Chapter one

"Where to Cupcake?"

I handed the cabbie a wad of cash and slid inside the vehicle.

"Gotham City."

He scratched his greasy locks and eyed me through the rear view window.

"Gotham City, eh?" he asked before kicking the cab into gear and rocketing down the streets.

"'You sure about that sweet tea?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

The cabbie chomped into his cigar thoughtfully and I twisted uncomfortably in my seat.

"Most folks are scrambling just to get out of Gotham. Why in the name of heck would you want to go anywhere near that place? There's a boatload of loonies running around and the only help the place gets is from a vigilante who dresses up as a freaking bat. You sure you want to get involved with all that?"

Funnily enough, I had been asking myself the same question all day. And no, to be entirely honest I wasn't sure. I was really enjoying my apartment up in Denver. I had grown close with the couple next-door Lane and Thomas. I would miss them and their kindly smiles and homemade brownies. I would miss the cozy comfort of my own place, of that sense of security and warmth. In fact, I would miss everything about Colorado.

Gotham held nothing for me but pain and misery, I was sure of it. And Anna a voice inside my head whispered. Ah, yes of course, Anna; the sister I hadn't communicated with in years. Anna and I had what some people might call a difficult relationship. Her miserable fiancé with his nauseatingly fake smiles and perfect sun kissed hair disapproved of me for whatever reason; and of course she sided with him. This probably had to do with the fact that I had threatened to rat on him after discovering the stash of pot in his flat.

It had been nearly seven years. And then I received the phone call. Through her hysteric sobs and alcohol induced hiccups she had managed to spout out that her fiancé, Billy she called him, had dropped her like a stone and ran off with some secretary named Alice. She was so choked up she could barely manage to make out full sentences.

And something inside me snapped. Hearing my poised and self-assured sister sounding so broken I knew I had to do something. She had no one to look after her and I was the closest family she had left. She needed me now. Still, it was devastating having to pack up and bid my old life goodbye before abandoning it completely. Even the plane ride was difficult. Every step I took that carried me far away from my cozy Colorado home was agonizing.

And now here I am, in the back of a clammy cab watching as the driver high tails it to what is quite possibly the most crime filled area in the entire world. Whatever had I done to deserve this?

The cabbie cranes his slimy head in my direction and asks, "Well?" his breath reeking of sweat and cigar ash.

I blink twice, jerking myself out of my abyss of thoughts.

"'You sure about G city then?"

I think back to Anna and her quivering and hopeless voice over the telephone.

I force my lips into a halfhearted smile. "I've never been more certain."

And with that we ride off into the city just as the sun sets and my new life begins.