice quivering slightly with repressed emotion.
Oh God, Sam thought. There was no way he could deal with this. He still felt somewhat shaky from his experience with the 'bat-rope'. How on earth would he explain that to her, without revealing the truth. Then it came to him, something Huntress had mentioned. "I'm afraid that I'm.... indisposed at the moment. What is the status of the others?"
"Batgirl is busy cleaning up a brawl over at Lucky Strike. Way over on the other end of the city. Even if she could get there in time, she wouldn't know *how* to get there."
Huh, Sam thought. He looked over at Al for an explanation, but he just shrugged.
"Ziggy doesn't have any information on her."
Great, Sam mouthed.
"Azrael, he's currently assisting Leslie at her clinic. Nothing that can't wait. Do you want me to send him in?"
"Yes," Sam stated curtly. This time deliberately leaving out the 'please'.
"Alfred," Al blurted out. "Ask her to send Alfred to pick you up." He glanced down at the hotel room night stand, looking for the name of the establishment. "Outside of the Hotel Figuzzo."
Sam repeated the request to Oracle, informing her that he was too busy at the moment to do it himself. She seemed a bit puzzled by that, but nonetheless agreed to summon Alfred.
After the connection was broken. "Who's Alfred?"
"You don't know? Is your memory that swiss-cheesed? Sam, Alfred is one of the most well-known fictional butlers in literature. He's Batman's trusted confidant. He also raised Bruce Wayne after his parents were murdered. Since Bruce was 8......uh, no... Wait a sec.... make that 6.... What the hell!" Al hit the hand-link on the side. "Now Ziggy's saying that Bruce was 10, when his parents were killed. This isn't good, Sam."
"Let's worry about that later. For now, lets get out of here!"
Disclaimer: All Bat-family characters belong to DC
Comics. All Quantum Leap characters belong to their respective creators,
Bellisarius Productions. This fan fiction is meant as pure,
harmless fun, and as such no profit is being made from it.