Another hunger fiction set to Beware the Batman. Same deal as last time, this ain't my kink. I'm just going where the money is, and this guy paid for two fictions, so thats what he gets. If you dont like it, either get a free 1000 word sample, or scrape together some extra $$$ and I'll write just about whatever you want. The link to my dA page is on my profile page here. Once youre there, all my terms and important notes are easy enough to find.
Rated M
I don't own Batman or the current TV spinoff.
Anarky, the self-titled "white king" on the playing board known as Gotham City, had tracked down one of the three people he required in his latest scheme against the Batman, the "black king." Magpie, the psychotic kleptomaniac, would be an invaluable piece. It had been easy to track her down based, not that he expected her to be a challenge. She must have been working quite diligently, for soon her stomach began to rumble, and she soothed its irritation by gently rubbing the exposed part of her stomach gently.
"I'm so hungry it hurts.I need to find something to eat before long. All the shiny shinies in Gotham won't put anything in my belly.
While she had been distracted by her stomach's interruption, it was easy for Anarky to block off the exits and fill the building with knockout gas. Magpie didn't go down quietly, although she didn't really last very long either.
Anarky merely chuckled, and set up restraining her before picking her up. Once he got her to the safe location, he would make arrangements to draw out Lady Shiva. When Magpie's belly rumbled again, her hands were thankfully bound close to her abdomen, and even unconscious she made an effort to placate it with gentle motions, but a whisper of "hungryyyy…" escaped her lips.
Anarky proceeded to load up the villainess into his getaway vehicle, and proceeded to the next location. He had information on good authority that Lady Shiva would be there, and he would not let the opportunity be squandered. Katana would be the last piece to the puzzle, and the easiest to capture.
Back at Wayne Manor, Katana, or simply Tatsu Yamashiro in this case, was walking through the maze of hallways and empty rooms that made up the manner. Her stomach made a hungry sound that caused her to automatically attempt to relief some of the tension in it by rubbing the spot on her abdomen.
"Hopefully Alfred is still up and around. I'd hate to think that I'll have to go through another blended-together dinner in a glass, although I'm hungry enough that I'd take it at this point. It doesn't hurt too much, at least. Just a minor annoyance for now."
Tatsu eventually reached the kitchen and immediately headed for the fridge. To her astonishment, there was not a single thing, even a crumb, left inside. It looked like it was a brand new fridge, considering how clean it was. She closed it after sighing to herself. A similar result occurred as she attempted to search the cabinets for anything to eat. After finding the room devoid of anything edible, her stomach responded by another loud grumble, which caused the former CIA operative to gently pat her stomach.
"Yeah, yeah, I hear you loud and clear: you're empty and need something in you pronto," she spoke softly to her abdomen.
Still, without any food in the house its not like she could remedy her problem. She didn't want to bother Alfred anymore than she had to, but the lack of food was definitely an issue. For now though, there was nothing she could do, so she resigned herself to train some more under the manor. As she departed the kitchen, her stomach again growled in protest from the lack of food, causing her to caress it.
"I got it the first time you know. But there's nothing here that's edible. I know you're desperate to get filled up with something solid, but I can't do anything about that right now. Just try to be patient until I can get ahold of Alfred."
Far from the Wayne Manor, the nameless grunts from the League of Assassins were being tossed around like trash in the breeze. Their bodies piled up across the shipping yard unconscious, but alive. Anarky, who had just invaded a meeting between Lady Shiva and one of the League's clients, was having a merry time taking out the various trained assassins one after another with ease.
Lady Shiva, however, was not as perky as the man garbed in white was. She set to quickly massage her stomach to alleviate the small hunger pains as her abdomen made a small, churning sound.
"If my men would stop taking this adversary lightly, I'd be enjoying a nice little something to fill up my stomach. All these hunger pains are quite annoying…" the commander of the assassins muttered.
Within seconds, Anarky finished the last of Shiva's nameless troops. He then merely turned his gaze to her as a silent invitation for a fight. Shiva was all too willing to give him one.
Meanwhile, in Anarky's vehicle, Magpie was starting to stir, her hands reaching for the spot on her stomach where the loud, growling noises were the most apparent.
"So hungry…" she hoarsely whispered.
The pain in her stomach wasn't overpowering, but it was the first thing that came to mind as she shook the cobwebs out of her head. Once the effects of the knockout gas cleared up, she began struggling against her bindings, with limited success. It certainly didn't help that her talons were tended to, so she couldn't cut the ropes anytime soon.
As the fight between Anarky and Lady Shiva continued, Magpie would make out the sounds of fighting getting much closer. While it was hardly a promising rescue attempt, it could have presented an opportunity she could take advantage of if she managed to get herself out of her bindings.
After putting some well-needed distance between the deranged little egomaniac, Shiva responded to her stomach's rumble for food by massaging small circles around her abdomen to help take the edge off.
"You must be getting famished, Lady Shiva," Anarky responded in the annoying, somewhat singsong tone of voice he often liked to use.
"I could use a bite to eat, I suppose."
"Now, now… no need to be so reserved."
Refusing to keep the banter going with the wannabe spook, Lady Shiva resumed attacking. To her credit, she had gotten a few good hits on Anarky, but the man, disturbed as he was, didn't have a record of going down from just a few.
Ultimately though, he prevailed against the assassin, courtesy of a few capsules of knockout gas, which Shiva had the misfortune of breathing in. Once he made sure the woman was firmly bound, he made his way back to his vehicle carrying Shiva over his shoulder with little effort.
The sound of a stomach rumbling alerted Anarky of Magpie's consciousness, as he heard her patting her stomach into complacency, followed by "Shut up! I know you're empty!" spoken in a harsh whisper that was slightly muffled. Regardless, it was apparent she had been unable to escape her bindings, otherwise she would have bolted. Still, it never hurt to play it safe, so Anarky tossed a small capsule of more knockout gas into the enclosed space with Magpie and waited for the sounds of resistance to die down.
After letting it air out, he proceeded to lay Shiva next to the other woman and closed the door. With the flip of a switch, the shipyard he had been fighting at exploded, which would draw Batman's attention when he came across the hidden message that was left specifically for him.
It took less than half an hour for Batman and Katana to reach the shipyard. Once they had combed the scene, it took even less time for Batman to deduce the bombing was caused by Anarky. He also knew where Anarky wanted them to go, and all things considered, ignoring the lead was not simply optional.
While Katana remained impressed with how quickly Batman had understood the situation, it did little to retract the empty feeling of her stomach. Luckily, Bruce Wayne wasn't around to hear the growling noises her stomach made as she caressed her abdomen in response.
"Ugh, I didn't get a chance to eat before coming here. The pain is worse than before. Doesn't help that I skipped lunch today too. Bad night to go out on an empty stomach…"
When Bruce returned, he informed her about the presence of the League of Assassins, something they could definitely use a few new leads on. As Batman, he decided to pursuit Anarky, and left Katana behind to see what she could uncover about the League from the grunts that were still around.
Katana wasn't able to get much out of the grunts. The League's henchmen were hardly big conversation starters to begin with, so that was about what she had expected.
Tatsu was more than slightly annoyed by the matter, but most of her attention switched focus to the rumbling in her abdomen. It took more than a minute or so to mask the pain by rubbing it.
"Ugh, feels like by stomach's starting to get tangled in a vice machine. All this work on an empty stomach is getting to me. I'm starting to get a little dizzy. I need to do something about this hunger."
With her attention focused on her stomach, she didn't pay attention to the sound of footsteps behind her. All it took was one good swing to the back of the head to knock her out.
Making sure Katana was safely bound, Anarky tossed the third subject he required for his latest scheme with Magpie and Shiva. Batman had yet to discover that Anarky had been lying in wait for Katana. Thankfully, he wouldn't discover that until he arrived at the location he knew Batman would go to, thanks to his message.
The next time Magpie awake, she was in what appeared to be in a jail cell with two other women. Magpie didn't have time to ponder their identities for long, however, since her stomach once again cried out in protest, demanding to be comforted by the gentle strokes of her hand against her abdomen.
"My stomach's so empty it hurts," she whispered to herself, chewing on her bottom lip.
When she looked at her hands, she noticed her wrists were bound in thick metal bands, which connected to a chain that kept her isolated to a small corner of the room. The metal was strong enough that her claws were not able to even leave a scratch. Similarly, the other two she was sharing the space with were bound and chained to a separate portion of the room. It did not appear that the chains offered enough range for any of them to tear at each other.
The woman dressed in red, whom Magpie didn't recognize, had just woken up. As soon as she was somewhat coherent, she began massaging her stomach, presumably to dampen the groaning sounds coming from her abdomen.
"I suppose it's too much to ask if the man in charge feeds his prisoners?" Shiva asked, more to herself than to Magpie or the other woman in the room.
Shiva and Magpie caught each other's eyes and focused their gazes on each other, intent on trying to cut the other apart with just their stares.
"Great…my two favorite troublemakers in one spot. How lucky am I?"
The sarcastic voice of the third woman, familiar to Magpie and Shiva, caused them to break their staring contest with each other and focus their attention on a more familiar enemy: Katana.
The woman in question was also rubbing her stomach, which emitted small, but constant hungry sounds.
"As much as I'd like to take you both out on an empty stomach, I'd rather know which one of you knocked me out before we get started, so I know who to go for first," Katana said bitterly.
"It was not my doing, Katana, although I doubt you'd take me at my word," Shiva responded.
"Well you have such a history of credibility."
"Well as you'll notice, I am in the same predicament as you: chained to a wall and in a dirty cell. Hardly a good place to be if I were the one orchestrating this rather unique little meeting, wouldn't you say?
"Besides, what reason would I need to kidnap you AND our other guest here?"
As if to alert Katana to her presence, Magpie's belly rang out a cry for attention in the form of a rather loud groan, which the woman had trouble putting into complacency with her hands.
"I don't suppose either of you have something to nibble on, just so my stomach wouldn't be so empty? Assuming you'd even share it, or course."
"Unfortunately, no," Katana answered.
"Pity. Neither do I," Shiva responded in turn.
"Well that's just dandy…" Magpie uttered.
It wasn't long after that all three ladies' stomachs emitted sounds of hunger, which they tried to silence by rubbing, petting, or massaging the spot on their abdomens that seemed to be in the most amount of pain.
"Great, I'm stuck with two hungry jailbirds," Katana stated.
"It was not just our bellies that produced that noise, Katana. You made your own contribution to it as well, meaning you are just as hungry as we are."
Before the verbal sparing could continue, the small amount of light coming into the cell from a damaged light outside it was darkened by Anarky's shadow. The man chuckled in amusement before addressing the three.
"Now now, ladies. Squabbling doesn't really suit you. Well, not without a proper reason, anyway."
"And what would you suppose is a 'proper' reason?" Shiva inquired.
"Oh, but you must have an idea by now," he responded with a chuckle.
As if confirming the man's statement, all three stomachs in the cell groaned in chorus, which caused them to try quelling the sounds unsuccessfully with her hands.
"So you need your victims to be hungry enough to be in pain to capture them, is that it?" Katana asked.
"I mean no disrespect, ladies. But hunger is a powerful motivator. Even minor causes gain notoriety when its supporters undergo a hunger strike. The only difference is that I happened to borrow you as volunteers."
"So we're your little pet birdies to starve out for your own amusement!? Get some kick out of seeing your prey clench their empty bellies?" Magpie shouted, barely able to hear herself over the groaning of her stomach, which failed to yield to any of the massages she gave her abdomen.
"I suppose you could think of it like that," Anarky mused to himself.
"You can't keep us here forever," Katana said.
"Oh, I've no doubt you're counting on Batman getting here before too long, but I must cut you off there. I've made adequate arrangements to keep him occupied until the conclusion of my experiment."
Although Katana was skeptical about his claims, she didn't get a chance to call him out on it, because that's when her stomach demanded her full attention by groaning out. She responded with the usual massage that had quickly become second nature that night.
"My my, a bit famished are we?" Anarky asked, although the smile he wore on his face did nothing to portray sincerity.
"Careful, I might bite a finger off. At least then my stomach wouldn't be empty and in pain anymore."
"Now now, Katana. That is hardly appropriate, especially given the circumstances," Shiva chastised.
"Oh, I'm not offended, Lady Shiva. In fact, I'm quite delighted by that kind of response. It'll make the next few days quite interesting," Anarky said.
"What does that mean?" Magpie inquired, although there was still more than a slightly hostile edge to her voice.
"Consider this, for the moment: just how long has it been since each of you last enjoyed a bite to eat?"
On cue, every stomach except Anarky's began playing the old familiar tunes of hunger they had been broadcasting throughout the night. And like every song and dance, the three ladies proceeded to appease their hunger through the rather futile effort of rubbing or massaging their stomachs.
"I suppose you'd like us to say it's been quite awhile, and that all our bellies are similarly empty and suffering?" Shiva inquired to the man in white.
"Oh very good! That is an excellent start to our little hunger strike!"
"Hunger strike…?" Katana questioned.
"Oh it's a rather effective method that many people who support a cause they believe worth dying for utilize. Seeing how people slowly let themselves waste away is such a heartbreaking process, after all."
"Maybe if it were by choice. We aren't starving because we want to, you lunatic," Katana said, her scowling expression somewhat lessened by both the sound of hunger ringing through her stomach and by trying to rub her stomach into complacency with her hand.
"Oh, but you DO have choices. You can choose to play by the rules I set, and by the end at least ONE of you will get something to sooth your appetite, or you can chose not to, and you can all go hungry for however long I decide the cause is worth it."
"What exactly are your terms, then?" Magpie asked.
"Oh it's a very simple game. You'll all be given plenty of water, so you won't die of dehydration, but other than that, none of you will get anything to eat as long as the other two are still alive."
Hearing Anarky's rules so far, the womens' stomach cried out in protest, which each woman tried to subdue with whatever motion their hands could provide.
"And as I'm sure you've noticed, I've went to a degree of trouble to ensure you could not just up and kill each other whenever you felt like it. Wouldn't want the game to be over so quickly, now would we?" Anarky mused.
"So then how are we supposed to win?" Shiva inquired.
"It's very simple: you have to be the last one to survive," he responded casually.
With that, it was very clear that by Anarky's rules, at least two of them were meant to die.
"Suppose we don't agree with those rules: what happens then?" Katana asked, weary of an answer she had already begun to suspect.
"Well then I suppose you all can die together when your supply of water gets taken away. But from what I hear, dehydration is a much worse death than starving away is."
As he left the women to ponder their situation, he made it a point to do it slowly, so he could enjoy the sounds made as their stomach's gurgled, followed by whatever curses of hunger they could proclaim and an attempt to sooth out the worst of the hunger cramps with their hands.
"Ugh, this is fantastic. A freak dressed up as Casper wants to see us starve to death…Of all the ways I had seen myself dying, starving to death was not one of them. No one told me that your stomach actually felt like it was burning when you go without food for so long…" Magpie stated.
"Oh save the petty drama, tweety. There are plenty of worst pains to do through the longer you go without food. First is just the light stuff: dizziness, light-headedness, cold sweats, nothing too serious. But then it starts getting that your belly becomes the focus of your pain, and the longer you do without, the more agonizing it is, like someone stuck a bunch of knives in your gut, and you have no idea when pressure will be applied," Katana explained.
"All the more reason then that we either need to make an escape, or last as long as we can, if Anarky is true to his word…"
Long after Anarky had departed, two of the women were busy trying to either figure out a way to escape their chains, or failing that a way to kill the other two while the third, less homicidal woman, attempted to think of a way out that would be all too obvious for Gotham's "favorite" vigilante. The odds certainly weren't in her favor, but the other definitely weren't going to be much help. Even on their best days, she wouldn't trust them with a crumb of bread.
Sadly, the mention of food served as a trigger, causing her stomach to groan out once more in its empty, hollow ring, while Katana bit back a groan and continued rubbing her stomach.
"Thinking about food is not doing my appetite any favors. I might begin resorting to eating my leather suit just for something to have in my stomach. At least them maybe my belly wouldn't feel like a compressed balloon."
"Oh just shut UP already! You're not the only one whose belly feels worse than a balloon about to pop!" Magpie shrieked.
"We are all hungry, Magpie, but you don't see Katana or myself shouting out heads off. So keep quiet and maybe we'll all be able to figure a way out"
"I don't take orders from anyone, Red,"
"Would you two just stuff it already?"
"If we could, do you think we'd have empty stomachs, forced to do nothing but wait until we starve? I don't enjoy having my stomach feel like it's trying to squeeze the life from me."
Lady Shiva's stomach grumbled dully, but caused enough discomfort to warrant another round of gentle caresses.
"I don't suppose you'd know if the Batman is on his way here? If so, I suppose having a burning, empty stomach wouldn't be too bad for another hour or so.
"Unfortunately, I don't…"
True to her word, Katana had no way of knowing that Batman was still seeking clues to her whereabouts, hours after it had become obvious that Anarky set him up to leave Katana unattended. He had also removed anything that would allow him to triangulate her position, and so he had to resort to the clues Anarky offered.
One of the more vital clues was a live video feed of Katana, as well as Magpie and Lady Shiva, being held in the same location. Bruce didn't need the audio on to see they were hungry, and as they attempted to sooth the pain in their stomachs, he could read enough lips to know that Anarky's plan involved a cruel mockery of dedication.
In this case, he was forcing others to starve for his cause, the same old chaos and destruction he based his namesake on. Still, for as much as he prided himself on being spontaneous, his plans required a lot of organizing and forethought, otherwise they would never begin to work out even half as well as they do.
For now though, he didn't have to worry about them dying for a little while: as long as they kept getting a constant supply of water and didn't overwork their bodies with what little energy they had, it would still be awhile before the health complications became truly damaging. Even then, it would take weeks for someone to die of hunger.
The audio feed did little to ease his thoughts on their state of mind.
"Ugh, what does it take to make the crushing, burning, stab-like pains go away!?"
"Complaining about it some more does nothing to alleviate it. Sure, I could complain that it feels like someone had their boot to my gut every 10 minutes, but I have a stronger will than that.
"What was that, princess!?"
"Quiet down, you two. Shouting and arguing with each other doesn't make the empty, painful pangs do away any better than staying still, but at least the silence is more enjoyable!"
Thankfully, it looked like their spirits were quite high. Still, the signs of malnutrition and emaciation were beginning to show, and he could only imagine how much pain their stomach's growling was, if their attempts to sooth it using their hands were, as well as how weak and feeble their voices must have sounded as they cried out in hunger however they accomplished it.
For now, his best bet was to follow Anarky's clues. While he was a homicidal maniac, he was about theatrics first, and his plans were not only showy, but made specifically to be understood, with the intent that Batman would either come up with a plan to counter, or die trying.
A day later, the girls showed signs that they were getting worse. They were pale, or paler than usual, and signs of emaciation were not completely noticeable, but were starting to come in.
The noises made by their stomachs were, in a word, painful. They grimaced as they tried soothing the empty ache in their bellies by petting or stroking it, with no more success than the first few times they tried.
"My stomach feels like molten lead is weighing me down…" Magpie whimpered.
Compared to Shiva, who was attempting to remain as stoic about the affair as she could, and Katana, who was of a similar disposition, it looked like Magpie would be the first to go out. Magpie was counting on being perceived as the weakest one, despite being no worse off than either of them.
"You're not the only one with an empty stomach," Katana stated flatly. As her stomach emitted another awful, almost wailing cry of hunger, Katana kept her face as expressionless as possible while she attempted to massage the cramp in her abdomen into submission.
Once the pain subsided, Katana resumed her focus to the task at hand: discovering where she was and how to contact Batman. It had been easy to notice the camera Anarky set up, presumably so that either he could watch, or set up a feed to his enemy, Batman. If it were Batman watching, then she could provide some clue to her whereabouts. The problem was that she still had very few clues to go on, and none of them would aid Batman in narrowing down a single location.
As Katana continued to ponder her next move, Lady Shiva's stomach was the next one to sing the familiar tune of hunger and emptiness. True to form, she kept up appearances, even as she had to massage and caress her abdomen in an attempt to prematurely silence its complain.
"I know people are capable of surviving a lot longer without food, but I do not enjoy maintaining an empty stomach any longer than I have to," Shiva declared, more to herself than her fellow captives. That didn't stop Magpie from adding her thoughts.
"Oh give it a rest, Red. I'm not going to die down here with you two."
"How amusing: the pretty birdy talks as if she has a plan," Shiva countered.
Any retort Magpie was about to make was cut off as Katana suddenly started beating a rock against a section of the wall where the chains of her manacle connected. Shiva and Magpie both paused as they watched her, confused as to why she'd try to dislodge the chains from the wall, seeing as he she had tried it a few times before with no amount of visible success.
"Honestly, Katana, why bother? It's clear that no amount of force you possess is capable of achieving the desired result. All you'll end up doing is wasting your energy, not that I mind if you want to expire early," Shiva stated.
A few more strikes later, Katana dropped the rock in favor of caressing her stomach, which had resumed making the rather sickening groan-like sounds of emptiness.
"Ugh, I don't have the energy to keep this up. It would help if the hunger wasn't getting to me so badly, but every move I make burns energy I don't have much to spare. Every hour feels like my stomach is getting squeezed like an orange with no more juice to give," Katana said.
"Why bother then?" Magpie asked.
"Because I'm not trying to get the chain out."
Over an hour later, Batman had used the clues he had been able to dig up, plus some subtle messages left by Katana in her video feed, to track down their location. Anarky was nowhere to be found, but his first concern was to attend to the women. For now, he resolved to get them out of their chains before tracking down Anarky, who had yet to show himself.
Bruce had left before he could hear the sounds of three bellies crying out in hunger, though it was quickly silenced as the women comforted their respective stomachs with gentle caresses or massages to alleviate the worst of the pains.
"Well at least we won't remain hungry for much longer. There might be something in the building that is safe to eat. And I got to admit, if it made the pain in my gut ease up even a little bit, I'd take whatever I can get," Katana stated.
"Oh yes, because prison food is such a delicacy…" Shiva uttered.
"I'd take it even if it tasted like cardboard. At least then my stomach wouldn't be twisting around like a dried out towel," Magpie replied.
Thanks to one last trick by Anarky though, neither Magpie nor Shiva would learn whether prison food tasted like cardboard, at least for tonight. The bomb he set to wreck the condemned building provided more than enough of a distraction for the two villains to escape. Batman had to focus on getting himself and Katana out, but he was not done with either them or Anarky.
One final cry from Katana's stomach echoed in the street, which she maked by massaging her stomach. She turned to look at Bruce, whose gaze remained focused on the rubble.
"I don't care where we go tonight, but I am NOT having one of your blended-dinners for a long time. I need something solid."
"What did you have in mind?"
"Surprise me, Mr. Wayne."