Mesmera heart raced. The signal had been lit for only a few minutes, yet she could already hear the roar of the Batmobile's jet engine on the streets below. It was time to get into position. She had everything planned out. Her entrance was extremely important.

Batman was racing towards the symbol. He assumed it was Two-Face again. Why was Two-Face giving him so much trouble. Was it the abscense of Dick? Bruce had fought guys like Two-Face for years without Robin. Maybe he was just getting tired, run down. He feared he might be losing his drive. It was important to push

those thoughts out of his mind. He had to focus on Two-Face's latest, or whatever crisis Gordon was calling him in on.
Batman arrived upon the GPD rooftop. He scanned the area for Gordon. No sign of him. This was odd. Gordon had never been late before. Was it some kind of Two-Face trap? Batman prepared for an attack.
He heard footsteps. They didn't sound right though. They sounded like high heels.
His trained senses went into action immediately. He deduced the area in which the steps originated. The shadows were moving and he began to make out a

figure. What a figue it was.
It turned out to be a woman indeed. She had a very feminine gait. She strut around with a seductive confidence that was reminiscient of Catwoman. As she got closer, Batman could see she was staring right at him. There was definitely something dangerous about this woman, no matter how attractive was. She was definitely not a damsel in distress. Her clothing was stylish and quite expensive, a full length mink coat.
"Where's Gordon?", Batman asked. She kept approaching. He wasn't sure when he should begin to take defensive action.
"He's guarding the door to the roof actually.", she said very matter of factly. Batman noticed her voice was smooth like silk.
"Why would he be doing that?", Batman said, still trying to asess the situation.
"Well, two reasons. One, because he thought it would be nice if the two of us had a chance to talk. And two, becuase I told him to", she said.
"You have some kind of hold over him? Threats to his family? Black Mail?"
Mesmera laughed, "Yes, Batman, I have a hold over him. But no, it is not by way of threats or black mail"
Batman just stared at her, trying to size her up. She definitely knew what she was doing, he could tell that by her movements. She was circuling him, like a vulture circles its prey. She was still keeping herself backlit by the batsignal, making it all the harder to get a good look at her face. Batman thought this was to keep him from figuring out who she was, he was wrong. She knew his first sense of her beauty would knock him off guard, she wanted to time that so it would have the greatest impact on her induction.
"Do you believe in hypnosis, Batman?", she said, putting a emphasis on the word hypnosis.
"Are you saying you've hypnotized Gordon", Batman said, trying to remain cool.
At this point she spun around him, causing him to turn and put his back to the light. Her angelic face was now bathed in the soft light of the bat-signal. She said nothing for a moment, just letting him take in her beauty. Letting him notice how her eyes sparkled in the light. She saw him take a few short, extra, breathes as he took her in.
"Yes, I hypnotized him. Tell me Batman, looking into my deep, sparkling eyes, do you really find that so hard to believe?", Mesmera asked, staring deep in his eyes.
"Gordon's a strong willed man", Batman said. He hoped she hadn't noticed how long it took him to come up with an answer. He had to admit, he was a little distracted by her beauty, and her perfume, and her voice. The whole package really. Actually, he could quite easily see how Gordon could be hypnotized by her.
"He is indeed. But when I looked deeep into his eyes, and he let my velvety voice caress his mind, he found that he just melted into a delicious hypnotic trance.", she said.
Batman racked his brain for something witty and tough to say. It wasn't coming, he could just feel her eyes
burning into him. It was like her closeness alone was warming him on this cold Gotham night. Finally he managed to get down to business, "Who are you?"
"You can call me Mesmera ... for now", she purred.
Batman thought about the name. It wasn't a regular name, like Lucy Perkins or Vicky Vale. It was a one word name derived from her M.O., kind of like "the Riddler", or "the Joker", or "the Penguin" ... anyway, the only people who had such names were either superheroes or supervillians. In Gotham, the chances were much higher that it was a super villian. So her name cleared up quite a bit for him. It now became

clear that he had to be strong. He couldn't let her get the best of him, no matter how attractive that option may have seemed at the moment.
Batman gathered the strength to look away from her eyes, "do you have some sort of hypnotic super power?", he asked. From the effect she was having on him, he thought that was probably the case.
Mesmera was annoyed that he broke her gaze. She thoguht she was starting to have him hooked. She could tell by his question that he was feeling her power though.
"What makes you say that Batman?", she toyed.
next page