I've been a bit slow lately with my updating, but school's ending soon, so chapters will be coming up more readily, I swear.
Disclaimer: I don't own Batman and yadda yadda. Evelyn, Greg, Charlotte, Isaac, Michelle and Robert, however, are my original characters.
The term "in over your head" is one that my boyfriends had used in high school to explain just how macho and amazing they were, so much so that I was "in over my head" by getting involved with them. Well, I use the term "in over my head" now, but for an infinitely different reason.
When I had suggested that we storm the drug deal, I was mildly surprised that Bruce had even agreed. Six men on either side of two mob bosses, five of which (two on one side, three on the other) had shotguns at the ready while the remaining seven with pistols. The only advantage that Bruce and I would have would be the element of surprise and the fact that the space we'd be fighting in would be small.
I was now what I liked to refer to as "in over my head."
The sneak attack was nearly flawless. Nearly. I had disarmed two of the men before the rest realized what was happening, and I was sending a kick at the third when the first sounds of gunfire shot out and echoed around the small space, bouncing off of the surrounding metal crates. I had four of the six men down, moaning on the concrete, when I found myself staring down the barrel of a 45. caliber pistol. Bruce and I had neglected to factor in the chance that the bosses themselves might have weapons, which was a mistake on both our parts. I knew I would be getting the blame- if we made it out of this, that is- because it was my idea that got us into this mess.
"Stop!" the boss shouted as I glowered at him. He cast a glance over at Bruce, who had ceased his attack, and I grabbed the man's wrist quickly and twisted. The shot rang out and both my ears began to ring as I wrenched the pistol away from the man. One of his henchmen that I had failed to incapacitate tackled me, and the gun went zinging to the side. He pinned my arms to the ground. I struggled to get my feet into a position that I could kick him off, but I didn't have to. A weighted metal chord wrapped itself around the man and he fell sideways onto the ground, giving me time to get back onto my feet.
"Phantom!" Bruce shouted as the other boss ran past me, clutching a briefcase to his chest as if it were gold Mayan coins.
"I'm on it!" I sprinted after the man, leaving Bruce to deal with the remaining men. "You're not getting away that easy," I said under my breath as I continued my chase. For a slightly overweight mob boss, he was pretty damned fast.
But I was faster.
I grabbed the tail of his suit jacket as he went to turn a corner- hoping to disappear behind the warehouse's side- and I jerked, sending the both of us tumbling to the ground. The briefcase went flying across the concrete, coming to a stop dangerously close to the water's edge.
The boss and I tussled on the ground, but once I slammed my knee into his groin he ceased his struggle. "That's more like it," I muttered, taking out a piece of wire to wrap his hands up with. I left him on the ground, still writing in pain, and walked over to the briefcase. "I got the briefcase and the boss man," I said to Bruce through my communicator.
"Good," came his near immediate reply. I sighed contentedly on a job well done, though it was almost a very bad situation, and sat down on the ground. I fiddled with the locks on the briefcase for several moments before I popped the thing open.
"Let's see what we have here," I mumbled, looking at the case's contents. What it contained was far from drugs of any variety. My eyes went wide as I sifted through the various pieces of paper and the few manila folders. "No way," I whispered.
On nearly all of the papers, someone had drawn transmutation circles.
I snapped the briefcase shut and stood, keeping one piece of paper in my hand as I stalked over to the man on the ground. "This," I spat, waving the thing in his face. "Why do you have this? What do you know?" He stared up at me.
"I don't know anything," he said. I waved the paper in his face again.
"Then why do you have this?" I asked my voice dark. He shook his head.
"I'm just transporting the thing," he said. "Don't shoot the messenger, right?" I frowned.
"Who gave this to you?" I asked. He remained stubbornly silent. I grabbed the collar of his shirt and jerked him off of the ground. "Who gave this to you?!"
"I-I don't know!" he shouted. "He wouldn't tell me! We made the exchange in the dark! He didn't want anyone to see his face!" I dropped the man and stormed back to the briefcase, picking it up. I turned to see Bruce standing only yards away.
"What happened?"
"A lot happened," I replied, walking past him. He grabbed my arm to stop me. I halted and sighed. "There's more to my past than you know," I said quietly, staring at the ground. "And it's high time you figured it out. Let's get back to the manor."
"Thanks, Alfred." I took the cup of tea from the silver tray and held it tightly in my hands, mostly to keep them from shaking. I took a deep breath. I was about to indulge Bruce in my entire life story, practically, and I didn't have any idea where to begin.
"What are these?" Alfred asked, looking down at the transmutation circles Bruce and I had spread out on the parlor's coffee table.
"They're transmutation circles," Bruce replied. "Alchemists in the pre-1600s used them in their chemical experiments. They believe that with the right reaction they could alter the very state of objects, such as turning hunks of lead into gold bars. Some of the instruments they invented, in fact, are still used by modern day chemists."
"That's the historical definition," I said, taking a drink of my tea before continuing. "There's a lot more to it than that." I set my tea on the table between two pieces of paper and began to explain.
"Alchemists weren't only chemists and scientists, they were miracle workers. It's only in history books that they never achieved turning lead into gold. My mentor, Gregory, was proof of that. He was one of the first alchemists. Nobody really knows just how alchemists came about, not even Greg did. They just kind of appeared one day.
"They're far from what you think of them today. Historians made alchemists out to be simply human scientists who conducted experiments that couldn't possibly work. They were far, far from that. They were semi-immortal, those who had discovered the Elixir of Life. Greg had, and so had Charlotte. They were well over five-hundred years old when I met them."
"Wait," Alfred interrupted. "Five-hundred? That's impossible."
"The Elixir of Life," I said. "With the correct composition of certain ingredients- herbs, raw elements, things like that- the alchemists could create an elixir that would allow them to live indefinitely. They wouldn't die from old age if they continued to take the elixir once every month. It only took a tablespoon to keep them alive forever, or for as long as they wanted." I took another drink of my tea. "Anyway, when I met Greg and Charlotte, I had no idea what I had gotten myself into.
"Greg had posed as my uncle when I was seventeen. He told me later, before he…well, he told me that he wanted me to become an alchemist because he thought I had amazing potential. Charlotte thought so, too, and they started my…apprenticeship, I guess. I didn't believe a word of what they were saying until Greg showed me alchemy using one of these." I tapped the transmutation circles on the table with my finger. "Boy was I a believer then."
"What I want to know," Bruce began, "is why a drug-dealer, a mob boss, had these in a briefcase." I shrugged slightly.
"I have no idea," I said. "Some of these I haven't even seen before. Granted, I'm just a baby in alchemist years."
"A baby?" Alfred asked. I nodded.
"Yeah. I've only been studying alchemy for seven, going on eight years. That's why I can only do small transmutations. If I tried anything bigger, I'd probably end up killing myself," I said. "Alchemy takes an enormous amount of energy in order to transmute something as small as a broken vase. Whenever I try to transmute something that's out of my league, I'm usually useless for at least a day or two afterward."
"Why do you think these are here, Evelyn?" Bruce asked after a moment, motioning toward the transmutation circles. I looked down at them.
"Well, I have a few guesses," I said. "One, someone is playing an elaborate joke on me. Two, something big is going to happen."
"Something big?" Alfred asked. "Why do you say that, miss?"
"This." I moved the papers so one was sitting on top of the others. "This is one of the most complex transmutation circles. You only ever use it if you're planning on transmuting something huge, like a building. If someone were to draw this on the side of, for example, Wayne Tower, they could bring it down faster than a hundred bombs. You see these?" I pointed to various symbols that were positioned near the center of the circle. "These are special alchemy characters. They allow alchemists to skip the reconstruction part of alchemy and just stick with the decomposition.
"You see, alchemy has certain, uh, procedures that alchemists have to go through in order to transmute something. They have to deconstruct all of the atoms that make up a certain object in order to reconstruct it into an entirely new object," I explained. "These symbols mean they can skip that second part. When that happens, whatever you're trying to transmute is completely destroyed."
"And you think someone could be planning to do that to something in Gotham?" Bruce asked.
"Well, it would certainly be a stretch," I said. "Like I said, I just have theories. I don't know why these things are here."
"You said you could do alchemy, miss," Alfred said. "Could you demonstrate?" He was excited. I could tell by the way he asked if I could show my alchemy.
"Sure," I said, standing. "Follow me!" I pulled a piece of chalk out of my pocket as I headed into the foyer. I stopped next to an ancient looking vase. "How old is this?" I asked, looking at Bruce and Alfred.
"It was Master Wayne's great-great grandfather's vase," Alfred explained. I nodded thoughtfully, then smacked the ceramic heirloom from its pedestal, sending it shattering to the floor. "Miss Larrabee!" Alfred exclaimed in shock. "You-you-you just shattered a priceless vase!" Bruce didn't look too thrilled, either.
"Just calm down," I said, kneeling down and drawing a transmutation circle on the floor of the foyer. "I did it for a reason. You're the one who said you wanted to see my alchemy." I swept all of the pieces of the vase into the circle, making sure I had them all before I knelt back down. "Watch," I said, then placed my fingertips on the outermost edges of the circle. A soft green light shimmered beneath the shattered pieces of the vase, lighting up the lines of the transmutation circle. The pile of shattered remains erupted into bright green light suddenly, and I closed my eyes as a reflex. I opened them as the light began to fade, and before me sat the vase, completely repaired and looking better than ever. I picked it up and put it back on the pedestal. "I fixed it," I announced.
"It looks…it looks as new as the day I first arrived at Wayne Manor," Alfred said slowly. I nodded.
"I can do three transmutations a day that are that simple," I said. "Any more and I pretty much pass out."
"I can see why you stick with martial arts when we're on patrol," Bruce mused. "That took a while." I nodded again.
"Like I said, I'm still a baby when it comes to alchemists," I said. "Greg could've had that fixed in less time than it would take to blink." I headed back toward the parlor. "But we still don't know why these are here," I said as Bruce entered behind me, followed by Alfred. "It doesn't make sense."
"I'll do some searching," Bruce said as he turned and walked toward the study. "Maybe I'll be able to find something."
"And it looks like I'm going to have to call Charlotte," I muttered, heaving a huge sigh and glancing over at Alfred. "We haven't talked in five years," I explained. "Not since Greg, uh, vanished, I guess."
"Vanished?" Alfred asked. I nodded and pulled out my cell phone.
"I'll explain later," I said as I punched in Charlotte's number. "That is if I survive this phone call."
Thanks for reading~