Hey you guys, Im super sorry for such a long wait. Life has been crazy. First, I had camp for a week, then directly from that, I went to Colorado. Now, Im just about to move into college and rush for a sorority. Life is pretty busy and Im super sorry if this chapter is bad and seemed rushed and if it has a lot of errors :( Thanks again for reading! Feel free to comment, favorite, and follow! :)
December 10th, 2016
Life's rough. The last few years haven't been kind to Danielle. Nine of the ten foster homes that she was forced into here terrible, the couples didn't care for her at all. Most of them just wanted another kid to collect benefits off of. After the 10th home, Danielle decided that she'd had enough. Since she didn't really have many possessions in the first place, sneaking out of the tiny house that the government wanted her to call "home" was easy.
The night she left, it took her only 10 minutes to pack up all of her possessions, which included two complete outfits, a pair of shoes, which she wore on her feet, and the last family photo they took before they moved to Gotham. They were all packed up in a black backpack that CPS gave her when she first moved into the foster care system.
More than anything, she wished that she could go back. Back before she and her parents ever moved to Gotham. This place is cursed. Before, she thought Gotham City held promise, that it was a place that could make your dreams come true, but she was wrong. Gotham is a desolate place of despair where people have to face their nightmares every day. This place was Hell, her Hell.
It'd been a year and five months since Danielle took up new residence in the streets of Gotham. Luckily, she'd found a new place to stay for the time being, an old factory that used to manufacture shoes. It had all the basic things she needed, well, everything except heat, but she had found some old blankets that proved to be pretty warm during Gotham's winter. And she had found a pretty efficient way of getting a little money here and there. Of course, it wasn't the most honest way, but common, this is Gotham, there were worse things going on, and luckily for her, she had managed to stay under the radar for the time being. The last thing she wanted was to be found by the police and shoved back into another foster home, or worse, have Batman find her.
She'd heard rumors of what Batman and his sidekicks did to people. How they'd beat people till they were near death, rarely stopping to see if the person was actually guilty. Of course most of the time they were, but that's beside the point.
A few years had passed since the Essex Apartment Massacre, and people were building up more and more evidence that The Batman really did exist. Some people praised Batman for his good deeds. Some thought that he was some over glorified freak with too much power. Danielle didn't care though, she stopped caring about masked vigilantes a long time ago. If Batman were such a good hero, why didn't he save her parents. He didn't even try to help stop that massacre. From what she heard when she woke up in the hospital, he barely bothered to show up in the first place. Nothing angered her more than thinking about how she used to idolize those people. In her mind, he was just as bad as the murderers on the streets.
Sitting on the old mattress that she hauled up into the office of the factory, Danielle was deep in thought. In a few weeks she'd be 18. Most girls her age were wondering what kind of car they'd get, or what college they'll be attending next year. Danielle, on the other hand, was wondering if she'd survive another night.
A few days ago, she had come down with a bad cold, and the life of a street rat didn't have cold medicine in the budget. So on the old mattress she sat, curled up in any blanket she could possible find. It'd be her luck to get sick on the coldest week of the year.
Tonight was particularly bad for Danielle. She had nothing to eat for a two days and nothing to drink for about three. She knew she wouldn't last too much longer if she didn't get something to eat or drink, but she was way too sick to go outside, plus there was a bad storm that was going over the city, no one in their right mind would be outside.
A loud growl broke Dan's train of thought. This was going too far. She needed to get something to eat! Gathering up all her strength, she got up from the bed and walked to the window that looked over the city. Though the storm made it hard to see anything, a bright neon "OPEN" sigh was blinking across the street from the warehouse. Deciding that it was the only thing she could do, she grabbed her coat and all the money she had with her, which was about 7 dollars, and headed out the office doors. Creeping out the old warehouse was harder than she thought. She was really weak and if she moved too fast she'd get dizzy.
The old office was on the third floor and walking down three flights of stairs was incredibly hard, but with a little determination, she made it. With almost all of the strength she had left, Danielle slid the front door of the warehouse open. Stumbling outside, she shuffled across the sidewalk and on to the street.
The wind was whipping her hair everywhere and she could barely see anything, but she kept going. Pulling her old jacket tighter around her, she pushed on through the snow. The snow was deep, like 3 inches deep, and the strong wind didn't help anything, but eventually, she made it across.
The lights from inside the shop shone brightly through the storm, like a lighthouse on a foggy night. Sighing in relief, she waded up to the front door and pulled it open. A rush of warm air blew her hair back as she clumsily walked into the convenience store. There was a cashier at the counter, but other than that, the place was empty. This made it easier to get more than 7 dollars worth of food, Danielle thought devilishly.
She looked up and smiled kindly to the man at the counter and headed back to the cooler and took out 3 water bottles, but put one in her coat pocket. Then she walked over to the isle that held chips, candy, and other snacks. Deciding that it would be smart to have some protein, Danielle grabbed two small bags of trail mix, and put one in her pants pocket. Then she grabbed the cheapest bag of chips and headed to the counter.
As she put "all" the food on the counter, she pulled out the five dollar bill and two one dollar bills from her front shirt pocket. Before she handed the money to the man, she made sure to cough and to play up the theatrics.
Sniffling, she gave the man the money and he began to ring up all the items.
'So far so good.' She thought as she smirked to herself.
As the cashier was getting to the end of all the items, a large man walks out from the door behind the counter. He didn't even look at Danielle as he walked to the front door and loudly turned the lock. The man turned and faced Danielle, his facial expression was way less than pleased.
"We don't take kindly to little runts stealing from us." He said as he began to walk towards her. Glancing around, she looked for any way that this guy could have found her out. In the far corner of the shop was a security camera that was slightly concealed.
'Stupid. Stupid. Stupid' Danielle mentally scolder herself. As he began to inch closer, she began to panic.
She began to back up, but the cashier reached over the counter and grabbed her arm.
As he slowly advanced, he began to pop his knuckles and laughed darkly.
"Tell er' Steven, what we do to little low lives like er'." The big man said as he got closer and closer to Danielle.
The cashier behind the counter just laughed as Danielle tried to struggle from his grip. Lucky her, she was so weak that she couldn't get away. Even if she did, where would she go? Chances are these guys are faster than her, so a race to the front door is out. Any other ideas that she could come up with were just as useless.
"Look, I'm really sorry, ok? I just really needed food. I'll pay for all of it, I promise!" Danielle pleaded, desperately trying to rip out of her captor's rasp.
"Sorry kid," he said as he grabbed Danielle by the shoulders. "No second chances." He said as he brought his right fist back, ready to hit her with all his strength. Danielle cringed as she waited for the impact, but none ever came.
Instead, the front window of the shop suddenly exploded, sending glass fragments everywhere. Instantly, the large man turned, and as a result loosened his grip on Danielle's shoulder. Seeing this as her only chance, she ripped out of his grasp and quickly backed away from him. Strangely enough, he was too transfixed on whatever broke the window to bother with Danielle anymore. Once she was at a safe distance, Danielle peered around the big guy to see what exactly did break through the window.
Standing among a sea of broken glass stood a kid, a little younger than her. He had a look of determination set on his face. It was strange, she didn't recognize this costumed freak. He was wearing a red shirt and black pants, and his head was completely covered with a cowl that led down to his cape. He held a staff in his hand and took a defensive stance towards the bulky man that was about to assault her.
"Let's put the fist down tubby. We don't want to start this evening off with me kicking your butt, do we?" He said with a smirk.
At the snarky comment, the man charged at the teen, only to be dodged and punched square in the stomach. The man doubled over in pain and tried to regain his composure, only to receive a second blow from the teen to the back of the head, dropping him to the ground. The teen looked around and spotted the clerk behind the counter and advanced towards him.
"Hey, look, Red Robin," The clerk said as he raised his hands and began to back away. "I wasn't a part of this. I just, uh, was..uh.." he deadpanned as he quickly looked around for an escape route.
Deciding that the best place to be was anywhere but here, Danielle slowly inched her way behind some shelves and started to make her way towards the exit. She was half way there when she remembered her original purpose. Quietly, she grabbed two bags of chips and added it to the stash she already had in her pockets. She just made it to the busted out front window and decided it was now or never, and made a break for it. By all the luck in the universe, she made it out of the shop and into the streets. She made it half way into the street when she suddenly tripped.
Danielle landed in the snow with a hard 'thud' and looked down to see that some kind of wire was wrapped around her ankles. Just to add to her list of bad things, the water bottle in her pocket busted open and was slowly soaking her to the bone in this -10 degree weather.
The storm still made it white out conditions, so Danielle decided that maybe she could crawl away and that Red Robin, or whoever that creep was, wouldn't find her. She inched her towards the factory opening, trying as hard as she could to keep going. Out of the blue, a strong grip pulled her up from the snow and back into a standing position. When she regained her bearings, Danielle realized that she had become face to face with the teenage freak from the shop.
Deciding to bluff her way out, Danielle gave the vigilante a cheesy smile and said, "Uh, thanks for rescuing me back there. I don't know what got into those guys." She said with a shrug. As she put her arms back down, the trail mix bag just happened to ever so inconveniently fall out of her pocket and into the snow in between them. Her cheesy smile became a lot cheesier as blush made its way across her face, and a glare made its way across his.
Without a second thought, Red Robin sliced the cable around her ankle and grabbed Danielle by the arm and led her to the side walk. After he forced her to sit on the curb, he radioed Batman alerting him to the situation. Hearing this, Danielle's blood ran cold. Colder than she already was even though she was soaking wet in -10 degree weather. Panicking, she looked up to Red Robin and pleaded, "Seriously, I'm sorry. I won't ever do it again. I had no other option. I was gonna starve!" She shouted and she began to feel tears build up in her eyes. If there was one thing she didn't want, it was to ever see Batman, especially since she was on the wrong side of the law.
Leaning forward, Red Robin spoke, "What's your name?"
This made her panic even more. If she was caught, that meant that she'd be taken to the police. If she was taken to the police, they'd find out who she really was. If the police found out who she really was, they'd send her back to another foster home! Or worst, prison. She was almost 18, old enough to know that she did wrong. She was doomed.
"Look, I…I can't tell you that." She said, as she made eye contact with the masked 'hero'.
Red Robin tilted his head to the side as he analyzed her body language. He decided to continue with the questions till Batman got there.
"How old are you?" He asked.
Danielle just continued to stare at her badly worn shoes. This made Red Robin even more curious.
"Where are your parents?" He asked. That question seemed to hit a nerve since he could see the young girl visibly cringe at his inquiry.
Since he still received no reply, he decided to ask a follow up question.
"Are you an orphan, or a runaway?" She showed no emotion to this question, so he assumed that she could quite possibly be both. Smirking to himself, he continued to piece together this mysterious girl's identity. She didn't know that by not saying anything, she said everything.
She was obviously a teenager, judging by her face but not her height since she was about 5"2. She was wearing old looking clothes, so he guessed that orphan was a good choice, but also sided with runaway as well since she refused to tell him her name or age. Unfortunately, the list of missing blonde girls in Gotham are pretty long, but with all the information that he had calculated, he figured Batman could find out who she was in a matter of seconds.
The wind had picked up and made things feel even colder, and being soaked, made Danielle start to shiver. To top that, she started coughing heavily and tears were starting to fall from her eyes. This day was absolutely terrible. First, she had a really bad cold. Second, she got caught stealing and was probably going to get thrown in jail. And, third, she was going to have to get taken to the police by none other than the big, bad, Bat.
After a few more seconds, a loud thud was heard a few feet away from where Danielle was sitting and where Red Robin was standing beside her. She didn't need to look up to know what it was. She continued to look down and rub her arms to try to keep warm. The water that was previously soaking her had turned to ice, and she was pretty sure her lips had turned blue.
The sound of crunching snow came closer to Danielle as she just sat there and continued shivering. As the pair of black boots came into her view, she decided that now would be a good time to look up.
Slowly, Danielle raised her down cast head to gaze upon the giant figure in front of her. She figured she probably looked pathetic. Tears were streaming down her face, her nose was running, and she was certain her lips were blue by now. All that on top of the fact that she looked like some street rat.
Danielle was only able to hold his gaze for a second and then returned her view back to her feet. She could tell that he was still looking at her, analyzing her. He probably had already figured out who she was by now. This only made Danielle cry more, but she managed to keep it at a quiet level. The last thing she wanted was to get shoved into a foster home or a jail cell. Out of nowhere, Danielle became comfortably warm. Confused, she lifter her head and saw that some kind of black fabric had been draped over her in an attempt to keep her warm.
Breaking away from her thoughts, she looked up at Batman and observed that he was now capeless. Without even sparing her another look, Batman turned to Red Robin.
"Take care of her till Jim gets here." He said emotionlessly. Nodding in response, Red Robin moved back beside Danielle and waited with her till the GCPD arrived.
