Grant's Gym, Gotham City, July 28th, 1987
"Ah, and our last guest is here!"
There's a click and a rush of heat from the summer day outside as the front door to the gym opens, and Jack Napier steps inside, his jacket hanging over one arm, and his dress shirt stained with sweat around the collar, the sleeves rolled up in a vain attempt at alleviating the heat. I can see relief flash across his face as the gyms air conditioner pushes out a burst of cool air.
"Sorry I'm late, traffic was a nightmare on the way here, and the darn bus broke down a few blocks from my stop, so I had to walk the rest of the way here. Good to see you again, Flagg!" He smiles and nods towards me, before his eyes drift towards the other two people in the room. "And, ah, I don't believe we've met..?"
"No, I don't think you would have. Come on in, I'll introduce you to everyone!" I motion for him to follow as I begin walking towards the cluster of chairs set up in front of the boxing ring that takes up the middle of the room. In one chair sits Victor, while Ted in his civilian identity occupies the second. The two get to their feet as I bring the last arrival over.
"Jack Napier, I'd like you to meet Dr. Victor Fries, a client of mine for a recent case. Some of the things we discovered during said case is why I asked you to meet with us." The two men give a quick handshake, Jack quickly wiping the sweat off his hand on his trousers before shaking "And this older gentlemen who looks like he eats scrap iron for breakfast is Ted Grant, former heavyweight boxer. He's been giving me boxing lessons for a while!"
"Pleased to meetcha!" Ted says, grinning, before giving Jack a good deal sturdier handshake than Victor did. While we haven't actually told Victor that Wildcat and Ted are the same person, I can't imagine the doctor hasn't worked it out already. Then again, this is a universe where glasses and a different haircut is apparently a foolproof disguise, so who knows?
Either way, Ted said he didn't mind if Victor figured it out before I called either him or Napier over, but regardless, he's here as a friend of mine rather than a retired superhero.
"Uh, pleased to meet you too, sir!" Jack says, looking a little rattled from the handshake, and I notice that there's no recognition in his eyes. Not exactly a surprise I guess, Ted is a fairly big name in boxing history from what I've read, but he's not a household name like Muhammad Ali or Mike Tyson, so he's not part of mainstream pop culture the way they are. Jack Napier isn't exactly a sports fan, so there's little reason for him to have heard of Ted. "So, Flagg, not that it's not nice to see you again, but what's this meeting about? You were a bit vague about it on the phone..."
"Right, sorry, it's kind of a long story. Let's have a seat, shall we?" I point him towards the remaining free chair, before sitting down in my own, waiting for the others to get seated before I start "Alright, so, Dr.Fries and Ted already knows what I'm about to tell you, they saw everything first hand, but since you weren't there... I'm afraid Gotham City is about to deal with a very unpleasant pest infestation..."
"Um..." Jack blinks "This... doesn't seem like your usual line of business. Is this... for a case you're working on, or..?"
"No, it's more a civic duty kind of thing, and you know me, I don't do the hero thing unless the situation absolutely calls for it. This isn't really something I can leave to fester while I wait for a paycheck."
"Yeah, but pest infestation, that seems a little... I mean, is it mosquitos or something? I know they can carry diseases..."
"Heh, you could say that!" Ted says with a bitter laugh "Biggest, ugliest darned mosquitos you ever see in your life!"
I nod "Irony aside, it's not too far from the truth. It's vampires!"
Jack simply stares at me for a moment. "...you know, if ANYONE else had told me that, I would have assumed I was being pranked or scammed or something, but considering what you've already shown me, I'm going to take it at face value."
"Glad to hear it, it was getting kind of annoying to have to pitch the reality of the world everytime I have to explain something to someone!"
Jack nods "Yeah, I mean, compared to that big zombie guy you took me to see out in the swamps, vampires are almost a step down!"
"Hold on, big zombie guy? Are you talking about-" Ted gapes, turning to look at me "You took him out to meet SOLOMON GRUNDY?! Jesus, kid, I didn't think I punched you THAT hard during training!"
"It's fine, Ted, honestly. Grundy is in one of his "nice" stages right now, remember? Otherwise I wouldn't have brought Jack out with me."
"Um..?" Victor interjects, raising one hand slightly "What's this about a zombie? We're dealing with zombies too?"
"No, no, Grundy isn't... look, we're getting off track. The issue of the day is vampires, namely that there's a very powerful one in Gotham, so I had you all gather here so we can prepare before we're up to our eyebrows in newborn vampires. It's like an STD, guys, it starts with one, and before you know it the whole block is infected, so I'm going to try to at least slow the spread a bit. So, in the spirit of vampire prevention, I gathered some supplies for us. Ted?"
Ted stands up from his seat and kneels down by the side of the boxing ring, reaching under the tarp and dragging out a pair of cardboard boxes, which he quickly slides over towards Victor and Jack. The two glance at eachother, before reaching down and opening the containers, revealing several plastic bottles filled with a clear liquid, each bottle having a cross drawn on it in black marker. Stashed next to the bottles is a plain wooden cross, and a sharpened pole made of stainless steel.
"I thought you had to use wooden stakes?" Jack says as he picks up the metal pole, examining it. "And what's in these bottles? Is this..?"
"Holy water, yup! A catholic priest I talked to was helpful enough to supply me. And I don't think the stake has to be made of wood, the one I fought, I just cut his head off. Oh, and he also got stabbed with a sword. Also, does everyone here believe in God?"
There's another pause as everyone looks at eachother, before turning their attention back to me. Jack is the first to answer.
"I mean, I'm protestant, so yes?"
"I'm mostly agnostic myself..." Victor responds, scratching the back of his head awkwardly. "Does that really matter?"
"For the cross? Yes, which is why I'm not using it myself. Unlike the holy water, you can use it more than once, but the drawback is, it requires a specific mindset to work. Weaker vampires will be affected anyway, but for the stronger ones to be repelled, you need to have a genuine belief in what it symbolizes. A genuine belief in God, and more importantly, a belief in Jesus Christ, the whole water-into-wine, raising-the-dead, dying-on-the-cross thing."
Honestly, religion is one of the things I've tried to avoid giving any real thought to since coming here. I know I can't take everything I remember from the comics at face value, and they were pretty inconsistent with how religion worked in the setting anyway. In my old life, I was baptized as a Protestant when I was born, but my parents weren't religious, baptism, weddings, funerals, it's been cultural for longer than I've been born. I was technically still a member of the Church of Sweden when I came here, but I've been an atheist for my entire adult life, which leaves me in a bit of a tight spot here. From what I can tell, genuine faith WILL repell even the strongest vampire, but I don't know if that's because the thing the person believes in is real, or because they're effectively turning their faith into a spell. I do remember that the comics were kinda vague on wether or not Jesus existed, even with The Presence and the Silver City and jerkass angels being around.
I could try asking John Constantine, but that would involve having to talk to John Constantine.
"That seems... unreliable..." Victor says, turning over the cross in his hand and running his fingers along the surface. It's a plain, wooden one, I opted against getting any of the ones with an actual Jesus figure on it, both to make them easier to carry, and because I find them morbid and offputting. I'm fairly certain that the added imagery of a tortured, half-dead man won't offer any added protection.
"It's faith, Dr. Fries. Like magic, but with less predictable results. If anyone here was muslim or Hindu, I'd have brought along some of their symbols as well. The holy water will work either way, the power lies in the faith of the man who blessed it, not in the person who's throwing it at the vampires." And if I were a betting man, I'd bet pretty heavily that Father Craemers piety is real. "But yeah, don't use the cross unless you're confident in your beliefs-"
"Hand me one, Flagg!" Ted's voice interrupts me, and I look up in surprise to see him holding his hand out expectantly. I glance down at the cross still in the box, and pick it out, handing it over to him.
"Ah, you sure, Ted? You never struck me as the most religious person..."
"Then the vamps will have a surprise coming, won't they?"
I pause "...fair enough. Alright, just to sum things up, you'll be safe during the day, the vampires will be asleep between dawn and dusk, and I don't expect there to be too many of them already, but if you have to leave your homes at night, make sure you bring both a cross and a bottle of holy water with you, alright? And preferably the stake too. And this is Gotham, so I probably don't need to tell any of you natives to avoid this, but whatever you do, do NOT under any circumstances invite strangers inside! In fact, if someone you already know, even a loved one, show up after dark and asks to be let in, take a good look at them. If they're acting strangely, and if their eyes have turned yellow, turn them away! The vampires can't come inside without your permission."
"Um, not that I don't appreciate the heads up, because I REALLY do..." Jack says, holding up one of the water bottles and watching it slosh around inside "But, erm, shouldn't you be telling this to... the authorities? I know the police probably won't believe it, but surely, there must be SOMEONE...right?"
"That is an EXCELLENT question! Ted?"
"I got in contact with our... mutual aquintance. He said he'd be handling the problem."
.......
The Roof Of the GCPD, Later That Evening....
The smoke lazily drifting up from James Gordons cigarette moved slightly in the breeze heralding the arrival of his outside consultant, as the commissioner occasionally thought of his masked ally. A shadow moved in the corner of his eye, away from the light shining from the spotlight behind him, and Gordon turned, tossing the cigarette stub off the side as he moved.
"Took you longer than I thought. Traffic too heavy on the rooftops?"
"There were... complications in the investigation I'm pursuing..." The hoarse answer came. In the shadows, The Batman rose to his full height, his cape draped over his body, making him blend into the darkness. Gordon knew the man was flesh and blood like anyone else, but it was times like this, with only a pair of white eyes staring at him from the shadows, that he understood why he freaked people out so much. "I take it you called me here for the body that was brought in yesterday morning?"
Gordon nodded, hands idly reaching for another cigarette before he caught himself. "Workers found 'em over by the Five Points subway construction. Two older men, judging by their clothes they were both homeless. Coroner couldn't figure out what they died from, no drugs or alcohol in the system, the only injuries he could find were old, and probably just came from the risks of living on the streets. And this morning..."
"...they'd both disappeared from the morgue." Batman finished for him, and Gordon nodded again.
"No idea how it happened, no one on the night shift saw anything, or if they did, they're not telling. I don't like accusing my men without proof, but you know as well as I do the kind of corruptions we had around here. You don't suppose this is Doctor Death's doing? Maybe he's looking for new material for his work? He could've bribed someone..."
The Batman shook his head slightly "No, Doctor Death remains at large, but this isn't his doing. Unfortunately, my sources have indicated that this is a new culprit..."
"Perfect, that's just perfect..." Gordon sighed, looking out over the city "We're still not any closer on catching that sick bastard, and now we got some new creep to deal with on top of him. I don't suppose you got any leads on who this new guy is?"
"I don't have a "who", commissioner. But I do have a "what". And you and your men are going to need to be prepared..."
There was movement as The Batman opened one of the pouches on his belt, and withdrew a small glass object. As he held it out, Gordon could finally make out what it was. A glass vial, with a familiar symbol etched into it.
"...PLEASE tell me this is your idea of a joke..."933