Batman: Raiders of the Knight

Jeremiah Johnson, an athletic, 6 foot tall, 17 year old, African American male, rushed into Wayne Dojo still dressed in his high school football uniform after leaving from a practice less than a half hour ago. He quickly made it to the changing room and got dressed in his white karate gear. The entire class could hear him as he loudly clanged and clambered about in the changing room while they quietly sat indian-style on the floor mats. Jeremiah came out and hurdled over the gate that led to the main practicing mats of the dojo. He quickly took a bow and then sat down with the rest of the class. Some students began giggling, but Jeremiah figured they were laughing because he was almost late. He didn't know there was something else they were staring at.

57...the clock ticked

58…

59…

It was now 6 o'clock. Sensei Wayne gave Jeremiah an icy glare seeing that Jeremiah was very close to being late. He then brushed below his eyes to suggest to Jeremiah that he should also check beneath his own eyes. Jeremiah rubbed below his eyes for a second. He then realized that he still had his black war paint on his cheeks from when he was at football practice. Jeremiah gave Bruce an apologetic grin and then moved his lips as if to say he's sorry. Now he knew what the other students were snickering about. Sensei Wayne then began his class.

Sensei Wayne was very stern about wanting people to be on time for his class. If you were going to be late, there had better be a good reason for why, and you better have tried calling first. If he ever felt the reason wasn't good enough, he would make you sit out of the class and only allow you to sit and watch from the benches where some parents sat. Mr. Wayne believed that being punctual and on time was a good sign of one's preparation skills.

The class would sit and meditate for a good 15 to 20 minutes and then do stretch exercises for another 20 minutes after that. Mr. Wayne always wanted you to be in the best mindset and as limber as possible before allowing you to perform his fighting techniques. He always said, "Those who want peace prepare for war."

After stretching, the class would do workout routines like two-fingered push-ups, sit-ups, and jumping jacks. He would always push the class to do as many as they could before giving up.

Soon after that, the class would get into a fighting stance and practice their punches and kicks. Sensei Wayne would walk around and make sure everyone's posture and stances were correct for the different types of punches and kicks they were performing. If he felt you were falling behind, he would send you off to do exercises that could help you correct those things before rejoining the group. Sometimes it would be climbing the peg wall, sometimes it would be doing jumping jacks while wearing 10 pound ankle weights.

Then it was Jeremiah's favorite part of class, the moment Sensei Wayne would walk around holding a large pad and allow everyone to take turns kicking and punching the pad as hard as they could.

Sensei Wayne stepped in front of Jeremiah and held up the pad.

"Gyaku-zuki!" Sensei Wayne yelled, which meant "reverse punch."

"Kiai!" Jeremiah yelled out a battle cry as he punched the pad as hard as he could.

The punch actually caused Sensei Wayne to slightly stutter-step back. Jeremiah smirked a little because he thought Sensei Wayne was impenetrable.

"Oi-zuki!" Sensei Wayne yelled again, instructing Jeremiah to throw a lunge punch.

Jeremiah lunged as hard as he could at the bag. He wanted nothing more than to see if he could cause Sensei Wayne to stumble back again. Except this time, Sensei Wayne pulled the pad away causing Jeremiah to fall to the floor face first leaving a smear of black face paint on the mat.

"You were too eager to strike! You weren't using proper balance! Perhaps you should go do a few jumping jacks…. With the 20 pound ankle weights!" Sensei Wayne declared.

"Come on, Sensei Wayne. Today is my 17th birthday. Can you please give me a little bit of a break this time?" Jeremiah pleaded.

Sensei Wayne shook his head up and down as if he was going to agree with Jeremiah's request. "Sure!... you can use the 15 pound weights instead!" He replied.

Jeremiah put his head down and sighed as he began walking over to the workout area.

"I will allow you to clean up the mess you left on the mat once you are done." Sensei Wayne said while pointing down at the paint that got on the mat. "And, by the way, happy birthday."

Jeremiah simply rolled his eyes and scoffed.

Finally, class was getting over with. Jeremiah had cleaned up his mess and was walking back to the dressing room to gather his football equipment. He began shoving his karate outfit into his gym bag because he was still upset about what had happened in class. He normally wouldn't have let it get to him, but today was his birthday and he was hoping for a little leniency. But, the fact of the matter was, Sensei Wayne hardly ever showed leniency. Once he made a poor kid do two-fingered push-ups until they nearly passed out. Needless to say, that kid no longer attended this class. Jeremiah never knew what might have ever happened to that kid. Perhaps he joined another dojo like Cobra Kai or something.


Waiting out in the parking lot for Jeremiah was his father, Marcus. Normally his father would be working second shift, but because it was Jeremiah's birthday, he took a half a day off from work to spend time with him.

"Happy birthday!" His father yelled out while leaning against the hood of his car. "Are you ready to have some fun bowling, son?" He asked.

"Sure Dad, that sounds great." Jeremiah replied with a mopey voice while tossing his black and silver football helmet and shoulder pads onto the back seat of his father's car.

"What's wrong son? Did Mr. Wayne take it hard on you again? Would you like me to go in there and show him who's boss?" Marcus playfully asked. "I'm sure I could rough him up a little bit for ya." He teased.

Marcus wasn't a little man. In fact, he was a pretty big guy and built like an ox. He stood six-foot nine-inches tall and weighed about 260 pounds. On weekends, when he wasn't working overtime, he played defensive lineman for the Gotham Knights football team. Other than that, he loved to bowl. Nothing felt better to him than flinging a bowling ball down the lane trying to cause the pins to shatter. And he had done it plenty of times before. Actually, he had busted so many pins that there was only one place left in town that would allow him to bowl at their lanes. And that was the most run-down place in town.


While walking into the Bargain Bowl bowling alley, They noticed the lanes were a bit busier than usual tonight, probably because there was a fundraiser going on in order to support the recent victims of a brutal attack which took place at the local shopping mall a couple days ago. The victims were attacked by a ruthless up and coming gang called The Satan's Serpents. They seemed to be the only ones not afraid of the Bat. Perhaps that's because Batman wasn't making too many appearance's anymore.

While waiting for a lane to open up Marcus asked Jeremiah how football practice went for him. Jeremiah played football for his high school named The Central Raiders.

"I guess you can say it went well." Jeremiah replied. "The coach never seems to put me in on the big plays. He just makes me practice with less talented guys."

"Well, I'm sure with enough hard work, you will get off of the bench soon. Just keep your head up. You'll be a starter for the varsity team eventually." His father replied.

"Dad. I'm a junior and I ride the bench for the junior varsity team. I'm pretty sure there isn't much I'm going to be able to do to make varsity if I can't even get in the game for the JV squad." Jeremiah retorted.

Jeremiah only played football because he wanted to make his father proud. He was much more interested in martial arts, music, and creative writing.

After grabbing a lane, Marcus picked up a bowling ball. "It's clobberin' time!" He declared as he whipped the bowling ball down the lane making it crash against the pins and causing them to scatter in all directions.

"STRIKE!" He yelled out while celebrating.

About 20 minutes had gone by and his father was winning 210 to 85. They were about to bowl their last frame, when suddenly a masked man yelled out while at the same time brandishing a gun.

"EVERYBODY FREEZE! THIS IS A STICK-UP!" He demanded.

The masked man was there to rob the fundraiser money. But, shortly after collecting all the money, the man decided to stick around demanding for everybody to give him their earrings, necklaces, watches, purses, and wallets.

One of the male patrons of the bowling alley tried to play tough with the gunman, but that wasn't very smart of him. The gunman cracked the stubborn old man over the head with his gun causing the old man to fall to the ground unconscious.

"You foolish old man! The gunman exclaimed. "The next person that gets out of line is going to get a bullet right between the eyeballs! You understand me?"

The gunman was getting closer to Marcus and Jeremiah- maybe about five lanes away. The gunman began badgering an older lady insisting that she give him her wedding ring.

"This is one of the only things I have left from my late husband." She cried.

Marcus couldn't take it anymore. He picked up the heaviest bowling ball he could find and then hurled it towards the gunman.

THUD! The bowling ball smashed against the gunman's head, nearly knocking it clean off, causing the man to fall to the ground.

Jeremiah quickly made his way over to the fallen gunman and kicked the gun away from his hand. He then pulled the mask off of the unconscious robber. Jeremiah was surprised to see that the robber was someone he recognized. He was a young man that had gone to Jeremiah's school at one time. Jeremiah remembered the kid being a senior, while he was a freshman, and for some reason the kid dropped out before half of the school year was over with. That must have put him at about 20 years old.

The old man, who had just been knocked out for a brief moment suddenly regained his composure. He then picked up the gun and pointed it at the now unmasked man.

"I oughta blast your punk-ass!" He blurted out while nervously holding the gun in his shaking right hand.

Marcus stepped over to the old man. "It's okay. I'm thinkin' he is already down for the count." He said while gently taking the gun out of the old man's hand.

Marcus had saved the day and tragedy had been averted…. Or so he thought.

Suddenly, a police officer came running into the bowling alley.

"HOLD IT RIGHT THERE! PUT DOWN THE GUN!" The police officer demanded because he saw that Marcus was holding the gun and the officer didn't know what had just transpired.

But, Marcus was stunned for a second because he wasn't expecting the police officer to suddenly be targeting him. Being shocked at that moment caused Marcus to not respond fast enough for the scared police officer.

BANG! A shot rang out.