1 - "Reformed"
Bat Knight emerged from the shadows to stand like a dark monolith behind Sex Kitten, who crouched at the rooftop's edge. She hadn't yet noticed his presence, so the dark vigilante took a moment to admire how well the villainess' curves stretched the black and purple Lycra of her costume. The reflections in the shiny material testified to Sex Kitten's physical perfection, a body that can only be obtained from night after night on the rooftops.
Her muscles tensed ever so slightly when she detected him standing there, but she didn't turn around. She just kept peering through her binoculars.
"A girl's bound to get the wrong idea when she's followed around, night after night, by a big, handsome Bat." Sex Kitten's ruby lips curled into a half-way grin. "I thought you weren't interested in romance."
"You're hiding up here, casing the Rotham City Museum, wouldn't have anything to do with the Cat Mummy exhibition opening next week, would it?"
Sex Kitten twirled around and stood up, a perfect blur of grace. She shook her ample cleavage at him and laughed devilishly. He couldn't help but notice the tiny bumps of her nipples pushing against her costume.
"Nothing wrong with looking," she purred. "That's what you were doing, right? Standing in the shadows and and checking things out. Checking me out."
She ran her hands over her hips and drew closer.
"We both know you like me."
Bat Knight didn't respond, his face stone-serious even when she reached up and dug her claws into his chest.
"Everyone looks at what they want, don't they? Doesn't mean they're going to do anything about it. I'm reformed, as you know, and you're... well, stoic."
"Your lengthy criminal record doesn't speak to your restraint. You haven't been reformed that long. One of us has to have control."
Sex Kitten pushed her breasts against Bat Knight's washboard stomach. A frustrated sigh escaped her slightly-open lips. "You really don't ever let loose, do you? It's always the dark avenger-thing with you, isn't it?" She shook her head. "So serious."
"Then why are you here?" Bat Knight asked.
"Just taking a look, for old times sake. Just for fun. Have you heard of fun before?"
Bat Knight produced one of his famous scowls.
"Why would I steal a bunch of dusty, old mummies?" She studied his eyes, as if looking for something, then frowned. "Obviously, I'm out doing my exercises- you've been shadowing me since I left my apartment. I thought we agreed I could continue doing my thing if I let up on the criminal stuff."
"I have been monitoring you," Bat Knight admitted. "You're behaving."
"Of course I am, like I promised" Sex Kitten said, playing with a strand of her red hair. "So why are you following me? You must want something. And, knowing you, it's nothing... fun."
"Sex Kitten, we've discussed this many times. Despite my... feelings for you, it would never work-"
"Oh lord, not this again," Sex Kitten said, pounding her fists against his chest, then breaking away. "I can't bear the martyr routine again. Just tell me what you want."
"Deadly Nightshade was released from White Rock Asylum a week ago. She's disappeared."
"Haven't seen her," Sex Kitten slipped to the edge of the building, "and I hope I don't. She blames me for you catching her. She says I hesitated when I had a chance to kick you into that lava pit."
"You did," Bat Knight said. "That's why you're still enjoying your freedom."
"And I want to keep enjoying it. So, like I say, I hope I don't run into her." Sex Kitten shrugged. "It's true. I hesitated, and I'm glad I'm not in jail, but I hoped for more... with you."
Her green eyes met his one final time and then, and then, so quick Bat Knight's eyes could barely follow, she slipped over the edge of the building. By the time he stepped the ledge, she was gone- vanished into the Rotham night.
2 - "The Boy Wonder"
The rest of the evening's patrol passed uneventfully. Bat Knight broke up a couple of armed robberies and disrupted a heroin shipment meant for the Lithuanian mob, but, as the sun started to threaten the Rotham streets, Bat Knight couldn't help but feel frustrated.
He was no closer to finding Deadly Nightshade.
Sex Kitten had been his last lead. He knew her well enough to tell when she was being truthful.
She hadn't seen Nightshade.
Bat Knight fruitlessly checked Nightshade's previously known hideout again before calling it a night. Still abandoned. It was possible she'd fled the city, the country even. She could be dead for all he knew; Nightshade had no shortage of enemies.
But Bat Knight had a bad feeling and his intuition was rarely off. Nightshade was in Rotham. She was up to something wicked.
He needed to find her soon.
The psychiatric panel at White Rock refused to heed Bat Knight's protests, declared Nightshade cured of her previous criminal psychosis, and released her. They seemed so certain of her cure. It was mad.
Of course, Nightshade vanished at her first opportunity and hadn't been seen since.
Bat Knight drove through the hologram rock wall that kept his headquarters secret and parked in the Bat Dungeon's motor pool. He lept from the Bat Cruiser and unhooked his cape to leave for Jeeves to mend- only a couple of bullet holes tonight. The butler shouldn't complain too much.
The Dungeon lay directly below Bronson Manor, Bat Knight's alter ego's family's estate, and was connected to the house by a high-speed elevator. This was where Bat Knight was headed when he heard noises coming from the training room.
"Up early, are we, old chum?" Bat Knight said when he saw Martin Black, aka Blue Jay, Bat Knight's trusted sidekick. Black lay on the bench press, easily lifting 225 lbs in an endless set of reps. His skin was shined with perspiration around the angles of his straining muscles.
He'd been at it for a while.
Martin set the barbell on the hooks with a clink. "Couldn't sleep- didn't want to just lay in bed." He sat up and grabbed a towel from the floor, wiping the sweat off his forehead, then his neck. When he was done, he gave Bat Knight a strange look, one that the dark detective couldn't decipher exactly. Was it mistrust? Was it curiosity?
"Don't finals start today?" Bat Knight asked. Martin attended to Rotham City College as a freshman, studying Criminal Psychology. "I'd think that you'd be studying."
"I'm ready for my exams," Martin said. "I don't need to study any more."
"Then why can't you sleep?" Bat Knight asked. "You aren't angry you didn't go along on patrol, are you? We talked about cutting down during the school week..."
"No. That's not it," Martin said. "I needed the time to study."
"Than what?"
The young man's shoulders slumped. "Well, since no one knows I'm Blue Jay, sometimes at college, I get to hear what people really think about us, superheroes, you know."
"I understand," Bat Knight nodded.
"My friends in class always talk about what Mr. Great, Amazonia, and you are up to, the latest story in the news, just like most people do, I guess."
"And this bothers you?"
"Not that they talk. That's to be expected. But lately, especially since I've been patrolling with you again instead of Bat Maiden, they make jokes. I write most of it off as their being jealous of Blue Jay and immature. Every kid in Rotham wanted to be me, to patrol with you and fight crime. But sometimes, what they say is pretty... well, raunchy."
