Batman: The Animated Series - A Bounty Hunter's Love

What Is Reality?

Batman: The Animated Series 'Fan Fiction Love Story'

By Tayla Drago

Episode #42 – What is Reality

On recent occasions, several Gotham City citizens have fallen victim to a mysterious computer hacker. What's more, a strange riddle is left at every scene. First, a late-night jogger tries to make a withdrawal from an ATM, only to have his account wiped clean. With it comes the message, 'Where does a 500-pound gorilla sleep?'. Later, the Stock Market electronic stock ticker is hijacked displaying the question, 'What's worse than a millipede with flat feet?' Finally, the Department of Motor Vehicles is attacked, with its computers displaying the riddle, 'How do you fit 5 elephants into a compact car?' Alfred and Dick both sees that happening...With Gordon telling the news people to back off for he has backup on this one.

"We're doing everything we can! No more questions!" he tries to get into his office to see Megan. "Oh, it's you, Megan. And is Batman...?"

"He is." Megan tells the people to leave. "You heard him, people! Get lost!"

Well, that shuts them all up thanks to Megan. Once inside the office...Megan, Batman, and Commissioner Gordon deduce that Edward Nygma, alias The Riddler, is behind all this.

"Nice one." he said. "I take it you two discovered something big?"

"Looks like Edward Nygma is making a comeback already." said Batman to show himself out of the shadows.

Gordon always jumps when he sees Batman show up out of nowhere.

"Yeah, Nygma. He has deleted all of the data access from the police's data base."

"Yep, Riddler hacked in alright. Very clever and dangerous." Megan checks it out form her computer book. "Must've done it very carefully without anyone else noticing it, I can't even recover the files on my end. It won't work. He knows I too can hack into anything in the systems."

They discover that Nygma is erasing all his personal records from existence.

"That's right, just look at it. He has erased his own personal records, license, and such on here." Gordon shows it to them saying data not found on the computer. "No bank account, no credit cards, not even his own birth information either."

That is rather weird there...

"Is like he wants to not be known." said Megan to guess right.

"Something like him doesn't want to exist at all." and Batman too. "But what about the hard copies of it?"

Just then, Gordon gets a message that a crate with a question mark painted on it has been delivered to the Department, and it's ticking.

"Hello?" Gordon answers the phone. "What?! I'll be right there!" he tells Megan and Batman. "Got something delivered at the station with question marks all over it, and it's ticking."

"Another of Riddler's games I see...Wait! Ticking?!"

Megan didn't like the sound of this at all. Meanwhile, the Police Records Room is evacuated but the guards turn out to be the Riddler's men, and they're stealing the hard copies stored there of Edward Nygma's police file. They take the files to Nygma, and he shreds them. As Gordon and the other bomb squad with many cops all over surround the place; Batman, Megan 'with Gidget's help', and Ronin carefully remove the blocks of the box thing to putting them down on the floor very slowly. All about teamwork for them.

"Gently...Gently..." Robin said. "I think we won't be able to open it this way. What we got here is a handmade Chinese Puzzle Box."

Megan scans it to be the real thing like Robin said, even Gidget knows about it too and nods.