I will Catch You

Rick PoV

The night is quiet, but the storm clouds make the atmosphere heavy and humid. The rain will soon start to fall.

“Batman, are you there?”

Someone is calling me on the radio. Stupid nickname. Two years ago, they decided to start calling me that and there is no way to avoid it.

“Yes”

“Patrolling the streets as usual? You know that is not your job anymore, you are a detective now, leave the patrol to the officers”

I only half listen to what Ter is saying, as I pass through an alley, I see four guys chasing a girl.

“Ter, I need reinforcements, I have four rape suspects to take into custody” after thinking about it a bit I add “an ambulance wouldn’t hurt either, but tell them to come quietly, I haven’t caught them yet.”

I hear Ter’s laughter on the other side.

“Copy that” he answers, he doesn’t doubt that I’m going to catch them.

I stop the car and walk slowly towards them, watching.

“Come on honey, let’s have some fun” one of them says.

I watch them to learn their movements. One of them, a blond and tanned boy that I’ll call Golden Boy, is just leaning against the wall laughing. Another, skinny with greasy black hair that I nickname Snape tries to hug the girl. A third, with a large tattoo of a viper on his arm, who of course I nickname Viper suddenly grabs her and pushes her against the fourth, much shorter than the others, who I nickname Shorty.

The girl just screams and cries. They start pushing her, passing her from one to the other as if she were a sack of potatoes. I hold back, I must wait a little longer. Suddenly, Viper and Shorty hold her, Snape rips off his shirt making the buttons jump out everywhere and his chest is exposed. Ok, that’s enough to confirm their intentions.

“Hey! What are you doing?” I ask. To them I’m still just a good Samaritan on my way home. I don’t wear a uniform, so nothing gives me away.

“Go on your way and don’t meddle in other people’s business asshole” Golden Boy tells me, I figure he’s the boss.

“Make me” I say tilting my head with a playful smile.

Golden Boy gives an indication to Viper who comes straight to hit me. His intentions are clear from more than two meters away, as he comes with his right fist raised. It’s easy for me to determine where he wants to hit me, so I dodge it and give him a playful slap on the base of his neck.

Seeing this, they throw the girl to the ground who rushes to cover her chest, and they all come against me.

Shorty is the first to try to hit me. Taking advantage of his short stature and small build, he tries to hit my stomach, but I block him and hit him with my fist. I feel a movement behind me and move just in time to prevent Viper from hitting me with a metal bar he found in the alley. I stop the blow of the bar and take it out of him, but instead of hitting him with it, I throw it away, I don’t like using weapons against fists. It’s not fair.

Not content with this, Viper tries to kick me, but I hit his leg halfway and punch him in the nose, hearing it break; He takes a few steps back grabbing his injured nose and I kick him hard in the chest. He falls on the pavement from the force of the blow and hits his head. He doesn’t get up anymore. One less.

Seeing what happened to Viper, the others hesitate, but Golden boy incites them to attack me. Snape kicks me which I block and at the same time I feel a small blow on my back. I turn around and see that Shorty has his fists raised. A smile appears on my face and with a kick I push him against the wall. Two less.

Because of my distraction, Snape manages to punch my face, but of course that doesn’t stop me, it just makes me take things a little more seriously. I quickly approach him and punch him three times in a row with my fists. Before the fourth punch, he falls to the floor unconscious. Three less.

At that moment I hear a noise and raise my arm just in time for a chain to wrap around it. Golden Boy is holding the other end of the chain with a silly smile on his face.

I lower my arm, grab the chain and pull on it, causing Golden Boy to lose his balance and come straight into my fist. When I’m about to knock him unconscious too, I hear a voice calling me.

“Hey Batman, are you done yet?”

“Yeah, you could say so.” I say and hit Golden Boy unconscious.

I approach the girl who jumps towards me and hugs me gratefully. She can’t stop crying.

“Hey Ter! Get the paramedics to attend to…” I look at her, indicating that she should tell me her name

“Samantha” she says between sobs.

“Yes, Samantha. When you are ready you can give your statement at the police station. If they need mine too, they know where to find me” I tell her with a reassuring smile. A nurse arrives and takes care of her.

“You should have asked her for her phone number! With how grateful she was, I’m sure she would have given it to you.”

“It’s not the time to ask for phone numbers now! Besides, you know I don’t like girls!”

“Yeah, but you could have given it to me”

We both laugh and Ter watches as the cops lift the four thugs who are already regaining consciousness and put them in the patrol cars.

“Whoaa... four against one and you only have one little scratch. You sure know how to fight.”

“The man capable of defeating me hasn’t been born yet” I say with a cocky smile.

I walk away from them, get in my car and resume my patrol. A short time later, the storm breaks and torrential rain floods the streets.

At that moment I see a man come out of an alley and start running in the rain. It’s not strange that he runs because everyone is doing it, but there’s something about him that catches my attention. Shortly after, three men appear, but evidently, they can’t see him because after looking around, they go back into the alley.

I know this area and I know who those men work for.

I drive in the direction the man ran and see him stop at the entrance of the park. Smiling, he takes something small out of his pocket, looks at it and after kissing it he puts it back. I know that reaction like the back of my hand. He stole something from Big Papa, and you have to be very good or very stupid to dare to do something like that.

I circle the park guessing where the man is going to come out. I get out of the car and go into the park, waiting for him.

A little later he appears, and I can observe him closely. Wow he is so... sexy! There is not a hint of stupidity in his eyes so I deduce he must be a professional at what he does.

We stayed like that, looking at each other about three meters away, letting the rain hit us.

“Are you going to tell me what you stole from Big Papa, or do I have to take it from you by force?” I say.

He smiles and to my surprise, runs towards me ready to attack.