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Author's Chapter Notes:
Sort of a sequel to "Dark Night of the Obelisk."
* * * * *

GOTHAM CITY
(JULY 2000)

It had been more than thirty years since the original Batman had disappeared. Yet, there were some residents of this fair city who still remembered his gray-and-black costume. And Broadway actor Valmont Killdeer was one of them. It was one of the reasons why he was now on his way to the charity fund-raising masquerade ball, in Julius Schwartz Memorial Park, in a replica of that costume!

Heaven knows, it had not been easy to find a costume shop that sold one. Indeed, Killdeer had had to custom-order the outfit from a specialty store in Hollywood. Unfortunately, the golden-yellow utility belt was merely a painted-on facsimile. So, Killdeer had been forced to use the scallop-edged cape to hide a "fanny" pack containing his wallet.

He was just five minutes from the entrance to the party when he heard a decidedly female voice calling:

"Peanuts! Get your fresh-roasted peanuts, here."

Killdeer turned to his left, and saw a food vendor's cart bearing a white sign (with crimson lettering) which read:

"MAJOR RHETT'S HONEY-ROASTED PEANUTS."

The sales girl pushing the cart was a striking young thing. Curly blonde hair; blue eyes; and wearing a white drum major's uniform with a blue midi-skirt. Offset by white go-go boots, and an orange busby adorned with a white plume. Although, because of the ambient temperature, her uniform jacket was partially unbuttoned.

Revealing a tank top undershirt with a low neckline.

"Would you like to sample my goodies, mister?" she inquired with a straight face, the moment she saw him.

Unable to resist such a sales pitch, Killdeer grinned and walked on over to the cart.

"Could I take a preliminary sniff?" he asked: "To see if they're really fresh-roasted?"

"Go right ahead," she replied.

So, Killdeer bent down, and inhaled the honey-scented aroma with his eyes closed. Which was a pity, really. For, then, he would have seen the cart's steam whistle turn in the direction of his face...

...and emit a pillar of bright orange sleeping gas!

Killdeer immediately began coughing, even as he began to lose consciousness and fall to the ground. The sales girl, on the other hand, grinned through the transparent oxygen mask she wore over her mouth and nostrils. It was only after the sleeping gas had cleared away that she crouched down. Removing the white plume from her busby, in the process. And, then, sticking the knife-sharpened quill of it into the unconscious man's right posterial cheek!!

A minute later, she placed something into her cleavage, before rebuttoning the uniform jacket and leaving the park. But, without the cart...or the costume.

Twenty minutes later, at stately Wayne Manor, Alfred Pennyworth, Junior approached Richard Grayson-Wayne and his son, Bruce Gordon Wayne, with a dire expression on his face.

"It's the Batphone, sir."

"Thank you, Alfred."

The second-generation Dynamic Duo raced into the soundproof study and put the now-cordless hotline, to GCPD Headquarters, on speaker mode.

"Yes, Commissioner?"

"Bad news, Batman. That celebrated thespian, Valmont Killdeer, was evidently kidnapped in broad daylight, while en route to that Wayne Foundation soiree in Schwartz Park. And, the ransom note left on his masquerade costume was signed... 'The United Underworld.' "

"We're on our way."

Less than a minute later, the Dynamic Duo were peeling out of the Batcave in their new-generation Batmobile.

[Cue the "Na-Na-Na" song.]

To be continued
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