"Damien," Adriana said after opening her front door. "Good afternoon."
"Hello," he said. "May I come in?"
He was immediately noticed the two bottles of blue colored liquid on the counter.
"What's this?" he inquired.
"Nothing," she said. "Why are you here?"
"Can I have some?" he asked.
"No," she said and opened a cupboard the put the bottles away.
"Okay," he said. "Don't want to share your blue hooch."
"Aren't you on duty?" she asked.
"The party," he said, changing the subject. "We've been investigating as much as we could..with limited resources. Security footage self destructing and all-"
"Why?" she asked him. "Nothing happened."
"Yeah, well we are all on high alert," he said. "Especially since one of the Joker's men said he was there."
"Well he could have been lying ," Adriana said. "You offered him a deal, he'd probably say anything."
"Yes," Damien said.
"Why are you talking to me about this?" she said and shut the cupboard.
"Well," he said. "We've been checking everything. Top to bottom. You're on the guest ledger for the penthouse."
"Right.." she said. "I did stay over."
"And paid cash. Over 20 grand," Damien said.
"Yep," she shrugged.
"You didn't bring that much cash with you," he said and could see that she was getting annoyed.
"What is this? A shakedown? This third degree-" she said.
"No," he said sternly. "I'm just asking you to tell me the truth."
"Which is?" she asked.
"You left with some rich guy...and slept with him," Adriana said.
She had no reason to spare Damien's feeling. She did not care what he thought or felt about her.
"I met a guy at the party," she said. "He had the cash on him and we got the room."
"Seriously?" Damien couldn't believe her honesty.
"Yes," she said.
"Wow.." he said and ran a hand through his hair. "I mean that's not like you."
She said nothing
"Was it Wayne?" Damien asked.
"Nope," Adriana said.
"Why are you lying to me?" Damien said. "Are you afraid of him? He gonna hit you again? Knock out another tooth?"
"I never said he did that," Adriana said.
"Yeah but you never fucking denied it," Damien said. "Deny it now if it wasn't him."
Adriana was quiet.
"He hit you and he's the one you were in the penthouse with," Damien said.
"I didn't go to the penthouse with him" Adriana said. Damien was good as spotting a liar. She told the truth.
"Who?" Damien asked.
"Doesn't matter," Adriana said. "Please leave."
.
.
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"Don't shoot," the Batman said to Shade. They were in a bank's vault at it was after midnight.
"You," she said, lowering the gun, even though she already knew who was behind her before she turned around. She felt it was safer here than on the street to interact with him, since the team that had broken into the bank had taken out the surveillance and put it on a loop.
"How the hell are you here so quickly?" he asked. "I was only able to detect movement here four minutes ago."
"I guess I'm three minutes faster than you," she said and tossed the gun to him. "There's another one . He ran and is on his way to the roof right now."
"Why the roof?" the Batman asked.
"There's a chopper coming to collect him. We have to stop him," she said as they ran outside.
Once they were out, the Batman looked around for the man and saw him climbing a ladder on the side of the building. Shade was right, there was a helicopter on the roof with no lights on. The sound and wind coming from it made it undeniably there though.
"Great," the Batman said and pulled the gun Shade still had in her hand and aimed it at the man, who was seconds away from being at the roof. He only had three more steps up the ladder until he reached the top.
"Wait!" Shade said and grabbed the gun back.
The Batman watched her aim it at him as he got to the last step and she fired. She didn't hit him. Her aim was so excellent that she shot at the strap on the bag over his shoulder, breaking it. The bag fell down to the ground and the man was too shocked to even look back to see who had shot at him. He started scrambling to the top and getting into the chopper which took off immediately.
"Wow," the Batman said. "So I guess you're against killing."
"Yes," she said and handed the gun back to him before grabbing the bag that had fallen. "And I'm guessing you have a satellite tasked on that chopper?"
He nodded. They could hear the sirens in the distance, once again. It was familiar to both of them after completing a mission, that the police would finally be on their way once all was settled, to carry way the criminals.
"I have the laughing gas," the Batman said and followed her back into the building.
She expanded her gift making sure that no one had seen them together. The coast was clear.
"Great," she said. "Phase one."
"Yes," he said, "I'm thinking of using it as an injection. I'll have a weapon procured to get it done."
"So..." she said and dropped the bag in the bank's lobby. "You think you can really kill him?"
"Of course," he answered. "You don't think I would?"
"I don't know," she said and placed both hands on her hips. "I mean..you've had many opportunities. One might think...maybe you have a soft spot for him."
"Absolutely not," the Batman assured her. "After what he's taken from me...my closest friend...I will kill him without blinking. No hesitation."
"Okay," she said and winked at him. "I gotta get out here. There's much more work to be done in the city tonight."
"Indeed."
As she walked away she felt her face drop. Did she still want him killed? She held her chest and realized, amazing sex didn't cancel out the fact that he was going to use that poison to kill.
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.
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The next morning Adriana opened her eyes and stretched her arms towards the ceiling and yawned. She stepped off of the bed and walked into her bathroom. Something was different..the world was strangely quiet. All at once, she understood. She could not hear any thoughts..she couldn't reach her neighbors thoughts at all. She frowned and massaged her temples..nothing.
She ran into her kitchen and poured a glass of the blue potion and took several sips. She downed the entire glass..and another. Nothing happened.