Bane growled, throwing the empty tanks off to the side, much to Croc's annoyance as he looked down at the now much smaller man.

"I let you hide out down here," he growled. "Don't be littering my place up."

"Didn't realize this was a high class joint you had here."

Croc glared. "It's my home and at least I've gotta place to run to. You don't… at least not without your Venom crap." He turned away from the other inmate. "You can leave your tanks here for now until you get more Venom, but I'm not letting you camp out here. Find somewhere else to crash." Then the cannibal went away and left the other criminal alone.

Bane snarled in frustration and kicked at his tanks, aggravated by the whole situation. He took off his mask and threw down next to the tanks, too frustrated to really care about anything at that point. Damn it, he had underestimated how much Venom he had left in his tanks. Luckily, it was enough for him to get away but definitely not enough to last. The last time he had been caught by the Batman, his entire Venom stash had been confiscated and most likely dumped somewhere. Sure, he could get more, but that was the tricky part.

He needed money to obtain the stuff, which he didn't have or couldn't get in this form. If he had his Venom, he'd just bust right through the bank, but if he had his Venom, he wouldn't be in a situation like this. Also, he now owed Croc for letting him hide his tanks in the sewers.

Shit, he'd have to borrow money from Penguin or Two-Face, and then he'd be in debt to them too. This could not get any worse than it already was.

Oh wait. Croc was kicking him out, meaning he'd have to find shelter elsewhere up top and the only ones he could turn to for that were still locked away in Arkham; he also still had his prison uniform on. God damn it, this was a terrible way to end an escape from the asylum. He was homeless. How pathetic was that? Damn, he just wanted to strangle someone for this.

He needed shelter. He needed money. He needed Venom.

Just how the hell was he going to get all three?

Hangovers were the devils of drinking.

Yet, it didn't stop people from getting drunk and waking up the next day with these tortures. Adele's entire head throbbed in pain. She didn't get so drunk that she felt nauseous, but had she drank a little more, it would've been a different story. However, she was lucky to only have a pounding headache that should go away once she had the proper medicine for it.

So, there she was at six in the morning with a headache that sleep couldn't cure and without any pills at home to make it go away, walking to a continence store with sunglasses on to block the lights of the store as she walked in. She looked over and saw the cashier – Robert Heinsen – reading over a magazine before he looked up, giving her a look.

"Went drinking again, Richards?"

His voice echoed through her head and she waved her hand at him angrily, basically telling him to speak softer. She glared in the direction of the man. "Don't give me any grief, Heinsen. I had a rough night last night."

"Broke up with your boyfriend again?"

"How did–"

"Watched him come walking in and grumbling about you being a bitch and it was your fault anyway." He pointed in the back of the store. "The Advil and such are over there. Might I suggest buying a sleeping mask and some earplugs while you're here?"

"Oh, be quiet."

Heinsen had be the first person Adele had met when moving to Gotham. He was a nice man, a married man with two sons in his mid-forties. He was a tall and plump man, having a body that had seen better days. He had light brown hair, bright blue eyes, and peach skin that had some blotches on it and his face carried some wrinkles, especially around his forehead. Age was not a friend of his, but everyone still liked him despite that as his personality made up for looks.

She placed the pills on the counter and he rang them up. He sighed and said, "Sorry about him. But I told you – he was a stupid one. Oh, and that's $8.65."

"Yeah, yeah…" she grumbled, pulling out a ten. She leaned against the counter as her head still throbbed. "Heinsen, I have pretty bad taste, don't I?"

He laughed once as he handed her the change and the pills. "Just starting to figure that out?" Then he huffed, rubbing his eyes. "Look, Adele… I hate to break it to you, but it's a lot of times your own fault. I mean, this last guy you knew cheated on his wife. And before him, you dated that one punk from that bar after sleeping with him."

She grumbled something incoherent, which made him shake his head. "Now, go home and get some rest. And when you do start looking for another guy again, try to pick him out wisely this time, got it?"

"Yeah… Thanks, Heinsen. Say hi to the wife and kids for me."

"Anytime, Adele. And I will."

The young woman then huffed and headed out the store and back down the street, her headache still aching as she suddenly felt angry with herself. Her taste in men was terrible, yet it just wouldn't change. She liked losers and tools.

She could already see her familial future – old and single and lonely. Just great.

Bane had gotten the change of clothes he needed so he wouldn't be walking around in his Arkham uniform, but damn - did he wish they smelled better. Well, that's what he got for taking them from some homeless guy back down the other alley. Still, at least no one could recognize him dressed in this.

It was an advantage Bane possessed over most villains. No one knew what he really looked like under the mask. Sure, they knew he had brown hair and brown eyes without the venom or his mask, but no one really paid much attention to his face when it was visible. Hell, they let him wear his mask all around Arkham because he'd punched their lights out if they tried taking it from him. Only a few knew what he really looked like and it was just a few other inmates like Croc, Penguin, and Joker. Not even the Batman really knew what he looked like. It wasn't like he had a lot of pictures of himself without his mask floating around Gotham.

He parked himself next to an old apartment complex, shielding himself from the cold and trying to get some sleep. It was hard though as it was a pretty cold night, and the clothes he wore weren't the warmest. The jeans he stole had holes in them and the jacket was worn out and thin. Damn, if he hadn't have been use to extreme temperatures, he'd be worried about freezing to death.

Just as he slumped against the building to try to get some sleep, he heard voices to his right and frowned as he saw three guys come up from behind him. He rolled his eyes and paid no attention to them. Though they were all bigger than him as he was only five' six and they were easily all over six feet, he knew that he could fight them if he had to. He grew up in prison.

Kill or be killed was the everyday fear he had to live and learn by.

He could hear one of the guys come up behind him. "Hey… You aren't from here, are you?"

Bane then remembered his advantage of not being recognizable in his normal appearance could also be a hindrance as petty hotshots like this guy didn't know he was messing with a Gotham rogue.

He didn't even look back, just ignoring them as he shifted a bit, trying to warm up by hugging himself.

The man frowned. "Hey. You're intruding here and I'm talking to you. You better answer me."

He grabbed Bane's arm, who yanked himself free and looked over his shoulder to glare at him. "No me toques."

The man only got angrier and grabbed Bane by the arm, yanking him off the floor, much to Bane's fury as he once again yanked his arm free. "Speak English, you bastard. You're in America – not Mexico."

"No soy de México," he growled.

"God damn it – speak English!"

Of course he could speak English, but when he used his native tongue, it normally made people he didn't want to associate with go away. Obviously, he could tell it wouldn't work with these guys. When the larger man once again reached for him, he caught his wrist and twisted it, causing him to cry out in pain.

"No me toques." He shoved him hard against the wall of the apartment before turning to the other two men, who he realized had bats with them.

Damn. He should've accounted for that.

The noise of a ruckus made Adele's head pound even harder as she walked over to her apartment. At first, she thought it might have been some stray cats, but as she got closer, she could hear grunts and groans and the sound of flesh on flesh. Her eyes widened under the shades as she realized what was going on when she turned her head and looked across the street.

It was a gang-up, three to one and two of the guys had bats, both beating at the smaller man as he fought off one of the men, slamming his fist repeatedly into his face as the bats beat down hard on his back. How he was able to withstand the beating wasn't something she understood, but comprehension was damned at the moment.

The poor man could get killed and homeless or not, Adele couldn't let it sit in her stomach to just let him get his ass kicked. Still, she found herself frozen and unable to move as her fear of getting hurt or possibly killed stopped her from walking any closer. She wasn't a fan of pain nor did she want to have any more bruises on her body. She could only stand there, watching and her migraine surprisingly disappearing.

Adrenaline did some strange things sometimes.

The smaller man finally kicked back at the two men, throwing the guy he had been punching at him onto the floor before giving him a hard kick to the stomach.

"You damn freak!" one hissed.

Bane just cracked his back and wrists, obviously ready to defend himself again if he had to but from the looks of it, he seemed to have won this little street fight. "I told you not to touch me."

"Fuck, let's get out of here!"

The three men scrambled to their feet and ran away, disappearing from view and leaving Bane alone in the alley, where he slumped against the side of the wall with a soft groan of pain.

Maybe it was the traces of alcohol roaming through her, but the hell with it. Adele walked briskly across the street before cautiously walking toward him, thinking that if she didn't keep her distance, he could attack her as well.

"Hey…" she said to him. "Are you… you okay?"

He looked at her, titling his head a bit as he stared at her, brown eyes meeting blue ones. He was about to answer, but the pain in his back stopped him and he could only let out a soft, pained hiss. Damn bastards and their bats.

She looked over and gasped, seeing that he was bleeding. "Oh shit. No, you're not. Um, I'll call an ambulance and–"

"No," he growled. "Don't call anyone. I'll be fine."

"But you're bleeding!"

"Look, I'll be fine. Just leave me alone."

She bit her bottom lip, looking back at her apartment and then back at him. She debated with herself for a view moments, not wanting to let some random stranger into her apartment but not wanting to let the man bleed to death. She didn't think it would sit well with her conscience if she just let him die like this.

Adele finally just shook her head. "Well, come to my place. I… I've got a first aid kit under my sink and I can patch you up and…"

He looked up at her, surprised by her offer. Was this woman stupid? Who invited a stranger into their home? Did she not think that he would hurt her and steal her money? He could easily kill her as soon as she was done with his injuries. He could pin her down and strangle her to death and it was all because she was stupid enough to let him into her house.

Then Bane remembered that when he was younger, he would overhear his prison mates talking about women and how easy it was to manipulate them into doing what a man wanted. They were kind and stupid by nature, so if a man could get them to feel sorry for him, he could completely control them. In the cases of the female residents at Arkham, he wasn't sure on that, but with normal women like this one, it seemed pretty much true.

Besides, the woman was offering him free shelter. He could at least use it until he could find some work, then he'd take some money from her and bail out. If she was a nuisance, he'd kill her off, but that was another decision for another day.

She pointed to the apartment across the way. "I live right over there. Come on… Can you walk okay? You need any help? You're bleeding pretty badly."

He shook his head. He had been in worst shape after fights with other gangs or Batman; he could handle some hits from a group of homeless morons easily. Pushing himself away from the wall, he balanced himself out and limped a bit in the direction she was walking.

He didn't know how he got so lucky, but he did. He could check "getting shelter" off of his do-to-list. Now, he just needed money and Venom.

Great.

A/N: Well, another chapter! I am very grateful for the attention this story has gotten so far - already 18 alerts and only four chapters in! Yayz! I do hope you readers will give this story feedback because I do appreciate your opinions on my works. It motivates me to work hard and improve on my writing.

Also, I apologize to any of my native Spanish speaking readers. I don't speak Spanish very well and I use Google translator since I fail. :/