Thanks for reading my little story!
In the last chapter, I had been exploring a strange place when I found Ricky Grayson, my old friend Anica, and someone I decided to call London, all caught up in a trap. The only way them out is to get the key! But how?
I stared intently at the key, hanging from a string over the booby-trapped chair.
Suddenly, the door at the end of the room slid open. A patrolling gangster seemed just as surprised to see me as I him, but even as I lunged to try to keep him quiet, he called out, and even as my punch connected with his glass chin, I began to hear very large footsteps fill the hall beyond the door. I shoved the guard out into the hall and pressed a button - any button - until the doors closed, but as I looked around, I realized that unless I ran back out the way I had come, I was trapped.
"The key!" Ricky yelled.
London merely moved away from the cell door, shoving his hands into his pockets.
I turned to look at the key, and a half-plan formed, but before I could even give it a thought the door burst open - and flew halfway across the room. Giants apparently don't do well with tiny buttons.
A movement in the air warned me, and I hit the floor as his hand swept the air above me. I jumped up - all those burpees did me some good after all! - and spun to see my opponent.
Well, a glance was all that was required to inform me that I had no fucking chance.
The giant was huge. His huge shoulders were barely squeezing through the door and he was almost on his hands and knees to fit into the tiny room. That hand would wrap around me from shoulder to knee, and I didn't want to think about how it would squish me.
But he was so cramped in this narrow room that I might be able to dodge him... except for the gangster I had punched, and two others who were brandishing some kind of stun baton. I backed off.
"Well, shit." I said, tripping over one of the wrong chairs. As luck would have it, it was connected to the farthest door, and sent metal-melting acid spraying down on the arm of the monster. Just what I needed. I fought my way to my feet, but his huge hand slapped me up against the wall, lifting me off the ground. Painfully he dragged me sideways toward him, making me acutely aware of the concrete bricks and the fact that I couldn't breathe. But - I barely had to reach out to take the desired key, and stringing it around my wrist was the easiest thing - the bulk of the giant shielded me entirely from the still-human guards' view.
Suddenly, the giant released me, the weight of his arm pushing me back almost to the next chair. I fell to the ground with a thump and watched as he suddenly clawed at his chest and throat. He began to scream. He fell to his knees and gasped for air, letting out these wrenching screams that I could barely stand. As he collapsed, dying, I slumped over, closing my eyes. The cursing guards would hopefully assume I was unconscious - yes, they did - and forget me? No such luck. The biggest of the three - crossing himself as he stepped over the arm of the giant - lifted me under one arm and carried me over to the door of the cell my friends were in. His buddy opened the door, and - none too gently - Muscles threw me into the cell and slammed the door.
I think I bounced. I tried to roll. Finding myself on my face, I tried to push myself up, and failed. Muscles growled, and I played dead.
The other gangsters were poking the giant. "Just like the last one," Keys said.
His buddy nodded. "We'd better tell the Joker."
They left, and Muscles went with them.
London tapped my back. "Are you badly injured?" He asked. I successfully pushed myself partway up, feeling some sort of movement in my ribcage that nearly made me pass out again. London caught my shoulder and arm and half-pulled me upright.
"Ow! Ow, sorry, that hurts..." I shook my head - gently. "It's... I'll be okay. Hey - didn't you want this?" I had squeezed the key so hard it left an imprint in my palm, but it fell out neatly, swinging out from the string on my wrist. London caught it, and I barely felt his fingers against my wrist before he was at the door taking advantage of the key.
I pushed myself into a more stable position. "Hey, Anica. How's it going?"
She shook her head. "Not bad. Just a typical day, getting caught by Joker and thrown in prison with local celebrities, that's all."
I smiled. "Right. That's all. How's your head?" The boys were investigating the corpse.
"Aw, it hurts." She stood up, shakily. "But I've had worse headaches before."
I stared up at her. "Really?"
She blinked. "How are you? You look a little banged-up."
"Not surprising, considering I got a little banged around." I nodded at the collapsed giant and accepted her help to stand up, sending waves of pain up and down my body - especially my left leg, which refused to support my weight. Forgetting to breathe, I nearly collapsed again, but Anica caught my arm and supported me. "That thing..." I was panting now. "Has huge hands."
"Are you going to be okay?" Anica said. There was real worry in her eyes. I pushed away from her and leaned against the bars on the wall of the cell instead.
"What are you talking about?" I tried to grin. "I've never been better."
"Don't be ridiculous. You're white as a sheet."
"Only because it's cold in here." I replied, looking at the ground. It would be about three steps to the door, then I would have to find a new support to lean on.
Anica shook her head. "You're crazy."
This time the grin was genuine. "Just remind me how to walk, and I won't debate it."
She slipped her arm under mine again. "Is... that thing... dead?"
Her words surprised me. "Anica, it was human, once." I wasn't sure how I knew, but I was certain the statement was a fact.
"Yes, it's dead." Said London, giving me another of his implacable looks. Ricky kicked the creature.
"It must have been one of the Joker's experiments. He is probably still just testing the formula... that's why the brute died."
"H... heart attack," London said, shifting his eyes to the giant. I sighed inadvertently, watching London, but looked away before his eyes could catch mine.
"At least he's dead," I said quickly. "He's probably in less pain that way. I hope. But anyway, we should go before the cleanup crew gets here."
"Which way?" Asked Anica, moving me to the door of the cell. Standing some helped, and I felt a little more capable of moving on my own.
"The way I came is heavily trafficked by robots, and I don't think we could make it through. I know for certain I wouldn't be able to make it through by stealth."
Ricky nodded, a sparkle in his eye. He shoved his hands in his pockets and whistled a tune. "Great. After the guards we go." London, the closest to the panel, stood and moved toward it.
Anica frowned, but didn't say anything. Taking a deep breath, I stepped over the giant's hand. "The code is 1234."
The boys looked at me. "Seriously?" London asked. I nodded. "That's just too easy," He muttered, looking at the panel and chewing his thumbnail again.
"Are you ready for this?" Anica asked me, stepping over the hand.
"Always ready," I told her, smirking at the familiar phrase and adjusting my glasses. "You?"
"Yup. If you see a bow, though..."
"Right." I said.
"A bow?" London is so easily distracted. "Are you an archer?"
"Yup. I prefer longbows, but I can shoot quite well with compound bows too."
I shook my head, smiling. "The code is still 1234," I reminded London.
"Hm? Oh, right. Ricky?"
Richard Grayson was bent over the giant, tying some of the cloth from his shirt into a familiar shape. When he stood, he was holding a workable sling. He shoved it into his pocket. "Just in case," He said, shrugging.
London punched in the code and the doors slid open.