~City in the Dark~ (La Vida and Vicodin)

[La Vida en su Muerte]

Talia was glad to finally be off that damned plane and in her hotel room that she had gotten under the name Natalya Borovsky. She lay down on the king size bed that dominated the large room. She decided she would unpack her things later, after a quick nap. She planned to go out tonight and see if she might be able to catch a glimpse of the Batman. She wondered exactly how much trouble she would need to cause to bait him to come after her. She didn't want to seem too much of a threat though. She didn't actually need him chasing her down; she just wanted to see him. This was the man whom her father had trained. He had also been trained by some of the same masters who had trained her, but she felt that she clearly had the advantage. Talia had been trained to be an assassin since she was a child. Unlike Batman, she was not afraid to kill. In fact it was the whole reason why she was here.

She had heard that during his training, the man who was now Batman had refused to kill a thief. He clearly had not been the homicidal type, but why was her father dead now? What had happened here a few months ago that led to her father’s death? She could reach no other conclusion that Batman had had a hand in it. Tahlia swore she would find out what had happened, and she would make him pay.

She knew who Batman really was: the billionaire playboy of Gotham City, Bruce Wayne. She remembered seeing him, watching him during his training. Her father had warned her to stay away from him, so she had been careful to never be seen. She wanted to get to know both Batman and Bruce Wayne, but the playboy would have to wait. Tonight her toy of choice was Batman.

Her thoughts were rudely interrupted by the phone ringing on the nightstand by the bed, barely a foot away from her head: A short, blaring sound, unlike any ring she had ever heard. It made her jump and took all of her control to not throw the damn thing across the room. She was hesitant, completely aware that no one knew she was here, but answered it anyway, switching immediately to her alias for her trip, a Russian heiress, her accent obvious but she spoke perfect English.
"Hallo?" She asked cheerily.
"Good evening Ms. Barovsky. This is the front desk, we are just checking in to see if there is anything you need." The women on the other end asked politely. Talia had barely gotten up to her room 5 minutes ago, what the Hell could she possibly need?
"No, I am fine. I actually think I am going to...." she pretended to search for the right phrase "turn in early. It has been a long day." She informed the woman.
"Completely understandable, Ma'am. I'll make sure no one bothers you."
"Thank you so much. I won't hesitate to call if I decide I want something, I assure you."
"Wonderful, Ms. Barovsky. You have a good night." The smile was audible in her voice.
"You too." With that, Talia hung up the phone, considering disconnecting it, but thought that might be too suspicious if any one at the front desk decided to check up on her again. Instead she simply turned the ring volume down. She had gotten the most expensive room in the hotel which she was slightly surprised was readily available when she had called to reserve it barely two weeks ago. She lay back on the bed allowing her thoughts to return to revenge. It didn’t take long for her to fall asleep.

-Several hours later-

As Talia walked the streets of Gotham near her hotel a couple hours later decked out in black leather, she had a feeling it wouldn't take long until she found some one to 'play' with her. The crescent moon was high in the sky but offered very little light below, which unfortunately was needed. Some of the street lamps were flickering, some were off. It made Talia smile inwardly. It definitely wouldn't be long now. The streets were fairly quiet and orderly though there were a good amount of people walking around as well. There was a certain alley a couple blocks down that Talia noticed most people were going out of their way to avoid. As she neared, she could hear the commotion going on inside. She stopped to watch. There were at least 10 men huddled around....something in the very back of the alley. It took her a few moments to realize that they were gambling, throwing dice most likely.

After about a minute or so, one of the guys finally noticed her. His eyes locked with hers, and it was obvious to Talia that he expected her to simply walk away, but when she didn't he roughly tapped the shoulder of the guy standing next to him who also looked up at Talia. Both men started to come over to her and it took barely a few seconds before every one else’s attention was on Talia as well. "Are you lost little girl?" the second guy asked, his voice taunting and condescending. Talia did not back down, in fact she smirked at him.
"If I was lost, I definitely wouldn't ask directions from the likes of you." she informed him, switching back to her regular, subtle Arabian accent.
"So, what is it exactly that a guy like me can help you with?" He retorted as he stopped right in front of her.
"I want to play." she stated firmly.
Both men began howling in laughter. The first guy looked back at the other guys. "She wants to play!" He announced, and they all started laughing as well. Doubling over, falling into one another.
Talia chuckled softly. Her hands had been in her pockets the whole time and she brought out her right hand which had $2,000 in 20's. She held it out to the men before her. "I want to play." She repeated. Both men stopped laughing immediately as their eyes fell on the cash. She pushed past them, cash in hand and went to silence the others with even more cash pulled from her left pocket. She had $4,000 total and threw it down before them all.
"I think it's my turn." She told them, holding her hands out for the dice which were readily given over to her.

It took her less than 20 minutes to get her money back and also the money of every man standing around her. She quickly counted it up in front of their stunned faces. It was barely $6,000. She rolled her eyes. "Well, thank you gentlemen for wasting my time. It almost makes this $2,000 not even worth it.... almost." She giggled as she pocketed the money and stood up making her way from the alley.

3....2....1....

"Hey, wait a minute!" Called the first guy. Talia stopped and turned. "I got another game we can play." he said as he walked up to her. Talia smiled and pretended to be excited. "Really? What is it?" He came right up to her and grabbed her upper arm roughly. "It's called 'Give us the money or we'll kill you.'"
Talia suppressed all urges to laugh out loud. "Hey, I won this money fair and square; most of it is mine anyway!" She spat back at him. He responded by clumsily back handing her. With a sharp cry, Talia allowed herself to fall to the ground. She allowed the guy to drag her up by her arm and throw her up against the brick wall. She even allowed a few of the other guys to crowd around them in an attempt to block her in. She feigned heavy, nervous breathing, her hazel eyes darting around to all of the guys' faces.
"She's a pretty one, Jay. Maybe we shouldn't kill her just yet." Came a voice from some one who was blocked by the guy now pinning her against the wall. She could only assume that he was Jay.
"Yeah, you're right." He agreed, his eyes now filled with feral pleasure as he looked her up and down.
"Let go of me!" she demanded, bucking against him in an obviously futile attempt to free herself. The men barked in laughter.

Well, that’s enough of that, she decided, before viciously head butting Jay. He fell to the ground. Talia refused to let the dizziness of the blow take over her as she grabbed the 2 guys standing on either side of her and brought them together. The sound of their heads colliding echoed in the alley. Three other guys looked at her wearily, but weren't about to let her get away with taking out their friends, so they all attempted to tackle her at the same time. She jumped up, grabbing onto the fire escape, and laughed as all the men ran into the brick wall. She dropped, landing hard on one of the guy's back. He groaned loudly and she stepped down onto the ground. The last four guys stalked over to her. Within 2 minutes she had all four of them disabled. One with a concussion like the others, two with broken arms and the last, sadly, was dead due to a broken neck. All 10 men now lay scattered around her. She grabbed the money from her pocket and threw the bills in the air, letting it rain down on top of them. "Your friend is dead. I hope it was worth the $4,000" she murmured, certain that at least one of the guys were awake enough to hear her, before she jumped back up onto the fire escape and climbed up onto the roof of the 10 story building to wait. She quickly reached into the back pocket of her black leather pants, and pulled out a small black mask. Even though the roof was well shadowed by the neighboring building, she placed it over her eyes. Just in case Batman found her, she didn’t need him seeing her entire face. She could already hear the sirens approaching; she could only hope they were heading in her direction.

 

[ABagOVicodin]

The cons of leading a double life as Batman:
Chances of putting anyone that you love in jeopardy are heightened.
Chances of living are always decreased whenever you go out to fight crime.
While these may be true, the certain thing that annoyed Bruce at the current moment, as he felt his room door closing, was the fact that he only had around 4 hours of sleep to run himself off of. Alfred had came into the room with breakfast and as Bruce's eyes opened, annoyance was in his mood. However he distinctly remembered having a conversation with his butler about the things that he must sacrifice if he wanted to be Batman. And sleeping in was one of those sacrifices. That specific protein shake that Alfred made for him every morning was handed to him and he drank the glass clean, handing the glass back to Alfred. Alfred smiled and looked around the decorated room. "Master Wayne, are you sure that you should be sleeping in a house that is not exactly protected?" He asked, as he opened the door of the room to show the hallway. The hallway had numerous pictures that Batman had taken of the few girls that he enjoyed taking out. He was thinking of taking the pictures of those other girls down, since he had Rachel still in his mind... Bruce shook his head. The room that he was in was built securely by himself, it was warm, nice, and big enough to suit his liking. The hallway opened up to 10 other rooms, one of the rooms being a kitchen. "I've told you before, I'm sure that I am safe as I can be. After all, I'm not scared of anyone that wants to mug me." He replied, sitting up and flexing his muscles slightly, as if he was concerned if they weren't going to be there.

Bruce stood up and he walked over to one side of his wall, a library of numerous books. Nearly all of the books on this cramped shelf were his, excluding a few on the bottom that were Alfred's favorite. His hands scanned along the sides of the books, smiling that gentle smile as he took a book off of the shelves and opened it to the middle page. Page 354. He pressed his thumb onto one of the lines, horizontally, and the book scanned his thumb print. Then the bookcase opened to a more eloquent elevator for his Batcave. Alfred did not seem surprised. "So quickly to venture into your cave, Master Wayne?" He asked, and Bruce laughed slightly before he walked into the elevator. Alfred followed and the two men descended into the cave. Bruce opened up a secured locker with a key that he had pulled out of the elevator console, near all of the buttons, and he gave it to Alfred to put back. He then looked at his suit. His symbol... his pride and symbol of hope for the people of Gotham... under his house. Alfred seemed slightly worried that Bruce was putting on the suit so soon. "Must you go so quickly out into the dangerous world Master Wayne?" Alfred asked. "Surely you can at least go to your company first and see if there is anything new that they can show you. Or call up a woman to have fun with."
"It is not about fun, it is about fixing the problem." Bruce replied, running his hand over the suit that he has been using tirelessly the past few years. He noticed that it had some wears and tears and he glared at them, as if the tears were going to mend themselves from Bruce's stare. "You have a point Alfred, I have to talk to Lucius about fixing my armor." He replied, not looking at Alfred as he said this. He took the armor out of it's casing and he looked at all the other gadgets that he would be using on his adventure tonight, and realized that he needed a few new ones. His old gadgets were starting to wear out. Picking up a suitcase, Bruce placed the armor, and the depleting gadgets into the suitcase and then closed it, smiling. "Would you like to accompany me to the door?" He asked. Alfred smiled. "Of course Master Wayne."

Bruce waited in the back seat of the car as Alfred drove him to the Wayne Enterprises building. He had his suitcase in the trunk, and pulled it out as he got out of the car. His blue eyes turned towards the building, his company. He loved it. He walked through the building, passed security, and walked straight to Lucius' room, explaining that he needed to trade in his armor for a new pair, while his old armor would be repaired or something along those lines. Lucius agreed and handed Bruce another suit, one that needed to be spray painted black first. Bruce showed Lucius the depleted gadgets and he got new ones of those as well. He smiled as he thanked the man, and then walked out of the building, satisfied. The rest of the day had been spent up, listening to financial advisers telling him how he should be spending his money. And he didn't really want to listen to any of them. He contemplated firing one of them, considering that most of his spent money was focused on weapons that no one knew about. He was driven back to his house (if it could be called that) and he descended back down into his Batcave. He spray painted his armor black, practiced martial arts on a few new testing dummies that he was given, and had gotten used to all of his new gadgets at the time. Throwing bats, slingshot hooks, and the usual gadgets, all that needed some calibrating for his missions. He was all ready as night time had risen on the city. Bruce smiled as he put on his armor, placing the mask over his face. "Have a good night Alfred." He replied in the raspy and almost unrecognizable voice that he used for his persona.

He jumped into his Batmobile and then drove out of the house, turning on stealth mode as he did so. He silently drove around the city, undetectable by any radar or other cars. But when he noticed a particular amount of cop cars gathering around a certain alleyway, he had parked the Batmobile around a corner that was a few blocks away, and he began his work.

He pulled his grappling hook out of his belt and shot it into the fire escape on the side of one of these buildings and with the press of a button, he had ascended upwards onto the ladder. A few staircases and he was on the rooftop. He looked at the amount of space between the buildings and he then jumped, deploying his memory foam cape and forming the shape of a bat for now, as he flew from one building to the building that was to the right of these supposed murders. A tracking and listening device that he placed on one of the cars (through a silenced gun that he used previously in his Batmobile) had explained what had happened. Apparently these men were taken down by one woman, and one of them was killed as well. That meant to him... no mercy. He saw a woman that was standing on top of a building and he quickly contemplated his way of confronting her without making any noise that would drive her away. In this darkness, he couldn't see anything, so she could have a grenade or a gun with armor piercing rounds for all he knew. But for now, he had to be careful. He disengaged his cape and landed silently on a building right behind her. Batman then felt his fists clench as he looked at this murderer... this woman that killed one of these men and beat up all the others. Whether it was accident or not, a murder was a murder. He would have to talk this woman into turning herself in, despite how much she probably wasn't going to. He engaged his cape again and jumped off his building, landing on the woman's building. "You think that you have any right... to kill?" He asked her, his raspy voice showing off part of the anger that was in it. "You don't have any right... to take the life of another." He had his hand on his belt, just in case he needed to use any of the gadgets. Sleeping powder... throwing bats... ect. "I am going to give you a chance to surrender and be tried under a jury of your peers. Or else..." His blue eyes stared at this woman, the tone of his voice and the anger in his eyes showing these true feelings. Visions of his mother and father dying in the street had played in his head as he looked at this murderer. They always played when he looked at murderers. He hated all of them...

 

[La Vida en su Muerte]

Talia heard the sharp but soft sounds of air moving behind her, and the whipping of fabric. Her breath caught in her throat and she went perfectly still as if somehow hoping that the darkness would simply envelope her and she would become invisible, but she knew it was too late. He had already seen her. His nearly undetectable landing sent a sharp jolt through her body, and she began to breathe again. His voice sent shivers down her spine and memories of him so long ago flooded her mind. She was very well aware what he was capable of and while she wasn’t afraid, she was hesitant.

She wasn’t exactly expecting him, at least not such an obvious confrontation with him. She had expected him to first investigate the scene, which was the only reason why she had stayed to watch. But now that he was right behind her, she didn’t quite know what to do and he was too close for her to run with any hopes of getting away, but, on the other hand, maybe a chase would be fun. A smirk played on her lips but she pushed the idea out of her head. She needed to try to get him to let her walk away.

The irony of his words were laughable and yet enraging all at the same time. Talia had to resist all urges to succumb to either emotion. He couldn’t know why she was here yet. She needed to get under his skin first. She let out a soft sigh, and turned her head ever so slightly to acknowledge his presence, but not enough that he could see her face or the mask she wore, her hair was in the way. A light scoff escaped her before she said anything. “You speak as if you saw it all happen, and as if your justice system works.” Her voice was soft, low and calm. She was also trying her best to hide her accent, but speaking American wasn’t exactly easy. “You and I know very well, that it is nothing but a sham. You are the direct product of that.”

Talia flipped up the collar of her leather jacket, and stepped up onto the raised outer rim of the roof top, slipping her hands in her jacket pockets. She turned to her left, the collar of her jacket still hiding at least half of her face from view, and the mask hid the rest, as she began to walk along the edge. Her head was down, but she wasn't so much watching her step as she was simply trying to keep her face more hidden behind her popped collar. She had no problem with him seeing her face, she was expecting it eventually, but for now, she wanted to be as mysterious as possible. “Besides, I have no peers. Well, none that can’t be manipulated.” She added with a shrug. “Who do you think a jury would believe? The beautiful, seemingly innocent woman? Or some street thugs? Instigated or not, they touched me first and any one of them will tell you that, except the dead one, of course.” She stopped and turned her head just barely, so that she could see him out the corner of her eye. The pictures she had acquired of him did him little justice. Granted most of them were fuzzy chance sightings, still.... After a moment's hesitation she finally turned to face him. She had to see him completely. She stood perfectly still and her voice was deadly serious. “Only you would find me guilty of foul play, but your opinion is skewed and twisted. You are no better than me.”

She shrugged again, her body relaxing. “I have no record. No previous crimes. No reason for anyone to believe that I could be capable of anything…. Except murder as a means to protect myself against 10 dangerous men. I can go to the police. I can make up a tearful story why I ran, and then I would be let go. Why bother waste my time?” A smirk played upon her lips. “You should look me up, though. My information is on the money. I believe you will be pleasantly surprised by what you find. I know a lot about you, I suppose it is only fair.”

She stepped down from the ledge and eyed the fire escape behind Batman, before looking back to him. "I think the most important thing that I should tell you is that, plain and simple, your police nor your government can touch me. In the end, this will be between you and me. You can have at me now, for you are the only one I give permission to touch me, but I ask you don't use your toys. It wouldn't be very fair. Or you can let me go, and hopefully next time you can catch me in the process of doing something naughty."

She began to make her way across the roof, wondering what he would do now....

 

[ABagOVicodin]

Batman's eyes were showing the diligence that was within his character, as his hands remained near his utility belt in case she were to pull anything funny. His baby blue eyes were the only thing that was bringing color to this dark symbol of justice and skewed opinions of right and wrong. She was correct that he was the product of a city that had run out of hope, and managed to luckily get a symbol in time to rely on. But on the other hand, Bruce had done this for a reason. He had become Batman because he wanted to be able to bring all of that hope back, to make the city think that it had a chance for change. And change it did. The city was amazing now, boasting powerful businesses and a lesser crime rate that made Batman start to wonder if he should even be fighting. But at the same time, crime never stops. And it has only been a few years since the days of corruption had been plaguing this city like a poison. From the woman's words, she had the connections to that kind of blackmail, extortion, and blatant lies that he was trying to combat. As his fists clenched slowly out of anger, he let them relax. Just the thought of him bringing her into the jail, would make the anger go away. "I am a product of hope and justice in a city that needs it." Batman replied, in the same growling voice. "I am here to combat misfits like you. Murderers."

Women always had it easier. And when it came to the legal system, it was sad that this was still true. She did have the ability to lie to these cops and get away with murder. And since Batman was unable to take a picture of this kind of crime, he had no evidence. This woman would be cleared instantly, and would be thrown back into a city that is like a playground to her. The thought of two cops taking off her handcuffs and throwing her out into the city with a pat on the head had angered him. All these emotions... boiling up inside of him. He had to control. Had to relax. "I am not better nor worse, for we are all human. But you are a murderer. Under the eyes of the law, you deserve your sentence in jail. A trial. But since you are unable to cooperate with any of those things, it looks like I am going to have to give you what you want." His hand instantly grabbed a throwing bat and threw it at the woman, attempting to have it slice some part of her body. He used that slight distraction to try and gain the upper hand on her, since he knew that this woman was dangerous. If she could kill one and take out 9 more, she had some kind of power with her. For a second, he remembered taking down several prisoners back when he was arrested, but that passed as he moved forward.

He tried to take advantage of any kind of weak spot that he could find. First his forearm attempted to crash into her stomach, followed by an elbow to her face. And he would also slide his elbow to the right, attempting to cut her or her clothing with the spikes that were on the back of his elbow guards. He followed up with a headbutt, a knee to the stomach, a shoulder smash into her shoulder, and then if she was still being uncooperative, he would jump back and use his newly designed Net Gun. This gun shot a folding and collapsible net out of the chamber that fashioned around the first solid object that it hit. Sure she said not to use his toys, but they were not toys, and he was not going to play fair for a murderer. If he missed with this net gun, he would go on the defensive, since she might have a few punches or kicks of her own to display.