Topic 1: Your two favorite books merged. What do you get?

By: Shehroze Ahmed

It was late in the night, almost 11:00. He walked over to a nearby unattended newspaper stand, his posture suggested he wanted his movements to be subtle. He picked up a newspaper to check the date.

"9th January, 1886.", he read. "Perfect. Let's just hope it's not too late." Giving a satisfied look, he walked into Baker Street, checking all the houses on the go, and suddenly he stopped, right in front of 221B.

"Here we are. And i'm just in time.", he said, as he saw a horse carriage pull up at the corner of the street. 

Emerging from the carriage, were two gentlemen, both dressed in overcoats. One of them, quite tall, was wearing a deerstalker and smoking a pipe. The other, was strongly built but short. They were just going up into the apartment when a distant cry attracted the attention of the two men.

"And here comes the party!" said the masked figure as he saw a man running in their direction.

"John! He's here, John!", the man cried.

"Dear oh Dear! Pennyworth?", the shorter of the two gentlemen exclaimed in surprise.

In reaching the two gentlemen, the man fell on his knees and injured himself.

"He's here, John! He found me.", he said to the shorter of the two gentlemen, "You were right, we shouldn't have taken it. I...I'm sorry, John! Don't let them take it. Don't...", the man fell on his chest and collapsed, revealing the stab wound on his side.

"What is it, Watson? Who is he?" the other man asked.

"Holmes, this is..."

"Harold J.Pennyworth, Watson's war friend", Watson was interrupted by the masked man, who walked in on the scene.

"Then I think I should extend my question to you, my friend. Who are you?", Holmes continued.

"I'm Batman.", came the reply. "But i'm afraid i don't have time for introductory speeches. Watson, i wanna know where Harold hid the Afghan Adamant?"

"The Afghan Adamant?", Holmes exclaimed. Watson was befoddled too.

"How do you know about it?", Watson asked.

"No Time! Look, i know you smuggled the diamond into England with Harold. And i'm sure you know where it is. Harold here, has been killed because of it. There are gonna be more deaths if you don't get rid of it now."

Holmes and Watson were left speechless.

"Very well, come with me.", Watson said as he hailed a cab, "Thames Graveyard", he told the cabman.

They were on their way.

"So, you're a private investigator and vigilante, FROM THE FUTURE? How absurd is that?", Holmes chuckled as Batman told his account on the way.

"It sounds absurd, yeah. But it's the truth. Almost a century and half from now...", he looked to Watson, "...your great grandson, Jack T.Watson, is gonna find the Afghan Adamant and he's gonna be attacked as well, just like Harold was. Before dying, he'll send it too my butler, Alfred, Harold's great grandson. My butler's gonna be attacked too. That's why I'm here, with the help of a little something called a Time Machine. I need to make sure this curse ends, because in the future, Alfred's life is in the balance.", Batman revealed.

"Well, how do I know you're not just making this up and trying to get your hands on the diamond yourself?", Watson questioned.

"Those people who killed Harold, they were from Dilawar Khan's family, weren't they? The diamond is theirs, right? How would i make this up?", Batman made his statement. Even Holmes looked satisfied now.

"Very well, Batman.", Holmes said.

The cab reached the graveyard, on the bank of the viscious Thames. Watson led Holmes and Batman into the most horrifying setting of the graveyard. A cold breeze blew as the trio arrived at an old tree.

"This is where we hid it. We'll have to do a little digging.", Watson said as he pointed to the shovels that were lying on the ground.

They dug for a long time at the base of the tree, until Holmes' shovel hit something. It was a chest, which he pulled out. Watson opened it, and amazed were the other two people on this adventure. There it was, The Afghan Adamant, possibly the biggest diamond anyone had ever seen.

"Here it is, this is the guilt with which i live everyday.", Watson said in disappointment.

"You have a beautiful guilt, Watson. My guilt is not...", Batman was interrupted.

"Look out!", Holmes shoved Watson away. They were attacked by an man, in robes, and a gloved blade in his right hand.

"Dilawar! I thought you were dead!", Watson guttedly said as he looked at the attacker.

"Give me the diamond, you scoundrel. It belongs to us.", said the man, his accent was Afghan.

"You can have it! Just let us go!", Watson pleaded.

"Let you go? Oh no! I'm gonna wash this dishonour that has come to our family, with your blood."

"Here's more dishonor for you to wash. *Zapp*", Batman said as he electrocuted the Afghan with a shock to his scrotum. He was dead.

"What's that?", Holmes asked in wonder.

"This? Mr.Holmes, this is the Taser Gun. Here, keep it, a souvenier from the future."

Holmes smiled, and pushed the gadget into his coat pocket.

"I know just the place for this rock!", Watson said, after which he walked to the river and threw it in. Batman bid farewell to the duo and opened the portal to his time using the uplink on his gadget.

"I can't seem to understand one thing, Batman. How did you deduce our identities? How did you know we're the ones you were looking for?", Holmes questioned

"Elementary, Mr.Holmes. You are the greatest detective in history. Everyone knows you.", Batman proceeded and stopped again, "That, and the deerstalker gave you away." he finished off.

And poof, the Batman vanished into thin air, leaving a proud smirk on Holmes' face. Holmes and Watson returned to Baker Street, where surprisingly this time, Holmes went to sleep while Watson started adding 'The Adventure of the Dark Knight' to his memoirs.