Chapter 4 - Do You Believe in the Boogeyman?
The next day, the sighting had been all over the news along with the report of the zombie man's head splashing to the ground. The Gotham News Network with anchor Summer Gleason covered the story.
"More and more bizarre material is popping up all over the city. Last night, police were buzzing around the West End of Gotham as 911 calls came in claiming yet more sightings of the Batman and the Catwoman. To add more confusion, another mysterious humanoid shadow was seen and based on initial reports, was claimed to be fighting the Batman. Police then later made a horrifying discovery when DNA from the shadow's decapitated head matched that of Glenn Wood, a policeman who'd been missing for two months after first claiming evidence against Commissioner Peter Grogan in an alleged series of mob-related conspiracies. We now take you live to GCPD headquarters where consultant, Hugo Strange will address the press…"
Selina was walking to the Gotham Zoo for her second date with Bruce. Upon pasting an electronics store, she stopped and watched the TV in the window when Hugo Strange appeared on screen.
"What we have seen so far is further reason to bring a harsh slam on the activities of this Batman and Catwoman! Illegal usage of the law in their own hands will not go unpunished! This perverted anarchy violates all sorts of civil laws and corrupts the young as evidenced by children on playgrounds singing twisted nursery rhymes about them!"
As Selina turned away in disgust, a young little girl looked up to her and asked, "Do you believe in the Boogeyman?"
Ms. Kyle tried her best to tune out Dr. Strange as to her it was mute with his demented eyes staring straight at her.
"Sometimes" she replied.
At the zoo, the newspapers were all proclaiming the headline: "STRANGE LASHES OUT BAT AND CAT MENACE!"
Bruce meanwhile was looking at a bat exhibit while many onlookers were checking out the other animals. A flying fox bat was staring at him down to the bone. Suddenly he began having a flashback to when he fell the down the well when he was eight. In that vision, a giant bat came to him and spoke in a demonic voice, "A crusading horror is what you'll be. Heat this warning as venture onto this Dead Sea. Do not give these low lives your trust. It is justice you seek, not a fall in lust."
The last sentence kept echoing in his brain and his hands tightly gripped the metal bar of the exhibit. When the bat flew away, the voice suddenly stopped. Selina walked up to him as she was dressed in purple with a scarf covering her face to warm her up during the October coldness. Bruce was dressed in black with a wide-brim hat to keep anyone from noticing him.
"Bruce?"
He soon snapped out of his trance and remembered to pull rose from out of his pocket. He gave it to Selina.
"I hope you like roses," he said.
"It's beautiful. Really you shouldn't have," she said.
"No. I wanted to show my appreciation towards you."
Soon they started to walk and converse as the two began seeing the sights of the feline section. Selina began to feel right at home in this part of the Zoo.
"Can I ask you something?" she broke the silence as Bruce turned towards her. "Why do you stay here in Gotham?"
"After my parent's death at the hands of a gunman, I thought I wanted to run away from it all and start something new," he soon began having flashbacks to when his parents died by a maniac named Joe Chill.
"Seems as though something is calling you back. But can the pain be cured?" She asked.
Just as Bruce mustered up something to say the shadow of Batman soon appeared to him in a hallucination. Then it exaggerated into little criminals being beaten up against him and in return scaring them like children.
"Have you felt the feeling of transforming yourself into another being? Just to know what it feels like?" He asked.
Selina looked at the ground and saw the Catwoman shadow and saving some children from a tyrant with a belt whip. The shadow scratched its face before coming into contact with the Bat Shadow.
"You could say that," she replied.
The shadows soon began fighting each other. But Bruce and Selina soon began to get close.
"It's one thing to find adrenaline for the veins. But it's a miracle to find a place for the soul," he poured his soul.
Selina began to hold his hand and the shadows too began to embrace each other, "I know places, Bruce. Things we can do… together."
Bruce backed her into a private space where they could be invisible from everyone. He whispered in her ear, "I just hope these things don't take away your freedom."
"Don't worry. I know what I'm getting out of this and so far…" she paused, "… I like what I see."
Soon they kissed in a passionate makeup session. It was almost like time had stopped and the pains of their past were wiped away. It was so magical that the lions and the tigers went from an angry roar to a blissful sleep. Then the shadows turned back into the regular ones of the couple on cloud nine as the masks were soon to come off, showing the real faces of these two.
The scene down at the GCPD wasn't so pretty to see. A body bag was being rolled into Commissioner Grogan's office where he and Hugo Strange were meeting. The bag was being opened to reveal another anonymous cop that Grogan had killed on the side for trying to tell the truth about the police. The Commissioner looked at the body with a twisted grin.
"At least this little weasel is finally useful for once," he chuckled.
"Just a few more jabs and he'll serve out his purpose," Strange said.
"So you say that the Bat and the Cat were at it on the roof of your place?"
Strange showed him the smushed up head of one of the cop bodies that he used to create one of the Bat Monster Men. Grogan had been delighted to see such gruesome results as a part of his endeavors.
"I just need to perfect these specimens and soon we'll be able to wipe the city clean of the two freaks in Halloween costumes," Strange said.
"Promise me that these will get the squealers off my back and I'll do what you say," Grogan said.
"Rest assured, Commissioner, I'll only deliver you the results since you've been such a good boy," Strange smiled.
"Oh dear."
An uncomfortable feeling of anxiety was felt as Commissioner Grogan had just realized what he has become. A slave to the will of Professor Hugo Strange and this is the price he paid for his corruption. On the roof outside, Detective Gordon and Harvey Dent were standing by a spotlight.
"Harv, I think we're getting screwed royally here," Gordon said.
"You're telling me," Harvey said. "I mean first Hugo is giving this Bat guy a bloody god complex and now dead people in masks start popping out of the woodwork."
Gordon lit a cigarette, "Forgive me for being Captain Obvious but…"
Harvey stopped him, "It's alright. I'm aware that Strange was a bad idea from the start. However, Grogans got him wrapped around his finger."
"At the crime scene, didn't you take some evidence to prove against Peter?"
Dent got a little angry at the thought, but then calmed down. "I had some fingerprints and photos from his secret room. But somehow they got stolen! Damn it why do I allow myself to be so vulnerable!"
"Harv! Harv! It's ok. Don't blame yourself," Gordon tried to rationalize with him. "Look this is probably going to sound like a dumb idea, but it looks like we've got no other options left."
"Well then lay it on me."
"I suggest we… contact the Batman."
Harvey tried to process this idea, "So you're telling me that the best way to fight a lunatic is with another lunatic?"
Gordon nodded. Harvey meanwhile just threw his hands in the air and back down to his waists, saying, "Fine. I gave up trying to bring logic to this case a long time ago. But how exactly are we going to call him per say?"
The detective unveiled a bat-shaped piece of cloth that he and Harvey soon stuck to the spotlight.
As the sunset upon the city, the denizens were hiding inside their little homes to run from this myth that Professor Strange had concurred up. Inside her penthouse apartment, Selina had been staring at her mask. She'd been thinking to herself as the echoes of her past came back to haunt her.
"Daddy why doesn't Kitty like me?" her younger self said.
"They're aloof, Selina. They'd let you come to them, but don't corner them or they'll scratch you… just like Mom," her father echoed.
She hid her face behind her hands to fight back the tears. Then she got her grip together and began looking at her black cat, Isis.
"Isis? Am I stupid for doing this?"
Selina got up from her chair and started walking back and forth around her room.
"I spent my last five years taking anything I want like the kitten on the prowl that I am. Yet the loneliness is so painful that I actually would've preferred being taken in. At least I'd have someone to play with."
She stopped to look down on the balcony, "That's probably why I'd go as far as to mess with a real life Dracula to get my rocks off. Of course I can accept him as he's handsome and gets into all sorts of adventures."
Then a Bat-Signal shined in the sky has it reached the night time. Selina looked up, "But can he accept me."
Her curiosity was active for she got out her binoculars and hearing machine to trace the origins of the light. She observed Harvey and Gordon standing beside it as he turned it off.
"You sure that he'll arrive?" Harvey asked.
"The thing is as far it can go given how long it was on. Hopefully he saw it," Gordon replied.
A faint swoosh was heard as Batman walked out of the darkness. He tilted his head when Harvey stared daggers into his eyes.
"So? Batman? I have to admit you're not as cold as they make you out to be," Harvey remarked.
Batman turned his head over to Gordon who proceeded to hand him over a folder containing files on the cops who had fallen victim to Hugo's experiments.
"It seems as though Commissioner Grogan and Hugo Strange are bringing out the dead via the cops that tried to expose their corruption," Gordon said.
"I knew Grogan was shady. What I didn't count on was him actually turning the officers into zombies," Batman said. "How come you guys aren't reporting this to the press?"
"You think we haven't tried? Those guys having been secretly stealing all the evidence and using phony tactics to cover up the truth," Harvey said.
Gordon intervened, "For a couple of off-the-edge riff-raff, they're surprisingly one step beyond."
"For all we know, we could be watched right now," Harvey said.
Indeed they were, but it was Selina watching them. She giggled a bit when Dent spoke that line, "Oh, Harv."
She went back to monitoring the audio conversations as the men went back to what they were talking about. Jim then pulled out his gun which made her widen her eyes.
"Either way, I'm prepared if one of Strange's monster men comes out to get me."
Harvey raised one eyebrow, "Shooting them in the head?"
"Just like Dawn of the Dead."
"Sounds to me like you guys need assistance," Batman said.
"Just as long as don't bring along that thief," Gordon said.
"Umm Gordon, I don't think Catwoman has anything to do with this," Harvey said.
Selina's curiosity was then growing as soon as her alter-ego name was dropped. She raised the volume up to the best point to get in on the good stuff. The first was Batman sighing which Gordon immediately could sense from his face what he was going to say.
"Oh you have to be kidding. You want me to condone you working with her?!"
"I admit it's a stretch, but she's proven herself by saving me from Strange's men," Batman said.
"I'm still somewhat adjusted to trusting you and now you're partners with a criminal!"
Harvey soon entered in being pissed at Gordon, "Jim, that's enough!"
"Don't tell me you're also in favor of this!" Jim was now pissed off at Harvey.
"You shouldn't patronize Batman here regarding morality when you yourself are walking the line of the law by putting your faith in his hands. Oh and with the freakin bat-signal nonetheless!"
"Once a thief, always a..."
"You know that's not true, Jim!" Harvey yelled.
Gordon angrily sighed before finally getting a grip, "It's your funeral, Batman. But I'm telling you that she's a criminal and nothing more."
Soon he stormed off the roof by heading down into his office. Harvey followed suit. "Jim! Jim!"
Batman hanged his head in sorrow as he whispered to himself, "No she's not."
Selina was the only one that picked up what he said. That line practically made her night as even though Jim was against her, Batman and to a degree Harvey were on her side.
"Looks like Kitty may get her way after all," she purred.
TO BE CONTINUED