Chapter 21 - Gotham City, 4.35 pm
Chris Sonderson was a popular kid at Allan Scott High. He was nearly fifteen, a consistent B- student, generally liked by faculty and fellow students, on the swim team and a promising member of the Karate Club. (Two years previously a sociology student had written a thesis on the proportionately large number of self-defence clubs for children in the cities with resident superheroes. The Gotham area came highest, well above even Suicide Slum in Metropolis, which itself only just beat a Californian town named Sunnydale that no one had ever heard of before and which had no known hero.)
Chris had short, black curly hair and a pleasant smile he used frequently. It was his eyes that drew most attention though, whilst one was a dark blue, the other was a pale brown. He said it gave him a unique vision.
He was, it must be said, prone to playing practical jokes of a very juvenile nature, so when, whilst walking home from school with a group of friends, he claimed he heard someone calling his name from down an alley they assumed he was trying to lure them down there for some form of prank, probably to take their mind off the recent murders which were filling the headlines, news broadcasts and recess conversations all across the city.
His friends walked on, determined not to be caught out. However, when he had not re-emerged from the alleyway some thirty seconds later Courtney Carmichael, Sonderson's on-again off-again girlfriend, went back to the alley fetch him out, or to react in enough mock horror to whatever shock Chris had planned to get it over with.
To her surprise, the alleyway was empty. A dead end, apart from a door so caked with rust it couldn't have been opened in years and a drop-down fire escape which looked about as rusty and which had to be lowered down from a height that no one could jump without assistance.
Laughing, she called Chris's name, expecting him to appear from wherever he was hiding. However, she would could not overcome the churning feeling in the pit of her stomach that's something was terribly wrong. She called her friends back to help her look but it was quickly apparent that there was nowhere that he could have been hiding, and no way he could have got out of the alleyway without being seen.
They were getting worried now, but reassured themselves that they would find him sitting on his doorstep, laughing his rather braying laugh at having managed to fool them so well. There would be mock anger and gentle punches on the arm and a general sense of relief for all concerned. It was the way he operated, or so they kept telling themselves.
He was not, however, waiting at home. And when his father was informed of his strange disappearance, he wasted no time in contacting the GCPD who, as a minor was involved, immediately launched a neighbourhood wide search. To no avail…
Now had Courtney thought to look UP and been observant enough to spot the faint fall of rusty metal from the fire escape….
Chris Sonderson was a popular kid at Allan Scott High. He was nearly fifteen, a consistent B- student, generally liked by faculty and fellow students, on the swim team and a promising member of the Karate Club. (Two years previously a sociology student had written a thesis on the proportionately large number of self-defence clubs for children in the cities with resident superheroes. The Gotham area came highest, well above even Suicide Slum in Metropolis, which itself only just beat a Californian town named Sunnydale that no one had ever heard of before and which had no known hero.)
Chris had short, black curly hair and a pleasant smile he used frequently. It was his eyes that drew most attention though, whilst one was a dark blue, the other was a pale brown. He said it gave him a unique vision.
He was, it must be said, prone to playing practical jokes of a very juvenile nature, so when, whilst walking home from school with a group of friends, he claimed he heard someone calling his name from down an alley they assumed he was trying to lure them down there for some form of prank, probably to take their mind off the recent murders which were filling the headlines, news broadcasts and recess conversations all across the city.
His friends walked on, determined not to be caught out. However, when he had not re-emerged from the alleyway some thirty seconds later Courtney Carmichael, Sonderson's on-again off-again girlfriend, went back to the alley fetch him out, or to react in enough mock horror to whatever shock Chris had planned to get it over with.
To her surprise, the alleyway was empty. A dead end, apart from a door so caked with rust it couldn't have been opened in years and a drop-down fire escape which looked about as rusty and which had to be lowered down from a height that no one could jump without assistance.
Laughing, she called Chris's name, expecting him to appear from wherever he was hiding. However, she would could not overcome the churning feeling in the pit of her stomach that's something was terribly wrong. She called her friends back to help her look but it was quickly apparent that there was nowhere that he could have been hiding, and no way he could have got out of the alleyway without being seen.
They were getting worried now, but reassured themselves that they would find him sitting on his doorstep, laughing his rather braying laugh at having managed to fool them so well. There would be mock anger and gentle punches on the arm and a general sense of relief for all concerned. It was the way he operated, or so they kept telling themselves.
He was not, however, waiting at home. And when his father was informed of his strange disappearance, he wasted no time in contacting the GCPD who, as a minor was involved, immediately launched a neighbourhood wide search. To no avail…
Now had Courtney thought to look UP and been observant enough to spot the faint fall of rusty metal from the fire escape….