Matilda's feet were settled under cool ocean waters; the ever so often wave manipulated her feet to sway back and forth. She watched the ships out in the harbor float on the surface and observed the seagulls taking advantage of the winds to fly. She smiled gently to the serene scene before her; the ocean wasn't beautiful as New York, but it was a good break from the hectic life of the city. Matilda rested on the dock as Xander was filing clearance orders from all around the world. When it was needed, Xander could work really hard and for once he wasn't annoying and a big goofball. However, it never really lasted long with Xander. "DONE!" he announced out loud, returning the files to the man who held the clearance orders and kept them filed. Matilda looked over her shoulder to see Xander hop off the up right wooden barrel and made his way towards Matilda. "How's your day going?" he asked to bring up some kind of conversation between them.
"Haven't you been paying attention?" Matilda asked, completely forgetting that Xander was half-working and half-goofing off. She shrugged her shoulders, "I've been good," she answered to make up the stupid question she asked. "This must be a hard job, huh?" Matilda bought up, taking notice that Xander was running around most of the time since they've arrived to the harbor. He simply nodded his head, eyes watching the sailing boats before him. "Do you have to check what's loaded on the boats?" Matilda pondered, leaning towards him. It was obvious that was she was looking for more information to hand over to Spider-Man.
"Well, duh," he mocked Matilda's tone while he nudged her gently in the ribs. "I have to do a complete search before allowing any imports in our city."
"Or else," Matilda added with a smirk. Xander didn't have to assume, he knew that she was thinking of Spider-Man crashing the bad guy's party. Xander was correct, Matilda was daydreaming. Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four teamed up to go against a mafia gang that had enough chemical waste to poison the World's oceans. Of course, Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four saved the day by putting in webs and "clobbering" them to a goodnight's rest. "You know who might crash the party." Xander rolled his eyes, couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"You seriously need to start your own fan club," Xander teased her. Abruptly, a loud horn blew, causing the two young adults to jump. The sound caught their attention, forcing them to look out to the ocean waters to find a large, black shipping boat docking into Xander's port. "It's here," he stated as he stood up. He aided Matilda to her feet before rushing over to the ship. Matilda looked around quickly, almost nervously and followed Xander in a quick jog. "Wayne Enterprises has landed!" Xander shouted to the rest of his co-workers, waving his hand over his head to get their attention.
"Wayne Enterprises? Like Bruce Wayne of Gotham?" Matilda suddenly ran past Xander, "Is he on the boat?" she inquired as the two closed the distance to the docking bridge. Xander stood there waiting, hands in pockets, and keen/observant eyes watching the men unload the packaged goods. Matilda began to doubt that Bruce Wayne would be on the carrier ship, but much too her surprise, Bruce Wayne climbed off the shipping boat with his a young teenager tagging beside him and his famous butler behind the teen. "It's Bruce Wayne!" Matilda nudged Xander. "Don't embarrass me, okay?" she whispered into Xander's ear, hoping to make some kind of impression on him. Without thinking, she moved forward to greet him as if she was the mayor of Manhattan.
Just as she came close enough to Bruce Wayne, Xander pushed her roughly into him. Matilda yelped as she free-fell towards the ground; she was so embarrassed, she didn't think of a react. Thankfully, Bruce Wayne caught her before she could hurt herself on the wooden docks. "Are you all right?" his tender, yet "manly" voice echoed into Matilda's ear. The Bruce Wayne was holding her in his arms.
She pulled herself off him quickly and straightened her posture. "Y-yeah, thank you." Her cheeks flushed and immediately, she introduced herself, "Matilda Nowak, it's a pleasure Mr. Wayne." Matilda shot her hand forward, and he shook it firmly. She squealed mentally, thanking God that she had the chance to meet THE Bruce Wayne. Her mind began to fanaticize the two marrying, having kids, and being the richest family in the world. Of course, Xander had to ruin her good thoughts by pushing her to the side.
"Alexander Malcolm, I'm the manager of these docks here. Let's talk business...imports, exports, that kind of stuff." Xander had pulled her future husband away from her, and by the smug smirk on his lips, he did it on purpose.
Matilda huffed a sigh, crossing her arms tightly over her chest. "Unfair," she whispered to herself. She was oblivious to the other two men standing behind her--failing to introduce herself to them--and left them to follow Xander. She knew she wasn't allowed to accompany the meeting, but she was able to sit outside of Xander's office. Matilda was sitting against the plaster wall, hugging her knees for comfort. The ocean view kept her mind at ease and free from boredom, just looking at the ocean gave her all sorts of images of Bruce and her splashing water on each other.
Matilda didn't keep track of the time, but she knew very well that her day was flying past her. The Sun was setting over the ocean's waters, the sky traversed from blue to an array of oranges, reds, pinks, and yellow colors. She didn't complain over this matter, merely allowed Xander to do his job and not making another fool of herself in front of Bruce Wayne. Her head leaned against the plaster wall; her blue orbs focused on to the first star that appeared in the night sky. The star twinkled brightly in the appearing night sky; it was the only light that was in the flooding darkness.
"Xander's going to pay..." Matilda muttered. This was the third time he left her to do his business--if he's really that busy, then he should never have invited her to his work. She perked out her lower lip in a soft pout. "Better buy me dinner." The mention of dinner forced her stomach to growl. She just remembered that there wasn't any food within her day, no breakfast, no lunch, no snacks, and it seemed to be as if there will be no dinner. Matilda was already skinny enough, she didn't want to waste her body.
"Thank you, Mr. Malcolm for everything. I trust in you to take care of the items on the ship," Bruce Wayne's voice came from the inside of Xander's office. The voice was muffled, but at least it was audible. Matilda leaned her ear against the wall and listened in their conversation--why didn't she think of this earlier? "I want my own port to make sure my ship is safe here in New York. This isn't my first visit, but I wouldn't want to make it my last." Bruce Wayne, along with Xander, exited from the office still in the middle of their conversation.
"No problem, Mr. Wayne. Let me show you the private ports that are available at this moment. You are entitled to choose which one you would like to dock your ship in." Xander allowed Bruce Wayne to continue on walking, oblivious to Xander stopping to chat with Matilda for a bit. "I know, I know; I'm really sorry about this. I totally forgot that Bruce Wayne was docking in today. I'll make it up to you, I promise. You head on home and I'll pick up pizza from our favorite place. Does that sound good?"
Matilda rolled her eyes. That's the one thing she disliked about Xander, he always forgot about the most important things. "All right, all right; you better make it large, get a liter of Dr. Pepper, and rent a British comedy." Xander nodded his head, agreeing with the offer. He opened his mouth to speak, but Bruce Wayne interrupted him by asking if he should wait for another day--this got Xander running after Bruce Wayne and apologizing. "Goodnight," Matilda whispered to Xander; she knew he wouldn't hear and probably will forget about this whole conversation. Xander was a dummy, but one heck of a friend. Matilda stood to her feet with the aid of the wall. Her legs screamed in pain, being seated in one position over a long period of time wasn't good. She stretched her legs a bit before using them for walking.
As she was turning to leave, the large Wayne Enterprises cargo ship caught her eye. She bit her lip, but her curiosity was urging her to investigate. "It wouldn't hurt..." she muttered. Matilda could always lie her way out of this one, right? "I heard a scream from inside of the cargo ship and went running towards it, thinking it was a worker in trouble." She took off running towards the cargo ship, pretending she heard some kind of shrill. Matilda slowed down as she made it up the docking bridge, she gently traveled her way up, not wanting to disturb anything or get caught. "I followed the sound inside of the cargo ship, making my way through the array of wooden boxes towards the back, calling out for whoever was in there." She followed her story, moving towards the back and getting a good look at everything she passed by; large items from Egypt, shining armor from Europe, and pottery from Asia. This was the whole world within Bruce Wayne's cargo ship. Matilda made her way to the back of the cargo ship, finding a door with a make-shift sign, 'keep out'. "I came across a sign that said keep out, but another scream echoed through the darkness...and it came from within the room." Matilda opened the door slowly, hoping no one was within the room. Thankfully, when she opened it fully, it was empty of life...yet something was glowing in the far corner. "More and more screams occurred from the corner, and I ran over there to see what the problem was." Matilda ran towards the corner where the green glow was accumulating. "Once I arrived...it was merely a cat meowing for attention..." what Matilda found was no cat. An artifact had fallen from its pedestal, a green glowing artifact that seemed from ancient Egypt...or out of this world. She didn't hesitate to pick it up; she knelt down closer to the object and scooped it up in her palm...and once she did, something strange occurred.
A bright green light flashed before her eyes and a sudden, unexpected pain flowed through her body. Matilda felt as if she was fire, burning from the inside out. She screamed, dropping the artifact and using her nails to scrap her skin. Her skin burned, her blood boiled, her eyes were blurred. She was in great deal of pain. Her mind was unconscious to her surroundings and she figured she was no longer in the cargo ship. Somewhere else, but where exactly? The pain surged through her body, forcing her to abandon her thoughts of her whereabouts. Matilda wanted the pain gone, the fire to end, and pleaded for this...something...to stop racing her heart. At last, the pain ended, but her worse fear crept around her slowly. The darkness engulfed her and she screamed for the light.
Bruce Wayne and Xander were half-way to the private docks when they heard the loud shrill. Looking over their shoulders to inspect the area behind them and found it barren; another scream echoed through their ears, paling their faces. "MATILDA!" Xander shouted, as he turned around, dashing towards the alarming scream. Bruce Wayne soon followed after him, curious to what was happening with that young girl and if he--or the Batman--could help in anyway. Xander heard a third scream and this scream allowed Xander to locate where exactly the screams had pronounced themselves. "Your cargo ship!" Xander pointed out to Bruce Wayne before darting up the docking bridge. Xander was fearful of his friend's whereabouts, afraid one of these mafia guys got a hold of her...and were...no! He wouldn't allow it to continue if it happened, he wouldn't forgive himself if he let this happen to her. Xander made his way into the dark cargo ship and momentary stopped; he looked around, eyes darting from every direction. "Matilda!! MATILDA!" he cried out for her. A fourth scream echoed through the ship just as Bruce Wayne entered in--the scream came from the back. Xander darted in the direction, pushing dusty cloths out of his way and leaping over boxes to make it to the destination faster.
"MATILDA!" Xander at last found the back door, which was glowing with a bright green light. "Matilda!" he darted into the room, caring not to listen to Bruce Wayne's hushed whisper from behind him. The light was fading was he drew closer; it felt as if the light was Matilda's life...and she was fading rapidly. Xander kicked down the door to find the room become pitch black. "Matilda!" Xander pushed himself into a jog towards the dark figure lying on the floor. He found her and she was still alive...but he wasn't sure if she would be for long. He dropped to his knees and scooped her limp body into his arms. "Matilda, speak to me, what happened." Only another groan escaped her lips. "Call an ambulance!" Xander shouted over his shoulder to Bruce Wayne, who was already doing it before he asked. "Come on, Matilda, don't leave me now."
Bruce Wayne came up from behind Xander, using his cell phone as a light. He shined it over Matilda's body and what they both saw forced them to gasp. Her veins were popping out and they were all glowing green. 'She couldn't have...' Bruce Wayne thought. He used his cell phone to scan the room and just as he predicted, the Krypton artifact was laying aimlessly on the floor next to her foot. 'She did...' he looked back to Matilda lying limp in Xander's arms.
"What happened?" Xander choked on a sob as he leaned his forehead against her's. In the distance was the sound of an ambulance, followed by police cars. Xander shivered, clinging on to Matilda's body and possibly to the last strands of her life.
Author's Notes: I know a lot of you are confused, very confused to what is happening, but don't worry, it'll make sense. If you continue to read and give me reviews, it'll be explained perfectly. Please review, thank you!