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GCPD: Got Me Singin' Them Penthouse
Blues
February 4th, 2000
<...Chris wrote...>
Wayne pulls into the parking lot of an apartment complex, and tries
to think things through.
Owen: Now what?
Wayne: Wait... isn't that the car, parked across the street?
Chris: Hey, look!
Chris points to a figure running across the lawn, headed for a
security door in the apartment. The three officers leap out of the
car, giving chase. The door seems to open on its own, and their
subject slips through, slamming the door just as they reach it.
Detective Small tugs on the door.
Chris: Locked.
Wayne points to the front.
Wayne: Chris, this way! Owen, you check the back!
The pair and Owen run off in separate directions. Chris and Wayne
enter the building by the front door, almost bowling over the doorman.
They flash their badges.
Wayne: GCPD!
Chris: Wayne, what were you thinking, sending him off alone like that?
One of us should be keeping an eye on him!
Wayne: Don't worry, I think he's clean.
Chris: But... well, you know that JC007 character?
Wayne: Yeah, Chris, I know. But Loren says he's with us now...
The two locate the security door, and make their way in, searching,
asking people in the halls if they saw anything.
Chris: I still don't trust that guy.
Just outside, Owen races around back, and finds a basement door
unlatched.
Owen: Good thing Wayne kept Lt. Small with him... I don't trust that guy.
The door slams behind him, and Owen finds it locked.
???: Tsk tsk... Awful amateurish of you, eh, Mr. Allaway?
Owen turns in alarm.
Meanwhile, back inside the apartment area, a large, dark woman stands
at the end of the hall. She has a baby carriage with some sort of package
strapped to it.
Woman: He went in there!
Chris and Wayne follow her pointed finger to the elevator.
Another doorman stands by the door.
Doorman: I was watching. It went up to the 27th floor.
Wayne: Second from the top...?
Doorman: Yeah, but another man and woman came in, and went to the top
floor. Then it was called down to
the basement.
Wayne (hitting the elevator buttons): It's stuck. C'mon, Chris,
we'll
take the stairs.
Chris (as he runs after Wayne): Okay, but why was that guy paying so
much
attention to where the elevator
was
going?"
In the complex's basement, Owen turns to see the Huntress laying on
the floor, with her legs and arms tied together behind her.
Owen: Well, well... if it isn't one of Gotham's vigilante personae.
Might I ask how you got yourself into this little
predicament?
Helena: I was fighting with my sock drawer and lost, smart guy.
Get me untied!
Owen kneels down and unbinds the Huntress.
Owen: Alright, where is he?
Helena: On the top floor.
Owen strides over to the elevator, where the Huntress had knocked
over a pile of boxes, jamming the doors open.
Owen: Twenty-eight floors? Good. We'll go up to twenty-seven, and
then take the stairs.
He presses the appropriate button.
Helena: *We* will...?
She folds her arms and looks at him as the elevator doors close.
Helena: I have my own routes, and can make my own decisions, thank
you very much.
Owen shrugs and looks up as the elevator ascends.
Further up in the complex, Wayne and Chris burst into room 404M,
eyes wide.
Wayne: I wish we brought our guns...
There is no one there. The pair check each room carefully.
Wayne: No one.
Chris leans back onto a table.
Chris: I can't believe it...
As he leans back, Chris knocks into a bust of Shakespeare sitting
on the table.
Wayne: Chris! Look out!
Chris turns around, and steadies the bust.
Chris: Geez... I almost wreaked someone's apartment... Wayne? What are
you looking at?
Wayne stares at the far wall, which has opened itself to reveal a
dark passageway.
Chris: Well...what are we waiting for?
Chris and Wayne stumble down the passage and into a large room. As
they do so, the secret passage closes, plunging them into darkness.
Chris pulls a lighter from his pocket, and flicks it on. The room
is filled with large stuffed animals, some bigger than they are. A long
row of tin soldiers, about three feet high, stand at attention nearby.
Detective Small can just make out a small merry-go-round at the edge of
the darkness. Out of the dark, a soft, bemused chuckling breaks the
silence. There is someone else in the room.
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