3

SOLO

BURBANK, CALIFORNIA

"Ew Yeller, what did you eat?" Julie asked her dog as she used a plastic baggie to pick up her dog's feces. She threw the plastic bag into a trash can and continued her evening stroll down the Chandler Boulevard bike/walk path. She smiled at passers by, stopping to let other dogs on leashes greet her golden retriever.

She walked a half mile more down the path and right onto a wide residential street lined with houses. Julie and her husband loved Burbank. It was close to the city but with a distinct suburban feel, unlike many Los Angeles neighborhoods. She walked halfway down the block and walked up to the front door of her house. Julie walked in, took the leash off of Yeller and set it along with her keys on the entryway table.

"Honey," she called as she took off her jacket and hung it up. "Can we just order a pizza from Dino's tonight? I don't feel like making anything." She walked through the hallway towards the living room. "And I want one of those salads with the avocado on it and the green dressing." Silence. "Bob, you here?" She opened the back door and let Yeller into the back yard. After closing the door Julie walked into the office that both she and her husband shared and froze.

Her husband was sitting in a chair in the middle of the room, facing her. Behind him a large man stood holding a gun to Bob's temple. Julie immediately recognized the man.

"Anatoli..." Julie said.

"Doctor Dobryin," Anantoli replied in Russian.

"Are you here to kill us?" she asked, already knowing the answer.

"Of course. Bob and Julie Smith. Both geneticists at S.T.A.R. Labs. Two children. Two grandchildren. A house, two cars, and a dog. The all American family. Not even a hint of an accent."

"Please..." Julie pleaded. Her husband remained silent.

"You betrayed your country. Deserted her. Aided her enemy."

"I..."

"Did you know your husband is having an affair?" Anatoli asked. The statement shocked Julie. "With one of your lab assistants. Eight months now."

"No..."

"Yes," Anatoli stated coldly. "I can show you the emails if you like."

"Honey, I'm sorry," Bob said, breaking his silence. Husband and wife began to cry together.

"Give me the next name on the list," the Soviet assassin ordered.

"Why should I?" Julie asked as she began to sob. "Y-You're going to kill us anyway!"

"Yes, I will. However, if you do not cooperate with me I shall also kill your children and grandchildren. I will even kill the dog. And I will kill your cheating husband in front of you. Slowly. Painfully."

"It's three names," Doctor Smith told him. She gave him the names and American aliases of the other specialists from Project BEAST she had defected with from the Soviet Union so long ago.

"Very good. Thank you," Anatoli said. He spun her husband around in his chair and pushed him up to the computer desk with his laptop sitting on top. "Georgy, please compose an email to your mistress."

"Pardon me?" Greorgy/Bob asked, confused.

"Write an email to your mistress. Make it dirty, like the other ones."

Confused but thinking of his family the doctor began a graphic email to his lab assistant.

"Stop," Anatoli commanded after a few sentences. "Come here," he commanded Julie. Anatoli produced a large kitchen knife and held it in front of her. She recognized it as coming from her own kitchen. "Stand here," Anatoli said and placed her behind her husband while he still faced the computer. "Are you left or right handed?"

"R-r-right," Julie said as she began to sob harder. Her husband began to sob harder as well.

He placed the knife in her right hand and raised her arm over her head.

"Swing down as hard as you can and stab here," Anatoli instructed, indicating the solar plexus of her husband.

"I... I can't..." Julie said as she began crying even more.

"Then your family will die very painful deaths."

"It's okay, babe," her husband cried. "I'm so sorry. I love you so much."

"I'm s-s-s-sorry! I love you too..."

It was an open and shut case for the Burbank police. Julie Smith found out her husband was having an affair and stabbed him as he was emailing his lover. She then took an entire bottle of sleeping pills and ended her own life. The community was shocked and saddened.

EAST END, GOTHAM CITY

Batman was standing in the basement of an abandoned warehouse that had made knockoff brand name t-shirts. Wrappers and empty to-go cups from various fast food restaurants littered the dusty floor. There were four spots where sleeping bags had obviously been used. The dust was lighter in the four spots. There were multiple shoe prints around, some barely visible under a newer layer of dust. All except one set of fresh boot prints. Someone had been here just before he was. Batman collected the wrappers, crushed the cups, and placed them all into a protective pouch on his utility belt. He took out a specialized camera, activated the infrared scanner, and scanned all the prints.

The Batman was hunting Harvey Dent. Assistant District Attorney Dent had been Batman's first ally in the Gotham War on Crime. ADA Dent had fed the Batman classified and confidential information from the police and district attorney's office to help take down criminals, especially the Gotham mobster Salvatore Maroni.

After Moroni's arrest, Dent had been pressured by the mayor's office to give full immunity to the mobster in exchange for all his knowledge of the Gotham mafia. Harvey did so and the mobster spilled his guts. Nobody told Dent that the Assistant U.S. Attorney was still going after Moroni. The immunity didn't cover federal charges.

Out on bail after his federal indictment, an enraged Sal Moroni had Dent kidnapped and brought before him. Harvey Dent was chained down while Moroni personally sprayed half of his face with acid, permanently disfiguring him. When asked at his trial why he only disfigured half of Dent's face Moroni explained that Dent was a "two-faced bastard and the world should see him that way". The media locked onto the description and began simply calling Dent "Two Face". When asked why he didn't kill Dent, Moroni said it had been dumb luck that the Batman had shown up in time to save him.

One day Harvey simply disappeared. Two years later to the day of his attack, the mayor and AUSA disappeared. Harvey Dent had descended into madness and had kidnapped the men and put them on mock trial. They both faced charges of betraying Dent- of being two-faced. Both men were convicted of course. And Harvey decided their fate with the coin he had taken from Maroni and scarred. Good side and they were freed. Scarred side and they were executed. Dumb luck.

The Team arrived in time to save the mayor, but not the AUSA. In the ensuing fight with Dent and his men, Dent had nearly beaten Robin to death. It had been his first case in uniform. Dent had escaped because Batman chose to get Robin medical help instead of pursuing the madman. It had been four years and no trace of Dent had ever been found. Until now.

A patron at one of Gotham's seedier bars had drunkenly bragged that he had seen Two Face and three men coming out of an abandoned warehouse in the East End. Two weeks later the man was found with two bullet holes in the back of his head, execution style. The gun used was a .22. His wallet, cell phone, and watch were taken and so the police had initially just written it off as another robbery/homicide in Gotham.

The man had never specified which warehouse it was. So Batman had systematically been searching warehouses in the East End for nearly a month. He believed his meticulous searching might have just paid off. Obviously the men had been gone for a while, but it was the start of a trail.

Satisfied he had collected what evidence he could, Batman made his way to the alley behind the warehouse. He had parked the Batmobile on the very site his parents had been killed a few blocks away, the area known as Crime Alley. Batman walked to his car, scanning the back alleys for any clues as to where the man in the boots had gone. He came to within a block of the Batmobile and stopped short.

The front of the Batmobile's cockpit was forward and a man was leaning into the car. How did he get past the security systems? Batman thought as he cautiously approached. The man was wearing a black motorcycle helmet, black t-shirt, leather jacket, and dark jeans with combat boots.

When he got to the mouth of the alley a bright white flash and loud boom went off next to the Batman. He raised his hands to shield his eyes but it was too late. Batman's night vision lenses had been down and he was now blinded from the bright light and his ears were ringing from the noise.

The man with the helmet turned and immediately charged at Batman. He delivered a vicious roundhouse to Batman's side, doubling him over. The man grabbed the ears of Batman's cowl and held them as he delivered a powerful knee to his nose. Batman collapsed to the ground, stunned and bleeding. He tried to stand but fell down again. The ringing in his ears was subsiding and he heard the sound of a powerful engine roar to life and tires squealing. The sound of the engine faded quickly.

"Batman to Eagle."

"Go for Eagle."

"Taurus Absent. Repeat, Taurus Absent."

"Copy Taurus Absent. Initiating protocol," Alfred replied from the cave. Batman had designed protocols for numerous situations. The words simply had to be entered into the computer system the Team used and the protocol response was activated. The designation for the Batmobile being lost or stolen was "Taurus Absent." The Batmobile would be remotely locked down and a drone would be fueled and launched and maintain a holding pattern over the GPS signal of the car.

"SITREP?"

"Someone just stole the Batmobile and I'm literally blind. Should be temporary. Flashbang went off with my night lenses down. Contact Panacea and give her my twenty. Tell her to bring a change."

"Contacting her now," Alfred said as he sent a text message to Dr. Leslie Thompkins.

Batman was literally around the corner from the Thomas and Martha Wayne Memorial Clinic. Leslie ran the clinic but didn't live in the East End. The Team had a satellite cave several blocks away, but the East End was dangerous and Batman couldn't risk engagement while his vision was impaired.

"Batman, be aware, no response on protocol," Eagle said.

"Malfunction?"

"Negative. It appears the entire system on the car was shut down and restarted."

"Task a sat on the area if you can. Keep me updated. Batman out." He's good, Batman thought. He felt his way along the alley wall and made his way to a dumpster. Batman crawled in and waited for Leslie to pick him up.