Riddle of the future.
Note: Part of a new series I'm going to do. A look at the Batman rogues as kids while they practice and discover their true calling. In other words their destiny. These set of stories I will be doing were inspired by the new tv series Gotham. It looks amazing you should check out the trailer. So I hope you like this one, please leave a review. :D
Edward Nashton was a very quiet little boy. He never did anything wrong, he got good grades, he was always polite and he was never late.
Edward was a huge target for bullies, they would tease him and taunt him and beat him up all because he was smart or as they put it 'a dweeb'.
Edward didn't understand it. Why was he picked on just because he was intelligent and he was nice? It wasn't his fault. Oh yes he did beat them at puzzles and riddles, but he beat everyone and it was worth it, just to see the looks on their faces.
But it wasn't enough, he needed a bigger challenge, the idiots at school, they were boring and he could beat them every time.
It was in this instant, walking back home from school, that he realised what he could do as a bigger challenge.
He spotted a group of criminals running out of the bank, firing guns at the guards and police, before driving off.
"That's a good challenge," he muttered to himself. But what would he do? Of course, he could always… use a more refined technique of getting money. All that he needed was his computer and user name and he would be fine.
It was easy to hack into the second bank of Gotham, so easy that Edward was able to steal as much as he could and hid it all in a secret account he had made while in the banks dater base.
It was fun, but not really much of a challenge, he needed to do something bigger, something much bigger.
Then a thought hit him. He needed to be there, he needed to be seen robbing the bank.
After weeks of planning Edward finally had an idea and he sat on the opposite side to the bank, back pack in hand with a mask over his eyes and a hood over his head, which he had drawn a black question mark on the front of the hood.
With a shaky breath he pulled out his mother's old walking stick, she barley used it any way, so she wouldn't miss it when he dumped it in the river.
As the guard loaded the van with money Edward ran across the road and struck him as hard as he could on the back of the head, then he hit him again and then again, just to make sure he was out cold before he opened his back pack and filled it with as much money as he could, before he left a card with a green question mark on it.
He packed some money in his pockets until he heard the police sirens, then he quickly ran away from the crime scene towards the bridge, but there was a squad car following him.
He hid underneath the bridge, sitting on the railings while waiting for the police to leave.
As he sat there listening to the two police officers, he couldn't help the surge of excitement and the feeling of happiness as he realised that all of their attention was on him, as it rightly should be.
After a few more minutes of waiting, the police finally left and Edward climbed back on to the bridge.
"That was fun," he whispered and it was fun. It was so much fun, the crime, the clue the chase, the attention. It was so much fun.
He looked at his pockets and smiled at the little bits of money sticking out.
Maybe with all this money he could bye a new computer, or even two and use it to help him hack into more bank dater basses to steal more money.
Edward did exactly that, he bought two more computers and eventually he had four computers all of which he used to hack into banks with, then he began to hack into camera feeds to spy on his class mates, before he sent them an encrypted e-mail, telling them to pay him a at least ten dollars a day and he wouldn't let slip their dirty little secrets.
No one knew it was him, he made sure of that.
But as he walked down his corridors at school, all beaten and bloody from the bullies or his father, Edward couldn't help but smile as the 'popular' kids at school whispered about a 'Riddler' who was black mailing them about their private things and their secrets.
They would never find out it was him and it was a nice feeling knowing that he was getting all of this attention and that they were all scared of him. Finally, it was them who were scared and not him.
He loved every minute of it and he still hacked and robbed the bank, but even after all this, it still didn't feel quite the same as it did when he robbed that truck and left the card, the crime, the chase, excitement, the attention; it was so much… fun. Every second of it.
"Maybe," Edward whispered as he placed his newly bought, green bowler hat on his head, staring at his masked reflection in the mirror while spinning his mother's cane. "Maybe the Riddler could do one more heist in public."
After this incident, Edward was not a very nice boy ever again.
THE END.