The Leopard of Lime Street was an unexpected find; I was just visiting the International Superheroes website when the name caught my eye. It should make sense that there would be a character who mirrors Spider-Man, and that's who Billy Farmer mirrors; a weak schoolboy who lives with his Uncle Charlie, who is the polar opposite of Uncle Ben, and is an abusive bastard in the comics while Aunt Joan is lovely. Billy was attacked by a leopard injected with a special serum, and he gained the powers of a leopard and he became a superhero.

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The Beast of Selbridge.

The altered cat costume was a golden brown while there were black spots patterned into it like the rosette spots of a real-life leopard. The costume consisted of a mask, a shirt, trousers, plimsolls sewn into the leggings and gloves, but Billy had added a simple utility belt for his camera. As he sat next to the costume, gazing at it thoughtfully, Billy Farmer just could not believe how quickly his life had turned around.

A part of him thought it was just a dream; indeed, like racing car thrown suddenly into acceleration which had suddenly thrust his life into a new direction while the beginning with the onset of the arrival of yet another day where his loving Aunt Joan, one of the only good things in his life and the only person in the house he loved and cared for ever since his parents had died all of those years ago, had been mundane while his useless, bullying bastard of an uncle, Charlie had been sleeping in bed before his aunt shooed him to school, being bullied in the playground, visiting the nearby experimental zoo to take photographs after begging the school to allow the owner, Professor Jarman to let him take a few photos for the magazine he ran, being scratched by that leopard, and discovering he had suddenly become incredibly strong and agile only hours after the attack, spotting the article in the Selbridge Sun about the burglaries which had been going on for some time, and making up his mind to do something about it.

Billy hadn't intended to dress in some old costume, but the moment he had gone through the cupboards in his bedroom while he tried out his new powers for some film for his camera when he had come up with the brainwave to go after the so-called 'Cat-Man' burglar who was committing the break-ins, he had decided that the streets of Selbridge were a better place to test his new powers than a bedroom, but the sight of the old forgotten pantomime costume, a legacy of the old Dick Whittington play he had starred in was thrust into his vision and he couldn't resist the urge to act out a fantasy where he could follow the example of his heroes, like Batman or Superman.

It would be a good opportunity for Billy to test his powers, and in any case, he wanted to see what the limits of his powers were. Tracking the Cat-Man down had been easy enough; the burglar went out every single night breaking into other people's homes, and because he was agile although Billy had quickly gathered he didn't quite have the same leopard agility that Billy now possessed, he found it easy to scale walls and walk across the rooftops as if they were elevated streets. Billy frowned as he remembered the fight between him and the Cat-Man. He might have had the leopard enhanced strength and agility to back him up, but he had never been a fighter because all of the other boys in school were stronger, and he had never been good at fighting back.

Billy frowned thoughtfully, considering his options. By now all of Selbridge knew of the Cat-Man's capture, but whether the burglar would tell the police during his interviews, Billy didn't know and frankly, he didn't care; but by now the people would be questioning each other about this 'leopard' who had dealt with the burglar and one of the bullies who'd hounded Billy at school. Billy chuckled, snorting at just how pathetic the bullies were in general.

The bullies at school.

His uncle Charlie.

They were all cowards and Billy had seen his uncle having to plead with men who were tougher and stronger than he was, and Uncle Charlie was not much of a man when faced with them but he thought he was when he was bullying and hurting Billy and Joan. But as he considered his options Billy exorcised all of his thoughts relating to his damn uncle and the others, and he turned his mind over to his new future. He had really enjoyed donning the costume and fighting the Cat-Man, and he had taken photographs of the whole event which he would send to the local newspaper. He had already exposed the reel, and from what he could tell a lot of the pictures had Billy in full costume fighting off the Cat-Man. With those pictures, the stories of the Leopard would spread.

But did he feel that was a good idea?

Billy wasn't sure if it was a good idea to attract any undue attention to himself, especially since someone got it in their heads the leopard was an escaped leopard, although the logic of that argument would escape him since an actual leopard would have likely torn the Cat-Man to pieces. But if he just sent in the photos and forgot the whole thing, could he live with himself as nothing happened? No, probably not. But if he was going to become a superhero or a vigilante, how would he do it? It was one thing to become a comic-inspired superhero, but could it actually be pulled off in real life?

Billy would need to wait and see.


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