A/N: Hmm yes fangirl obsessing after seeing The Dark Knight. I don't own Batman. Isn't that just the most depressing thing any author would have to say? Admitting that their fantasy is only a fantasy. What a stab in the eye. Anyways, Read and Review!
Chapter 1
It was one of those dark city backstreets where only the stark light of the flickering street lamps illuminated the foggy eeriness, throwing dark shadows onto the crumbling, grafittied walls. No one lingered in this sort of backdrop. After all this was more than perfect setting for some backdoor kidnapping, murder, rape, and death in general by some unfathomable but certainly terrible cause. Even the beggars kept away from here afraid of being caught as witnesses to unspoken crime of the new mob that had been terrorizing the neighborhood. Rumor has it that their torture house was located around here, no one knew for sure and no one wanted to.
Actually, on this particular night there was one person on the street. She wandered aimlessly with a deep frown on her face wondering where in this gigantic city she could possibly be. She pursed her lips at her deteriorating situation. After all she was unemployed with only two crumpled one dollar bills and some coins in her pocket. Her jeans were faded, and her sneakers were peeling at the soles, and her face was set in a tight grimace. To top it all off, her stomach grumbled angrily. In truth her ragged worn down state complemented the depressing scene perfectly. The only thing strange of about this straggling girl was the katana strapped across her back.
Finally she decided that there was no point to keep walking and sunk into a bench beside the deserted streets. She was able to produce half of a very smushed and deformed peanut butter sandwich from on of her pockets. It didn't matter to her what it looked, extreme hunger had that sort of effect. Instead she swiftly pulled off the plastic wrap and devoured it in two bites. With her stomach some what satisfied, she stared into the swirling fog around her, thinking of nothing in particular since her body and mind were exhausted to the point that it would like nothing better than to curl up on the cold bench and fall asleep. Her heavy eyes were about to close in agreement when a shrill scream cut through the silent night like a sharp knife.
The girl didn't have to wait long before a woman dashed by carrying a young boy protectively to her chest. The woman and her child were being pursued by angry men in expensive Armani suits, all with a gun in their hands. "Don't let her get away!!" one of them shouted as they ran past the girl on the bench. No one noticed her.
She scowled at the sudden turn of events and counted evenly to three seconds glaring angrily at heavens for the cause of her misfortunes before crumpling the plastic wrap and followed the chase.
She caught up just as the last man ran into a large warehouse shouting to spread out and look for the woman. It was a typical warehouse with stacks upon stacks of unopened boxes and cans piled so high that a maze of walls was formed by its cargo. She ducked behind the nearest box and followed one of the men as they carefully scourged every nook and cranny. She came up behind the man unaware of her presence and dealt him a heavy blow on the back of his neck. He crumpled silently unnoticed by his fellow colleagues.
There were five men that had ran passed her. The porky one with the most rings on each finger was clearly the boss. And if that wasn't enough to confirm it, he was the one talking obnoxiously gloating to himself in clear sight. The girl ignored the main one, opting to cut down on the other three. She picked up the gun dropped by the first man and met the second one at the corner of a pile of cardboard boxes. She had to shoot this one since he screamed in surprise. Nothing fatal though, just enough to knock him unconscious. "Jim?" asked the big one in the middle. "Who the hell is here?" Great now they knew something was up. She cursed silently to herself and crept on avoiding the suddenly harsh and dangerous voice that echoed across the warehouse, as if he wasn't loud enough already.
She saw the next one coming from the shadow on one of the boxes, she opted to knock out this man with a swift leg chop right at the base of the neck, and he too went down with a gurgling choked scream.
There was sudden sharp scream as the porky one caught his target. "Don't hurt my son!!" the mother yelled with a desperate scream. The porky one ignored her, he was not out of danger yet. "Come out, come out wherever you are! If you don't I'll blow a hole right into his lovely skull."
The girl had no choice and she stepped into the yellow light with her hands raised. The porky one had the son in one hand with a gun to his head grinning at his sudden triumph. "Who the hell are you?" he demanded in his best mob boss voice, "future batgirl?" he chuckled at his joke as if it was the funniest thing he's ever said, sadly it was. "Now put you gun down, nice and slowly that's it, any sudden moves and the boy gets it." The girl had no choice but to obey as she slid the gun towards her enemy.
The mother of the boy was sobbing now in high hysteria pleading for the safety of her son. "Shaddup!" replied the porky one giving the teary eyed lady a rough kick. "It's all your husband's fault, he shouldn't've tried to play it smart with us. He tells us he needs money, and we give it to him, and then he says he needs more time to pays it back, and we give it to him. Then he tells us he's got nuthin' and he wants another two weeks, and we think he's gotta nice kid and wife at home, so's we give him another chance. Now he runs away. What can say? We're just collectin' whateva's left of the trash."
"Noo!! Please don't hurt him! Take me instead!!" the woman begged hysterically tugging on the perfectly creased trousers.
"No can do lady. Now uh back off, I don't like shooting women. This boy's got fresh organs ready to be sold on the black market."
"That's disgusting," the straggler girl commented evenly as she drew her sword.
The mob leader pointed the gun in her direction. "Hey watch it! One wrong move and I'll-"
At that precise moment, the girl darted forward slicing off the head of the gun, leaving it a useless piece of metal in porky's hands.
"You'll do what? Shoot me with that?" the girl replied.
"Oh," he managed to say glancing down at the piece of scrap metal in his hands. The next moment blackness enveloped his vision as the girl deftly knocked him out.
"Hey Hugo? What's happenin'? We've sent some backup you useless lump!"
The girl glanced around for the artificial voice and found it was emitted from the cell phone on the big one's pocket. "Shit," she cursed to herself as she roughly dragged up the little boy and swiping the gun on the floor. "Ok time to go."
"No! I don't wanna!!" yelled the little boy shrugging off the girl's hard grip. "Batman's coming to save me and mommy."
Despite the seriousness of the situation, a deathly silence filled the warehouse. The girl crouched down to the little boy's eye level so that he could see the exactly who he was talking to. "Batman is not going to save a whiny little brat like you, and in a couple of minutes you will never see this batman because you will be cut up into little piece and sold on the black market."
Obviously scare tactics did not work on little kids who didn't know what the black market was or the direct implication of being cut up into little pieces. Luckily he caught a whiff of the danger in the girl's voice and wisely back off to hide behind mommy. The sound of running footsteps was heard as the girl straightened up. "Shit," she swore again to herself and forced the head of the mother down behind one of the boxes. "Now shut up and do as I say. There's an exit in the far corner on your left. Move."
She cocked the gun in her hand, her eyes listening hard for the sound of approaching footsteps. There must have ten of them and they were still twenty feet away from the door, not to mention the obstacles that blocked their way. "I'll distract them. Go silent," she whispered and then she was off.
Ducking behind a few boxes to the right, she roughly kicked them over ducking to one side as bullets rained down on the spot her head was a second ago. Moving lithely, she shot back while kicking over boxes, distracting the mob from the escaping mother and child. She guessed that she had about thirty shots and that was enough to bring down three of her pursuers. Her gun clicked hollowly after the thirty second shot. She promptly threw away the useless weapon, once more drawing her sword. The steel tip shined brightly in the dim light. The mother and her boy should've escaped by now.
"Haha!" laughed one of the men, "She's outta bullets! Get her!"
She took a deep breath listening for the sound of the men running towards her. A bullet clipped past her leg leaving a bloody gash, but she ignored it, bee lining for the nearest man. Nimbly she impaled the first one on the shoulder, then yanked out the sword with a sickening schliickk.
The men back off suddenly, wary of this strange girl. One of the men who were a fair distance away groaned. "Watcha guys scared of? Her puny sword 'aint got nothing on a gun! Shoot her already!!"
Encouraged by their teammates, the men began to advance with their pistols cocked. This one was going to be tough to get out of. The girl looked around for something, anything to give her leverage. Then her chance appeared. There was a crane with a rope hanging just above a box to her right. She sheathed her sword, snatching up the fallen gun of the man she had cut down, and leaped onto the box snagging the line along the way. Her moment turned the crane and it swung her in a big arc into the exposed middle of the warehouse, her gun sweeping bullets as she swung to the other side. Two more men fell but then she was out of bullets for the second time as she landed on a high stack of cargos.
The shock wore off the next second and bullets followed her again. This time she knew where she was going. The height of the box provided her just the right height for a clear passage to the square windows. She jumped with out a backwards glance, shattering the glass as she went through. It was all very cinematic.
Needless to say, the gunshots and the yelling and the glass breaking stirred up some noise along the seemingly deserted warehouse area. The mob, who have been keeping a low profile so as not to catch the eyes of a certain vigilante were itching for a fight. Indeed their hideout was near the warehouse that our main character just bravely jumped out of so the noise needlessly brought out a bunch of onlookers.
The girl grimaced as rolled onto broken glass. She got up immediately, but she was instantly surrounded by twenty or so more people. "Oh come on," she groaned as she stood up noticing that one of her ankles was most certainly twisted and one her arm was bleeding after landing on sharp glass that had managed to cut through her thin polyester jacket. Maybe this great and powerful Batman will come and substitute her. God knows she needs it.
As she leaned against the wall of the warehouse with all her exits blocked by a mob with a gun or two, her prayer was answered. The dark night of Gotham city dropped down from the roof in a flurry of black cape. Just the sight of him was enough to make everyone else take a few steps back.
"Don't worry guys! We've gottem' cornered," one of them said though no one was very reassured.
A second later, two of the men who were the closest were dropped by an iron fist while everyone else started to loose bullets at a safer distance. The girl groaned again and ducked to the side for she would've most certainly been nailed by the bullets that missed the man in mask in front of her. She swiped two guns as she dodged to the side and returned fire as Batman worked his way through the mob, breaking guns and knocking them unconscious.
One of them who was slightly smarter than the other saw a pile of oil cans tied to the back of a truck. He cut the ropes loose letting the cans roll and tumble, crushing everything in their ways. One of them caught the masked crusader on the side slamming him into the already injured girl. She let out an 'umph' as all the air were forced from her lungs, "Ah, Shit, shit," she swore as she felt the bulk of Batman fractured some of her ribs. Her eyes were already starting the blur in the corners.
There was only a few of them left now, but it was still tedious none the less. She shoved aside the head of caped man since she had no strength to push him off all together, and shot back. Every bullet found its mark and finally there was silence.
She forced her lungs to breath, moving as little as possible in case her ribs dug into her lungs, that is to say if they weren't already lodged in there. Pain was starting to blur her vision but she felt the massive man roll off of her. Without a word, he turned to leave. With the rest of her remaining strength she caught a hold of the swirling black cape, "Hey, you, do you have a place I can stay tonight?" And then she passed out.
