batman: tribulation and revelation

[johnnygobbs]

he wasn't an asshole. he was just the typical guy who thinks as much with his penis as he does with his brain. young n dumb.

In other words an asshole.  LOL.

[Catwoman]

chapter 1

"mayor! mayor elect! mr. shreck! how about a sound-byte, just a sound-byte please! for all the citizens of oh i'm sorry ma'am, let me help you up. mr. shreck!"

newly-elected gotham mayor charles "chip" shreck had nothing to say about his imminent office on this pr-fluff visit to a children's hospital, but alexander knox, gotham city's most persistent - and irritating - newspaper journalist was not deterred.

"knox will you get a life?" someone next to him in the crowd clamoring for chip's attention called out. he didn't look at them, keeping his eye on the mayor, but he couldn't resist a jab. "sure, will you get some old spice, buddy? come on, this city's polluted enough without you adding insult to injury!"

a big hand grabbed the front of knox's shirt and turned him around. the man  he insulted stood close to 6'4, looked like he ate people twice knox's size for breakfast, and had a nasty scar running down his cheek. "what did you say to me, punk?" he asked, raising a fist.

"i'll take care of him!" a woman called out as she took hold of the man's raised arm. "don't worry, he didn't mean anything by it. he isn't SMART enough to." the man looked at her. "you're tellin' me." roughly, he turned alex loose and continued moving with the crowd.

"well that was uncalled for, but i guess i'll say thank you, miss..?" knox said to the woman. "oh you're welcome, alie," she said, turning to him. he was stunned.

"VALE! vicki vale! how you been?!" he exclaimed excitedly when he recognized the world-famous magazine photographer who he had worked with during the rise and fall of the joker eleven years earlier. "and why'd you insult me like that? i'm not SMART enough to mean anything by what i said?" vicki smirked. "i was trying to do you a favor, but if you'd like to go tell him you really did mean it, i'll gladly call an ambulance for you."

knox grumbled for a moment. then his attention turned to the fact that it'd been over a decade since he'd seen her. "what are you doing back in gotham?" he asked. "looking to rekindle old flames?" he winked, nodding his head to the side. vicki looked to see a billboard featuring bruce wayne plastered on the side of a building. she turned back to him. "strictly business," she replied, rolling her eyes.

"business, huh?" he asked. "what kind of business?" vicki looked to the crowd. "it isn't every year a 30-year-old bachleor is elected mayor of a city the size of gotham city. its a big event, and two different magazines sent me here to capture it on film...and make sure there isn't more to it than meets the eye." "oh so you're into investigative journalism too now," he said with a sly grin.

"nope, thats where YOU come in. come on, i'll explain over lunch." knox tried to stammer a response as she tugged on his coat sleeve, leading him to her car.

as vicki and knox were renewing their working relationship, chip shreck had finished his quick meeting with some of the terminally ill children in the hospital and now he was back in his limosuine with his advisors, on his way back to city hall.

"you know, mr. shreck," one of the men said. "i'm not sure its kosher, you hanging around city hall when mayor hill still has a month officially left in office."i appreciate the advice, mick," shreck said curtly, "but the next time i want your opinion, i'll give it to you. i have business with the district attorney, anyway. hill is the last person on my mind. well, at least he is now." "now?" the advisor asked. "yes, because before you started yapping, YOU were."

once back at city hall, chip walked right into district attorney ronald pierce's office.

"don't you knock, shreck?" pierce asked, slamming a notebook shut. "shut up," shreck shot back, sitting down across from the da.

"whats the latest with gordon?" chip asked, lighting a cigar. "there is no latest," pierce replied. "i don't know what you're expecting from him, shreck. he's covered for the batman for years."

"well maybe we won't have to get anything from him," chip said as he blew a line of smoke."maybe we can take him down with batman. two birds with one stone. then we'll own this town."

he laughed. pierce wasn't so easily convinced. "the three most popular men in this city are batman, comissioner gordon, and the man who delievers the alcohol to bruce wayne's benefits," he said. "turning the public against one will be hard enough, let alone both."

chip looked across at him with a smirk. "haven't you read the papers? i'm the darling of this city now. its new favorite son." "yeah well you go into office and show them right off you've got a vendetta against batman for what happened to your dad, and that will take care of that," pierce replied. "ha, not hardly," chip said arrogantly. "they'll sympathize with me and they'll be proud their new mayor -" he stopped and handed a cigar to pierce and lit it. "and his ally the district attorney didn't buy into this batman farce and took him down."

pierce thought for a minute, puffing the cigar. "i'll work with you on this, behind the scenes, but if it blows up in your face, you go down yourself, shreck. i have no part of it."

"whatever you say, ronnie-boy."

[johnnygobbs]

Very well written Catwoman.  Once again, whilst I might not always agree with your ideas (for instance, I can't see a dum-dum like Chip Shreck becoming Mayor of Gotham), I can't fault your writing style.

Glad to see Know reintroduced.  Will he be a nemesis for Chip Shreck?  I can't imagine an investigative reported like Knox being too popular with the Shreck family.

[Catwoman]

stay tuned

[Catwoman]

chapter 3

"so, what do you know about mayor shreck?" knox asked vicki as they sat in her rented apartment that night. "more than i think i want to," vicki replied. she reached into her briefcase and pulled out a magazine. she thumbed through the pages until she found what she was looking for and passed it to knox.

"yech!" knox cried, disgusted at the image of chip, posing fully nude with another man. "what the hell is this?"

"it seems that when charles shreck's father was killed by the penguin, the mental and emotional scarring drove him past his breaking point. he did a lot of...odd things." vicki reached into the briefcase again and pulled out an old photo of a man in a wrestling costume and what looked like chip's signiature scrawled in the corner. knox laughed out loud when he saw the photo.

"this is some crazy stuff!" he said. "if this ever got out-" "if it ever got out, gotham would lose confidence in its mayor before he officially takes office," vicki interrupted him. "you're going to blackmail shreck?" knox asked. "i'm not so sure i like that idea."

"blackmail? no, not at all," she replied, putting the magazine and photo back into her briefcase, shutting it. "just keeping it handy, in case we need it."

from there, knox and vicki's attention turned to the ordered up pizza that finally arrived, nearly 20 minutes late. when they were done eating, they said goodnight and knox went home.

vicki lay on her couch for a little while after knox had left, but then she decided to take a little walk on the streets of gotham city. picking up her camera but leaving her purse lying on the couch, vicki sat off on her little adventure.

gotham city in the year 2000 seemed like a world away from gotham city in 1989. many of the old, run-down buildings she had seen before were long gone, with sophisticated skyscrapers popping up in their place. a las vegas-like amount of neon billboards and lights lined the streets. a city that just a decade before had been lost in the 1940s had caught up with the times while she had been away...and she wasn't sure she liked it.

"the cathedral," she thought, referring to the building on which (or from which) she nearly died by the joker's hand. "i wonder if its still standing."

walking several blocks in the direction she knew the cathedral to be, vicki gradually noticed that the modernization gradually declined the further she traveled away from the bustling downtown. finally she reached an area that was still completely rundown, completely dark and depressing. she considered snapping some photos with her camera but she was afraid the flash might draw someone.

treading lightly, vicki continued on. finally the top of the cathedral came into view.

"i don't know whether to be glad about that or not," she said out loud. "i mean its-"

a hand covered her mouth, stopping her mid-sentence and jerked her into an alley. after being dragged a good ways, she finally bit the hand and tried to scramble away, but her attacker grabbed her by the arm. she swung her camera at him, striking him in the head, but he held onto her, grabbing her other arm. they grappled for a moment until finally the attacker kneed her in the stomach. vicki went to her knees.

"thats the perfect position," the man said in a gravely voice. looking down, trying to regain her breath, vicki could hear him unzip his pants. she looked up at him, fear in her eyes and tried to scamper back. he grabbed her by the hair and pulled her head towards his crotch, his penis hanging out.

"do it baby! do it!" he yelled out. "come on." he faked a thrusting movement, laughing cruely as vicki broke into tears, trying to pull away. then his laugh was choked off with a gargle. she looked up to see him with his hands up at his neck. something had wrapped around it, and he was trying in vain to get it losened. it was no use. finally he passed out, sagging to the ground. vicki looked at him, then up.

a shadowy figure stood above her.

"b...batman?" she asked. she heard a woman's menacing laughter. "damn weak pigeons," the voice said. then the woman who had apparently prevented vicki from a horrible situation turning catastrophic lept over her and backflipped deeper into the alley. as she passed through a shimmer of light, vicki noticed that the woman was wearing a dark but shiny outfit of some kind.

once her unknown savior was gone, vicki noticed her attacker beginning to stir. not wanting to give him any shot at a second chance, she took off her heels and ran out of the alley, keeping a marathon pace until she finally reached the more crowded areas of the city.

from a rooftop of one of the apartment buildings lining an alley, the masked woman who had saved her watche as vicki scampered away. she snickered, then climbed down the fire escape and into an open window. closing it and pulling the curtains over it, she then flipped on a light switch. twisting side to side, first only her neck, then her entire body, she let out a sigh as she felt them crack.

the woman walked over to a small sofa, tossing her bullwhip down onto it. then she reached for her hood and pulled it away, dropping it down to the whip.

"another productive night," selina kyle said as she walked into her bedroom.

[johnnygobbs]

Once again, it's well written but I'm not sure I like the idea of Chip Shreck being involved in homoerotic activities.  Firstly, this plot thread could potentially border on the homophobic if you're not too careful.  Secondly, I don't see Chip in that light - he's always seemed like the typical macho alpha-male 'meathead' to me.  I guess that doesn't mean that he could have a double-life, but it just seems unlikely in this instance.

Please don't be mad at me.  I think your writing is wonderful, but I'm just offering my own honest opinion on the storyline.

[The Joker]

I'm personally finding all of this very entertaining, and am enjoying the story so far as it's very, ah, *distinguishable* from the 1989-1997 timeline. Which I dig as that's exactly how the story should be.

The Knox and Vale reunion was nice, as well as the Chip/DA Ronald alliance which has shades of the Penguin/Max alliance where Gotham seems just ripe for the taking. I also enjoyed the bits about the Cathedral, and found the Chip nude modeling/wrestling pics to be pretty hilarious. I always pegged him as being fairly sheltered to some extent by Max, and can see a dope like him becoming a sadsack following his father's death, and being fairly open to 'suggestion'. It was obvious in Returns that he wasn't anywhere near as savvy as his old man, definately not a chip off the old block, and this kind of behavior further cements that fact. 

The Catwoman saving Vicki was interesting, as I figure it should be interesting if/when Selina finds out the woman she saved is the same "Vicki" Bruce made reference to when asked about if he had a girlfriend on Selina and Bruce's date in Returns.

[Catwoman]

Once again, it's well written but I'm not sure I like the idea of Chip Shreck being involved in homoerotic activities.  Firstly, this plot thread could potentially border on the homophobic if you're not too careful.  Secondly, I don't see Chip in that light - he's always seemed like the typical macho alpha-male 'meathead' to me.  I guess that doesn't mean that he could have a double-life, but it just seems unlikely in this instance.

did you miss the part where vicki says that max's death drove him way past his breaking point and he did a lot of crazy sh*t?

[Catwoman]

by the way thats chapter 2, not 3. lol.

[Catwoman]

chapter 3

"pierce, that case was closed 8 years ago. everyone agrees, copplepot fried max shreck to a crisp. you're chasing a ghost here."

comissioner gordon handed d.a. pierce's motion to reopen the case of max shreck's death in december of 1992 back to him. "it doesn't hurt just to make sure we maybe didn't covered anything, you know?" pierce said as he took the papers. "i worked that case, evidence was hard to come by. we might have missed something."

gordon looked at pierce, who had a reputation for arrogance. "you? admitting you might've missed something? since when?" "well i think we should just look into it, just to be sure. for the mayor's sake."

"oh, the mayor," gordon said with a smirk. "pierce, do you want my honest opinion?" "of course i do, commisioner." "distance yourself from shreck. that farce isn't going to last long." pierce feigned being taken aback by gordon's remark. "farce? my, my, commisioner, do i sense a trace of hostility and resentment that your canidate was beaten by charles shreck?"

"pierce, i've been on this force for over a half century. i've seen just about everything the world has to offer in that time, and i've got to admit that shreck getting elected shocked the sh*t out of me."

"times change," pierce said, smiling. "times may change but some dumb jock kid who's iq was lower than his birth weight leaving the country after his father got killed, then coming back and not only running for mayor of gotham city but fooling around and actually getting ELECTED? that just doesn't happen...without something underhanded happening along with it. take my advice, ron. you don't wanna go down with him."

after pierce had departed, gordon made his way to the roof of police headquarters and turned on the batsignal, the beacon used to call on the dark knight illuminating against the cloud filled dark sky. he leaned against the batsignal and sighed.

"yes commisioner?" batman asked after arriving 20 minutes later.

"word on the street is that something big is coming," gordon said. "and we have no clue what. so be on your toes."

"is that all?" batman asked.

"no, it isn't all," gordon replied. "i don't think i'm goinna be doing this job much longer. i've been thinking about a lot of things. things i should have done, shouldn't have done, could've done better, couldn't have done worse." he paused. "and i've been thinking about who's really under that mask of yours."

batman looked at him without response. gordon coughed a laugh.

"i don't expect you to just up and tell me, but before i take a dirt nap, i don't know. i just would like to know who you really are. and, well, i guess thats it."

batman continued to look at him silently. finally, he turned to leave. "mayor shreck is behind whatever is coming," he said. "i just have a feeling." with that, he swooped into the darkness below, leaving gordon behind.

the commisoner turned off the batsignal and looked at the gotham city skyline around him.

"i'm too old for this sh*t," he said to himself.