Batman The Animated Series-Annie Come Home
Chapter 14: Initiate Training Sequence!
Alfred Pennyworth
Things had been rather slow since Saturday night. The week had passed relatively uneventful, with Batman and Robin going out for patrol each night, and only a few average criminals were apprehended who had grown bold thinking Batman would be busy hunting down the escaped inmates of Arkham. Every night when Annie was forced to stay behind, she would ask me to help her find books to read and assimilate information from to satisfy her ever growing hunger for knowledge. After just 5 days, she had read every book in the house, even the cook books. Now it was Friday afternoon, and Annie had begun to bake her first dish, a Strawberry Peach Cobbler.
"3…2…1…its finished!" Annie shouts happily as she pulls out the freshly baked dessert.
"(Sniff sniff) It smells delightly Ms. Annie, I think you'll make an excellent cook" I say cheerfully.
"Yeah, as soon as he's done doing his afternoon exercises, I'll make sure he gets a big slice" she says with a smile.
"Yes, I'm sure he will thoroughly enjoy it. So…would it be ok if I just had a small piece?" I ask as I grab a fork and reach for the dish. However just before I could poke the cobbler, two orange sludge tendrils shot out, one whipping my wrist, the second one taking the fork away before I dropped it.
"OW!" I shout as I recoil from the acute sudden pain and massage my wrist.
"Ah ah ah, Tim gets the first slice, I made it especially for him, then if he wants to share it after the first bite, he can, but no one else gets any till I get the approval from him on how good it is" she scolds me, already sounding like a cook.
"Very well then, I guess I'll just have to wait" I reply as I keep rubbing the spot she tendril whipped at.
"Thank you" she says cheerfully. Moments later, Tim walked into the kitchen, still sweating heavily from his exercise.
"WHOO! What a workout, Bruce sure roughed me up" he says as he wipes his forehead with his towel.
"And I slaved over a hot stove for over a half hour, but I guess that's a bit of a misnomer considering I loved every second of it, I made my first dish for you to taste Tim" she says cheerfully as she grabs the pan.
"Awesome, I'm starving, so what is it?" Tim asks excitedly.
"Strawberry Peach Cobbler" the girl announces as she puts the dish on the table.
"Oooh, I love cobblers, I can't wait to taste it?" Tim drools.
"So why start now?" Annie laughs as she uses 4 arms to grab a plate, get a spatula to cut the cobbler, and the other two to transfer the slice to the plate and grab a fork from the drawer respectively, gracefully pulling herself together after the serving was placed at Tim's spot on the table he sat at.
"Thank you Annie, this looks delicious" Tim remarks as he prepares to dig in.
"I know, I can smell it too, but I need to know if it tastes as good as that, so please, rate my cooking" she says with a smile, eagerly awaiting his mouth to bite into her cobbler. Not bothering to hesitate anymore, he smiled and shoveled a generous portion from his fork to his jaw and began to chew.
"Well, what do you think?" she asks with a hopeful smile.
"Annie…you oughta open a restaurant! What did you put in this? Its absolutely amazing, Alfred you have to try it" Tim shouts excitedly as he tosses me a fork. Instinctively I caught it; I was now glad my secret agent training never wore off.
"To make you this excited, I'm sure it is very good" I say as I sit down and grab a generous size bite on the utensil. Placing it gently on my mouth, my eyes widened and I nearly fell out of my chair from the startling flavors.
"Restaurant, Annie, you should start a franchise, and you could make a fortune to rival the Wayne Enterprise" I say cheerfully, having loved the way the strawberry and peach flavors danced upon my tongue.
"Thank you, I'll consider it, but first I need to learn more about starting a new business, but I've read all the books on the subject, most are outdated by about 40 years, a few only by 20 or so, but I need the most modern materials to have a full understanding of American Economics as they currently are" she replies succinctly, shocking the two of us.
Annie
"Annie…you're studying that seriously?" Tim asks with shock. I realized he must feel worried about a power struggle, and I suddenly felt worried.
"I'm so sorry, Its just so amazing and intriguing, and now I have ideas, and…I'm sorry, I'll stop pursuing them if you-"
"No, no! Its wonderful, you're a smart girl, I knew that, but you're actually learning things this fast, and want to start a business? Annie, that's terrific!" Tim shouts gleefully to cut me off as he rushes over and hugs me on the spot, causing my cheeks to begin feeling warm and melty.
"You…you're ok with me empowering myself, getting all smart and maybe having a job of my own?" I ask nervously, remembering what I'd read about history and the topic of women's rights and many men's opposition to them.
"Yeah, I like a girl who can take care of herself, its…sexy" he says with a blush, and I felt some of my cheeks immediately begin running for real.
"My word…Timothy, you're quite the charming and noble young man, Master Wayne has rubbed off on you far more positively than I thought, bravo my good boy" Alfred says with a smile as he gives a congratulatory clapping session.
"Thank you Mr. Pennyworth, for my next trick, I shall make Annie blush wildly" he says suavely, suddenly snapping to my side and dipping me deeply like in a ballroom dance, and he accomplished the brazen claim he'd made with ease, as my cheeks once again began melting, now at a noticeable level.
"Why Tim…are you always this smooth with the girls?" I giggle as I wrap my arms around his neck.
"Only if "the girls" means you Annie" he says slyly, making me giggle more, my budding personality having become enthralled with his many quirks and joking nature that always charmed the hell out of me, I simply had no control, he could always make me become so flustered and tipsy just by looking at me. It was his eyes, those dark black eyes that just stared straight into mine every time he held me, it always made me feel lighter than air. Leaning in to kiss him, I prepared for his lips to touch mine with our deepest emotions.
"Annie! Its time" Bruce's voice shouts, breaking the magic like glass and ruining the moment.
"Oh Bruce, you just totally derailed my love train! Did you have to pick now, of all times to call Annie in for her training course?" Tim chastises with an irritated tone.
"Sorry, I didn't realize you had other plans" the Dark Knight replies with a grin.
"Dude, you know we're dating, and we're just getting closer and more attached by the day; I think you did that on purpose, you must have some extra sense from all that training across the world that lets you know when people you're close to are getting close or something, or you spied on us like our first date" Tim argues, making me laugh softly.
I'd been unable to fully comprehend it until several days and thousands of books later after I snuck out of the house to the local library in Gotham, but Bruce's behavior was that of a typical, overprotective parent; while he truly loved Drake as a son, he was suffocating him in a negative way, despite how much he wishes to do the right thing. It amused me how parents could love a child, adopted, or of their own seed, to the point it became counterproductive to the child's well-being, despite how much they cherish them and wish to avoid doing the wrong things or prevent harm to their own.
"Well, anyways, lets go, the training room is all ready" Bruce continues, snapping me out of my inward dissertation and driving me to propel my feet in accordance to the path Bruce was leading me at. Upon reaching the antique clock, and opening the pathway to the bat cave, we reached an area I'd yet to see, and was surprised to find it was a nearly self-contained, walled, and well lit, quite unlike the rest of the open cave and its dark, dank, atmosphere.
"This is the training course, with Z-8 hard-light robots, customizable for virtually any combat simulation, and easily suites my needs; you will face a more crafty villain for your first simulation, but still not of a high threat level, this is to assess your current prowess and see if any areas of your fighting style or execution of actions need addressing on a rudimentary level, are you ready?" Bruce explains, asking the ever important question at the end of his speech.
"Yes, who will I be facing?" I ask inquisitively, wondering which of Batman's Rogue Gallery I'd be facing.
"You'll see, I had to learn on the fly about how to fight my foes, so shall you, so be prepared" he replies teasingly, yet also with seriousness in his tone. After pushing a few buttons, plates in the floor begin to open up and flying out of the hole appears a girl.
"Is she…riding a rocket?" I remark, trying to wrap my head around her theme.
"Roxanne Sutton, aka Roxy Rocket; she was once a stunt woman, but her obsession with thrill-seeking drove her to crimes of grand theft, other than that though, she's not much of a villain, just very selfish" Bruce replies concisely.
"So only try to disarm her?" I remark, unsure of how to treat a female criminal during a fight.
"Exactly, but to do that, you'll have to catch me" Roxy laughs as she suddenly begins to speak, pulling a lever on her rocket as she begins to shoot off toward another part of the cave at jet propulsive speeds. Turning into my wheel form, I pursue her until I reach a ledge, no direct path leading me to her destination she was flying toward. Frustrated I lamented my issue with combating criminals who could fly, as I currently was unable to do that. However, as I looked back at the ceiling, I noticed a few bats leaping off the stalactites above, and got a brilliant idea.
Extending one of my arms toward the rocky ceiling, I followed by enlarging the hand and grasping the protrusion and gluing myself to it. Upon testing its stability, I created a grappling effect and almost instantly shoot up to where I had my arm and smiled, as I now had a way to go after Roxy. Shooting my hand to another nearby stalactite, I begin to swing my way across the ceiling and moments after I began chain linking between the spikes, I leapt down onto Roxy's ride and anchored myself to the surface.
"Hey! Get off, you're gonna make it filthy slime bag!" she snaps angrily.
"Sorry Roxy, but its time I mucked up your plans" I retort as I rip off the fuselage cover and then ooze some of my form inside, instantly short circuiting the systems and making the thrust drop to zero.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOO! MY RIDE!" Roxanne hollers as she stubbornly holds onto the handle bars. Grabbing her with my one hand, I shoot my other arm back to the ceiling quickly and then glue her to my chest and use my brachiating technique to return back to the enclosed area and drop her down in a puddle of my body to keep her restrained.
"Forty Five Seconds…that's a new record Annie, I'm very impressed, even I haven't been able to catch her that quickly due to her speed" Bruce states with a start as he looks away from the timer clock.
"Really? Wow, thank you" I reply, amazed that I had actually outperformed Batman in an area; this was a real boost to my confidence.
"Well then, now that you've shown you are adaptive enough to pursue aerial foes, lets try something a little more unconventional" he replies as the enclosure changes and the background changes to a bank with the alarm ringing, a man in a ski mask running out the entrance with a bag of money and a pistol.
Just before I could chase after him though, I hear a little girl bawling and turn to see her running toward me holding her arm where blood drips down it.
"Oh no, what's wrong little one?" I remark as I drop all thoughts of chasing the bad guy and pick her up to examine the limping right arm, making her hug me tightly with the other limb.
"The man, he's a bad man, he came in da bank, and he started ta shoot the whole place up so he'd get money, me got shot too!" she bawls as she holds on tighter.
"Where, where did he shoot you?" I pry, having been unable to find the entry wound of a bullet on her left arm, just a small cut.
"(Sniffle) Right…here!" she laughs, as she suddenly pulls out a suction dart gun and shoots me with the toy, but before I could chastise her for playing a prank, I noticed the wires attached to the gun and was unable to react quickly enough before the girl pulled the trigger again and I was flooded with electricity right in my face, dropping onto my knees as I lost my grip on her and fall over after the energy proves to be too great to channel in my current state. While nowhere near as powerful as the being Livewire's electrical surge, it still had enough juice to stun me and lose my grip on the girl, who I now saw was running off in the direction of the man shouting, "Wait for me Vinny!"
I could hardly believe how gullible I was, this was so embarrassing, tricked by a pint sized child criminal!
"Marion Louise Dahl, aka Baby Doll; she's not a child, but an adult in her 30s with a genetic hormonal defect called systemic hypoplasia, that meant she was never able to grow up into a woman, stuck like that for the rest of her natural life with regards to current science, she's a spoiled brat but also very calculating and manipulative, as you just saw" Bruce replies from the control panel. Groaning, my cells still reeling from the current, I finally manage to make myself cohesive and walk over to the dark knight.
"You're doing very well so far, I think you'll easily pass this course by the end of the weekend" he replies with a smile, helping boost my confidence once more.
"Alright, we'll try Baby Doll again later, now lets see how you do against the person who would likely be your worst, and coldest foe" he replies with emphasis on the temperature. As the floor opened up again, there was a hissing sound, and I prepared for whoever or whatever I was about to face.
Before I could blink however, there was a zapping sound and an instant later I found myself immobilized and unable to even shape shift below my neck.
"super chill anything, and you'll be close to matching how cold my heart is" a broadcast voice yells from a black and blue exo-suit. Before I could protest however, the being fired his gun again and I felt the rest of my body lose mobility, my mind slowly blacking out as the deep freeze begins to penetrate deep into my cells and quickly lock-up my brain activity. After several minutes, I at last began to fully lose consciousness and hoped that I wasn't going to die.
I couldn't die now…Tim needs me, and I need him even more. Then, I stopped thinking, and everything got icy.
9:00 PM
Tim Drake/Robin
"Bruce, did you have to put her up against the Mr. Freeze sequence? Damn it, she could have been killed" I shout as I keep aiming the heated fan around my still frozen girlfriend.
"He could still be around, and possibly have even more powerful cryogenic weapons Tim, she needs to be prepared, and its highly unlikely that she'd have died, she can regenerate her cells rapidly you know" he replies back nonchalantly.
"She better pull through or so help me Bruce, I will-"
"Master Tim please! This is what Annie wanted, would you really try to stop her from becoming a crime-fighter simply because a villain could injure or kill her? Let alone from training to become properly armed in her future fights" Alfred shouts angrily. His words got to me though and I sighed, hoping Annie had not heard all this talk Bruce and I had done for the past four hours since she had been frozen solid.
"You're right, I'm sorry Bruce, Its just…I love her, so much, the thought of losing her-"
"You do not have to tell me Tim…I know that pain more than you think" he replies stoically as he aims the other fan at her. At least now she was almost fully thawed, the remaining ice would be done melting within the next half hour, I could already make out her body in near perfect detail, her shape being that of the battle form she had adopted during the fight with Bane last weekend. I hoped with all my heart, that she was not gone, I couldn't bear that if it turned out to be true.
"Master Bruce, shall I fetch some tea for when she wakes up?" Alfred asks cheerfully.
"Yes, make it lemon honey Chai Tea, we want to stay alert so we can keep an eye on her" Bruce replies softly, making me smile. As Alfred left the room, I focused back on de-icing my beloved and hoping for the best.
11:30 PM
Annie
As I began to regain consciousness, I felt my body was very cold and immediately began to make the cells I could feel vibrate to warm myself. With a quick burst of strength I then reanimated the rest of my cells and began to break free of the ice, falling out of what was left of the icy tomb while I worked on reforming the muscles for my legs. Hearing a gasp, I recognized it as Alfred and saw him rush to my side to help me up.
"My goodness Miss Annie, are you alright?" he asks with panic as he embraces me gently.
"I'm fine, really, where is Tim, he must be worried sick" I reply, the stark realization of how he must have felt while I was in the process of thawing out.
"Tim just went to prepare for sleep barely ten minutes ago, he was so emotionally drained from the endeavor, and he finally couldn't wait, he's nearly done brushing his teeth as we speak" Bruce replies softly as he walks over and puts a hand on my shoulder.
"Annie, I wanted to apologize for being so reckless with you, I'd forgotten how dangerous extremes of hot and cold can be for any life form, if you want to take a break and post-pone the training we can-"
"NO! I'm not hurt at all, my cells are more durable than a person's, I just had to regenerate a few parts, it was nothing, I'll be good to go tomorrow, that is, if Tim will agree to it, if continuing to train would make him worry too much, I'm going to have to stop and just make due with self-training, or even just be a house wife if that's what he thinks is best" I respond, cutting of Bruce mid-sentence and making them both look at me with wide eyes, Alfred still limply holding the power cords for the heating units they had used on me earlier.
"Annie…would you really be ok with that?" Bruce resumes, his tone much softer and worried than before.
"Indeed, Miss Annie, being a housewife is a huge step-down from that desire of running a business; a stay at home bride does not have enough time for such things in the majority of cases" Alfred comments.
"Tim can't make that decision for you, he's only a child, and you need the training so you can help this city, I'll talk to him in the morning and set things straight" Bruce replies firmly, making me frown; he had obviously not understood my meaning as I pull away from his grasp.
"No, I' am making it his choice, he has been through enough as it is! I cannot ask him to keep being stressed and sad every time I put myself in danger if he does not think he can handle such a burden on his mind. That being said, I'm letting him decide, I must…I love him, and he deserves to be the man who does what he thinks is best for his beloved. My apologies gentlemen, but my decision is final, in that it will be up to Tim Drake and Tim Drake alone, whether I continue this path or not, and I'm going to discuss it with him right now before we rest for the night, see you tomorrow" I state, leaving them both stunned and shocked at my speech.
Several minutes later, I entered Tim's quarters and found him sitting on the bed, his head hung low and his tears dripping silently. Standing there without making a single noise for several moments myself, I finally clear my throat to get his attention, causing his head to shoot up in shock.
"Tim, you can stop crying" I reply gently, instantly making him leap over and begin squeezing me in a loving hug.
"ANNIE! Thank goodness, are you alright? Please tell me everything is ok!" he sobs as he buries his head into my shoulder. Gently holding him, I pat his head and smile.
"I'm completely unharmed, I heal quickly from virtually any damage, please stop crying honey" I beg, pulling him off me far enough so I can look him in the face while keeping a human form. Sniffling softly, he nods affirmatively. Leading him over to the bed, I hold his hands and begin to explain in full detail what I had nut shelled for Alfred and Bruce. After I had finished, I saw Tim's face had frozen with shock and awe in a manner similar to the other men and began to worry.
"Tim, please, don't worry about what I want for now, please, I just need to know that you'll be ok, so make your decision, whatever gives you the most comfort" I say as I repeat the concept again gently, squeezing his hands softly as I do and look deeply into his eyes, showing him how much his happiness and peace of mind mean compared to my own. After several intense minutes of silence and Tim showing his face to be in deep thought, he promptly kissed me with crushing passion and made it last for over 200 seconds, breaking it off only to give himself air as he panted.
"Annie, the only thing that could make me happy, is knowing you are, so I refuse to make the choice for you, whether you continue to train and battle criminals, or give it up and focus on just business or whatever else, I will stand by and support your decision, so if you really want to keep fighting crime, along side me every step of the way, I will put up with some stress and fear, so long as it is what will ensure you stay happy my dear Annie" Tim says gently, the romantics of his response making my heart soar with amazement at his kindness. Kissing him back with the same intensity as his kiss before, I forced us down into the bed and curled up tightly.
"Thank you time, that means…everything to me" I say as a tear rolls down my cheek till I reabsorb the cells. Stretching out an arm over to the lamp, I turn the knob and shut it off so he can begin to sleep.
"Good night…I love you Annie" the boy wonder says happily as he kisses my cheek and rests into my body, where I cradle him in a warm embrace.
"And good night to you, my most beloved Tim, thank you for being so good to me" I whisper, letting myself begin to drift off as soon as I finish my sentence, entwined in a chaste, romantic embrace in his bed.