Yet another
gasp escaped my lips as my body made its 5th imprint into
the training room wall. My body ached all over as I fell to the
ground, and rose to my hands and knees. The room seemed to be
spinning but when I looked up, my sparring partner's silhouette
stood clear as day. The hours passed slowly as we each took our turns
fall at the other's hands. "Why do we fall?..." Batman asked
for what seemed like the 100th time.
I
groaned, standing up. "So we can learn to pick ourselves up again…"
I droned the response as my broken arm wiped blood from my mouth.
"Where did you learn that move?' I asked referring to the throw
that I had fallen victim to at least half a dozen times. I looked up
at him, getting into a defensive stance.
He looked
at me through those cold piercing eyes that seemed to hold a tiny
hint of awe. "I once trained with the League of Shadows. But it
wasn't what I expected." He said plainly as he too took on a
defensive stance.
The room was badly lit but it
seemed we were both creatures of the shadows therefore it posed no
problem. I stepped to the left and he followed my lead, we circled
each other for a few moments, staring each other down. Blood fell
into my eyes and stung sharply causing me to flinch. Batman took this
as his cue and charged straight for me. I braced myself for a painful
blow but none came. He simply stopped a few feet from me. His gaze
was focused on the wall behind me. I turned to see the wall was lit
with a single beam of light.
When I turned back to
say something he took the words right out of my mouth, "It's
getting late… I have to go!" He told me that I was welcome to
stay until I was healed completely and then explained how I could get
out of the cave if I wished to leave.
I smiled
slightly walking up to him, "Thanks for the offer Bats! But I gotta
fly!" With that I put a hand on his shoulder and
disappeared.
I appeared immediately after in my 3rd flood apartment
building located 3 blocks south of Wayne Tower. I groaned looking at
my alarm clock, "Damn! Late again! Mr. Wayne is going to kill me!"
I jumped in the shower after stripping off my tattered uniform,
"Damn!" it was the only thing I could say as I looked at myself,
after my shower. My body was worse than I had thought, bruises
replaced previously invisible wounds and the gashes on my back and
arms from the early morning sparring session very more numerous than
I had imagined.
I groaned, rummaging through my
closet to find a white button-up shirt and a deep navy skirt that
came just past my knees. My outfit was completed with a pair of thin
glasses and a tight ponytail. It wasn't the best outfit but it
would have to do.
Once the
train arrived at Wayne Tower it was difficult to dodge the oncoming
people as I slowly made my way to the front door. Once inside I
signed in and sat down. Luckily Gotham's billionaire playboy was
running late as well, "Sorry I'm late Jaime, any new calls?"
this was all he said as he practically ran through the front door.
"No sir." I said quickly as he made his way to his
office. "But you are rather late for the board meeting sir." I
said suppressing a laugh as he disappeared into his office.
The rest of the morning was filled with drones of; "Wayne
Tower! How may I direct your call?" The cheerfulness of it was
nearly sickening as I repeated those words over and over and over
again. The boredom was broken at about 12:20 when Kaylee from the 5th
floor showed up at my desk. "Hey Jaime! You wanna go to lunch? I
can't stand it here for more than a few hours at a time!" Kaylee
was one of my best friends.
"You got here late
again… you've only been here for 3 hours!" I smiled before
agreeing to lunch.
