Beware the Batman fanfic – Bring on the Badguys!
Written by WDCain Man

Disclaimer: Batman was created by Bob Kane and owned by DC Comics, which is owned by Warner-Brothers. Todd Faber was created by Neil Gaiman and is also owned by Warner-Brothers. No money is being made with this story. No profit is being made from this fanfic.

I had an epiphany. Even though BtB is as good as cancelled, it doesn't mean the end of Batman cartoons. Within 3 or 5 years, there will be another show made for the kiddies to buy more toys and merchandise so naturally new villains will have to be used so they can be made as toys. My fanfic still has purpose. So here's a new update so the toy manufacturers will make new action figures!

Enjoy the story!

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Bring on the Badguys!

Part Nine:

Query & Echo

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Up-and-coming stage actor Todd Faber walked into the warehouse where the two pretty ladies at the audition told him to show up for work. The woman on the phone made herself clear: Show up immediately for work. Todd readied himself for the performance of a lifetime.

He was a young man of average height who looked athletic, just like a gymnast. His features were fairly handsome and his brunette hair was cut short and stylish. Mother always said it was best to look one's best when they meet their employers.

His confidence was quickly replaced by honest confusion when he saw what was in the warehouse. It was a cross between an armory, a gym, and game show studio. A dozen tables filled with guns, ammo, bombs, and grenades were next to a shooting gallery where a blond woman was firing a rifle. Not too far away was a large plot of the warehouse fully furnished with gym equipment, heavy weights, and training dummies with another woman practicing Kung Fu by breaking cinderblocks with karate punches. In the very back were hundreds of colorful props and ludicrous machines like they were taken from an amusement park.

It was like no stage theatre he ever preformed in. "Pardon me, but am I in the right place?"

The two women practicing stopped what they doing and walked to him. Both were incredible beautiful and physically attractive. The tallest of the pair had curly strawberry-blond hair and all American features with a full-figured body. The smaller brunette was truly beautiful with exotic Asian-American features. Her hair was short-cut and simple which did nothing to diminish her bountiful figure.

Both were dressed in identical outfits: A green legless leotard with a large black question mark in the breast area. They were pants-less. Black fishnet stockings covered their well defined legs with kinky purple heels for footwear with matching purple wrist-gloves. Each had a domino mask covering their cheekbones and their coolly ingenious eyes. The only difference between them was a green military cap the redhead wore.

It was their eyes and demeanor that unnerved Todd Faber. They didn't speak one word and eyed him coldly and analytically as they made their way over. This wasn't right. Normal people don't act this way around people. "I think I walked into a place I shouldn't have. Sorry ladies but I'll leave you-"

"You're in the right place, Mr. Faber." The strawberry-blond said coolly. Her voice had power and great strength behind it. "This is where you will practice the role given you before each performance."

The smaller Asian American girl stepped forward. Her expressionless face was like chiseled ice. "My name is Nina Damfino. In this building, you will address me as Ms. Damfino. My partner here is Diedre Vance. You will address her as Ms. Vance. During your performances, you will refer to me as Echo and she Query. Do I make myself clear?"

Todd nodded, too intimidated to say no. "Clear, Ms. Uh-Damfino. So ummm, my character is supposed to be an arrogant know-it-all genius named Edward Nigma, great name by-the-way, who leaves clues behind to baffle the police. What will be your and, uh Ms. Vance's roles?"

Both women gave ironic smiles as 'Query' leaned in to answer. "We're your bubble-headed hench-wenches who drape themselves over you shamelessly. I ask shameless innuendo-laced questions while 'Echo' repeats the end parts of your riddles. No one will suspect that we are the real power behind your charismatic criminal mastermind while we're aiming firearms at them and robbing them blind."

"Wait, you're going to rob people? For real? With real guns? I don't want to hurt people! I don't want to hurt anyone! I don't want to be a part of this!" Todd backed up and turned around for a mad sprint out of there.

The athletic Echo vaulted in the air, spinning in a graceful fluid motion and planting her heels into his back, knocking him to the floor. She twisted one arm painfully behind his back and pulled his head backwards to the brink of his neck's breaking point. The pain was so great he couldn't even scream.

Echo whispered into his air, vicious hate attached to every word. "Listen here, Todd. We are in no mood for defiance. You will do everything we say and serve as the face for our crime wave. We will bring the corporate world to its knees as we take what is theirs. We will kill anyone to have our revenge."

"Revenge?" Todd hissed, pain everywhere. "What… happened… to… you…?"

The strawberry-blond Query walked over to a large freezer with nary a care. "Nina and I are what a small-minded boy like you would call polymath wunderkinds. With each of our 220 IQ, we were raised in an academy for genius children and when we stepped out into the real world out of college, we both were highly qualified in numerous fields: Business, physics, psychology, economics-"

"Engineering." Echo added, not lighting up on the actor's pain.

"Yes, engineering." Query took the hint and picked up a metal collar on a nearby table. She walked over to Todd who was too busy hurting to notice the tall woman in purple heels. The collar was clasped around his neck. It beeped and locked into place. "If you defy us, we'll hit you with a thousand volts. Continue and we'll kill you."

Echo nodded approvingly and released the actor and continued where Query left off. "When we left the academy and entered the world of business, we had such hopes and dreams. We would have conquered the world and become rich and powerful just like we were meant to be. Our first, and last, interview was with Simon Stagg. We were confident that he would realize what an opportunity he had when he interviewed us as his personal assistants."

"He told us to sleep with him." Query stressed, her beautiful face a mar of hate. "Then we would become his sexpot secretaries, not his advisors. Whores, at his beck and call."

"We promptly beat the hell out of him and left." Echo had a sadistic smile, which promptly faded. "He ruined us in return. Every other company we applied for turned us down immediately. We couldn't get our foot in the door. Simon Stagg had us blackballed. No business would hire us. And that wasn't the worst Stagg had in store for us."

"Our savings was soon off limits." The strawberry-blond continued. "Stagg used his contacts within the IRS to have us audited and our accounts frozen. We were made poor and, not long after that, homeless. The only work we could get were waitresses in Pandora's Box, an underground dominatrix club. It was so demeaning… humiliating… two brilliants women with college degrees… reduced to wearing trampy leather outfits and serving beer to perverts… We let them grope us so we'd get tips to buy food." Query touched her partner gently on the shoulder in comradely which Echo returned.

It was the only act of kindness Todd had seen out of them. "I'm… sorry. I've known talented actresses that could only get roles if they slept with the director. They told me how horrible it was. What Stagg did was unacceptable. You two are so special and have so much more to offer than your bodies. And because he refused to see that, he made your lives miserable. That was wrong. He was wrong." Todd touched the collar they put on him. "But what you're doing is also wrong. I know it sounds cliché but crime doesn't pay, not even here in Gotham City."

Todd got to his feet, fighting the pain and continued. "If you become robbers and killers then you'll stop being special. You become just another leech trying to bring the rest of us down into the gutter. You're better than that. You're better than this." He tugged at his metal collar. "Now how about you take off his shock collar? I know there are honest executives in this city like Bruce Wayne and Michael Holt who will see you objectively and I can help you meet them."

He saw their eyes light up and knew he could bring them around. "True story. I met him four years ago when I enrolled in a reputable acting school in Calfornia. He was a student there too. He was using a fake name but growing up in Gotham I recognized him on the spot. After the first day of class I told him I'd respect his secrecy and we became friends. He'd still remember me. The man has an eidetic memory after all. I can set up an appointment with him. And when he hears you two punched out that weasel Simon Stagg he'll want to hire you both on the spot."

Todd held out his hand for them to take. "So what do you say? Do you want to stop this craziness and aim for a better life?"

Diedre and Nina were quiet. Todd could see his words running through their minds. After a long pause they turned and looked the other in her eyes. Together they nodded, conveying a silent message to each other. Both touched the remote and together shocked him.

Todd threw his head back and cried, the worst pain he ever felt setting his body on fire. He fell to the ground thrashing wildly as his body failed him, unable to beg them to stop.

Query and Echo stood over him and looked down on the quivering mess of a man on the floor. "No one hurts us and gets away with it." They spoke in creepy unison. "We will never stop making them pay."

Echo took the remote and turned off the volts. Query grabbed a green suit laced with purple question marks and threw it on their weak mewling prisoner. "Get dress and rehears your lines. The Riddler's grand debut will be in three days. If you perform poorly, this will continue again and again until you get act together."

Echo stepped on his head, her heel poised over his left eye. The threat was clear. "Understand, Eddie?"

Todd Faber's eyes stung with tears as he tried to get his mind to work again. He nodded obediently. All he could do was act good enough and pray they wouldn't kill anyone. But deep down, he knew the last part wasn't going to happen.

Gotham City had two new queens of crime. May the people pray for their safety.

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End Part Nine…
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Todd Faber is from Neil Gaiman's Sandman. He's an actor Dream helped get over his lack of confidence. He also looks like the Riddler, small but fit with dark black hair so I figured he could play the part.

I was really struggling to figure out a new take on the Riddler and Cluemaster. The Batman did a great job reinventing them and I couldn't think of anything new and original. I was actually reading my old Batman comics where he fought the Riddler when I came to the Detective Comics annual where Query and Echo made their first appearance. It occurred to me that I have never seen them in a cartoon or game so I would do a story with them as the central villains.

The Riddler being a character they created to fool the hero is an idea taken straight from Iron Man 3. I actually liked that twist and thought it would be a very cool spin on the Riddler for BtB. Plus, with Sapphire Stagg being revealed as evil in Monsters I could see Query and Echo joining her to conquer the business world.

My first draft of this story made Query and Echo way too sympathetic. Originally Todd was going to join them as he saw the Riddler as the role of a lifetime. So with their tragic back stories and justified vengeance, the two came out as anti-heroes that I rooted for. But since this fanfic isn't called Bring on the Anti-Heroes I had to make them into straight-up villains with poor Todd as their prisoner. And you must admit, in this story Query and Echo are most definitely villains.

Read and review, my loyal readers!