A 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. No money is being made with this story. No profit is being made from this fanfic.
The episode Secrets where Magpie made her debut has been nominated for an Emmy! Let me make something clear here: Cartoon Network decided to cancel a show that was so good that it was worthy of an Emmy nomination. Secrets is my favorite episode of BTB and I really hope that when Magpie is reintroduced in the new52 DC will use that version as her design for the comic.
It saddens me that CN is canceling DC Nation and moving away from action cartoons for a younger demographic. I really think that if the network gave BtB a better time slot instead of Saturday morning (OR 3 IN THE FREAKING MORNING!) and as much advertisement as Teen Titans Go!, the show would have attracted a lot of viewers. It still did respectable considering its poor time slot.
I am convinced the Cartoon Network wanted this show to fail and did everything they could to make it so. Heck, the show pulled over 700,000 views last weekend despite its 3 AM timeslot. BTB would have easily been a smash hit but CN didn't want it to. They even ended the comic despite very strong sales. Cartoon Network just wants to get rid of its big boy action cartoons.
But enough sadness, here is a new story to cheer up me and all of the readers. Enjoy.
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Bring on the Badguys!
Part Eleven:
Lady Spellbinder
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Stanley Kiss was working late at the First National Bank of Gotham City. He made it a point never to take his work home with him so this wasn't unusual. The management didn't mind as he was a trusted employee. While he was filling out paperwork, he had his computer live-streaming a magic show that he was listening to off and on.
"Live from the Monarch Theatre in downtown Gotham City! Be prepared to be dazzled by the mystical mastery of the world's greatest magician, Fay Moffit! Let's hear it for Lady Spellbinder!"
Fay Moffit was a street magician who had made it big in the last year. She took the tired and old routine of stage magic and reinvented the whole thing with high energy excitement and gothic spectacle. Audiences and critics would rave how they would be mindfreaked by the off-the-walls magic acts Fay Moffit preformed under her stage name Lady Spellbinder. She had breathed new life into stage magic.
And what a body! Especially those legs! Stanley wasn't a chauvinist but she was so attractive. The bright orange fishnet pantyhose she wore over her curvy legs shined under the spotlights. She wore black high heels and matching wrist-length black leather gloves. Her body's figure was show nicely by a Victorian full-body corset and matching set of black panties that emphasized her curves.
The leather corset went all the way to her neck where she had a studded dog collar locked on, an orange jewel at the forefront. She wore a black leather biker jacket with a large orange eye logo stitched on the back. Only her traditional black wizard hat with an orange band complimented the goth-style leather outfit she wore. Fay Moffit was very beautiful and sexy with her curly red hair even though she was barely in her twenties.
Lady Spellbinder's magic act was amazing as always. One snap of her fingers and her stage burst into flames with her in the center. Most in the audience screamed and leapt out of their chairs but just as it appeared, the fire jumped off the stage and into her hands where the flames turned into doves that flew off majestically. The audience cheered and Stanley couldn't blame them. Her act was amazing.
He smiled to himself and reached for his cup of coffee when his ears perked. He was hearing a clack clack sound repeating. There was someone else in the building. In heels!
Stanley exited out of the web show and checked the bank's security cameras. They showed nothing out of the ordinary. But he could still hear the heels. He had to make sure what was making that noise before calling the police. He didn't want to call in a false alarm.
The banker headed towards the sound of the heels clacking. It could be a faulty air condition but that sound was too precise. Stanley turned a corner and found the source of the noise. The man stood there blinking, trying to wrap his head around the strangeness of what he was looking at.
It was Fay Moffit, Lady Spellbinder herself. He would recognize her even if she wasn't wearing her eye-catching stage outfit and trademark orange eye symbol on her biker jacket. Those heels that propped up those long legs of hers were what made that racket that drew him here.
A famous celebrity being in the bank pass closing time would give anyone pause but she was stealing. She was walking out of the bank vault with bags filled money, jewelry, and gold smiling like the cat that caught the canary.
"What do you think you're doing?" Stanley asked, causing the cat bugler to jump which was impressive in those heels. She dropped the money bags she was so stunned.
"Whoa! What are you doing here? This bank is supposed to be empty after it closes! It's security is automated!"
"I don't like taking my work home." Stanley cut her off. "Now tell me how you're robbing the bank! I was just watching your show on my laptop!"
"You're a fan! I love my fans!" Fay Moffit smiled, her eyes twinkling. "Since you're a fan, I'll explain everything. I do magic, real magic." She pirouetted in place, causing a beautiful rainbow to ring around her shapely hips. "But it's just illusions. I can't do any of the hard stuff. Simple illusions are the best my magic can do."
"But I was just watching your show online. So how is this happening?"
"I told you: Illusions. The 'me' performing onstage was an illusion spell I prepared before heading here to rob the bank. It's the perfect alibi. I got an entire audience and the web as my witness to throw off any suspension why cities I perform in keep having their banks getting robbed."
"So you can do real magic but just illusions? Then why aren't you showing up on the security system?" Stanley gestured to the surveillance cameras on the ceiling. "How were you even able to get the bank vault open without the bank manager's codes? You can't mess with electronics with illusions."
"Of course I can!" Fay flashed her stage smile, full of pride and confidence. "I fooled the security cameras by casting illusions of an empty room right in front of the lenses. It's the same trick I'm using for the webshow. The bank vault? I was here yesterday invisible and watched the bank manager enter his codes right behind him. I memorized them and that's how I opened the vault. It's simple as that."
Stanley shook his head in confusion. "This doesn't add up. You're rich and famous. You've preformed in the fanciest casinos and most exclusive clubs across the world. So why steal? You can't need the money."
"That's what you think." Lady Spellbinder huffed and rolled her eyes. "After taxes, 10% for my agent, paying my roadies their wages, the insurance fees, buying props, equipment and feed for the animals I use in my act, I'm not bringing home nearly what you think I would. Sure I can pay the utility bills but I don't get to buy the most expensive jewelry, the latest fashions, or the fastest cars. A young woman like me needs to have fun in her downtime so I rob banks so I can pay for my fun."
"Oh dear god…" Stanley absorbed everything the sexy magician said and shook his head in disappointment. "Fay, I can't let you take the money."
"Sure, you can. It's not your money, it's the bank's. Besides, it's insured so nobody loses."
"That's no excuse. You can't steal from the bank. I'm going to sound the alarm."
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." She waggled a finger in his face. "Now I like you since you're one of my fans but it would only take a little tweaking on my spell to make it look like you robbed the bank. I don't want to do that since you're a fan and pretty cute so let bygones be bygones and go our separate ways. No one will be the wiser."
Stanley looked at her adorable Cheshire cat grin and instantly knew what to do. He tackled her and pinned the cat-burglar to the floor.
"Hey! Letmego, you jerk!" Fay Moffit struggled but couldn't shake him off. She was slender and attractive, that is true; but a fighter she was not. "I'm serious!"
Stanley used leverage to hold her down while he reached for his cellphone. "I have responsibilities and I'm not failing them, Fay. You're going to jail!"
The redheaded magician frowned and steadied her breathing. Suddenly blood poured out of her nose and ears, pooling on the floor. "AH! STOP IT! YOU'RE HURTING ME! YOU'RE HURTING ME!"
Stanley let her go on reflex. The goth stage magician thrashed on the floor like she was in an epileptic seizer, blood dribbling from her mouth. The bank employee pulled out his cellphone. "HOLD ON! I'M CALLING AN AMBULENCE!"
She immediately vanished. The blood was gone, the money was gone, like a puff of smoke. All that was left was her voice. "Invisibility is an illusion, handsome. Sorry for giving you a fright but prison grey wouldn't look right on my hot bod."
Stanley gave himself a dope slap. "You told me you could turn invisible and I forgot it."
"Don't feel bad. Seeing me in my sexy little outfit has left a lot of men forgetting what I said." Her voice was reverting off the high walls of the bank. There was no way to pinpoint where she was at. "Now since you have to focus on my voice seeing as I'm shrouded, I hope you listen carefully. I am not going to jail and I don't want you to go there either but if you tell the police the truth then I really don't have a choice. Just a little wiggle of my nose and all the security cameras will show you robbing the place. So for your safety and mine, just forget you ever came down here. Bye, handsome."
Stanley felt a kiss on his cheek. He turned to grab her but it was like catching the wind. She was gone. Or she could still be here waiting to rob the vault again once he left. He did not know.
The lady had left him spellbound.
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End Part Eleven…
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Kudos to my pal J. Chapin for recommending Lady Spellbound. I almost settled on Zatanna being the badgirl but he talked me out of it. This chapter was heavily inspired by The Mask: The Animated Series villainess Davida Steelmine, who is basically a redheaded Zatanna. They have the same outfits but Davida doesn't need to speak her spells backwards. Stanley Kiss is directly inspired by Stanley Ipkiss from the cartoon.
I modeled Lady Spellbinder directly after Selena Kyle's Catwoman. She's a hopeless flirt and tease who just loves stealing nice and expensive things. It was actually kind of tough to write a devil-may-care thief and flirt, but I think I did well. Tougher still was her costume. I wanted to give her a goth-look like Chris Angel of Mind Freak but whenever I pictured that, she came out exactly like Magpie. So I just took Zatanna's classy outfit, made it all leather, and give her an orange motif taken from Spellbinder from the Batman Beyond cartoon.
Truthfully, magic is the one thing I really have trouble with in movies and books. Some people can't sit through a time travel movie without questioning everything but for me it's magic. I need to have the rules and limits of it set or else I won't stop nit-picking. Fortunately Lady Spellbinder's powers are well established in the comic (if not whether she's alive or dead). She can only cast illusions and she loses her powers if she's blindfolded.
Lady Spellbinder would work great in a CGI cartoon. Since her illusions are hallowed that would give the CG artists and easy time handling her without needing to correct details. Plus she could give the artists and writers a chance to do very trippy special effects. Not to mention her costume. To quote Deadman: "Pleasures of the flesh, how I miss thee." Heh heh.
Read and review, my loyal fans!