Hi everyone! I'm soooooo sorry I've been ignoring this story for quite some time. But when I was playing Arkham City (Which was...AMAZING!), the only thing that was going through my mind was 'Gotta work on the story'. And so here I am, writing another chapter for you all! The game reminded me how much I love to write this story. So now never fear, Chapter 8 is finally here! Here's where I fix the one mistake I've had in this story, the dialogue. Hopefully I've got it right this time and fit it with Amber instead of just copying from the game. Tell me what you guys think! Well, I've talked for long enough. Enjoy the chapter!
Chapter 8: Save the Doctors
I headed out of the Medical building with my brain desperatly trying to think of another way in, was there even another way? I pushed that question out of my head and stopped just on the top step of the set of stairs while twisting my expression deep in thought. I turned back around slowly to look over the building as a low 'hmm' escaped my throat. Couldn't go under, don't think there was any point in going around, but maybe, on top? My eyes quickly shifted up to the roof of the building to look it over, the edge was clean enough for me to grapple up there, just my luck. I let out a small grin in success and took out the grappling hook, I spinned it once in my hand before aiming it up at the ledge. I pulled the trigger and a few moments after felt myself being lifted off the ground, I flew through the air and came up to the ledge, immediatly grabbing on and quickly trying to pull myself up and over.
After my little episode with the cliff I had made sure I was more cautious with traveling to high ledges, because if I did happen to fall again, my hand might not be so quick. Quickly, I shook myself off and scanned for my next move. Gradually I made my way forward and jumped up and over a ledge to a higher plateform of the roof. And it was then my mind flashed at the fact I was actually here in Arkham Asylum. Fighting against the actual Joker and having the real Batman guiding me through. I stood there in complete silence, trying to re-take things in, my eyes glued to the floor. My breath was shakey, and I realized that when a sigh escaped from me. I closed my eyes for a few moments, and when I opened them, I continued on.
I took a turn and hurried my pace, then took another turn and jumped down to a lower ledge of the roof. The peices of wood were broken as if someone had smashed it with a mallet. I glanced at the open wall and took out the explosive gel and briskly smeared it across the wall, when I was done I took a few steps back and pressed the button. Immediatly after I had I felt a force push me back actually taking me off my feet, and with that I ended up smashing into the wall of the ledge I was previously on with a startled yelp. I groaned and shouted a curse as I tried to gather up my senses. Note to self: Step back farther when exploding a wall. After a few moments of scolding myself loudly with words not appropriate for a small child, I stood up and took notice of my now opened entrance. In a flash I had forgotten about my recent mistake and stumbled over clumsily to the pathway opened, I jumped down from the ledge into a small room and landed in a crouched position. I stood up straight and headed over to the door, then I calmly opened it and headed through not bothering to shut it on my way out. The next room I walked into was stuffy, yet bitterly cold, not much different from the air outside. While taking in my surroundings I advanced foward to a gate that was in my way. I became aware of it and observed it up and down, then I locked my fingers in it and brought up one foot putting it into the small hole of the gate. Then I began to climb up it steadily, before I knew it I was up and over on the other side. Just as my feet came in contact with the floor again, a familiar voice echoed through the room.
"I want all the doctors rounded up. Search every inch of the Medical Building." I cut short in mid step, and calmly yet curiously arched an eyebrow. The doctors? Why would he need the doctors? I found what I needed to start walking forward again and jump over a shorter gate which lead to a longer drop down onto the ground. I stood back up straight and stood still for a moment to see if Joker would continue, after a few impatient moments of waiting, he did.
"I mean it! Search every room, every office, and every trash can." I shook my head trying to make sense as to 'why', when my gaze caught sight of a vent. I glanced around beifly with shifty eyes before I headed over to it and got down on one knee, beginning to pry it open. Over my frustrated grunts I heard Joker's voice continue from where he left off.
"If another doctors tries to run and gets out of the building, then you won't!" By now I had gotten the cover off and was making my way through in a crawl. "I'll just flood the rooms with happy gas, and leave you to die! Hell, I may do that anway, sounds fun." He drifted off into thought and soon I didn't hear him anymore. I growled breifly, I wouldn't let him do that. I continued to crawl, this vent in particular was longer than the others, and it was pissing me off. My knees began to hurt after a few seconds from crawling and putting my weight on them, but I just continued on. I looked behind me as I crawled and failed to take notice of the opening in the bottom of the vent. I tumbled out with a brief scream and tried to land on my feet, but they fell out from under me and I landed on my stomach with a groan. I mumbled something about why God hates me and pushed myself back up on my feet, forcing to keep sturdy. I finally studied the area around me and found out it was a dark hallway, while biting my bottom lip a little too hard, I continued. My shoes clanked on the metal ground and when I came to the end of the hallway, I saw an already opened vent against the left wall. I crouced down low and crawled through, it was a short crawl as I came up to one of the walls of the vent that was a gate like material. In the room below I saw armed men and heard a woman shouting desperatly.
"Get off of me!" She tried to sound brave but one could tell she was terrified, I guessed then that the woman was one of the Arkham Doctors.
"Shut it and get down there with the others!" A Joker goon barked as an order, quickly adding on. "Move it!" As he forcefully pushed the doctor, she quivered and did as ordered.
"Okay, okay, I hear you. I'm going." She whimpered, I bit my bottom lip in thought, why the hell did Joker need the doctors? Then another question came to my mind, why the hell do I care? If they were in trouble, I had to save them. No questions asked. I fumbled to get out of the vents and stood up straight, glancing at the 5 men stalking around on the ground below. My eyes scanned the floor for the quickest and slealthiest first move, my eyes slid up and I grappled up to a gargoyle. Once I got there I had a bit of struggle to pull myself up onto it, my body was really aching. I tried to shake off the tiredness from my body and saw a man on a strip, walking slowly. I aimed my grapple up and grabbed a good hold of it before jumping off the gargoyle and swinging through the air like the wind. My feet slammed into his back forcefully and he fell forward instantly with a groan. Before he could get up I sat on his back putting all my weight on it and punched him in the head, he was knocked out easily. I rubbed my fist and fleetly stood back on my feet.
"I'm moving around her!" I heard a man shout, I whipped my head to look at them and whispered a 'shit' before grappling up to a gargoyle as they all ran to my direction. But, none of them seemed to notice me. Maybe they just thought they saw me, either way I reminded myself how I needed to be more quiet when moving. I glanced down from the gargoyle and quickly tried to plan my next move mentally.
"Oh God! I've found someone! Over here!" One of the men desperatly called as almost the whole group hurried over to the fallen man. While they were occupied with their fallen companion I took notice on how one stayed behind, he was the next to go. I quickly flew threw the air once more on my grapple and landed behind the man with soft feet, I held my breath as I sneaked up behind him and stealthily took him out. When I was finished I grappled up to another gargoyle and pulled myself up. I never thought I would slip. But, something had gone wrong with my hand and I let out a 'shit' as I screamed briefly and found myself falling through the air. I landed on my side on the strip, so thankfully the fall wasn't that big. But of course, the men noticed me easily.
"There she is! Shoot her!" One man ordered, and so the gun shots started. I had no time to take in the pain as I sprang back up on my feet and jumped off the strip, landing on a lower level of the room as the loud sound continued. I hurried into a small area and slipped into the shadows, trying to keep my shakey breath steady, but failing misserably. I was finally able to get it under control when I heard one of the men say.
"I lost her! She dissapeared into the shadows!" I recollected myself with that saying and scanned myself over for any bullet wounds, luckily there were none. As I heard footsteps nearing my location I crouched down low, when they passed I slowly moved my way out of my hiding spot and behind the paranoid man. I jumped onto his back and took him out silently, allowing him to drop to the ground when I was finished. Two men left. I grappled back up to a gargoyle and made sure I kept a good grip, I could have died with that first mistake, all because of a slip of the hand. I'd punish myself for that later. I remembered I had a job to do and scanned where the last two men were, close enough for a double takedown. My grapple came in contact with the cieling as I jumped off the gargoyle, my feet were infront of me as I managed to kick both men in the back at the same time. They both grunted in pain and tumbled over, I landed on my feet and quickly kicked them out before catching the grappling hook. As soon as I had, a familiar voice that I really didn't need to hear at the time came on the announcements.
"Hello? Is there a doctor in the house? No? Pity, I seem to have a pile of wounded henchmen that need medical attention." I honestly didn't find Joker all that funny, but at least he was good at reminding me what my task was in the first place. I took in a deep breath as I remembered the doctors, thanks to Joker, and I put the grapple back in the belt. I headed over to the group as a red haired woman turned to me, examining me.
"So what they've been saying is true, a child really is running around the aslyum...saving us." I smiled at the last part but remembered what she called me in the first part.
"I'm not a child, but yes, it's true." I told them, I ignored the ache in my shoulder while continuing on. "What exactly happened to get you in the position you guys were?" I arched an eyebrow as I let the red haired doctor explain for the group.
"I don't know what happened. One minute we were doing our evening rounds, and the next, armed thugs burst into the room and took us hostage."
"Must have been hectic for you. They didn't have anybody with them, did they?" I asked, maybe it would be a clue that could have led me to Gordon, I wasn't sure but it was certainly worth a shot.
"I'm pretty sure they took someone into the elevator, I couldn't tell who it was. Why?" She asked, I bit my bottom lip, should I tell her why? I didn't need the doctors more paniced then they already were, that could have possibly slowed me down. I decided to change the subject as I headed over to the elevator.
"Maybe I can just find out." I stated as I pressed the button to open the doors, but frowned when I figured out that nothing happened.
"Then again, maybe not." With a shrug I turned back to the doctor. "I really shouldn't have expected it to be so easy." I forced a laugh, at that particular moment feeling extremely embarrassed. I continued on to see if I could make the embarrassing red in my cheeks go away.
"If they shut down the elevators I'm guessing they didn't want anyone following them, so...yay, yippie, it makes my job easier now." I mumbled the last part of my sentence with sarcasim, Joker was making this as every bit as hard as he could. For that, he deserved a punch in the face from me.
"Do you think we'll be okay here now?" The doctor asked, that snapped me out of my thoughts as I turned my focus and attention back on her.
"Yeah, it should be safe now." I told her, she breathed a sigh of relief, but this triggered another doctors thought. A bald man spoke up making me and the red head turn to him.
"What about the others?" I rubbed my temples as I heard him say 'others'. "We heard gunfire. They could be dead, we should go and help." I immediatly withdrew my hand from my face and tensed up when he said that, I couldn't have them running around like that, Batman certainly wouldn't have let them do that. But just before I was about to say something in protest the red haired woman spoke up before I could.
"Oh no, I forgot! Doctor Kellerman was in the Patient Observation Room and Doctor Chen went to surgery." Just as I tried to speak up again the bald man was the one who spoke before I could this time.
"And Dr. Young went to X-ray." He told me, I took a couple of seconds to process those words, and to see if anyone else was going to speak before I had the chance. When I realized that no one was going to and there was this strange awkward silence, I decided to say something.
"Okay then...I'll go and find the other doctors, you guys just hang out here." I ordered them, but my tone was gentle. The red haired doctor's eyes slipped down to a spot on my body and she gasped in disgust.
"You're bleeding." She informed me with a worried and frantic tone to her voice, I glanced down to my bruised shoulder, which was indeed bleeding, when did that happen?. I hadn't really felt the pain until now, my hand immediatly went up to it but I winced and quickly retracted it, my eyes locked on to my own glistening blood that was now painted on my hand. That was when I felt dizzy, I tried to shake it off with a gentle shake of my head indicating I was fine. Unfortunantly this didn't seem like something I could shake off. As I took a step to leave I immeditaly collapsed on my knees from the dizziness in my head. I felt the doctors at my side, speaking to me, but their words weren't clear. There was only one thing racing through my mind besides the sound of my own beating heart, and that was laughter. High, shrieking laughter was bouncing off the inside of my skull, I clenched my teeth in anger and before I knew it, I was standing back up on both feet. I wasn't sure what happened, but whatever it was, it was gone now. I again reasurred the doctors that they would be fine and that I was alright. I didn't let them stop me as I jumped down to the lowest part of the building and headed through the double doors.
There was no turning back now.
Hope you guys enjoyed it! Nothing much else I can say except Arkham City rocks, and the chapters will be coming faster from now on. I promise, scouts honor!