Chapter 7
Everything was dark... even with my vision... it was pitch black. I didn't know where I was, though I could hear footsteps and the swish of fabric. I was scared. I called out...
"HARLEY! MR.J! HELP!" But there was nothing. The sound of footsteps came closer.
Where were Harley and Mr. J? They... they would never abandon me right?
"...Tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick..." I was ticking fast... though Mr. J and Harley had taught me how to tick slow... but in this case I couldn't see and something was after me... and I didn't have Mr. J or Harley around... I was to scared to worry about how fast or slow I ticked.
Someone grabbed my shoulders.
I was too scared to scream.
"Rebecca... Rebecca... Wake up..." A man's voice I didn't recognize said...
then it turned female
"Rebecca, Rebecca! Wake up!" It was Harley. I nearly screamed, but quickly realized where I was and calmed down. "Wha-what is it?" I said, not hiding the shock of my dream very well.
Harley didn't seem to notice. "It's almost time to go." She said. I needed no further explanation. I ran into the next room where my costume was and put it on. I put my mask over my eyes and ruffled my hair, making it look a perfect kind of messy before I raced out after Harley and Mr. J.
I was surprised Mr. J was coming with us. Unusual but not totally unheard of. He seemed almost giddy with excitement. I smiled, my nightmare forgotten, there was no way this night could go wrong.
We ascended up a fire escape a few blocks away and hopped rooftop to rooftop toward the destination unknown to me. We slowed as we came toward a fairly big building. It wasn't a bank... actually I wasn't sure what it was... but it obviously had to have something valuable or of use to us. We grappled up to it's roof.
"What's the plan Mista J?" Harley asked. I crouched on the edge of the rooftop, staring down at the streets below. Was it just me, or were there a lot of cars just hanging around down there.
"Rebecca!" Harley called, I stepped away from the ledge. "What we're after is on the second floor down. Think you can get us there?" She smiled, knowing full well I could.
"No problem." I smiled, pulling a little device from my utility belt. They were small but powerful bombs, they had actually come with the belt... but I had long since used up the originals. I took one of the original ones and reverse engineered it to learn how to make more... All the ones I had now were made by me.
The roof under our feet exploded, and we had to jump back so that we wouldn't fall in the hole. At this point, we had to work fast, no doubt someone was alarmed by the sound, if not the gaping hole in the roof. I tossed another bomb to the floor below and it instantly went off.
I dropped down through the dust cloud, followed shortly by Harley. We stood in the middle of the cloud, waiting for it to clear so we wouldn't run into a wall or something stupid. When the dust finally cleared, instead of finding an empty hall, we found a couple dozen guns pointed towards us.
I was the first to break the silence "uh..." Articulate as always...
"MISTA J! WE GOT A SITUATION!" Harley called up. We didn't have time for this! We could get shot. I grabbed her wrist, pulled out my grappling hook, jumped, and fired.
Had we been a second slower we would have been Swiss cheese, gunfire filled the air in seconds. The problem... I got us to the top floor... but not the roof... and there were people coming up stairs, and people aiming up through the hole.
"Mister J!" I called up in a panic.
"What is it?" he asked impatiently.
"We've got a-" I was cut off as the door to the stairs was kicked open.
Harley pulled on of her acrobatic stunts, easily making it out of the hole in the roof. "Hurry!" She called, before she ran off.
"Freeze! Robin!"
I spun around. There were maybe four officers, and commissioner Gordon. Gordon didn't look as ready to fire as everyone else, he looked a little... disappointed. He spoke.
"Robin... I'm very disappointed in you... " He held his hand up... ready to snap? To signal to fire? To surrender? I had a fraction of a second to decide my next move. Fight, flee, or surrender.
Without really thinking. I turned away from the officers and leapt for my life. Catching the edge of the hole in the roof. I could feel the building material crumble under my hands. I heard guns cock behind me. I hoisted myself up into a handstand, the piece of roof cracking under my weight. I got my feet out of the way just as bullets started whizzing past. I pushed myself up and away just as the spot I was holding on to crumbled away. I didn't stick around any longer. I looked around, catching my breath, and I found them. Harley and Mr. J. I raced over to them.
Mr. J was livid. "How did this happen?"
"Dunno Mista J." Harley said sadly. "They musta known we was-"
"Of course they knew! I'm asking HOW!"
"Can we please save this for home!" I jumped in. "They'll be up here in seconds!" And of course I was right...
Though by the time they broke through the roof door... we were safely on another building. I sat in the shadows watching as Mr. J and Harley argued. Harley was crying... I focused my attention back to the roof of the other building.
Police with guns circled around checking every nook and cranny of the roof top... they were starting to realize we were no longer there, and would be back on our trail shortly.
"Forget it. Lets go." Mr. J broke my train of thought. I sat there for another minute, sighed, and turned to follow them. They were a rooftop away when I had stood up, but they knew I was coming, and there was no big rush anyway. I walked slowly after them, and as I passed the door leading down into the building I was on... I saw something move out of the corner of my eye.
It wasn't a big movement, maybe a cat... maybe. I whipped out three batarangs. I tossed the first one at a small crate, it made a significantly loud thud. Something that would scare a cat out of hiding.
I walked forward silently. Prying my batarang out of the wood. I heard the swish of fabric behind me, saw a shadow... I placed my hand on the wood crate and threw myself into a one-handed handstand, throwing myself in the air and turning before I landed safely on the other side of the crate. I held my three batarangs at the ready.
... did some joker put up a mirror to confuse me? The person standing across from me, looked just like me... but I couldn't see the person's face and everything was identical, my only tip that told me I wasn't looking at a reflection was that the other me was holding the batarangs in the same hand I was, which meant we weren't an exact mirror image.
"Who are you... show yourself properly!" I called towards him, keeping my batarangs at the ready.
"You first." Well it was definitely a boy... or a girl with an unfortunate voice.
"Fine, we'll step into the light at the same time. Alright?" I lowered my batarangs a little. "Weapons down first."
We were both reluctant about it... I lowered my weapons before he did... and we both stepped into better lighting.
I stood in shock, but he didn't seem all to surprised... just angry.
It was Robin... I mean the REAL Robin! My mind raced.
Robin... Mr. J and Harley said something about him... about him... being taken... maybe dead? Maybe... this was a different Robin...
"Jay-jay." I whispered... hardly without me realizing. Recognition lept to his eyes. It was him! It was really him! We had to get him back, back home with me, Harley, and Mr. J... There were about fifty things I wanted to say... but everything in my head was so jumbled I couldn't get one out.
He beat me to saying something.
"Why are you framing me?" He asked in an angry tone. I was taken by surprise... how was I supposed to respond to that?
"Well, you see...I mean I..." Mr. J would kill me for not getting to the point like I was doing now. Pull it together!
"Who are you?" He asked, giving up on the first question.
"Robin." I responded curtly.
"What's your real name!" He stepped towards me.
"That Is My-" Something wasn't right... and staying still trying to figure it out was never a good plan. I did a cartwheel to my right, turned a little, and did a back handspring to get a bit farther away. There was nothing there... just me... and Jay-jay still. I had had enough of this. I strode forward and grabbed Robin's wrist.
"We gotta go now!" I pulled him a ways across the roof.
"Hey! What are you doing? Let go!" He tried to pull away.
"No! Don't you see, we-" A shadow came down over us... the next thing I knew I was falling, off the building... still on the building... I didn't know. The last thing I remember was a sickening -crack- a shooting pain in my head. Then nothing.
