Hey everyone, I know it's been a while since I last posted a chapter here. So here is the next installment, like I said I am trying to stay faithful to the original while adding my own flair to the story, I hope you all like it.
The Present
Batman was going over the files of all the guards who had direct interactions with Wonder Woman. There was a select number, and they all seemed to give the exact same reports any time they dealt with her. That right there is a tip off. There's no way they could all be having the exact same experience when dealing with Diana. The Dark Knight thought as he loaded up a side by side view of all the guards in question. If all six of them are in on this, then one of them has to be in charge of what goes on. So, Bruce went through each file, finding that most of them had attended the police academy in Gotham, earned degrees in criminal justice and a few had even been police officers. One stood out to him though as a likely candidate. Lyle Bolton.
Bolton had military background as a Navy Seal, had served on the S.W.A.T team for the GCPD and had been a good soldier in the Insurgency. With all his experience, height and build, Batman was sure this was the man behind any wrong doings at the prison. But I can't go in on that alone. I'll need surveillance footage, and an interview with him to be able to rule him in or out as a suspect. The Dark Knight turned to a different part of the BatComputer and with a few keystrokes had instant access to the surveillance footage of Bell Reve. After a few minutes of searching, he realized the footage for Diana's cell was missing several entries. More than a dozen over the past two months. Scrolling back, Bruce could see it wasn't just Wonder Woman’s cell that was missing footage. So was Cyborg's, Hawkgirl's, Green Lantern's and Bane's as well. As far as he could tell, the system was not experiencing any malfunctions.
This further led the Dark Knight to believe that there was someone tampering with the video archives. So, Bruce got up and went over to one of the walls containing various gadgets. He tapped a few keystrokes on a nearby keypad and a tray slid out of a drawer. It was covered in various transparent contact lenses that were specially designed to transmit images and audio when paired with a mini microphone. Batman calibrated them to the DNA of Diana, Hawkgirl, Green Lantern and Bane. The Dark Knight didn’t bother with any for Cyborg as his cybernetics could be accessed to display any recordings he had.
As the Caped Crusader was making the final preparations for the lenses, Alfred had made his way over to his adopted son, carrying a covered platter. "Has worked escalated so much you're skipping the eye doctor and going straight to corrective lenses, sir?" Hasn't lost his sense of humor at all, that's always a comfort. Bruce thought to himself as he replied in his usual manner, "They're not for me. Something is happening to the inmates at Belle Reve. Security footage is being scrubbed, and they are all too afraid to talk about it." Alfred nodded his head in understanding then. "So, you'll have the place under surveillance without tipping anyone off as to your listening in." Turning from the work station Batman finished putting the contacts in his utility belt. "Exactly, except I'm not quite sure how to get them all dealt out. Some of them won't want to see me at all, let alone let me help them out of this situation."
Even though he didn't say it, Alfred knew there was one person in particular that Bruce was really talking about, but he decided not to press the issue for the time being. The Dark Knight clearly had a lot on his mind if he was having difficulty finding a way to implement his strategy, and digging into his guarded personal life would not help. "What if they were told it was part of a routine eye examination, the contacts could be placed in then with little to no suspicion." The Batman lit up with exuberance from the offered suggestion. "Alfred, you're brilliant!" The Wayne Family butler looked at his fingers casually as he replied in a dry tone, "Yes, so I've heard." Bruce barely heard him, already at the main computer and moving the dates of the inmates' physicals to what he needed in order to get his plan underway.
Back at Belle Reve, Diana slept in her bed peacefully for the first time since her incarceration. She dreamt of times in a nearly forgotten past, relieving as much happiness she could of her memories with Bruce and the League. Drawing in a desperately needed reserve of strength from them, in case her latest meeting with the Dark Knight was the last bit of positive attention she ever received again. Her slumber came to an abrupt end when the intercom blared in a loud squeal. The voice of Officer Bolton shouted at her, "Blunder Woman! Wake your ass up, inspection time!" It took a moment for the Amazon to shake off the night's sleep, the scratchy wool blanket still tucked up under her arms as the door slid open. Bolton and his guards filed in, moving quickly to surround her, with one guard grabbing her hair by the back of her head and yanking the former Leaguer to her feet.
Feeling her inner strength returning somewhat, Diana broke the hold the guard had with a wheeled motion of her hand and forced the guard back with a step with a follow up shove. A small sneer crept its way across Diana's lips as she felt the surge of satisfaction of the man's surprise and the success of defending herself, but it was wiped away in an instant as Bolton retaliated. He punched her in the back of the head with such force it sent her face first into the linoleum floor. "You musta forgot the rules around here, your highness, to be screwing off like that." Diana began to pick herself up, until Bolton forced her back down as he stomped his foot into her shoulders. "I can see you have got some fight back in you, can it be because you got to talk to the Bat the other day?" The Amazon slowly began to push herself up off the floor, her muscles screaming in protest.
Bolton growled at this and tried to force his heel into the prisoner's shoulders more and send her back to the ground. "You better start being smart and talking when you're talked to." The former member of the Justice League ignored the comment, and after a second more she let all of the weight on her left side go, using the momentum of her oppressor to help roll her out from under him. As she did so, Diana snapped a kick at the back of the man's knee. Before the large man's back hit the floor, Diana was on her feet and punched him hard in the gut. Grinning with satisfaction as she hears all the air forced out of his lungs in an explosive cough, the Princess of the Amazons readied herself for the next combatant, but the guards just stood there. They held themselves in a defensive posture, but they made no move towards her.
Bolton got up to his knees, a dangerous glare in his eyes as he stared at his attacker. Once she turned back to face him, he finished picking himself up from the floor and stood up to his full height. A short time ago, Diana would have felt fear of this man who stood a full head length higher than her. Now, she felt exhilarated, she had defended herself and showed that she wasn't just some prisoner to be pushed around. Before her thoughts could continue to bolster her ego and self esteem, her jailer spoke then in a quiet and measured tone. "My mother hits harder than that. " Flustered by that statement, Diana asked in an incredulous tone. "What?" Bolton gave a one shoulder shrug. "I didn't stutter. I know you're slowing down nowadays so I'll break it down for you."
He got close to Diana, so much she could practically smell his cheap aftershave as he said. "My mother. Hits harder. Than that." After he finished talking he grabbed a fist full of her hair in the span of a breath and yanked so their foreheads ground together. "If there wasn't a damn physical for the inmates here today, I would take my time re-educating you on who is in charge here." Diana tried to free herself from his grasp, but he simply pulled harder, grinding their heads painfully as he said in a rage. "We are not finished here, believe that you pathetic washed out bitch. You're gonna pay the toll for this little outburst here today." Bolton flicked the hand that held her hair back, his dark eyes tracking her movements as she stumbled back and into the arms of one of his subordinates. The guard entwined his arms with hers and held her in place.
Diana struggled for a moment before her captor hissed at her. "Knock it off. Play ball or my partner's cooked. Understand?" She recognized the man's voice from before and knew who he referred to. Instantly the fire that had begun to build in the warrior fizzled out, leaving the Princess feeling cold and empty. Bolton smoothed out his uniform and straightened his tie before eyeing the Amazon up and down. Satisfied that she was compliant, he made his way to the door to open but turned quickly to say in a threatening tone. "We're gonna keep quiet about this little scuffle today. Along with any other thing that's on your mind. If you play nice we can forget about today. We all want that, don't we.. Wonder Woman?" The way he said her honorific made her skin crawl, but the former League member just shook her head in agreement and allowed herself to be led to the infirmary.
The doctors examining all the inmates had round the clock security to ensure that no one could hope to escape. As Wonder Woman waited in a room for the next available doctor, several guards down the hall began to shout for help as one of the other inmates tried to escape. Bolton and several other guards left the room immediately to assist, leaving Diana with only two guards, one of which was the guard who spoke to her earlier. The Amazon placed a hand on the man's bicep, startling him for a moment until she held up her hands in a gesture of peace, then proceeded to find out what he was talking about. "You said your partner would "be cooked." I take it that figure of speech means she is in trouble?" The guard tried to shrug it off as he said brusquely, "Shut up about that will ya? You're gonna get us all fucked up if you keep yapping bout that."
The Princess of Themyscera would not take this as the answer, knowing another woman was in danger. "Is she in physical danger, or is it about her place here?" The distress was clear on the man's face as he moved her out of his way as she spoke, his other hand held up in frustration. Whether it was from Diana still trying to push the issue or if what she was saying was hitting home, the Amazon couldn't tell. Finally he spoke in a low and hurried tone in the hopes that it would solve the matter. "Look, Bolton has her on unpaid leave and two guys watching her. At her house, the store. Her kids school. This guy is psycho and I don't know what he'll do to any of us. If there's any kind of hero left in you, you'll do what he says when he says it, serve yer time and get the hell out of here."
Diana had to clench her jaw shut in quiet anger, and in the nick of time as Bolton and the other guards filed back into the room, with a female doctor in tow. "Let's make this quick, there's only a few more after Wonderbread here. The sooner we get these freaks back in their cells and under control the better." The lead guard said, cracking the knuckles of his hands in anticipation of what might come. The doctor wheeled a tray up to the examination table in the room and then put up an eye chart. Attached to tray was a mobile phoropter, and an eye chart lay in a tray on the cart. The doctor set up the eye chart, then turned to the guards and said in a Welsh accent, "You lads can leave us alone now. This won't take long. " To which Bolton scoffed at the idea as he retorted, "And leave Blunder Woman over here with the perfect opportunity to escape? Sorry Doc, not gonna happen."
The doctor tried to voice her way again, this time with a hint of annoyance. "Look, there are plenty of guards round here that would be able to handle a situation should it arrive. You don't need to be in here, this is an examination not a peep show." The lead guard glowered a response. "We're not gonna leave and give this prisoner any wiggle room to try and escape." The doctor was visibly agitated now, as she tried to remove some of the guards physically herself. Shoving some toward the door as she said in a louder voice. "I am the doctor here, and she is my patient. That means I'm in charge of what goes on right now, not you." A chuckle from behind her prompted the doctor to look back and yell at the guard who laughed. "I'm in charge! Not you!"
Bolton had moved up to the doctor slowly, quietly invading her personal space as she ranted at his subordinate before placing a hand knuckle down on her left shoulder as he said in a modest tone. "Do you feel in charge?" Feeling the weight of his hand on her shoulder and words of his voice creeping up her spine caused the doctor to shiver slightly as she turned her attention back to Bolton. "I'm the doctor here…" The frightened woman began in a small voice but was soon cut off by the lead guard. "And this gives you power over me? Over my men?" He looks around at them quickly before focusing back at the woman in front of him. "You haven't seen what we've seen, been what we've been through. You're not a guard. You're not one of us, so you don't order us around." Bolton's hand found its way into her strawberry blonde hair, stroking it from the back of her head to the nape of her neck. "We keep you safe. We keep all of you safe by guarding these scum. So if we say you're not safe if we leave the room, then you're not safe if we leave the room. Got it?"
The doctor nervously shook her head in response, and tried to turn back to her work, but the guard grabbed a fist full of her hair and held it. It was enough to cause discomfort and bring back her attention to him as he said then in a malevolent tone. "Here's another thing you need to get, what happens in this room stays in it. You don't talk about it with anyone. Ever. We clear Doc?" The doctor nodded her head as best as she could, and when the hand holding her tightened instead of releasing her, she voiced her agreement in a quivering tone and was let go right after. Not even bothering to check herself over, the doctor quickly went to finish the exam. She told Diana to place her head phoropter and began to run through all of the procedures of an eye exam. As it cycled through from one slide to the next, the machine carefully attached the contacts to the Amazon's eyes.
The former League member was so distraught over what was happening she didn't notice this, and as soon as the eye exam was done, the doctor switched to examining the patients ears. To which again the tools the doctor used implanted a miniscule microphone into the ear. Finishing this, the doctor immediately began to pack up stating she was finished. Bolton held out a hand to prevent her from leaving, "Whoa whoa, what's the rush? Thought this was supposed to be a physical? Don't you need to be checking this broad over?" The doctor shook her head emphatically in disagreement as she replied. "No, I can see that the patient is physically healthy and not complaining of any pain or discomfort. Should that change she can be brought to the infirmary. I'll write up her charts accordingly for today, don't worry." Hearing this, Bolton smiled and let her pass, his grin widening as he looked back at Diana. "Guess we can count on her giving you clean bills of health from now on, eh?"
Diana shivered at the implications of that statement, and Bolton laughed. "Hey, this is a good thing! You really lucked out today, not only did this go smooth it also panned out well for things going forward. Now you know who's really in charge here. You won't go breaking no rules now, right?" The Princess of Themyscera cast her gaze to the floor in despondence and nodded her agreement. "Time to get back to your quarters, m'lady. Let's go boys." The guards formed around their prisoner and they made their way back to her cell, and with each step Diana felt the oppressive weight of the prison bare down on her, threatening to crush her spirit completely. She didn't even notice that they had arrived at her cell, only coming to the realization after the cell door closed. The once proud warrior fell to her knees at her bed and wept, her quite tears falling like drops of rain on the wool blanket.
And that's where I'm going to stop for now. I do not condone violence or mistreatment of women. This is a work of fiction, I'm only trying to write a villainous character and create a story I hope you all will enjoy. Let me know what you think in the comments below.