Author's Note: Happy New Year! I thought it was kind of cruel of that teaser chapter. Since I had his one done, I'd thought I'd post it. The best thanks you can give me is a review and a prayer to whatever deity you worship that I will continue to have free writing time to get my other stuff done for you, my loyal readers. This new job really cuts into my writing time.

Rating: T

Chapter 1

In one of the conference rooms of the many offices in the Ellsworth Building, Mason Thornesmith laced his fingers into joined fists and brought them to his mouth while resting back in his seat. His back was to a large window that allowed for the viewing of nearly the entire cityscape of Gotham City as he sat at the end of a long rectangular table with a dozen other gentlemen divided evenly on either side of the table.

Eli was the first to speak, though quite hesitantly, "My guys are getting skittish going out at night. They're…" He looked to Mason. "They're afraid of… of the 'Bat'."

Several of the attending gentlemen laughed out dismissively, but not all of them. Their laughter quickly ceased as they looked around the table and saw some of their colleagues were having the same concerns.

One of the ones that were laughing, Randy Bronson answered in a clearly trivializing tone, "They're just starting an urban legend. They have nothing better to do to entertain themselves."

Eli found his nerve after being mocked and shouted, "Entertain themselves? They're finding any excuse not to go out and make money! They're too afraid to go out and make money! I'm down nearly twenty percent over the last several months. Two of my guys are sitting in the slammer and babbling like mad over 'The Bat', 'The Bat' after last night. The cops found them hanging upside down swinging from a lamppost beaten nearly to a pulp."

Another caporegime spoke up with a laugh, "Big deal, a few of the hired help is off the streets. They can easily be replaced and if they're afraid of their own shadow then it's better they're gone. They can be replaced and besides, it could be worst. We could have that circus freak from Metropolis butting his nose into our business."

Mason suppressed his rage at one of his captains trivializing such an occurrence while at the same time suppressing a shiver at the possibility of having to deal with such a problem which one of the other gang bosses, Shawn Quincy, pointed out with a dark tone, "We should be keeping as much of a low profile as possible so we don't draw his attention and he decides to pay us a visit—even if it cuts into our potential profits. He's tearing the organization apart in Metropolis—literally."

Mrs. Lee spoke up with a high pitched and annoyed tone: "You worry too much about the 'circus freak'."

Quincy stood up from his seat and shouted in outrage, "That 'circus freak' can lift a car above his head like a toy and is bullet proof. I've heard they've hit him with everything short of an artillery shell and it's bounced off of him!"

Mason raised his hands and cut Mrs. Lee off before she could start a shouting match, "Enough about the 'Superman'. He's not our problem. This… this 'Bat' is our problem. Some of you may laugh, but half of you aren't—that's half of our potential profit in jeopardy over some clown in a costume."

Randy shouted, still unconvinced of such a creature even if his boss was acknowledging such a thing, "There is no 'Bat'!"

A dry, bored voice called out at the end of the table, "Urban legends don't leave Eli's associates dangling upside down with a sledgehammer and burglary tools around their necks with a bow on them for the police. Dickers can't cover that up and Robbie won't ignore it as D.A. We—I can't ask him to do such a thing. There's no point in debating it, just what we should do about it, but this 'Bat' isn't our only problem. You speak about a clown and that's who we should really focus on, that purple dressed goofball with green hair that started torching our joints after robbing us blind. He's our main problem. The 'Bat' won't let us run the streets, but this freak in a purple costume won't let us run our gambling halls… mine was burned to the ground last night he and his crew stole all the cash for this month, so don't expect this month's cut from me or Steven's or Ryder's. Weren't their places burnt to the ground too?"

The other members of the table looked back and forth between their boss and the outspoken caporegime, but none replied.

Mason put on a half smile and asked, "Do you have any suggestions Beck?"

The long haired young man had his feet propped up at the edge of the table while he idly drew a playing card from the deck in his other hand. His dear and drop dead gorgeous blonde associate, Sam Puckett, dressed in a mid-thigh length, eye-catching midnight blue curve hugging dress with a keyhole cut-out on the front that displayed a healthy amount of cleavage, rested her forearm on his right shoulder and kept a cautious eye on each of the gathered gangsters.

He shrugged his other shoulder while he answered, "It's simple; we bring this… what should we call him… 'Joker' into the fold to stop him from messing with our business and have him kill the bat-creature. He certainly has a talent so far in destruction."

Ryder shouted out, "You want us to hirer a madman?!"

Beck dropped his feet off the corner of the table and spun to face Mason down the table, ignoring his associate as he wasn't the one he needed to convince. "How many arsonists and hitmen do we outsource to keep our hands clean? What's one more that can do both?"

Mason paused for an instant, contemplating Beck's question and already seeing out to the conclusion his young enforcer wanted him to reach.

Steven spoke up in a sharp hiss, "I say we run him to ground and kill him. He burned my place to the ground and Ryder's and yours too. Why would you want him to get away with it?"

Beck this time decided to answer a question from another associate of his, "Because I'm willing to take a short term hit for a long term investment. Think about it: who would go after us if they had to worry about us unleashing him on them: a shotgun blast to the face or being roasted alive as your house burned down over your head?"

The others looked uneasy, but they were seeing his point. Mason looked steadfastly guarded, carefully considering Beck's words but not hinting at leaning one way or the other.

Quincy cautiously asked, "How do you control a madman?"

They long haired young man looked to the other crime boss and casually answered, "I have my doubts about him being a madman. He's obviously in it for the money and burning our joints down is him sending a message—"

Steven snarled out, "Yeah, the message that he wants us to put him six feet under."

"Perhaps, but greed is obviously his motivation. We just have to pay him fairly."

The head of their little organization quietly asked, "How would we find him?"

"If he can hit our places without any trouble, hearing about asking for his services shouldn't be too hard when we put word out on the streets."

Steven shouted out, "You can't be serious Mason. He burns my joint to the ground and can get away with it?!"

Mason patiently answered, "I would let him get away with it because Beck's right: our business is for the long term and he can be a valuable asset. He'd compensate us with his services."

"And if he's not?"

The crime boss darkly remarked, "Then you 'run him to ground' then bring me his head then kill the damn 'Bat'."

He quickly stood up and buttoned the front of his business blazer. "If there is no other business gentleman, I have to get ready for a banquet to attend at West Manner in support of our fine police force. I have to keep up appearances." He turned and started heading out of the back of the conference room with his bodyguards without another word.

The others got up from their seats to head out to their respective business, some planning to join their boss at the benefit banquet.

Sam dropped her arm off of Beck's shoulder as he stood up and he offered his arm to her. She looped her arm around his arm and the pair turned to head the other door, a number of gangsters watching the blonde's swaying hips and staring at her tightly wrapped dark dress ass.

As the heads of the crime syndicate of Gotham got up from their seats and filed out, Steven held back to speak with Quincy and motioned his head towards Ryder to suggest he join them.

The sandy blonde remarked in a low whisper to his boss' semi-rival fellow family boss, "We can't bring this clown freak into the fold."

Quincy glanced around to see the others beside his own personal guard had left then quietly remarked, "I know a professional—not a madman—from South America that can deal with the clown and this 'Bat'. We just have to make sure Mason doesn't fine out about it. A war between us would be bad for business."

Steven and Ryder confidently smiled at hearing some sane words about the situation.

Oliver Apartment
Gotham Tower Apartments
Saturday, June 24, ?

Mason wasn't the only one planning to attend the police benefit banquet as Beck adjusted his tie while he walked out of the master bathroom and into the master bedroom to pick up his date to the event. He stopped and his heart fluttered for a moment when he saw what he thought was a vision.

Sam was wearing a pink sheath one-shoulder (left shoulder) floor-length ballroom dress. She looked herself in the mirror, not noticing that Beck had entered the room. A smirk played on her face as she commented, "Mamma feels hot…"

He walked up behind her to rest his chin on her bare right shoulder and placed his hands on her stomach. "You certainly look hot."

She smugly answered while meeting his eyes in the mirror, "I know…"

The smile that could charm any lady formed on his face then kissed on her pulse point. He trailed several more kisses along her neck causing the blonde to close her eyes and lulled her head to the left to give his lips better access to her neck. As he distracted her with delicate kisses, he palmed over the wide shoulder strap and curled his fingers around the edge towards her neck while his other fingers grabbed the zipper. He slowly pulled the zipper down while pulling the strap off of her shoulder. The evening gown dropped to reveal her nakedness in front of the mirror or close to it. She wore a matching color to her dress low cut strapless bra and thong with a leg garter around her inner left thigh holding a small black holster with a .38 Colt Detective Special stuffed in it.

She huffed out an annoyed breath from him just stripping and potentially wrinkling her dress for letting it just drop. "Beck… we don't have time for any fun. I still need to do my makeup and hair."

Her protests were cut off when he cupped and palmed over her exquisite satin covered breasts and attentively kneaded them while he kissed the left crook of her neck causing her to rested the back of her head on his let shoulder and sigh out.

He huskily whispered against her neck, "Mamma is hot and you're probably right, we—"

"I'm always right."

He laughed then kissed her pulse point again before finishing, "Yes you are, so we might not have time for any fun right now, but you do."

"I do?"

He answered by releasing her right orb and sliding his hand over her smooth abdomen and gently rub a few circled over her lightly pale skin.

Sam closed her eyes and wrapped her arm over his shoulder and around to lace his locks between her fingers. She relaxed to his gentle touch then her eyes shot open with a sharp breath with his hand slipped under the waistband her panties and touched her intimate area.

The blonde only allowed him to touch her for a few seconds before she turned in place, removing his hand from her, and wrap her arms around behind his neck to bring her lips crashing onto his lips before parting her pink lips and forcing her tongue into his mouth. She pulled her mouth away seconds later, leaving a bit of spittle between their lips before pushing him back towards the bed, which he immediately fell back on when the back of his knees hit the edge of the foot of the bed.

She hopped on the bed to straddle his waist and lustfully hissed out as she looked down at him and reached behind her back to unhook her bra, "Jank it, we can be fashionably late."

West Manor
Bristol Township, NJ

Detective David Vega hated these things—not the event itself of course with the money raised for the families of fallen officers from all the millionaires of the city—but the party itself in having to hobnob with rich and powerful of Gotham City. One slip of the tongue and one of these petty and vindictive people could ruin one's life. If things couldn't get any worst, he noticed that his boss, Commissioner Dickers readily socializing with Mason Thornesmith at one of the roulette tables set up for the permissible charity gambling by the state, ignoring the open secret that Thornesmith ran organized crime in Gotham… and he couldn't even indulge in a drink to calm his nerves as he thought it would be inappropriate for him to drink.

He shook his head in mild disgust of his boss being as blind as J. Edgar Hoover in not believing that there wasn't any such thing as organized crime. He wasn't sure what was worst: his boss pretending it didn't exist or he knew about it and was on the take.

As Detective Vega continued his upsetting musings, the crowd at one end of the leisure hall parted as another benefactor and the owner of the home entered fashionably late.

Jade West, millionaire industrialist, socialite and owner of West Enterprises, nearly glided through the gathered guests in an eye catching royal blue V-neck sleeveless floor-length evening gown that sheathed around her figure. Several eyes followed her as she walked by to see a nice view of the back that wasn't covered by her flowing nearly raven colored hair and where the dress reached only to the middle of her back and how the rest fell to hug her peach rear.

They ignored the fact that her CEO for West Enterprises, André Harris, was on her arm and escorting her for the evening.

The millionaire glanced around the filled leisure room looking for hopefully familiar faces other than the ones she had to associate with on a business level each day. She wasn't looking forward in dealing with them since she saw most of them as perversions of the American dream of making something of one's self through hard work as they threw money around government officials to use the power of government to crush their competition; they were the epitome of the idea of 'crony capitalism' and the only redeeming quality of this evening other than hopefully seeing some friendly faces was that the gambling tables for the charity would fleece them dry.

Jade's eyes finally spotted a familiar face of one easily walking through the crowd with the familiar blonde on his arm, however it wasn't one she was necessarily thrilled to see and her lips tightened at seeing Beck Oliver.

The long haired business man stopped in front of the pair. He quickly shook André's hand and the young men exchanged hearty greetings before Beck turned his eyes towards Jade. He gently laughed as he passed a hasty glance up and down the millionaire. "Jade, you look stunning this evening."

She answered with a guarded smile, "Thank you. You look pretty dashing yourself. I'm glad you two could make it."

He laughed off her compliment in a charming manner that would make many of a woman weak in the knees while Jade turned her attention to the pink wearing blonde and politely greeted, "Evening Sam. You look lovely this evening. If Beck's not careful, someone might snatch you up."

Sam had maintained a pleasant smile on her face to hide her uneasiness at watching her man casually remarked about how good his ex-girlfriend looked this evening. However, the fact that as long as she had been with Beck, Jade was always cordial, never had made a move to interfere in their relationship and she had less than an hour ago made him scream her name over and over again in the throws of pleasure, so she wasn't particularly threatened by the millionaire. "Thanks, but if they try they may not be walking home. Beck's right; you look stunning this evening. You wear blue very well."

"Thank you."

A slightly high pitched and eager voice called out from behind Beck, "Beck, Jade!"

The quartet turned to see Gotham's newest district attorney, Robbie Shapiro along with their mutual friend and date, Cat Valentine.

Cat was particularly eye catching as she was wearing a white, sleeveless dress with two white straps that started from the sides of her heart shaped neckline that cupped her breast, over her collarbone to around under the back of her neck in a crisscrossed fashion. Under the bust of the dress was a decorative gold band and from that point, the dress was a silky white material with the hem ending around two to three inches above her knees.

The redhead eagerly greeted the quartet with a high pitched voice, "Hi." She immediately gave Jade a hug, received an uncomfortable smile from the dark haired young woman then let her go to pull Sam into a hug. The blonde wore just as much of an uncomfortable smile, but just like Jade she was still happy to see the redhead.

Cat softly giggled in commenting on her female friends, "I love those dresses. You two look gorgeous."

Sam grudgingly remarked, but genuinely appreciated the comment, "Thanks Cat."

Jade followed up, "You look cute and adorable Cat."

André responded with a cheerful laugh, "Yeah Little Red, don't you look beautiful?"

She let out another giggle. "Thanks Jade, André." She surprised with the group by taking Sam by the hand and eagerly shouted, "Come on Sam; let me show you all the flowers I grew for the charity."

The blonde rolled her eyes in mild annoyance at her ex-college roommate's exuberant nature, but went along with her as an upset Cat would not be a good thing for the evening.

Jade held back a smile and slightly shook her head as she thought better Sam than her, but that was more due to the fact that Cat had already gave her the grand tour of all the flowers the redhead had decorated her home for the benefit.

André and Robbie started idly chatting, catching up on the happenings of their previous week and for Robbie, adjusting to being the new—and youngest District Attorney for Gotham, however he kept an ear turn to overhear Jade and Beck's conversation.

After Jade's loyal butler, Erin Sikowitz, quietly made his way next to the mistress of the house and handed her a glass of champagne, the dark haired millionaire quietly commented to get directly to her point after catching sight of Mason further into the leisure room, "You don't have to work for Thornesmith."

Beck glanced along the gathering, noticing his boss laughing it up with the police commissioner at a roulette table and idly chuckled, "And what would I do? Work for West Enterprises? Like you gave Cat a job at West Botanical and Records?"

"You could. You could do anything you wanted with your… skill set and wouldn't have to work for a guy like Thornesmith."

He smirked in an old way he would use when they were in high school. "Jade, I'm a legitimate business man and so is Mason. You can't let some bad press color your judgment."

She took a quick sip from her drink then replied, "What about your dream of being an actor? I just have to make a phone cal—"

His smile tightened and he forced a politeness to his voice, "Jade, I appreciate the sentimental, especially since we didn't have the best of breakups, but I don't need our charity to get any acting work if I wanted."

"It's not charity. I wouldn't tell any of my people in West Entertainment to hirer you, but I could find you some roles you would like to audition for."

He frowned and decided to take refuge in taking a sip from his drink.

The police detective had roamed around the room with the excuse of keeping his eyes out for any kind of cheating, but he eventually made his way to the former couple as Beck pulled his drink away from his lips.

Jade turned a smile to the detective and happily greeted him, "Detective Vega, it's a pleasure to see you."

He genuinely smiled to the lovely light skinned young woman and answered with a surprisingly upbeat tone in comparison to most of the evening, "You too ma'am. Thank you again for hosting this benefit. I know all the fellows on the force know they can count on you to make sure that the money goes where it's suppose to go instead—"

"Of one of the robber baron's back pockets?"

The cop reluctantly nodded, keeping a watchful eye at anyone that would overhear their conversation.

"It's why I had it here instead of someplace in the city. They're not just going to be able to walkout the door with their pockets a little heavier unless they legitimately won and it's the least I can do." Her voice dropped as her next words were filled with emotion, "It doesn't take a way the pain of losing a father or a mother, but it's something to help." She quickly looked around for a passing waiter for a drink to distract herself from some pending emotions.

Detective Vega sympathetically looked at the young woman as Beck glanced around the police officer and curiously asked with the hopes of turning the discussion to a happier note, "Is Tori with you? I heard she was back in town, for a movie shoot in New York?"

He was curious to see the brunette and quite grateful at the moment that Cat was keeping Sam occupied in showing her flowers or she could have easily have become jealous with him just stalking to the Vega girl.

Detective Vega's smile became a little forced as he answered, "Yes, she is, but she's running late. I'm not sure what's keeping her…"

Mason Thornsmith's Penthouse

The extravagant apartment was nearly pitched black other than the ambient light from the rest of the city that was allowed to shine inside as the housekeeper hadn't pulled the shades down before leaving. It was quiet, peaceful and in Mason's mind when he left to go to the benefit banquet, quite secure.

However, he was proven quite wrong with the ambient light was partially blocked when a dark cowl figure with two diminutive 'ears' on either side of the crown of her head poked her head past the left side of the window (from the perspective of inside the apartment) to see inside. Seeing through a pair of formfitting green tinted goggles over her eyes, she could see the apartment was vacant and it brought a confident smile to her face.

She touched the sharp metal claws on each of her fingertips and thumb to the glass of her left hand while her other hand held her securely to the side of the building and started making a circular motion by twisting her wrist. She did this several times as the diamond tipped claws still had to cut through the fourth of an inch glass.

After several seconds of slicing into the glass, a slightly wop-sided circle was cut through. No alarmed sounded when the piece of glass fell through and dropped on the carpeted floor. Why would there be an alarm to a window thirty stories up?

She reached inside the hole and flicked the latch to the lock of the window then pulled her arms slightly out to push up from the cut circle, her glove preventing slicing her palm on the cut glass. After pushing up just centimeters, the window was far enough up to get her hand underneath the bottom and pushed the rest of the window up.

She carefully stepped over the windowsill and holding her satchel to her left hip. She glanced around again to make sure she was alone, a little bit of paranoia when inside the Mob boss of Gotham City's apartment wouldn't hurt. She quietly made her way through the apartment towards Mason's office with the grace of a cat.

She stopped at the entrance of his office and glanced around. It was an impressive sight as apparently he liked to work from home on occasions with all the necessities to conduct business from home. It was decorated with various admirations to himself along with him in photos with various celebrities and well known government officials.

She quickly disregard that and started searching through the place for the safe she knew he had to have in the apartment for stuff she knew he was too paranoid to leave within easy reach of his crew. After meticulously searching through the office without anything looking like it had been disturbed, she found a false cabinet door about waist high tall, offset from behind his desk.

The brunette knelt down and carefully pulled opened it open to reveal a medium. She smiled in triumph, but quickly went about her business of pulling the bag strap over her head and sat the satchel down on the floor then opened it up to pull out a stethoscope. She plugged one end into a small plug in the right 'cat ear' of cowl then placed the end the stethoscope to the side of the safe door.

She slowly started turning the dial, carefully listening for the tumblers to fall into place. After a little patience of about five minutes or so, the last tumbler fell into place and she tried the handle.

She smiled to herself as it clicked open and she opened up the door to reveal several tied stacks of hundred dollar bills, a few pieces of jewelry, a gold bullion, but what caught her eye most of all were the several stacks of envelopes.

The lights suddenly went up around her, temporarily blinding the night-vision goggles and her eyes, but they quickly readjusted to the light in a similar fashion as sunglasses.

Someone called out from behind her, "Freeze!", but she could tell in his voice that he was quite nervous, probably distracted from the fact of seeing her, a fine and fit young woman in a practically skintight black bodysuit. He called out again, "Put… put your hands up!"

The young woman slowly stood up and placed her hands on her black covered thighs and shifted her weight slightly to her left, knowing that the man's attention would be drawn to her rear. She looked over her shoulder, giving gave him a teasing smile. "You want me to put my hands up?"

He nervously replied as he was captivated by her flowing brunette tied in a pony tail behind her from the slit cut in the back of the cowl, her dark eyes and teasing smile.

She reached up to her right hip and pulled the bullwhip from the clip-on harness to snap out at the bodyguard. The end of the whip wrapped around his next to his wide eyed surprise and he immediately grabbed at it to try to loosen it. She grabbed the end of the handle with her hand and yanked hard, pulling the guard off of his feet and face first into the floor.

She leapt the distance between her and the flat face goon to climb on his back. She brought her left arm around his throat and pulled him into a sleeper hold.

He uselessly clawed at her Kevlar woven covered arm as the blood to his brain was cut off. He struggled for a few scant seconds before his eyes closed and he passed out. When he went limp on the floor, she released him, having no intention of killing him.

She took several calming breaths from the adrenal rush then walked back to the safe. She grabbed the stacks of files and shoved them into her satchel and tightly secured the twin straps then pulled the shoulder strap over her head. She slammed the safe shut then walked back over to the low level gangster to untie her whip around his neck to retrieve it.

She started her way out of the office until she noticed the private elevator to the far left of the office. She wickedly smiled at escaping that way as to avoid climbing down the thirty stories.

West Manor

Robbie took a sip from his drink then awkwardly commented to Beck between turns at the roulette table, "Jade's right."

After placing a bet, Beck turned his head and raised an eyebrow. "Jade's right?"

"Mason's nothing but trouble. I will get him one day for being Gotham's crime boss, but I don't want him to try to drag you down with him. He could just lie and say you were involved with all his illegal activities and make up any kind of proof. I wouldn't have any credibility in not attempting to prosecute you."

Beck reassuringly smiled to his friend and answered, "Robbie, I really appreciate your concern about me. I really do, but I'll be fine. If and that's a big if Mason was involved with any kind of illegal activity like say operating unlicensed gambling houses or selling untaxed alcohol, there's no way he could link me to any of that. I'm just a manager and numbers cruncher and all I've ever seen is legitimate expenses and profits in the bookkeeping ledgers. If there was something there, the IRS would have gotten by now. They even got Capone, so if Mason was doing the same thing, he'd be in the joint."

Robbie blew out a breath and a disappointed expression appeared on his face. He hoped his friend was right about not being involved with what was suspected of Mason, unlicensed gambling houses and untaxed liquor being the two big things that brought in the cash, and that the crime boss couldn't frame his friend for anything.

The matter was quickly dropped when Sam slipped up beside Beck's left side while Cat slipped up on Robbie's left. The redhead brought her lips to Robbie's ear and whispered something, causing the D.A. to instantly blush. Cat tightly looped her arm around his arm and started pulling him along without any complaint with the only thing him saying was to ask Beck to watch his bet.

Beck raised a brow and smirked at seeing the bashfulness on his friends face as Cat nearly dragged him away. He looked to Sam and before he could question her, she answered, "The kitty needs her man for a scratch."

The handsome young man let out a laugh then stole a cheek kiss from the blonde and turned back to the gambling table.

Being a friend of Jade West, best friend one might consider, had its advantage as Cat had free reign of the mansion, so she was able to take Robbie with her past one of the cordoned off areas to head to the second floor with the excuse she needed to go to the bathroom with the help not daring to question her.

Once they were on the second floor, they turned around the corner to make sure they were out-of-sight and earshot of any of the guests on the first floor, Cat turned to Robbie and cupped the back of his neck for a quick and deep kiss while she grabbed his wrist with her other hand and directed it under the silky hem to rest on the back of her bare thigh before directing it further up her leg.

Robbie's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets at feeling the delicate skin of her ass cheek along with the silky material of the boyshorts tightly encasing part her of ass. His instincts naturally asserted themselves and started kneading the soft flesh, drawing an approving, but muffled mew from the redhead.

She let go of his wrist and snaked her hand round the back of her neck to join her other one as she deepened the kiss. She parted her mouth and let her tongue sweep across his lips then pushed inside.

He smiled against the kiss and tightened his hand on her ass cheek, pulling her closer and her feeling him starting to bulge underneath the crotch of his slacks against her lower abdomen and center.

She pulled her lips away from him and directed in an oddly naughty manner for her, "Come on. I know where we can get some privacy."

She stepped back to slip out of his grasp and latched onto his wrist. She turned and started dragging him along.

The glasses wearing D.A. asked in a dumbfounded manner as he kept step with her, "This wasn't private enough?"

She softly giggled while wrinkling her nose.

Sikowitz expertly maneuvered through the crowd to rejoin Jade while she caught up with one of the doctors that ran the West Medical Foundation. He politely interrupted the pair and leaned over to whisper into Jade's ear, "Your… 'guest' from Metropolis is here."

The nearly raven haired colored young woman suppressed a groan at the unwelcome news, but she easily kept on her smile from her younger years of being interested in acting. She looked to the doctor and politely excused herself before letting Sikowitz escort her to the guest patiently waiting at the entrance to the mansion.

The young man stood out among the rest of the guests for a number of reasons. He was dressed in a nice navy business suit, white shirt and red tie, but not in a tuxedo as the occasional would require and with the way he stood, he looked timid and apprehensive in apparently being quite uncomfortable in the situation. However, a more positive quality he possessed that made him stand out was that he was quite physically well built and handsome with his dark short hair and wearing a pair of glasses.

If she would describe him in one phrase by her initial assessment, she would call him 'mild mannered'.

She finished approaching him and politely greeted, "Hello, I'm Jade West and you must be…"

He nodded his head and nervously adjusted his glasses on his face, avoiding eye contact with her, before politely introducing himself, "I'm ah… ah, Freddie Benson. I'm from the Daily Planet."

She cocked an eyebrow and somewhat teasingly asked, "So you're the reporter they sent to do a puff piece on me?"

He uneasily chuckled, "No ma'am—yes ma'am. I'm here to do that among other things too."

She turned her full attention to him, delicately still holding her glass between her fingers, and her smile grew slightly bigger before asking, "Well which is it? Yes or no."

He took a hesitant breath then answered, "Yes I was sent to do a piece on you, but no, I have no intention of making it a puff piece."

She raised an eyebrow and teased, "Brave words to the woman that owns your paper."

He cleared his throat and glanced away while softly answering, "More like honest words…"

"Good… or I would have you fired in an instant."

She was quite serious in her statement, but there was an odd lightheartedness to it that set him a little bit at ease. She idly continued as she watched the rest of event's guests, "What was the other thing you're here to report on, besides me?"

"Other things?"

She glanced back to him and questioned, "You said I was one among other things; what are those 'things'?"

"Well, the chief has a side interest in wondering if Gotham now has its own hero."

She sweetly laughed before taking another sip of her drink, "Like your Metropolis has 'The Superman, the Man of Tomorrow'? I wasn't aware we had any costumed vigilantes flying around the city doing the impossible."

She noticed the he slightly tensed at mentioning of the word 'Superman', but he continued without missing a beat, "Maybe not as dramatically as Superman, but… there is 'The Bat' who's put the fear of God or perhaps the Devil into the hearts of criminals. They're starting to be afraid to walk the streets and this clown person. Some are calling him 'The Joker' and his apparent partner, a blonde they're calling some nightmarish harlequin—the next Bonnie and Clyde—but they're robbing from the Mob. The chief thinks all that is news worthy and that the Gotham Gazette shouldn't be the only one publishing it."

Her voice dropped to the same kind of odd nervousness as his voice at the mentioning of 'The Bat', but she understood exactly why hers dropped, "I'm not paying you—or your boss to be tracking down urban legends."

"No, you're paying me to report on the truth or you would have let Nevel buy out the paper to become part of NevelCorp and turn it into his propaganda machine. There's something out there scaring the criminals off the streets and this arson madman keeping the Mob from running their speakeasies. That's worth investigating."

She slightly frowned at hearing that the reporter that was assigned to be her tagalong for the next few days may actually had integrity as a reporter. However, this might have actually been to her advantage if she handled the situation carefully. "Okay, I'm actually interested in reading about this 'Joker' fellow—if you can actually get some credible news on him. I don't want you or your boss to put stuff in the paper that is better left to the Yellow Press."

"Yes ma'am."

"And you should be careful though. Bonnie and Clyde started killing people before the police killed them. I don't want you to be caught in the crossfire and I'm stuck with the bill of a funeral."

The sound of her voice sounded to him as it was a morbid joke, but he could hear an underlining tenor of concern. He nodded and cracked a hint of a reassuring smile. "I will certainly do that."

A corner of her mouth slightly lifted, a little surprised that he wasn't put off by her sense of humor. "Well then, as long as you're careful. Now I have to rejoining the benefit." She turned and headed back to the party, but called over her blue strapped shoulder as she paused in her step, "You can join me and observe how I deal with Gotham's elite for your piece."

A soft, boyish grin appeared on his face and he quickly fell in step behind the lovely millionaire.

Author's Note: I hope this enticed you a little more to stay tuned for this story. I can't promise when it'll be update other than hopefully be a mid-February update on a regular basis. I want to finish some old stories up that are way past overdue. Thanks for reading.

For the ladies dresses if you're curious, Jade's is what Liz wore to the 2011 Creative Emmys, Sam's is what Jennette wore at the same event and Cat is from Ariana's 4th Annual Power of Youth Event.