Wow, what a US Election! I hope my guys and gals in the USA took the time the vote, cause I can't...I'm underage...it sucks. ANYWAYS, thank you to everyone for their support and I hope you enjoy this new episode of Gotham: Year of the Hacker! As promised, below you'll see the short character sheet for Rick and then you get to start reading! Please make sure to Review, Favorite, or Follow to show your love!
Name: Richard Hawkins
Age: 16
Hair Color: Brown
Eye Color: Brown
Skills: Freerunner, Pickpocket, Expert Hacker, DJing, Street fighting.
Likes: Computers, Music(Classic Rock, Remixes, and Rap), Inventing, Truth, Courage.
Dislikes: Lies, Corruption, Cowardice, Police.
Gotham: Year of the Hacker
(Episode #: My Chapter/Actual Episode
Episode 2: ESC/Selina Kyle
Last Time, on Gotham...
"Hi there, Selina, it's nice to meet you!"
"Every person in the world is born different, and because of these differences, some people can do things that others can never do!"
I'm going to teach you the one thing you have yet to learn in this hell-forsaken city! How. To. Live."
"Rickie...thank...you..."
"No Selina...thank you..."
Exactly 10 Years Later...
In the deepest solitary cell in Gotham's Institute for Juvenile Detention, a young man wearing the orange jumpsuit of the Institute laid on his bed reading a book titled "We Steal Secrets; The History of Wikileaks" when the sound of knocking emitted from thick, steel door that block the boy off from the rest of the world. A deep male voice spoke from the other side and said,
"Prisoner number 47589A, mail call; And please, be decent. I don't want to catch you with your pants down again..."
Sighing, the boy bent a corner of the page he was on and yelled back,
"That was one time, Matt. ONE! DAMN! TIME!"
The whirring of locks sounded from inside of the door for a moment and then immediate stopped when a short ding was heard. The door pulled out and revealed one of the many guards stationed as part of the "Solitary Squad" in the Institute. He walked into the cell and handed the prisoner a letter without a single mark on the envelope. The prisoner noticed this and asked,
"Who's it from?"
"I was hoping that you knew. The warden came up to me and told me to give this to you, then he gave me a stack of cash to keep it quiet. Weird, right?"
The prisoner ignored the guard and continued examining the envelope for more clues on its origin. Taking the hint, the guard sighed and turned to leave the cell. Before closing the door, the guard said kindly,
"You have a good night, 47589A."
As the door closed, the prisoner called back with a hint of annoyance in his voice,
"I've told you already, it's Rick! Don't give me that number crap, jackass!"
The guard laughed as the door locked itself and as he walked off, Rick tore open the letter and laid eyes on the folded up paper inside. The message inside was short and to the point, but it was written with a high level of calligraphy that must have taken time to write. The message read,
Enjoy the potatoes.
-C.F.
At first, Rick was confused at the statement and tried rereading it a few times to find a code or hidden message of some sort. Suddenly, the whirring of the cell door's mechanic locks sounded and caused Rick to jump slightly from his spot on the bed. He yelled in annoyance,
"God Matt, the hell you want now? Jesus, you scared the shit out of me!"
The whirring stopped and the door opened to reveal a tall stranger in a full tuxedo with short, combed back hair. He had with him a small trolley that, on a silver plate, laid a rich, filet mignon and a side of green beans with mashed potatoes. The stranger pushed the trolley into the room and said to Rick,
"Please, enjoy your dinner."
As the stranger turned around and started to leave, Rick called out,
"Wait! Who the hell are you?"
The stranger stopped and turned to give Rick a small smirk and replied,
"They call me Butch. See you around, kid."
Then the man left the cell and closed the door behind him. Rick took no time to rush from his bed and start cutting into the steak with the fork and knife provided with the food, not even questioning the fact of the stranger who left it for him. He finished the steak in under five minutes and started to cut into the mashed potatoes, but when he took a scoop of them with his fork, he noticed a glossy, black surface beneath the remaining potatoes. Rick dropped the potatoes on his fork back onto the the plate and started to scrape the rest of them off of the black surface. When he finished, Rick took the object and found it to be a smartphone that was rather advanced, but way behind other models on the market. He smiled and said to himself,
"Well CF, whoever you are, thanks for the way out..."
He turned on the phone and easily used it to break into the Institutes security system and decided to take a peek at the camera guarding his hallway. As he pulled the feed up onto the phone, Rick noticed that no guards, not even Matt from earlier, was working in the hallway that night. Rick pulled away from the camera, but not without creating a fake feed loop of the hallway to send to the surveillance room in the prison, and accessed the locking system of his cell door. He broke the codes keeping it shut tight and once more, the mechanics in the door activated and Rick pushed the door open carefully to peek and check one last time if the coast was clear before he moved. Satisfied, Rick took no time to start sprinting down the hallway and through other parts of the prison until he stopped and crouched near the doors of the cafeteria, finding the lights on and and hearing the guards singing 'Happy Birthday' to what sounded to be the warden. Rick smirked and said to himself softly,
"Perfect, just the distraction I needed to..."
"Rick, is that you?"
Rick slowly turned his head to find Matt standing behind him, holding a slice of cake on a plastic plate. Hesitating only for a moment, Rick jumped into action and slammed the cake into Matt's face, making the guard go blind. In that fast moment, Rick took the taser and plastic nightstick that hung off Matt's belt and fired the electrical weapon at the guard. The guard seized from the electric shock for a only moment until he went unconscious and laid limp on the floor. Rick took a moment to catch his breath and said to the guard's unconscious form,
"Sorry Matt, hope you'll forgive me for this one day..."
He left Matt on the ground and quickly ran past the open cafeteria doors without being noticed and decided to find a way outside, hoping to find some way to escape. Suddenly, he stopped and back tracked for a minute to fins himself staring at the entrance to the Contraband Storage room, where everything from knifes to guns to clothes were stored away from prisoners until they were allowed to leave. Rick said to himself,
"Like hell if i'm getting out of here in a prison jumpsuit! Not my style..."
So, Rick made his way into the storage room, where rows upon rows of metal shelves held boxes of contraband taken from prisoners, and found a section full of civilian clothes. He dug through the dozens of boxes until he picked out and put on a pair of black Converse sneakers, dark jeans, a belt to hang his new taser and nightstick, a gray long-sleeve shirt, a back sleeve-less jacket with a hood, back finger-less gloves, a black-and-gray camo bandanna, and a pair of slick sunglasses on his head. He began to make his way out of the storage room, but not without first taking a simple black backpack and filling it with various smartphones and a few laptops for later use back home.
Rick made his way outside into the prison yard where a few guards were manning the rooftop of the main building. Lucky for him, the architects of the Institute were given land near the outskirts of Downtown Gotham, where low-class apartment buildings and shops neighbored near the prison. With this in mind, Rick climbed to the rooftops using fire escape ladders and window ledges until he reached the top. He silently ran to a large AC unit and was about to run again, until the main doorway to the rooftop burst open and dozens of guards swarmed with flashlights searching the roof. One officer called out,
"Keep your eyes peeled, the prisoner couldn't have made it too far! This was the last place surveillance saw him go!"
Damn, Rick thought angrily, forgot about the rest of the cameras. I better think of something before they spot me...
After a moment, Rick started to type into his phone again as the same officer yelled again,
"Prisoner 47589A, we have you surrounded! Reveal yourself and your punishment will not be as severe!"
Rick finished typing and slowly stood up with his hands in the air, but his phone was still in his hand. All of the guards turned to him and aimed their flashlights and pistols at him in a wide arc. The warden stepped forward and commanded to everyone present,
"Prisoner 47589A, I can forgive any youngster trying to leave this place, but using my birthday party as a way out is inexcusable! Any last words before we take you away, boy?"
Rick smirked and replied, "Well, I appreciate all the though into trying to catch me, I really do. So, I want to give y'all a deal: Let me leave peacefully, or I'll release the rest of the prisoners right here, right now!"
For a moment, all of the guards were stunned by Rick's threat, then they all started laughing hysterically while Rick only smirked, knowing something that they didn't. So, in retaliation, Rick turned his phone back on and pushed a button issuing the command code he created before revealing himself. Suddenly, all of the alarms went off and a radio call sounded from each of the officers saying,
"All guards, cell sections A-F have been released and the prisoners are trying to escape! This is not a drill! I repeat, this is not a drill!"
While the guards were distracted, Rick turned and sprinted to the end of the rooftop and made a giant leap across the street and was luckily able to grab hold of a window ledge as he missed his mark for the nearby roof. A trio of the roof guards ran after him and started shooting at him from the rooftop, causing Rick to drop down onto the street and run with the people on the street with him that were trying to not get shot. The guards eventually stopped firing as they watched their prisoner escape from sight in an alleyway as the warden approached beside of them with a flip phone in his hand. He pushed in a number and put the phone in his ear and said into it,
"It's done, the boy's escaped...Yes, I'll make sure Captain Essen won't get her hands on his case...Some lazy cops like likely get it and that'll be the end of it, I swear...Thank you sir, I'll gladly accept the money...Have a good night, sir."
A Few Hours Later, in the Early Morning...
A tired Rick made his way slowly through the back streets of Gotham, exhausted after running and free-running across rooftops to escape the police from catching and putting him back in the Institute. He kept walking, but he eventually stopped near the end if the alley and leaned onto one of the walls. Rick looked out and saw an abandoned factory that acted like a secondary Flea unlike the one in the old theater. He sighed and said to himself,
"Almost there...yay"
So, he pushed himself off the wall and made his way towards one of the emergency exits when a voice behind him asked,
"Ricki? Is that you?"
Suspecting who it was, Rick turned to see a young girl with green eyes, frizzy hair underneath a gray hood, and a pair of green goggles on her head. She also wore a black leather jacket with ripped jeans that had leggings underneath, finger-less gloves like Rick's, and black combat boots on her feet. Rick chuckled at the surprised expression on the girls face and replied,
"How's it hanging, Cat?"
Before he could even finish, the girl rushed forward and socked Rick in the jaw, causing him to fall over from the impact. He loudly grunted in pain and asked,
"What the hell was that for!?"
"That was for getting caught and being in Juvie for a year. I thought you knew better then that, idiot!", the girl responded coolly
"Just needed a reminder of what happens when people like us get caught. I did this before Selina, and you didn't to punch me then..."
Rick started to get back to his feet when he saw Selina give him an outstretched hand, which Rick grinned at and took to heave himself up. He took a moment to dust himself off and ask,
"Now then, where were we?"
"The part where I tell you what's been happening from the year you've been locked up. Trust me when I say that something like this isn't a laughing matter, got it?", Selina responded with a serious expression on her face. Rick nodded in agreement and started to make his way to the door with Selina they both heard the distant sound of police cars in the distance and saw a few turn towards the Flea from various alleyways. They both looked at each other and Selina said,
"Let's get out of here..."
"No! Those kids in there are going to get thrown into Juvie if we don't warn them!"
"But we will to if we stay!"
"Then to hell with us! Are you with me or no?"
Selina paused for a moment, contemplating her options until she eventually sighed and shot back,
"I really hate you, you know?"
"I'll take that as a yes, then.", and Rick kicked the door open and called out to everyone inside,
"EVERYBODY OUT, WE GOT COPS INCOMING!"
This caused mass hysteria for the dozens of kids in the warehouse and many started screaming and running out of the several entrances and exits to the Flea in order to escape capture. Unfortunately, most of the cops had already parked outside of the Flea and were arresting kids here and there, but at least a few were able to escape from the scene. Rick took the taser hanging from his belt and tossed it towards Selina who caught it and was about to ask where he got it, but he interrupted her saying,
"I'll tell you about it later, we've got other things to worry about!", which Selina replied with a simple nod.
He then took the nightstick out as well and told continued,
"Alright then, let's go kick some ass!", and he ran forward at the cops, yelling curse words and swinging his nightstick around at the nearest cops.
"You know, Operation Kick-some-police-butt-into-next-week should have worked perfectly! I don't know how we could have screwed that up!"
"Rick...if you want to keep living...then just shut up"
Around ten minutes of fighting with the police, both Rick and Selina were easily overpowered and had received handcuffs as well as the loss of their weapons and Rick's backpack full of electronics. At that moment, Rick was in front of Selina as they waited in line for their names to be recorded down before entering one of the three buses that would take them to some new Juvenile Detention facility in Uptown Gotham. Rick was now at the head of the line and about to board the bus with Selina behind him. The guard recording names looked at Rick for a moment and asked,
"Name?"
"Oh, bite me, you know who I am.", Rick retorted.
The guard shrugged and replied, "Just wanted to give you a chance. Now in the bus!"
Rick rolled his eyes in exasperation and boarded the bus while the guard talked with Selina. He made his way into one of the middle seats while Selina stormed up behind him and roughly sat down beside him. Once she settled down, Selina put her hand in her jacket pocket and took out a small, heart-shaped locket that she opened to reveal two pictures of the same woman, who she believed was her mother. Although he didn't tell her, Rick doubted that Selina's mother was still alive and would find her unlike what his friend believed. In the seat across of them, a young boy was leaning onto the window and crying his eyes out from everything that had happened with the police. Selina noticed this and put the locket back where she got it and called out to the boy. He turned to look at Selina and she continued kindly,
"Relax kid, Juvie's not so bad! First week, whatever you do, don't make friends with anyone whose friendly; And when you get into a fight, go for the eyes!"
As she finished, she pretended to claw the boy and made him jump a little in fear. Then the hydraulics for the bus doors sounded and a cheerful woman's voice called out from the front of the bus and said,
"Hiya, kids! How ya doin? Are you ready to go on a big adventure?"
Rick smirked at the female guard's behavior until he saw Selina dart out of her seat and run towards the back of the bus. He peeked out from the city to find her trying to pry the emergency door open with the guard following behind her, telling her to get back in her seat. She pulled a gun out of her jacket, aimed at the back of Selina's head, and demanded,
"Sit down, young lady. Like, now!"
Silence emitted throughout the bus with everyone waiting to see what Selina and the guard would do. Eventually, Rick stood up and said to the two of them,
"C'mon Selina, don't throw your life away. Just sit down, okay?"
Hesitating for only a few seconds, Selina slowly walked back to her seat and dropped back into her seat as she gave Rick a dirty look. Satisfied, the guard walked back to the front of the bus and announced to everyone,
"Smart girl...Now, next naughty child to stand up gets a black spot, right here!", and she pointed directly between her eyes. The bus lurched and started to move away from the other buses as Rick whispered to Selina,
"I'm guessing this was what you wanted to tell me about, right?"
She nodded and he continued,
"Well then, let's see how this goes..."
"Are you crazy!?", Selina whispered back with clenched teeth.
"Possibly, but I want to know exactly what these guys want with us. Besides...", and pulled his phone out of his pocket, which the police missed in confiscating his stuff, "I've still got a few aces up my sleeves..."
After an hour or so, the bus parked inside of a warehouse near the Gotham Bay and the guards on the us started to escort the kids off the bus. Rick whispered to Selina as the others got up and made their way off the bus,
"Duck down, I'll create some distractions while you're here so you can get out and call for help, got it?"
Not saying a word, Selina easily slipped beneath the seats while Rick stepped over her and followed the other kids onto the bus. He and the others were led into a gray storage container while the guards encouraged the kids off the bus kindly, but not hiding the malice in their actions if anyone refused. Rick made his way into the container and behind the other crowd of kids with him. When he was certain that no one could see him, Rick took out his phone and accessed a security camera that overlooked most of the guards, the container, and the bus they traveled on. He watched as the female guard had a quick word with the bus driver and made her way onto the bus, then a few minutes later he saw Selina slip through the door of the bus and under the bus in the blink of an eye before anyone noticed. The female guard followed behind and talked more with the driver before giving him a high-five.
Seeing this, Rick hacked into the phone of one of the warehouse workers working near the bus and made a fake call for it. As it rang, the guard lowered the assault rifle in his hands and pulled the phone out of his pocket. As the guard put the phone up to his ear, Rick activated a kill code and the phone self destructed. The guard screamed in pain and fell over from the blast with the other guards rushing over to check on his condition. Selina darted out and made his way between two containers nearby before the other guards started to spread out and find the who caused the explosion. Rick flipped to a new camera as Selina was in the middle of scratching the eyes out a guard standing in another area in the warehouse. The guard ran back to where the others were while Selina hid behind a stack of crates, away from sight.
The sound of a gunshot emitted around the warehouse and the female guard made her way into the room Selina was in as they started to both dodge around the dozens of crates that stood between them. Eventually, Selina became cornered by the guard and she silently jumped up onto a stack of crates as the guard turned to where she originally hid with her gun drawn. She was confused for only a second and dropped her arm holding the gun until a small 'plink' was heard and the guard saw a locket on the ground in front of her. She looked up and smiled as she locked eyes with a crouching and fearful Selina gazing back at her. Selina slowly stood up as the guard lifted the gun at her and said,
"Well...you are a VERY naughty little girl!"
She cocked the gun and Rick was about to hack and call her phone like he did with the previous guard when a man with short hair, a business suit, and a police badge on the belt of his pants slammed into her. The guard fell, and the police officer looked up at Selina, who had lowered her hands after having the guard's gun aimed at her her. Rick thought to himself, Well well, this is new. A helpful cop! It's a Christmas miracle!
"Hi", the cop said breathlessly, "What's your name?"
"Why's that any of your business?", Selina sarcastically replied.
It looked like he wanted to retort, but decided not to as footsteps were heard and another man came up to the cop with a gun against the head of the bus driver. The man called out, "Jim!", who Rick and guessed was the name of the cop. Jim went up to the guard and asked,
"Where are the kids?"
When the guard stayed quiet, Rick had an idea and started to connect to Jim's phone and add a voice modifier on his end.
"I said, where are the...", Jim began, but Rick chose this moment to ring Jim's phone with the Imperial March song from Star Wars. For a moment, no one moved, then Jim dug into his pocket, and without looking at the caller ID, he put it to his ear and asked,
"Hello, who is this?"
"Greetings Jim, I heard you were looking for where those kids were, am I right?", Rick calmy said through the voice mod, which made his voice sound deeper more broken up then his own. Jim replied,
"Who the hell is this?"
"Someone who really, and I mean REALLY, wants to get out of this storage container along with the others in here with me."
"Okay, then where are you?"
"The girl knows. Put me on the phone with her if you want to find us."
Hesitantly, Jim held his phone out to Selina who quickly took it from his hand and spoke into it,
"You hacked a cops phone?"
"What do you think, it's getting stuffy in here!", Rick replied without the voice mod.
"Sigh...fine, see you in a bit..."
"Yay, second escape of the day!"
"Boo, I'm behind bars again! What the hell, Jimbo!"
"Don't call me that."
"Oh, bite me!"
After helping Jim Gordon and his partner, who Rick learned was named Harvey Bullock, all of the kids were taken to the GCPD and were given clothes donated from the Wayne Foundation that day. After a few hours of paper work, the officer in charge of Juvenile Services at the station began to escort groups of the kids to a bus that would take them to the new Juvenile Institute in Upstate Gotham. Unfortunately, Rick was being charged with manslaughter after blowing up one of the kidnapper's ears, which was apparently an inexcusable crime in Gordon's books.
"I didn't want to kill him, I just needed a distraction!"
"Yeah, and that distraction's going to get you around ten years in Blackgate once you're 18!"
For a moment, both males just stared at each other in a poor excuse for a staring contest when the officer from Juvenile Services walked up to the Precinct cell that Jim threw Rick into when they arrived and whispered something into his ear. Jim nodded and told Rick to stay there, which Rick snorted at and sarcastically told Jim as he walked off,
"Sure, it's not like I'm locked up here or anything. Oh wait, I AM!"
Rick slouched down on the side of his cell until he was sitting on the floor and waited as Jim came back to his cell with Selina, who was smirking and had a mischievous look in her eye. They stayed their for a moment until Rick stated definitely,
"Well I'm not getting back up again, so you better come down to my level!"
Shrugging at the same time, Jim and Selina bent down and Jim whispered to the two teens,
"Okay, this stay's between the three of us for the time being. Selina says she was police information that she'll reveal as long as I free the both of you and your manslaughter charge is...overlooked, Rick"
Rick rolled his eyes and whispered back,
"Just say it's a phone malfunction, copper. Shit like that happens all the time, and it's easily forgotten. That enough for you?"
Jim nodded and asked Selina what she knew. She gave a solemn expression and whispered even softer then the two males,
"I saw who really killed the Wayne's...saw him clear as day..."
Silence grew between the three. In Selina's thoughts, her plan of escape was working perfectly, while Jim became hopeful of the prospect of finding the real man behind the death's of Thomas and Martha Wayne. But not Rick, who stated curiously,
"Wait, the Wayne's are dead?"
Rick, you ignorant Bastard XD! God, this took forever to write, but I hope you guys enjoy it! Please share what you think with a Follow, Favorite, or Review and I'll send Ep. 3 out soon...probably next week...yeah. Until then!
-T.W.
Next Time, on Gotham...
"Still got that pick from your birthday?"
"Balloons? What the hell?"
"Smell you later, copper!"
"Wait, YOU helped me out?!"
"Let's get this party started!"
