The Knight is the darkest just before the dawn

Part Five: Batman and Tetsuwan Robin

A man in a dark wool suit met Blackjack in the hotel lobby. He had a thin stubble of beard and small close set eyes. He glanced down at a small card and back up at the doctor.

"You Dr. Blackjack?" he asked.

"Yes that's me, although you have me at a disadvantage."

"I've been sent by Da Wayne Foundation to come get'cha" he replied. "They didn't tell me nothing about some kid though" he added looking down at Pinoko.

The man's appearance was more like an underworld thug than that of an employee of the Wayne Foundation. Blackjack had worked for members of the underworld before, so he decided to proceed with the meeting, but be on his guard for a double cross. He would however, not put Pinoko at risk. "Why don't you stay here and hang around the convention?" Blackjack said, pushing Pinoko aside. "I think Zoran is in the room next door to ours."

"Humph!" Pinoko replied, and she shuffled off to the elevator.

"This way, a car is waiting." the man said. Blackjack left the hotel and followed the man. Blackjack kept alert and was glad that he was well armed with a pocket full of razor sharp scalpels.

It was a late model black German luxury car, and it had livery plates. They drove across the city and stopped at what appeared to be a shopping mall that had gone out of business. The car entered a two story garage and came to a stop deep inside the lower level.

"This way" was all the man said. Blackjack followed him into an elevator which descended several levels before coming to a stop. The door opened to reveal a well lit hallway with recently painted walls that still smelled faintly of paint. A familiar looking man in a white lab coat greeted Blackjack and offered him his hand.

"I'm glad you accepted my offer, Kūro." he said. "We need to talk in private" he added, waving the driver away. They entered a well lit laboratory room and shut the door.

"I'm not sure if the room is bugged, but I need your help" the man in the white coat whispered.

"Dr. Tenamann?" Blackjack asked.

"Yes, I see you do remember me." Tenamann said. "I'm being kept here as a prisoner by a criminal known as the Joker. He is giving me an opportunity to finish the research that we started years ago. If it works, the benefits to neural medicine would be enormous, so I agreed to help him. But, I need your surgical skills to implant the electrodes in the brain."

"What does the Joker get out of this?" Blackjack asked.

"The Joker is the patient." Tenamann replied. I'm going to download his brain program into an A.I. enabled processor in a robotic body that the Joker claims he already has. He's supposed to bring a robotic engineer to bring this robot body on line for me to perform the transference. The Joker is dying and he thinks this is his only chance to survive."

"I should examine him." Blackjack said. "I might be able to cure him."

"I thought of that." Tenamann said. "I even mentioned it to the Joker. His response was "I've been told that by a few other doctors. Their rotting corpses are now in the Gotham land fill." You still want to try that?"


Pinoko knocked on the door to suite 1008. She didn't recognize the person that opened the door, but a familiar voice from the back of the room asked "Who's at the door, Zoran?"

"It's Pinoko!" she yelled back.

"Zoran?" Pinoko replied.

"Sorry! I'm wearing my Bat-Girl costume for the Cosplay party." Zoran said.

"Gee, I don't have a costume. I wanted to go to the convention with you." Pinoko sniffled. "Sensei left me here alone cause the guy from the Foundation didn't want me to come."

Astro had his Robin costume on, except for the mask. "We'll stop at the costume shop and see if there is something left for you." He promised.

"OK, gee, thanks!" Pinoko replied.

The three of them took the elevator down to the convention main level. They returned to the costume shop to look for something for Pinoko. There was already a line, but when the store operator saw Zoran and Atom he waved them to the front.
"Something wrong?" he asked.

"No, we just need another costume for a friend." Zoran replied.

The shop owner applied the tape measure to Pinoko and entered her measurements into the computer.
"Let me see if I get a match on anything that won't require adjustments." he suggested.
"Ah ha! You're in luck." He swung the screen around and let Pinoko take a look. It was a Princess Knight outfit.
"This one was returned early this morning. Someone changed their mind. What do you think?"

"I'll take it!" Pinoko smiled. "I love Sapphire!"

"How much for the rental?" Zoran asked.

"Forget it!" the shop owner replied. "It has a small stain on it, and I couldn't rent it out. It looks good on your friend, and you paid enough for yours so let's call it a bonus."

"Thanks!" Pinoko said.

The party was just starting, and the three friends walked quickly to the convention center.


Dr. O'Shay and Reno took the elevator up to the penthouse level. The room was vacant, except for a few tables with some wine and cheese, cake, and sandwiches. An easel was propped up with a note attached:

Dr. O'Shay:

Please excuse my tardiness. I do intend to meet with you personally, however my schedule is not my own. Please enjoy some refreshments, I will be with you shortly.

Bruce Wayne.


The secure line from the Wayne foundation computer center rang and Bruce picked it up.

"We found it Mister Wayne" Robert Levinson replied. "It appears someone piggy backed their own communications on top of ours. Correspondence was directed to a Dr. O'Shay and he was led to believe that it was from you and the foundation. In addition, someone seems to have rented out the penthouse in the Hotel United States in the foundation's name. We may have even paid for it without knowing since it was tacked onto the existing hotel bill for the seminar."

"Dr. O'Shay?" Bruce wondered. "The Joker must be trying to kidnap him as well. He's the missing piece to the puzzle, and I don't like how the pieces are fitting together!"

"So now what?" Alfred asked.

"I think it's time for Batman to make an appearance at the hotel and stop this plot!" Bruce called out as he ran to the secret entrance to the Batcave.


The penthouse suite at the hotel occupied the entire top floor. Attached to one side was a small heliport for the private use of well heeled guests with their own aircraft. A small rotary wing aircraft landed just outside the room, in earshot of O'Shay and Reno.

"I guess Mr. Wayne likes to make a big entrance" Reno said.

Suddenly, two thug like men entered the room, accompanied by another man wearing a green and pink suit. This individual had a pure white face with a his mouth was outlined with vivid red lipstick.

"I'm sorry that Mr. Wayne couldn't make it. I'm here in his place." The Joker said. "My flying carpet awaits us" he added, pointing to the helicopter.

"I don't know who you are, but we are not going with you!" O'Shay said. "Reno, make a run for it!"

The boy started for the door, but the Joker pulled a blowgun from his vest pocket, brought it to his lips and blew. A small dart hit Reno in the neck, and he staggered for a moment and fell. Reno's cell phone fell from his pocket and skidded across the floor.

While the Joker was busy with Reno, O'Shay reached into his pocket and activated a transmitter that operated on a frequency that only Astro could hear.

"Now you'll have to carry him!" The Joker told O'Shay. "Or I could throw him off the roof!"

The joker motioned to one of his men, who attached a small device to the door of the penthouse.

"A little booby trap for anyone that tries to enter" the Joker explained.

O'Shay carried Reno at gunpoint into the back seat of the waiting Helicopter. One of the armed men sat between Reno and O'Shay, the Joker took the pilot's seat, with the other henchman beside him.


The Batmobile roared though downtown Gotham and screeched to a stop in front of the Hotel United States. Batman ran into the building and took to the central staircase in the building's core. It was a spiral type staircase with a clear view from the ground up to the roof. Batman fired a Bat-grapple upwards and the hook impaled itself on the top level of the building. He then activated the rewind motor and flew upward to the top of the stair case. Once on the Penthouse level he quickly found the door to the room where he believed O'Shay was being held captive.

Astro, Zoran, and Pinoke were in the convention center in costume when Astro suddenly felt a ringing in his head. He quickly realized that it was Dr. O'Shay's emergency pager, and he saw the doctor's location on the penthouse level on his heads up display.

"Excuse me." Astro replied. "The doctor is calling me!"

Astro ran outside and jumped skyward. To the crowd on the street, it looked like the boy wonder was flying outside of the building. Astro smashed his way into the side of the building and entered the hallway leading to the penthouse door. He arrived there at the same instant that the caped crusader did.

Batman froze for an instant at the sight of what appeared to be a younger version of his dead companion. "Who the hell are you!" he asked. "and what are you doing here?"

"Dr. O'Shay is in trouble!" Astro replied. He yanked his mask off so Batman might recognize him. "I'm Astro Boy the robot! I was in the Cosplay party downstairs with friends, that's why I'm dressed like this!"

"Oh!" Batman said as he tried the door to the penthouse.

Astro had already examined the door, looking through it with his heat sensitive vision.
"NO!" he pushed Batman away. "It's booby trapped with a bomb!"

Astro fell on top of Batman just as the device detonated, his body protected the caped crusader from the flying shrapnel. The blast blew out the side of the building and the wind sucked them both outside. Batman was falling to the ground, he fired his bat grapple, but the hook missed the building. He quickly tried to reload but the ground was coming up fast. Astro was faster. He caught the caped crusader in mid air, and carried him back to the roof.

Once back on top of the building they entered the remains of the penthouse. O'Shay's emergency transmitter was still lying on the floor along with Reno's phone. The skid marks of the Helicopter were still fresh on the helipad outside.

"It looks like we are a few moments too late." Batman said.

Astro scanned the skies with his telescopic vision. He saw a small helicopter flying away, and he could make out Dr. O'Shay's face though one of the windows.

"Maybe not!" he yelled, and blasted off to follow the aircraft. The helicopter was a few miles away by then, traveling at maybe 120 mph. Astro quickly attained Mach 1. He had thoughts of yanking Reno and O'Shay out of the aircraft and then letting the 'coper crash, but he pushed them out of his mind. Besides being against his programming, it was too risky, his friends might get shot. Astro slowed down and stayed behind the helicopter, just keeping it in sight.

The 'copter dove down and flew between the skyscrapers. Astro sighed, he'd been spotted. A flock of pigeons got between him and the helicopter and Astro had to take evasive action to avoid hitting them. He scanned the sky looking for the aircraft but couldn't find it. It had already landed somewhere.

The Joker saw the flying boy wonder out of the corner of his eye. He didn't know what it was, but he knew it was after him. Joker was a good pilot and he decided that a little game of chicken with the skyscrapers was in order. It was his good luck to spot the pigeon coop hanging off of the roof on one of the shorter buildings, he buzzed it and scared the birds away, into Astro's path. While the boy robot was avoiding the feathered flock, Joker flew downwards and into the lower level of the mall parking lot. He quickly shut down the engine and let the machine drop onto its skids.

"OK, we're home!" He told O'Shay. "Get going!"

The Joker motioned to his two henchmen to take O'Shay and the now groggy, but awake Reno into the abandoned mall building. He leaned into the cockpit of the helicopter, and activated the autopilot. The Joker closed the door on the aircraft and ran quickly into the building. The helicopter started up on its own and flew out of the parking lot. It followed a locked in course, crash landing in the Gotham river.


Astro flew back to the hotel and landed on the helipad where Batman was waiting.
"I lost, them" Astro sighed his head hanging low.

"Don't blame yourself kid, the Joker is very crafty." Batman said. "Do you know exactly whereabouts you lost him?"

"Yes, I do." Astro said.

"Good, I've got some resources of my own. Come with me, my car is parked in the street below us."

"OK, hang on to me, and we'll take the express elevator downstairs!" Astro said. Batman put his right arm over Astro's right shoulder, and Astro grabbed the caped crusader around his waist and the two of them leap off the roof. Astro made a vertical descent, and landed them inside the Batmobile. While Batman drove though the crowded streets of downtown Gotham, heading for the outskirts of the Wayne Estate, and the Batcave, Astro made a mental connection with his sister. Zoran and Astro were linked via their A.I.'s and could share each other's thoughts from a distance. Astro let Zoran know what had happened and where he was going. He also told her to sit tight and stay with Pinoko.

They entered the Batcave and Batman parked the Batmobile and shut down the vehicle's jet engine. Astro looked at the caped crusader. '"I know who you are, Batman, and your secret is safe with me."

"How?" Batman asked.

"I can see the heat signature of your face through your mask, Mr. Wayne" Astro said.

Bruce Wayne removed his cowl and stared at Astro, who removed his Robin mask as well.
"OK, we'll work together on this. Where were you flying when you lost the 'copter.?" He asked.

Astro opened his chest panel and pointed to a LAN jack. "Plug me into the Bat-computer and I'll upload the video of my flight." He said.

Batman watched the high speed chase after the helicopter though Astro's eyes. He almost flinched when the flock of pigeons appeared, but had the bat-computer lock in on the image of the escaping aircraft. The computer pulled back and enlarged an image of a satellite map view, and superimposed Astro's flight video on top of it. There was only a 10 square block area where the aircraft could have got to in the available time frame, given its top speed. Bruce programmed the computer to search for all likely hiding places from the city database.

"Good work, Astro." Batman said. "The Bat-computer should be able to come up with the answer within the hour."

Astro removed the cable from his internal LAN and closed his chest panel. He looked up at Mr. Wayne and saw tears flowing from his eyes.

"What's the matter Mr. Wayne? Is it something I did?" Astro asked.

"No." Bruce sighed. "It's just that seeing you in that costume reminds me of Jason. It's been just over a week since the Joker brutally murdered him. I guess, I haven't gotten over that yet."