Disclaimer: You know the drill. Story's mine, character's aren't. All rights are reserved so hard they leave a crater.

It said something about Gotham that a pizza delivery driver getting attacked and robbed by a giant bat was not the strangest thing to happen there. Commissioner Gordon looked down at the kid, who couldn't have been much older than nineteen, wrapped in a shock blanket and drinking stale cop coffee with his face as pale as milk. He still had on the blue and red hat with "Domino's" written on the front.

"Look, nobody's going to make fun of you," Gordon said. "Just tell us what happened."

The kid took a sip of coffee and grimaced at the taste. "I had just left the store for a round of deliveries," he said. "I had a full load of pizzas, and I had just turned onto Main Street when I saw this shadow pass overhead. I didn't worry about it because, you know, I thought it was that Bat guy, but then…" He shivered. "Then this thing lands on the hood of the car and screeches at me. I slam on the brakes-you know, who wouldn't-and it rolls off, but it's back up in a second and runs around to the driver's side of the car. I lock my door, but it just busts open the window in the rear door and rips the whole goddamn door off. Now, I'm pissing myself, getting ready to try for the passenger door and hoof it, but it just grabs a bunch of my pizzas and flies off." He took another drink of his coffee and grimaced again. "I'll be damned if those pizzas are coming out of my paycheck."

Gordon wasn't sure if this last remark said more about the kid's priorities, or his supervisor's, but in the end that was beyond his pay grade. In any case, the kid's car was scratched all to hell, and it did have a back door torn off, so it was clear that this was worth investigation.

Again, the fact that it happened was not the strangest thing to happen in Gotham. The fact that it was the fourth such incident this week was.

It looked like he was going to have to talk to a friend about this…

Gordon was up on the roof of the GCPD building for only five minutes before he got the familiar sensation of filled space behind him. Why the man didn't approach people from the front like a normal person… on second thought, that question probably answered itself.

"Looks like the Man-Bat is on the hunt again," Gordon said, turning to face the black-clad vigilante.

"The pattern's changed again," Batman said.

Gordon nodded. "A 24-hour convenience store, a family of four picking up some fried chicken, a guy leaving a Chinese takeout, and now a pizza delivery driver. In each case he took the food and left the people alone, thank God. It's like he's got the munchies or something."

"Or he's hunting," Batman replied.

Gordon frowned. "Hunting? You mean he's gone feral?"

"If that were the case he'd be going after live animals, not prepared food. This isn't the behavior of a wild animal."

Gordon sighed. "Well, it sure as hell looks like it from my point of view. We've got a neighborhood of scared people who are afraid to get fast food at night." He shook his head. "It reminds me of when my wife was pregnant with Barbara. I had to go out all hours of the night whenever she got her cravings. It got so I had to make her promise to stop eating Taco B—" He looked up at the changed note of the nearby silence.

Batman was gone.

The bastard.

End Chapter 1.