Gotham Oddities
File 002: Londyn Bakirtzis

Sweat poured from her brow and down her back yet she kept going, kept moving and pushing her muscles are far as they would go. Shadowboxing a hanging bag in front of her. A pair of cloth-wrapped hands continued to hit the bag in a fury, knocking dents into the already overly beaten thing. Tiny beads of sweat were wicked from her every time she made a connection and the thick chain jingled with not even a second's rest between strikes.

Feet kept bouncing, shifting, as light as could be – she had to be faster. Every movement needed to be towards improvement. Those were the motivational poster thoughts pushing the woman. Images of the fight between her hero and the challenger from two weeks ago played in her mind. She'd watched them live with a glittering wondrous gaze. Every day since she'd played the recording of them over and over again, slowing it down to watch their footwork and to witness the pivotal moment of the fight. That striking uppercut. Her hero had weaved right around the challenger's guard and shook them to the core with an uppercut that if anyone blinked missed.

Londyn wanted that. She wanted to be that good. Her dreams demanded her to always be better than the better she'd gotten previously. That's why she spent hours in the boxing gym, pushing herself. The woman was good – good enough to win locally – but she craved more outside Gotham.

Between her thoughts, the beating of the bag and music pods in her ears she could not hear the stout owner of the gym yelling at her. The bag was suddenly moved and she stumbled in her form, recovering and taking her earphones out quickly, "What the hell Michael!?"

"Yeah, that's what I thought." He let go of the bag and pointed at her, "We closed an hour ago, get out." His pointing finger turned to the front like he had to explain to her where the front door even was.

"Shit, why didn't anyone tell me sooner?" The woman finally realized how shallow her breathing was, how much the sweat-soaked her gym clothes, and that she still could go for longer. Londyn lifted her loose tank and wiped her forehead, giving zero care that Michael saw her abs as she did.

"Because last time you were makin' that face you decked a guy." Michael followed her as she turned to grab her stuff from the lockers near the front.

She rolled her coal eyes, snatching up a water bottle from a large open pack of them on a bench along the way, chugging it as they walked, "Only cause," another chug of water, "ah - he grabbed my shoulder when I was on the bag." She downed the rest of the bottle and twisted the plastic giving it a toss into a wastebin.

"Uh-huh, well I had ta pay for his busted nose. You owe me for that still by the way," Michael grabbed her stuff from the locker and thrust it out to her, "Take a cab," his face was like that of a dad scolding a child, "some loonies broke out of Arkham them days ago an' they ain't caught all of 'em… again." While the working-class citizens of Gotham were usually happy to have Batman cleaning up the streets, they often wondered why this cycle of sending the criminals to a place they could keep getting out of kept happening.

Having taken the shoes from the top of the bag she was fitting one on at a time while standing, "You want me to pay ya back or take a cab, I'm broke 'cause you're shit at setting up payin' fights." She could go home sockless – they likely stank anyway but she'd not be able to tell right now.

"I'm shit at settin' up payin' fights 'cause my fighter scared the piss out of the other gyms." He all but shoved the bag into her arms when she was done putting on the shoes.

Her shoulders shrugged nonchalantly, "Not my fault they can't handle me." Plopping her bag down she unzipped it and found a pair of sweatpants to pull on over her shorts. Her sneakers stretched the fabric some but the loose-fitting and highly stretchy material allowed it. The bag was replaced on her shoulder and zipped back up.

Michael crossed his arms, "Take a fuckin' cab."

She stuck her tongue out at him as she left and he locked up behind her.

The balmy rainless night was welcomed, the smell of hot garbage that often piled in the narrows, less so. Her nose scrunched up from the offending odor. Londyn casually placed her earphones back in, the music was still going – her phone someplace in the gym bag. She adjusted her bag once and began to jog home. Unbeknownst to Londyn one of those loonies was currently racing down an alleyway at full speed trying to outrun one very upset Batman. A flash of emerald green collided with her body as she jogged past the alley, a music pod falling to the ground from her ear.

The woman stumbled to the other side of the alley opening and pressed her hand to the brick wall. Her bag slid from her shoulder and dropped to the ground. She was about to apologize, having lifted her head to face them. Only to realize the other individual had recovered as well, and a pistol was pointed at her head.

"Not another step Batman! Or I'll put a bullet between her eyes."

Londyn could barely hear the swish of a cape in the alleyway. It was impossible to see down the alley from the position she was without moving but could hear a deep voice, "Put the gun down Nigma."

"No," The man in green was obviously in a desperately bad situation, he was not going to outrun Batman especially as his trap had bought him far less time than he had hoped for. The Batman must have cheated, he hated cheaters. Edward knew it was fortuitous to suddenly slam into a hostage – he'd been looking behind himself when it happened – and he should be taking her as such. Using the woman to get away. However, he really couldn't help himself at the moment, "Not unless you can answer me this: What is long and slinky like a trout, never sings till its guts come out?"

"Grit teeth."

"Grit teeth? That answer has nothing to do with the riddl—"

She'd done it, gone faster. Weaving right around the pointed gun in his moment of confusion and striking an uppercut knocking the man out cold. A hit that would have been missed if someone blinked.

A/N: Do you like music? Me too. Want to know what I listened to for this?
I'm Dangerous by The EverLove.