Gotham Knights

A jolt from the plane touching ground woke me up from my sleep. I looked out of the window and saw the massive city of Gotham, making me gasp at it. It was so dark, but also mysterious, definitely a change of pace from London. I couldn't wait to start working at the Gotham Gazette. Being able to have an awesome job, while also being able to spend time with my cousin, Helen, is like winning a competition to meet the Queen, the members of Queen, and Helen Mirren, the actress who played the Queen, at the same time.

After going through customs, I walked through the arrivals archway and noticed a young woman jumping up and down, waving a giant sheet of card which bore the words "Vicki Vale: Most Awesome Journalist!". I recognised the woman as my cousin, Helen Masterson, tech designer at WayneTech. It's weird to have an identical cousin, but our mothers were identical twins, and had us on the exact same day, so, yeah, very weird.

"Hey girl, you alright?" She greeted me with her American drawl. She was raised in America and has an American father, while I grew up in the United Kingdom over-seas.

"Yeah. I'm fine. Flight was way too long, and I'm so tired now!" I replied, rubbing my eyes. Helen took my suitcase and carried it for me to her car. We both got inside, and she drove off.

"You don't mind if we quickly go into my work space before going to my apartment? I just need to finish some work and hand it in to Mr Fox."

"Yeah, that's fine. Who's Mr Fox?" As I spoke, I was pinching and slapping myself so that I would stay awake. Although I managed to sleep on the flight, it wasn't until the last hour of the flight, and trans-atlantic flights are super long!

"Lucius Fox. He's the business manager for WayneEnterprises. Basically, he checks my work to see if it's functional, and then helps to put it in production, and whether or not it can be useful to the rest of the world." Helen parked her car in a spot underneath the building, and got out. I got out as well and we made our way up into the WayneTech building.

WayneTech was very technologically advanced; I could barely believe my eyes when we walked through the door. Helen went over to the receptionist at the front door. I kept my distance as I wasn't sure that what my cousin was saying was confidential or not. After a few seconds, she walks back to me, with a card attached to a cord.

"Here, put this visitor badge on. You should be fine now." she said, with a smile. We walked through security, setting nothing off, and went towards her desk. I looked round at the different stations, where men and women were working hard on either designing, creating, testing, even ordering more materials for all of the other things I had mentioned. When we reached Helen's desk, I couldn't believe how messy it all was. Blue bits of paper crumpled up everywhere, broken pencils and pencil shavings across the floor, and there were thousands of other pencils that were too short, and had no rubber in the back of it.

"Sorry about the mess!" she said, walking over to her desk, and shoving the crumpled paper of one side, to reveal a design for a laser.

"Um, am I-"

"Of course you're allowed to look! You haven't started your job yet, so it's ok!" Helen tugged at my arm, and I was pulled forward to take a closer look at it. Let me say, that I had never seen a more intricate design of a laser before. "There will obviously be a few bugs and glitches within it," my cousin explained, "but that's expectant of any work here. You never get anything right first time, but that's just part of life, isn't it?"

"Yes, yes it is." I said. A man walked to Helen's desk, with a stern look on his face.

"Helen, do you have the design of the laser?"

"Yes, Mr Fox. Right here." She handed Mr Fox the design of the laser, which he examined himself. He seemed to have a pleased expression of his face, before noticing me. His eyebrows almost met when he looked at my face.

"And this woman is?"

"Oh, this is my cousin, Vicki. She's just moved from London to Gotham to work at the paper. Arrived just a few hours ago."

"Hello." I greeted him in the politest way I could, even offering my hand for him to shake, but he didn't look that impressed.

"Well, Mr Wayne has also told me that I should take your cousin to meet him. You know how he is about journalists."

"I know, but-" my cousin tried to explain.

"No buts. Come with me, Miss…?"

"Vale. Vicki Vale." I said. I walked out of Helen's workplace, and followed Mr Fox to the lift. We both got inside, Mr Fox got his work card, and swiped it on the side of the buttons. The lift then moved upwards, which was a surprise to me. I didn't want the whole journey to be full of an awkward silence, so I began to speak.

"So, Mr Fox,"

"Lucius, please."

"Ok, um, Lucius, um, err, what is Mr Wayne like?"

"Well, Mr Wayne is a hard-working man. He's a little playful at times, but deeply cares about the workings of WayneEnterprises, making sure that they all work towards his beliefs. Did you know that he stopped a part of the company from chopping down part of the Amazon rainforest before it happened, because that part of the company tried to slip it under his nose?"

"Wow, no I didn't know." I was deeply in awe of Mr Wayne. A humanitarian businessman. There so few! The ting from the lift indicated to both me and Lucius that we had reached the floor. We got out and walked to a ginormous office. On its door, it read "Bruce Wayne: Head of WayneEnterprises." Lucius knocked on the door.

"Come in." a voice called. Lucius opened the door, and beckoned me inside.

"Mr Wayne, this is Miss Vicki Vale, cousin of our head designer, Helen Masterson." Mr Wayne was sitting in a big chair, facing the window. After my introduction, he spun round his chair and stood up. To this day, I still remember the emotions I felt when I first laid eyes on him for the first time: surprise, delight, with a hint of admiration and maybe a bit of like. As in, like like.