“Alright kid.
This?
You’re gonna have to explain this.” Bullock was flummoxed.
Confused.
Off center.
They’d gotten another nine-one-one call, seventh one today, but this one involved two things that managed to get everyone in the station moving all at once.
Police were canvassing the entirety of the alley the kid had been in, and Commissioner Gordon was busy talking to some paramedics.
“Well, I was in here playing with a bunch of stray cats.” The kid, Leslie, waved in the general direction of the alleyway.
“And then I heard a kind of fwumping noise.
Like someone tossed a bag of trash in the dumpster.
Except heavier?
Denser maybe?
Anyway I went and took a look since it scared the cats off of me.
And I forgot this is Gotham.” Bullock dutifully wrote down what he heard.
The kid was even using descriptions, which were going to be helpful when he had to explain this to the chief.
“Turns out it’d been a person instead of trash.
Tall, but I’m not sure how tall.
He was laying down and his fursuit had ears on it.” There was a sharp click as the detective pushed down on his pencil hard enough to snap the lead.
“Could you repeat that last bit?” There was no way the kid had called the caped crusaders costume a- “The fursuit?
Was black and gray, had tiny little ears right on top, spray-on abs and he had a thick yellow belt.
Probably full of, uh, supplies.
I asked the guy if he was alive, or at least awake and he groaned.
So then I asked him if he needed an ambulance.” Bullock almost grinned as he wrote down what he was hearing.
There was definitely going to be a copy getting passed around the bullpen tonight.
“Then this other dude drops down from a nearby building.
Which is a little nuts, ‘cuz the shortest apartment on one side here is four stories tall, and this giant walking slab of Mexican muscle says ‘Run along, Nino.
It is not wise to interfere in my affairs’.
I’m talking six and a half feet tall, leather pants, leather vest and an honest to god gimp mask.
With spikes.” “Can you describe the placement of the spikes, kid?” The detective needed a moment.
He wanted to laugh, but that wouldn’t be professional.
“Yeah.
You know those dog collars drug dealers get to make their pitbull look mean?
With spikes going all around it?
The giant was wearing one of those around the base of his neck.” The kid was fiddling with his phone as he talked.
The screen looked like it was cracked to hell and back, how Leslie was using it Bullock would never know.
“Alright kid, got it.
And then what happened?” “Well, I did the smart thing and started backing away.
I don’t know what the beef is between furries and the BDSM guys, but I didn’t want to be in the middle of it.
And then I made the stupid mistake of opening my mouth.” Leslie grinned sheepishly, but Bullock got the feeling this is where his headache would start.
“Alright.
What’d ya say?” “I asked him if the guy in the fursuit had hired him as a professional dom, or if he just had a thing against furries.” Bullock had to stop.
This was gold, pure gold.
“So the guy says to me “Nino, I do not think you understand what is going on.” and I told him “I’m thirteen.
We covered this in health class.”.
I think he was a bit confused.
Then he picked up a dumpster.
I mean that literally.
This dude picked up a freaking dumpster.
Lifted it right over his head.
He said “You should look away.
This will be messy.” and I guess he was right.
‘Cuz he tried to turn back to the other dumpster and well…
He sort of dropped it on himself?” “An’ that’s when you called nine-one-one?” Bullock didn’t figure there was too much else to the story.
Though, that didn’t explain why they’d found Bane and not Batman.
“Well, yeah.
After I stopped recording.” Leslie handed over his phone, the video already up and ready to play.
Bullock took it and pressed go.
It started with just a video of the kid scratching a cat under the chin, another one trying to fight for some attention and, honestly, Bullock is a little surprised.
He was half expecting to see the kid torturing a cat or somethin’ else grim and awful.
Then there was a crash from somewhere off screen and the cats bolted off.
The kid had walked up to the dumpster, just like he said, and lyin’ in there in a heap was the Batman.
The kid poked him in the face a few times and asked if he was alive.
When the Bat groaned and struggled to move instead of breathing out a death rattle, Bullock would admit he felt relieved.
After that, it all went just as the kid said.
Down to asking those same weird questions and Bane being his usual, weirdly genteel self.
One thing the detective caught, but couldn’t explain, was why he could hear Leslie snap his fingers just before Bane’s legendary strength failed him.
Although it seemed the kid hadn’t actually stopped recording to make a phone call, like he’d said.
He was definitely sounding panicked while he was on the phone with the operator and looking over Bane to describe his injuries.
The phone was jerking around and unstable, but he could easily see it when Robin showed up, likely in the kids blindspot, and with way more ease than the detective would expect from a kid his size, carry the Bat out of the dumpster in a fireman’s carry.
“Oh…
That was really, really stupid.” Bullock looked up when Leslie spoke, apparently as surprised as he was about the extra footage.
“Why’s that?” “The guy in the fursuit fell at least four stories.
If he had a back or neck injury, that kid coulda just killed him.” “Not gonna comment on his outfit?” “He’s dressed up in every color of clay pigeon?” The rest of Bullock’s questioning was pretty standard and, after getting the kid to sign a sworn statement and getting a copy of the video he let him go.
As he was reviewing his notes an all too ugly grin spread across his face.
Yeah, the commissioner might have a bit of a man-crush on the Bat Man, but everyone else in the station?
They were gonna love this.
—– Leslie stumbled home in a bit of a daze.
Today had gone…
Today had been…
He didn’t even know.
He’d only completed the first four of the exercise quests, but he didn’t feel motivated to do the rest.
He’d picked up enough litter to cover the difference in GP, so that wasn’t a total loss.
And then there was this…
—Enemy Defeated!– –Eduardo Durrance X1!– –You have gained 7000 XP!– –You have gained 5000 GP!– –You have reached Level: 6!– –You have 25 unused stat points!– –You have 3 unused perk points!– All he’d done was cast Esuna.
That, that was all he’d done.
A half-baked idea while he was panicking.
He checked his stat page.
His attributes had gone up from the minor quests he’d done, which was nice.
He also had twenty-five points to distribute where he wanted.
He put ten into intelligence, bringing it up to seventeen and giving him a total of sixty-five MP.
Ten also went into wisdom, bringing it up to seventeen as well, which meant his MP would regenerate by seventeen percent per hour.
The other five went into vitality.
With that, and the four he’d gained from the exercise quests, he had fourteen points, which equated into two-hundred and eighty HP.
He had five-thousand, nine-hundred and five GP.
He’d worry about spending it and his perk points tomorrow.
Today, he needed today to be…
Just not today.
******************************************** Stats!
Name: (????) Leslie Winters Race: Human Level: 6 GP: 5905 Stats- HP: 280 MP: 65 -STR: 9 -VIT: 14 -DEX: 5 -AGI: 9 -INT: 17 -WIS: 17 -LUK: 6 Abilities: -None!
Spells: -Esuna (1) Inventory: -Skillbooks — Transmutation (Unread) -Spellbooks — Esuna (Read) — Protect (Unread) — Cure (Unread)