Chapter 7

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Curtis arrived at Mawk's party the following day an hour ahead of the other guests. The host had asked him to be early to double-check the light system one final time. So, dressed in a suit, Curtis stood outside of the impressive one-story mansion about to get his groove on.

"Welcome back, dude, and thanks for comin' early." Mawk, in sweatpants and a dress shirt, invited Curtis inside. "You know what to do. I'll be back in a minute. Jerome is already inside working on his mixes. Oh, and try to avoid the food area. Caterers are setting up."

Curtis found his way to the party room, thanks to a bunch of duct tape arrows neatly plastered on the walls, and saw that the room was pretty much how he'd left it the night before – but with even more balloons. "Why suits?" He tugged at the sleeves of his dress shirt.

"Mawk thinks it is cool to have parties in expensive clothes," Jerome replied. "But some of us aren't rich. It really curbs clean-up since the guests are more mindful of the food they are eating, what they are holding, and what they are doing, blah blah blah. You get the point."

"Oh."

"To be brutally honest, I hate it," Jerome said bluntly.

Curtis chuckled before ducking under the DJ table to check the wires for the sound system. After a few minutes of inspection and verification that neither Jerome nor Mawk had fiddled with the work he'd done last night, extracted himself from below the table and gave Jerome a thumbs up. "Everything seems to be in order. Give it a jam," he said with a grin.

"What?"

Curtis deflated a little. "Play music."

"Oh, should have just said that. Coming right up." Jerome started a popular electronic beat and then flicked a switch on his computer. Instantly, the lights synced with the music. "Can you imagine experiencing this on acid?" He shouted over the music.

Curtis just shook his head and held his ears.

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Kimber awoke with a start on the rooftop. For a moment, she was afraid and wondered how she'd ended up atop the pharmacy. Then she recalled the events of the night and wished she could forget. Even so, life went on so she had to get up. The sun seemed to be rising and she thanked her lucky stars that it was still early morning. She checked her watch. Or rather it is six-thirty in the evening and the sun is setting. "Oops."

She checked her phone. Five missed calls and three texts. All the calls were from her father, while the texts were from her friends. She scrolled through the notifications absentmindedly. One caught her eye. "Curtis? Oh, Crap! Mawk's party!" Faster than she thought she could go with her injured side, she rushed to her home, doing her best to not be spotted by the citizens of Gotham.

On arrival, she breathed a sigh of relief. The patrol cars were still parked idly on the curb. "Guess they never came in." She snuck back into the house through the same back window she'd used to sneak out, undetected, and looked around. It was clear that her father hadn't been home either. The house was as the investigators left it: kitchen and living room quarantined off for further forensic study. It didn't matter to Kimber, she had a party to go to. After changing into a slim-fit pink and black party dress and packing her Batgirl costume into the trunk of her car, she was off to Mawk's house.

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High fives were flying around the police station. And for good reason. Mr. Death, the first supervillain to terrorize the new Gotham, was in captivity and about to be interrogated and booked. Goren looked around pleased. Everything worked out and no harm came to him or his family... well, not much harm.

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