Scruff here. Sis sent me to watch Alice Slate, lead actress in Galliard's butchering of 'The Adventurer. Unfortunately for me Alice was staying in a room somewhere near the top of the Excel Hotel. That meant I was sitting on the hotel roof , dressed as Robin (as in Batman and...). Don't get me wrong, I like helping Sis fight crime, but sometimes I wish it could be a little warmer - and I don't mean maybe. Not that the costume wasn't quite warm, but it leaves part of my arms exposed, and even wrapped in the cape I still felt cold.
I'd chosen the easy option for watching Alice Slate - I had my laptop with me and it was hooked into the hotel's security cameras, watching the corridor outside her room. Of course, if anything happened I'd still have to get up and do the action stuff that my costume was designed for,but I'm okay with that. Sis keeps me trained for fighting, even though I prefer to be her computer support. I don't really enjoy spending my time of a cold hotel roof in Docklands watching an empty corridor on a computer screen. Still, I settled down to do my watching.
Then the picture went out.
Great! I jumped to my feet, grabbed the line that I'd already secured in case something happened, and dropped off the roof.
The line stopped me just outside Alice Slate's hotel room. Looking in (she hadn't drawn her curtains), I saw her lying on the bed watching TV. I sort of wished I could do the same thing, but crime-fighting's taking over my life, ever since I moved in with Sis. Not that I mind, of course. It's a whole lot better than school or my old home with the Peroxide Peril (otherwise known as my evil stepmother).
Everything looked nice and peaceful, and I was starting to feel a bit silly, hanging by a rope from the roof of a hotel.
Then Alice Slate got up and went to the door.
It was suddenly foorced in. She fell back before a tall figure in black.
That was when I acted. I pushed myself away from the building with all the force I could muster. As I swung back, my boots crashed throught the window, and I landed on the carpet.
Alice was screaming, looking up at the tall black figure. It was covered from head to toe, a black cloak, black mask, and black trilby hat. And it held a knife in its right hand.
"No!" I pulled something from my belt and jumped at the figure.
Understandably startled by the appearance of an untidy teenage girl in a comic-book costume, the would-be killer paused. I bunged the folding grappling-hook Sis had given me at him, then followed it up with the remote control from the hotel room's TV.
Then I picked up the TV and threw that at him too. It caught him off balance and he fell to the floor. The knife went spinning away across the floor. That gave me an opening. I threw myself onto his prone for and grabbed his cloak.
"Is this a publicity stunt or are you just an over-obsessive fan?" I asked.
Unfortunately I don't pin people to the floor very well. The black-clad figure rose to his feet and threw me across the room. I landed on top of Alice Slate, and the actress screamed. Then the man in black was gone, leving me lying on top of a scared and under-dressed actress.
"Hi," I said cheerily. "Sorry about the window and the TV."
"Who are you?" she asked.
"Your bodyguard. Didn't anyone say you had one?"
"What, a pint-sized teenager in a comic-book costume?"
"Look, while you were screaming like a hysterical something, I saw off a man who was about to stick a knife in you!" I protested. "You'd be dead if it wasn't for me!"
"Miss Slate!"
Jumping to my feet, I faced a member of hotel security.
"Hi," I said.
"Who are you? What did you do?"
"I'm a bodyguard assigned to Miss Slate by a party interested in her safety, and I just saw off a man who tried to kill her."
"And I'm Mickey Mouse, 'Robin'! Come on..."
I left through the window. Honestly, that's all the thanks I get for saving a life!
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