Before I begin, I want to give a shout out to TEDOG, who I name "The Father of the Selina x OC Ship!" You've got cool ideas, especially with this pairing, but I have to be honest when I say you need some help. For your 3 current Gotham stories, I can't even begin to count the number of grammatical errors I find and sometimes your plot can be really...out there. Like the moment where you had your OC, Sean, lead the GCPDs Special Task Force, it's not very realistic. If anything, it feels more like a cartoon if anything. I hope you don't take this the wrong way, you've got neat ideas, but what you really need is a Beta reader who can look over your writing before you post to help fix these issues so others won't criticize you on them!
Now, it's my time to shine! Please share what you think with a Review, Favorite, or Follow and I'll be sure to keep writing chapters as best as I can! So, please enjoy!
Gotham: Year of the Hacker
Episode 1: Introductions
"...And stay out, you cheat!"
With a heave, three of the many wasted occupants of Fish Mooney's night club threw a young boy out into the wet and rainy streets of Gotham. As the poor kid hit the pavement, a few of the more adventurous drunkards gave a few kicks to his stomach, making the boy groan in agony and pain. Laughing at his misfortune, the drunks went back into the night club and the boy struggled to get back onto his feet, but with a slight smirk on his face. He felt around underneath the thin black jacket he wore over a torn up gray tank-top and pulled out three, measly wallets that he took from the drunks while they were carrying him out of the club. As he put the wallets safely into his own pocket, he said to himself,
"Well, not a bad haul. Might just be able to actually buy something from the Flea this time!"
The injured boy limped slowly down the long streets of the Theater district as other low and middle-class citizens bustled by with groceries, kids, and other small activities that the boy had little chance to do himself because of his...economic standing. To be frank, it's cause he's drop-dead broke. But did this stop him? Not in the slightest! He held his head high as he walked passed them, but once again lowered it because it started to make his stomach hurt more from the earlier blows. He turned into an alleyway and was about to climb onto one of the fire escape ladders when he heard the soft sound of crying echo throughout the alley.
The boy looked around, trying to find the source, until he saw a small, cardboard box on one side of the alley shake slightly each time a rain drop landed on it. He went over to the box and went down on a knee, regardless of the pain, to open up the box. Slightly gasping, he saw a small girl, no more then 6 years old, shivering from the cold as she tightly held onto a small toy that looked like a rough version of a cat. She had dark, curly hair with striking green eyes, and she wore nothing more than what looked to be a potato sack with holes for arms, legs, and her head. The boy whispered,
"Hi there..."
The girl gasped at his words and try to bury herself deeper into the box, clutching her cat doll even harder then before.
"No no no, I don't want to hurt you!", the boy reassured, "My name's Rick. What's yours?"
The girl melted a bit from her scare as she looked into the boy's brown eyes, which reminded her of chocolate that she saw the rich kids eat as she watched them from afar. She muttered very softly, almost impossible for Rick to hear, but she said,
"S-S-Selina."
"Hi there, Selina, it's nice to meet you!"
Selina flinched at Rick's excitement, which Rick noted and continued in a softer voice,
"Do you need some place to stay? I have a place not far from here if you want to check it out with me."
Hopeful, Selina slowly stood up from her box and locked eyes with Rick, searching to see if his eyes yielded any lies. She saw nothing, so she gave Rick a small smile and nodded at his request. Rick gave her a smile in return and took her hand as he led her out of the alley and walked with Selina as he guided her to the Flea, his safe haven and the home of many other poor orphans like himself. As they walked, Rick noticed a business man focusing on a newspaper walk closer to the pair from the other side of the street and it gave the boy an idea. He bent down to Selina and whispered,
"Watch this!"
Rick led Selina closer to the business man and 'accidentally' bumped shoulders with him, causing the ordinary citizen to fall to his knees. As he struggled to get up, Rick helped him to his feet while he asked for forgiveness and how he couldn't very well from the rain. Meanwhile, his hands ducked stealthily into the pockets of the business man and he started pulling out a wallet, a ring of keys, a phone, and was close to getting the man's silver watch until he bustled through Rick in a hurry and almost knocked Selina over. Rick watched for a moment as the man continued down the street and then showed his earnings to his new friend while explaining,
"Simple accidents lead to fruitful earnings. A hand here, a pocket there, and that's 50 bucks in your own pocket. Wanna give it a go?"
Selina gave the boy a small smile and pulled out a closed fist. As she opened her fingers, Rick's eyes caught a sudden gleam and they widened when he saw the man's watch that he almost got his hands on! Rick snorted in glee and told her,
"Well well, looks like someone has an in-born skill!"
Selina tilted her head to the side in confusion and asked,
"What's an in-born skill?"
"Well, think about it like this.", Rick replied, "Every person in the world is born different, and because of these differences, some people can do things that others can never do! Like how someone with long legs can be a runner, or like me. You see, I have a rather nice knack for technology. Can't leave me in a room with a computer without me hacking into it! OH, or how your nimble fingers can pick out a watch before your target..."
"HEY! WHERE'S MY STUFF, YOU HOOLIGANS!"
Both kids turned to see the man from before run down the street with an enraged expression on his face and a deep hate in his eyes. Rick claps his hands and continued quickly,
"Right then, let's hurry to the Flea before we get caught, aye? That means, RUN!", and both children began sprinting down the street.
Rick and Selina dodged between pedestrians soliciting in the streets while their persuader was slowing as he pushed his way through the crowd to reach the orphans. Soon, Rick saw a nearby fire escape and grabbed Selina before she could run ahead. He pulled her to the iron ladders and led the two as they quickly climbed to the roof before the business man could spot them. They pulled themselves up onto the roof and peeked over the edge as their pursuer ran past the alleyway all together, causing the two new friends to burst out laughing at their luck. Eventually, Rick picked himself up after catching his breath from running for so long and held out his hand for Selina, who also started calming down as well. Rick said to her,
"Kid, I like you a lot. From just 5 minutes of knowing you, I can already tell a lot about who you really are! You're fearless, fast, nimble, and who knows what else! You know what, I've made up my mind. I'm going to teach you the one thing you have yet to learn in this hell-forsaken city!"
"Teach me what?" Selina asked as she pulled herself up with Rick's hand. He smirked and replied cheerfully,
"How. To. Live. Got it?"
Selina gave her friend, now turned teacher, a nod and a big smile, which quickly melted as she watched Rick turn and run to the edge of the building and then jump to the next roof over. He turned, the smirk still on his face, and yelled to her,
"First lesson, rooftops. Jumping, running, and rolling will get you from one place to another before any cops or such can catch you. Stay close behind me, and we'll make it to the Flea in no time at all!"
After running and jumping around a mile on top of Gotham's rooftops, Rick leaned over a rooftop that looked over a large but old, broken-down movie theater where he could see various children enter from the emergency exit, the front door, and other nooks and crannies that led inside. Selina approached from behind, completely out of breath from running what felt like the entire length of the city just to get to the theater, which she remembered Rick calling the Flea. He put a hand on her shoulder as she stood beside him and announced to her,
"Welcome to the Flea! The 5-star mall for orphans, riffraff, and teenage delinquents from all over Gotham! Though, I just call it home."
Rick then used both of his hands to vault over the rooftop and began climbing down using window ledges, loose bricks, and other parts of the building he could grasp. In under a minute, he reached the ground and looked up to see Selina looking down at him. He called out,
"Well, are you going to climb down? We don't have much time!"
The young girl gazed down at the height between the rooftop and the ground, and stepped back in fear. Rick sighed and decided to hold out his arms, then calling out,
"C'mon, I'll catch you! You can't stay there forever Selina, so let's get a move on!"
Selina stepped back more, causing Sean to lose sight of her from the ground. Rick sighed and was about to climb back up the building to reach her until he saw her leap through the air, screaming in fear. He rushed backwards, arms open, and waited as Selina landed...right on top of him. When the dust cleared from the landing, Selina found herself sitting on Rick's stomach as he groaned in pain from the added pressure onto himself. She scrambled off of him and asked,
"Are you okay?"
Rick pushed himself up to a sitting position and responded weakly,
"Yeah...I'll be fine...", and he pushed himself up again so he stood up, but he hunched over to help hold in the pain from Selina's landing. Noting this, Selina took Rick's arm and used herself to support him as they walked into the emergency exit of the Flea. They entered into the main theater where the audience's seats were ripped out of their bolts and were replaced by dozens of stalls set up around the room. Rick led Selina to a a stall with several curtained-off rooms and told the girl in charge of the stall,
"40 bucks for some new clothes. My friend here's had a tough time recently, you know?"
The owner nodded and ducked under the stall to grab a plastic bag with a pair of jeans, a t-shirt, ripped up hiking boots, and a single sock. Rick thanked her, took the bag, and led Selina up to the stage and down a set of stairs behind the main curtain, now torn to shreds. At the bottom of the stairs, there was a single wooden cupboard opposite of the stairs. Rick moved over and pushed the cupboard out of the way to reveal an open doorway with even more stairs as he explained to Selina,
"Found this place a while back when the Flea was first opened. No one really knows about it except for me...well, also you now. I hope to get a more secure way to seal it off, but for now, this is all I got."
They walked down the new set of stairs and entered a large basement with a fold-out table in the center of the room with an old computer system on it as well as a keyboard, mouse, and fold-up chair. The only other objects in the room were an old mattress that sat in the corner and a thin blanket on top of it. Rick ran ahead to the fold-out table and called out,
"Welcome to my Basement! I know, pretty meager at the moment, but once I get more money I'm going to turn this place around! A dozen different monitors, an awesome chair, fast computing speeds, a refrigerator..."
As he listed off what we wanted, Rick thought that he heard the soft sound of snoring and turned to see Selina had fallen fast asleep on his mattress with the blanket covering her small body. Rick quickly went quiet and smiled to himself at the scene in front of him. He walked over to her and laid himself down at the opposite end of the mattress to give her some privacy and started feeling sleepy himself. Right before he closed his eyes, he felt something touch his back and he turned his head to find Selina had rolled over in her sleep so she leaned against Rick. She muttered in her sleep, just loud enough for him to hear,
"Rickie...thank...you..."
Rick smiled and patted her head before turning back, saying to himself,
"No Selina...thank you..."
Kinda cheesy ending, but that's how it ended up XD. I really hope you liked this introduction and know that chapters will be longer once they're based on the actual episode instead of what's in my head! I also plan to share a short OC sheet so you'll hopefully understand more of how Rick is and some other necessities about him. So please share what you think with a Review, Favorite, or whatever and I'll be sure to post again soon!
-T.W.
Next Time, on Gotham...
"Prisoner 47589A, mail call!"
"It's good to be home!"
"Now where have you been, Cat?"
"Stick with me, and we might just got of this alive..."
"See ya around, coppers!"