A Diamond in the Scruff

## Bargain-Bin Cinematic Universe

**A Diamond in the Scruff** or **Pilot** is he first episode of the first season of The Sensational Cat-Man

## Synopsis

David Merryweather is back. THE SENSATIONAL CAT-MAN is on the case!

## Plot

An unknown person narrates the origin of David Merryweather also known as Cat-Man, how as a baby he was abandoned after the murder of his family. David is later found by Tigress a mother tiger who raises him and after he learns the ways of the jungle, Tigress returns David to America only for David to find America is filled with crime. So to solve this issue David takes on the superhero alias of Cat-Man and due to his time in Africa, David has gained an extraordinary amount of super abilities including in case he died Nine Lives.

David is in his office typing when he meets with Ellie-Mae Williams, Ellie-Mae tells David of her case that the diamond at her family's mansion was stolen. Ellie-Mae informs David that what she's telling him requires a great amount of discretion to which David states his methods require a great amount of discretion. Ellie-Mae asks how well David knows her and David goes through Ellie-Mae's family history going as far back as her father Harkin Williams. Ellie-Mae then informs David of the robbery and informs him of the item that was stolen from her mansion and the manner of how it was thieved David asks if she's told the police or the press or anything like that and Ellie-Mae states that she has not told either due to knowing that if she does so word will somehow get out and she rather not have her family name connected to the scandal. Ellie-Mae then claims to know everything about David to which David nervously jokes that he hopes not mostly due to his secret identity, Ellie-Mae goes through David's known history in the U.S. and his work with major Albert Custard.

Ellie-Mae states that she finds it strange for how much Albert knows about David yet nothing about David has ever shown in the papers and that if David is invisible to the world, he's exactly the man she needs. David accepts the case but tells Ellie-Mae that in order to do that he needs access with everything to do with the case to which Ellie-Mae accepts and leaves thankful that David has taken the case. David later heads over to the mansion where the Williams family butler Gerald is and inspects the house, he goes to where the diamond was and finds that the class has been shattered even though according to Gerald the glass was very strong and breaking it could've injured the diamond. However upon close examination David notices scorch marks meaning some possibly used something more akin to a blowtorch on the glass case, the lights then go out and Gerald stumbles around looking for the lights meanwhile David activates his night-vision abilities allowing him to see in the dark with the vision of a normal man. While in the dark David spots a card while Gerald gets to the lights and eventually turns them on, David shows Gerald the card and asks if Gerald recognizes it but Gerald does not.

David heads over to the New York Police Department and asks police captain Knox if he recognizes the card which Knox states that he does as it is the calling card of a group called the Scarab a trading syndicate from Egypt. David asks what they could be doing stealing a diamond from Ellie-Mae to which the police captain states he doesn't know as he doesn't have enough clearance, Mary November the department's forensic scientist dusts the finger prints before returning the card back to David stating that there weren't many but enough to be recognized through the police database. David apologizes to Mary for "taking her away from her work" but Mary states that what David is having her do is the most exciting thing she's been able to do all day, the police captain gets embarrassed and hints at telling her to get out which she easily takes. David puts 2 and 2 together and realizes the thieves are leaving cards for their victims to find, Knox tells David to be careful as whatever Ellie-Mae has gotten herself into could be dangerous for the both of them.

David and Mary look over the card's finger prints and find they belong to one Abasi Ibrahim, Abasi has many aliases and has apparently been to prison a few times but posted bail before any major prison time could occur. David asks if he has travel history which he evidently does apparently with the Scarab and it has the same decal as on the card. Meanwhile at the airport, Abasi and his crew rush to get to the auction where the diamond is being sold however there are technical issues preventing them from leaving, Abasi orders his men to find away or answer to Dalia herself. Abasi heads into a room where he senses someone's presence and tells the person they have a chance to show themself before being a thief in the dark, David in his Cat-Man persona shows himself. Abasi makes a comment about cats and how they supposedly have nine lives and he wants to find out if such a thing is true, Cat-Man and Abasi battle and Cat-Man at first appears to be winning, however Abasi gets the upper hand and snaps Cat-Man's neck killing him.

Abasi after having murdered Cat-Man tells his men to toss his corpse away, however in the Spirit Realm, Tigress, Cat-Man's adoptive mother puts her paw on Cat-Man granting him a revival via his Nine (now 8) lives. The men go to deal with Cat-Man and notice the snapped neck, one of the men goes to take Cat-Man's mask off however Cat-Man now alive beats the criminals and follows Abasi to the auction, not wanting to miss the auction he changes back into his civilian attire of David Merryweather. David meets up with Ellie-Mae as his "date" to the auction to get him in, David hopes that Knox filled her in and Ellie-Mae states that he did but warns David that she is staking her family's entire reputation in David's hands which he understands. The 2 got to the diamond where an Auctioneer begins auctioning items, however one item he attempts to auction off Abasi and his gang force him to skip so he can get to the diamond, however when multiple people begin betting on it Abasi takes things into his own hands. David sees this and wishes Ellie-Mae good luck as he changes into Cat-Man and confronts Abasi who begins shooting at the crowd, the 2 fight and Cat-Man wins this time leaving Abasi to be arrested by the police. The police and Ellie-Mae thank Cat-Man and Cat-Man returns to the diamond to its legal owner Ellie-Mae, however as Ellie-Mae is going home she is kidnapped by Dalia, David unaware of this later finds out about the kidnapping and wonders what happened to Ellie-Mae but nevertheless carries on knowing there is still evil in the city and he will continue to fight it no matter what.

## Cast

**Main Cast**:

* Gianni Matragrano as David Merryweather/Cat-Man
* Ed Kelly as Narrator
* Lou Lambert as Police Captain Knox
* Abigail Turner as Mary November

**Guest Stars**:

* Alaina Wis as Ellie-Mae Williams
* Steve Hendrickson as Gerald
* Austin McConnell as Man #1/Man #2/Man #3/Auctioneer/Villain #1/Villain #2/Villain #3
* Jack Mason as Abasi Ibrahim/Abner Omar/Arthur Omar/Arthur Wright
* Unknown Actor as Dalia

## Appearances

### Locations

* Earth
	+ Africa
		- African Rain-forest
	+ United States of America
		- Skyline
			* Skyline City
				+ Williams Residence
			* Caribbean(mentioned)
				+ Hispaniola(mentioned)
	+ Europe (mentioned)
		- Edfu (mentioned)
	+ Asia (mentioned)
		- Egypt (mentioned)

* Spirit Realm

### Events

* Assassination of Merryweather Family
* Theft of Diamond of Empress Zara Im
* Auction of the Diamond of Empress Zara Im

### Items

* Cat-Man Suit
* The Diamond of Empress Zara Im
* Pierre la Grande's Cannon

### Vehicles

* Volkswagen Beetle
* Scarab Plane

### Organizations

* David Merryweather: Private Eye
* New York Police Department
* Scarab

### Mentioned

* Harkin Williams
* Mister Merryweather
* Misses Merryweather
* Albert Custard
* Pierre la Grande

## Music

The music in the episode is currently unnamed, though it is presumably a form of royalty free music

## Trivia

* In the episode David types on a typewriter in his office it is unknown why David uses such an old tool but it is presumably due to this being stylized like an olden days cartoon and Austin wanting it to be authentic.
	+ Nevertheless, despite the typewriter it is presumed (not confirmed) that this series takes place in 2023, the same year it is presumed Spider-Queen takes place in due to the mention of the year 2002

* The episode along with presumably the next following episodes adapt the early storyline of Cat-Man having Nine Lives whether or not Austin McConnell will continue to adapt this storyline is unknown.

## Behind the Scenes

* The episode along with presumably everything else took over a year to make as stated in the beginning of the video
* Austin McConnell the creator of the Bargain-Bin Cinematic Universe himself voices 3 characters as a cameo

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 YouTube Video
2. ↑ Cat-Man