"I'm sorry boss," the voice on the other end of the line said. "The cops got them all. I'm the only one that got away."
"Is that so?" the Joker responded on his contraband cell phone.
"Yes..I don't know how they found us," the voice said. "We weren't followed, we made sure-"
The Joker touched the screen to end the call. Something was going on. His stash in Chinatown had been compromised. His bank accounts had been close and funds presumably seized. For the first time, a bank robbery he had arranged had been a failure.
"If you want something done," he said to himself. "You must do it yourself."
.
.
"Great warm up," Bruce told Adriana.
"I'm out of breath," Adriana said. They had done a bit of jogging around the large fitness room in Bruce's enormous penthouse apartment, as well as jumping rope. They both wore all black, sweat pants and tee shirts. "That was a lot..for fifteen minutes of warm ups."
"Yeah," Bruce said, not sounding out of breath at all. "We can do a bit of stretching while the muscles are warm."
"Okay," she said and mimicked the posterior shoulder stretch Bruce was doing.
"So.." Bruce said as he moved into a quadriceps stretch. "What's your motivation?"
"My motivation?" she said, pulling her ankle to the side of her hip in the same stretch.
"You motivation for wanting to learn some fighting methods? Self defense?" Bruce said and did a few leg swings.
"Of course," Adriana said and placed her hands on her hips, still out of breath. "I need to be able to defend myself. Right? Things keep happening and I don't like feeling helpless. I need you to turn me into a killing machine."
"Is this about what happened at the bank?" Bruce asked. "I saw the surveillance footage. In that type of situation, there wouldn't be much you could do."
"You could though," Adriana stated. "You could have stopped them all.
"That's different," Bruce said and looked at her closely.
"Because I'm a woman?" Adriana demanded.
"No," Bruce said and tilted his head. "Because it takes years of intense training several hours a day. It's not something you can learn overnight. Requires a lot of dedication."
"Right," Adriana sighed. "So that makes it impossible for me then."
Bruce was silent as she turned away and began to stretch her neck. She removed her hair from the ponytail it was in and stretched her neck again. He watched her facing the glass wall overlooking the city as her hair moved across her back and approached her slowly.
"I'm sorry if this is out of line," he said gently and she turned around to him.
"What is it?" she asked.
"Is something wrong?" he asked her. "You seem a bit...hot-tempered."
She exhaled though her nose and looked down as if she was gathering herself before speaking again.
"You obviously don't owe me an answer, it's just," Bruce started. "If I'm going to be teaching you..rage isn't exactly a good thing to start with. You need to be calm, logical, focused. Not emotional."
"I'm not emotional!" Adriana said, much louder than she meant to. "I'm just.." she spoke slower and quieter. "Ready to learn something useful. Maybe I will never be able to fight like you and that's fine. I just need to learn how to get out of compromising situations."
"Okay then," Bruce said. "Anything specific?"
"I just want to learn to fight."
"Right," Bruce said and approached her quickly. He went around behind her and swung an arm around her shoulders, holding her firmly. His left arm gripped hers as he reached up to the right arm pressing her against him. "A choke hold is a good place to start."
"Okay," she said. "What do I do?"
"First," he said, his breath on her ear. "Stop trying to pull my arm down. You're wasting your energy."
"I can tell," she said. His body felt a thousand times stronger than hers.
"You have to try to be smart, not strong," he said. "Step to your left with your left foot."
She took a wide step to her left.
"Now my side is exposed," he said. "You could elbow me if-"
His speech stopped when her elbow jammed him hard in the abdomen.
"Good," he exhaled and released her before surprising her by grabbing her again.
"There!" she said and immediately stepped to the side and elbowed him again.
"Very good," he said. "You're quite strong."
"I need to be stronger," she said as he released her again and she turned to face him.
"Okay," he replied. "We can work with weights too."
"Teach me something else," she said, realizing her voice sounded demanding but she didn't care.
"Alright," Bruce nodded, his face serious as a few strands of his hair fell over his eyebrow. "Lay down."
"Huh?" she asked.
"Over there," he pointed to a padded area on the floor.
"Why?"
"You said you wanted to learn something else."
She walked over the the soft area on the floor, the city lights shone through the night on her left. She sat slowly as Bruce walked over.
"Lay on your back," he said.
"Okay," she said and reclined slowly onto the floor. As she faced the ceiling and saw Bruce standing above her she felt a bit of anxiety. A few heart palpitations made it worse and she felt like the ceiling was coming down on her as Bruce kneeled beside her.
"This would be the most compromised situation you could be in, especially if your opponent has a weapon," Bruce said but Adriana barely heard him. He stepped over her to have one foot on each side and knelt closer while he placed both hands below her neck. "If your down and being choked or subdued in some way there's a few things you could do-"
He paused his speech as he felt the artery in her neck throbbing. The look in her eyes changed from anger to true fear.
"Adriana," he said. "Your heart rate is in the 130's," he said, counting the beats.
"Stop," she said breathlessly, barely above a whisper. "Now, stop, stop-"
"Adr-" he started to speak again but her words became yelling as she began to swing at him. Her jabs at his face triggered his automatic response, to block and subdue her. After he had pinned down both of her hands she began to flail and kick before releasing a scream that made him jump back.
"I-" she started to talk, wanting to apologize but didn't understand what happened. Bruce was quiet and patient as she collected herself. "I'm sorry, Bruce-". She gasped as she noticed the scratch on this cheek.
"I didn't mean to scare you," he said apologetically.
"No, it's my own stupid fault. I just felt like my throat was closing up and-"
"You were afraid."
"I guess," she nodded.
"Okay," Bruce said. "Let's stand up and try something else."
"No," she said. "I have to learn this."
"Have to," Bruce said. "You sound like it's a necessity."
"Maybe not if you teach me to shoot a gun."
"Are you in some kind of trouble?" Bruce said and sat closer. "You can tell me-"
"I'm not in trouble," she said, unable to hide her frustration. "I need to be able to protect myself. I never want anyone to be able to just-"
"To just..." Bruce asked.
"Nothing," she said and laid back. "Let's try again."
"No," Bruce said. "That's enough for today."
"What? But we just-"
"This is something we need to take slowly," Bruce moved to stand. "We can pick up on Thursday."
"This is important," she said and stood and then couldn't resist entering her thoughts. He didn't understand why she was so anxious and angry. He was a few moments away from suggesting her to hire a bodyguard if she was so afraid.
"I know it is," Bruce said. "But perhaps in the meantime while we train, security could be beneficial."
They were both quiet and Adriana took a few paces away, over to the window. The fog over Gotham grew heavier by the minute.
"I know we've only just met, Adriana," Bruce said and took a step towards her and gently took her arm so that she would face him. "But I would love it, if you would talk to me. You can say anything to me."
"Okay," she said taking a deep breath. "I feel...disgusting. Every time I look in the mirror I feel sick."
"Tell me why," Bruce said, surprising Adriana by taking her face into his hands.
She gently clasped his wrists and pulled his hands away, looking down at the floor in shame.
"Because I.." she looked around, everywhere but his eyes. "I got involved with a vile man. I broke up with him a few days ago but...I should have done it sooner."
She returned to the mat and laid back down. Bruce walked over silently, a bit confused but patient. He could see that she was waiting to continue the lesson.
"I'm not afraid," she said firmly and again looked at the ceiling.
He approached and she put her feet flat on the floor so that her knees were bent and her legs slightly separated. He knelt in front of her, his hips above hers and placed his hands again on her wrists pinning her. Finally he understood what she needed to learn. Through her wrists, which he held firmly, he could feel her pulse. Even, 70 beats per minute.
"Don't try to push up," he instructed. "Don't try to crawl upwards, it won't work."
"Okay," she said.
He continued to instruct her, showing her how to rotate her wrist and upper body so that one arm was free and pulled over to one side.
"Now, you could jab me in the neck or face," he said. "Let's start again."
Once he had her pinned again she quickly rotated her wrist and torso the way he instructed and jabbed him hard in the neck. Her reacted enough to create a bit of space between them so she pulled her knees up and pushed her feet against the front of his legs to get away. She freed herself in less than three seconds.
"Amazing," Bruce said and held his neck. "You instinctively did the next step without me having to tell you. I wasn't sure you would be flexible enough to pull your knees in that high yet. You could go for a kick to the face as well at that point."
"Thank you," Adriana said. "For showing me."
"My pleasure," he smiled. "Want to try again?"
"Sure," she said.
"You're a natural. You seem like you would learn these things faster than I did," he replied. "This time, just go for it. Do whatever it takes."
"You sure?" she laughed.
"Yes," he answered and quickly pinned her again.
In a flash she had her hand free and her elbow at his eye. She wasn't sure how it happened but she gave him enough of a kick in the side and face to make him vulnerable enough for her to pin him down. He looked astonished at how rapidly she was able to liberate herself and then compromise him as she sat on his hips.
"Well done," he breathed.
"Thanks," she smiled, feeling powerful.
He looked up at her seeing mostly hair as it spilled over her shoulders covering half her face. Without thinking he reached up and moved it to the side to see her. Her smile relaxed as she looked into his eyes, not seeming to mind his hand resting on the side of her face. She finally looked at peace and it made him immensely happy. It felt natural to him to pull her down closer to him but as her lips came to his, he realized he didn't want to force or startle her. But she graciously went the rest of the way to make their lips meet. They began to kiss more passionately as her hands moved to his hair.
"What's that?" she asked hearing a serious of almost inaudible beeps.
"That," Bruce said, barely hearing it. "Means there's an emergency." After he said the words the beeping stopped.
He looked at her few a few seconds and began to kiss her again. His kisses deepened as his hands reached down and squeezed her backside, lifting her hips tightly to his and he quickly flipped her over onto her back
His hair was smooth enough to slip through her fingers like silk. The strength and pressure of his body went being from a reminder of fear and intimidation to a source of immense pleasure as she squeezed his hips with her knees. His lips felt hot against her neck and sent powerful tingling sensations down the base of her spine. He kissed her chest over her shirt while pushing it up to expose her stomach. The kisses went down to her waist and around her belly button as the beeping started again. He ignored it again and moved her pants lower, putting firm kisses that included a great deal of suction along her skin. The beeping sound stopped for a second or two then started again.
"Bruce," she exhaled as his tongue touched her skin and moved to the top of her underwear and reached down to grab his arm.
He looked up and then lifted himself over her, so that his face was once again over hers.
"Yes?" he said, his hips again resting on hers. She gasped as soon as she felt the mountainous erection pressed against her.
"That could-" she tried to talk, realizing she had never felt this type of desire. "That could be important." Again the beeping started.
"More important than me devouring you?" he smiled and was quickly at her hips again, gliding his tongue along her stomach.
"Maybe," she gasped, not wanting to stop, but knew that he had responsibilities. "Go check."
He planted a quick kiss on the middle of her pelvis over the fabric of her clothing before standing and quickly going in the direction of the beeping. The last kiss made her tremble a bit as she sat up, hoping that whatever it was would be nothing serious, but Bruce was back almost immediately.
"He's escaped Arkham."