Chapter 1

He sped down the the street, trying to get home. Another night of patroling Gotham; thank God nothing happened. As he passed Elm St., he saw a bright light ahead. He pulled over to see. He made his way down the street quickly to see a rather large apartment building ablaze.

A fireman dashed toward him, "Thank God your hear, Batman. We need your help."

"What can I do?" he asked the fireman.

"This house is a damned furnace! We've tried to get as many people out as we could, but we still think there is one family in there! None of our men will try and get in and there is this girl, we think she's related to the people in there, she's going bazerk trying to get in there! We can't hold her back for much longer!"

Batman looked over the fireman's shoulder to see the crowd standing outside. Sure enough there was a girl, in her mid teens, straining against two burly firemen. "Mom! Dad!" she screamed at the building,

"Let me go!" she growled to the men holding her, "I need to get in there! Dammnit, let go!"

Suddenly, she dashed forward, through the men's arms that hadn't seemed to have moved. "What the! Hey! Kid! Get back here!" But it was too late, the girl went charging into the inferno with no aparent worry of her own well being. Without thinking, Batman followed.

The house was a picture of Hell; there was hardly any apartment left to burn. "Hey!" he called into the roaring fire, "Where are you!" Then he caught a glimpse of her running up a fleet of stairs. He raced after her. She ran down a hallway that looked like it could collapse at any second. She then kicked down a door and ran into the room. Batman ran after her as fast as he could, time was running out. He found her trying to grab two limp bodies, both adult and both more then she could handle. Batman raced in and took one of the bodies, a man's, into his own arms. The girl staired up at him in suprise.

"What are you doing here?" she yelled above the fire.

"Helping you! We have to get out of here! NOW!" Batman yelled back. Just then, one of the beams from the celing fell and grazed the girl's shoulder. She cried out in pain, but didn't seem to care much about it. Then she looked at Batman. "Your right," she said finally, "Let's get out of here." They both made their way down quickly as the building started comming down. Just as they were about to reach the exit, the roof collapsed, compleatly blocking their only way out.

"Dammnit!" Batman cried as he looked around for another way out; and there was none.

Suddenly, the girl screamed at him, "Quick! Grab my shoulder and hold on!" Batman looked at her in utter confusion. "What are you-" "Just DO it!" She yelled again. Without much choice, Batman did as she said and took a firm grip on her shoulder. "Common!" she yelled as she went hurdleing toward a wall.

Batman's eyes grew in fear, they were running toward a firey wall! This girl was crazy! They were about to hit!

But right as they were supposed to hit a wall of fire, they just kept going until the girl suddenly stopped. Batman looked around. They were outside. "How..." he said.

"How what?" the girl asked as she tried to move her dad toward the firemen that were now watching them in awe. "Hurry!" She yelled to one of the men, "they need to get to the hospital now!"

Paramedics approached Batman and the girl and took the lifeless forms of her mother and father. The crowd that had started to pile up began to clear off and the police began to leave. "Wait!" she said loudly to one of the leaving cops, "I need to get to the hospital! Those were my parents!"

"Why didn't you go with the paramedics?" he asked, stareing down at her.

"Because there wasn't room! Don't you think I would have? Please, can you take me there, this is serious!"

"Sorry kid, that ain't my department," he replyed, getting into his car.

"What do you mean this 'ain't your department!' Thats part of your job! Your supposed to help people in need! It's your duty!"

"No it ain't, kid. Sorry." And with that, he slammed his door shut and drove off.

She dropped to her knees in the middle of the street. She hunched over and wrapped her arms around herself as she began to cry. She shook all over from rage and fear. What was she supposed to do?

The hospital was 20 blocks away from where she was now, then she would have to try and convince the hospital staff that she was related to her parents. All of her I.D and birth information went up with her apartment so she had no means of getting to her parents.

Batman watched the girl in the middle of the street holding herself and crying. He thought of himself- the night his parents were murdered. No one had really tried to help him, and by the time someone did it was to late; there was nothing anyone could do to save them. He couldn't just stand there and watch this girl in this state. She had just risked her life to try and save them, he had to do something.

"Common," he said suddenly. "I'll take you to the hospital. If we hurry we can catch up to the paramedics."

She turned her head and looked at him, tears streaming from her blue eyes. She stood up and jogged over to him. Then they both made their way to the hospital.