THE WIND BLEW THROUGH my hair as I swung down towards the bank. Right as my feet were almost touching the ground, I pulled the trigger on the grappling gun and reeled the line back in. I landed in a crouch, sinking into the shadows of the alleyway as I inspected the scene unfolding across the street.
At least fifteen police cars had lined up in front of the bank, all officers hidden behind their respective car doors, guns aimed at the front of the bank. To the side, another line of policemen were attempting to hold the crowd and reporters back. My gaze shifted to the middle of the scene where a man in a brown trench coat stood, a megaphone in his right handー Commissioner Gordon.
"Attention," he called, his voice booming down the block, "this is Gotham P.D. You are surrounded. Release the hostages and come out with your hands up."
I rolled my eyes. I honestly couldn't stand that man. He reminded me of Bats, but without the black cape and cool cars. As he continued to bark orders, I realized that this was just a couple of street thugs pulling this off. I was kind of hoping it would be Penguin or someone who actually knows how to have some fun.
I was still contemplating what to do, when a shadow appeared in front of me in the street light. I turned my head up, just in time to jump out of the way as a black mass landed next to me. It ducked into a crouch as I had, and it took me a moment to process who is was before I snickered.
"Heya, Bats. How's it going?" I asked, still looking across the street as I copied him and squatted down next to him.
"What are you doing here."
I slightly shrugged my shoulders. "Heard there was some heist going down, decided to come check it out. Found out it was just some thugs. Still deciding if I should go in or not. You?"
When there was no response, I rolled my eyes.
"Ohh, I get it," I hummed, "this is that 'bat language' thing, right? I've seen you and Robin do this a lot. And.. now I have to guess what you're saying? Okay then. I'm game. Let's see.. hmm.. you're here to stop the heist?"
A pause.
"And they say I'm the detective."
My mouth slightly fell open as I tried to process what he had just said. Did Batmanー the Dark Knight, the Protector of Gotham, the Caped Crusaderー just make a joke?
I didn't have time to question it, when gunshots were heard from inside the building. The crowd of people started to scream, and the chorus of reporters trying to ask questions only got louder. Next thing I know, Bats had already fired a line onto the top of the bank and was gone.
"Hey!" I called as I stumbled to grab my grappling gun from the side of my belt. I followed in suit of the Dark Knight and hooked a line to the top of the bank. I pulled the trigger and suddenly I was off, air billowing through my hair as I soared above the crowd. I heard some gasps and shouts as I reached the top of the roof. I glanced back down for a moment to see some people pointing at me, but there was too much chaos happening at once for the entire crowd to fully notice.
My attention turned back to where Bats had gone, and saw the end of his cape disappear behind one of the metal boxes. I jogged up to catch him. When I caught up, he was crouched down again, staring through the sky roof of the bank.
"Hey!" I whispered, walking over to the opposite side of the window and kneeling down. "Did you just make a joke?"
"Why are you still here?"
I paused, slightly let down that he didn't have a good comeback, but also pondering his question. Why was I still here? I found myself shrugging again. "I told you. I came here to have some fun, but it turns out this was pulled by some random amateur thugs. And so now I'm disappointed and bored."
Neither of us were given another chance to speak as a shrill scream pierced the air. "No! Please, not my daughter!"
I looked back through the window to really examine the situation. There were about eight men surrounding a group of people, who were cowering on the floor with their arms over their heads. A lady was being held back by one of the men, tears pouring down her face as she tried to escape. Across from her, another girl, maybe a couple years younger than me, was being held by another man in black. Her daughter, I assumed.
"Horrifying," I commented. "He's not even holding the gun right!"
I could've sworn a scoff came from the Caped Crusader. I glanced up at him, ignoring the sound and staring at him. "Well?" I asked. "What are you waiting for? Aren't you going to do something?"
"I don't know how many of them there are," his gravely voice answered, barely audible above the sound of the commotion on the ground.
"Boring," I sang, my hand already reaching for a resonance device, a gadget I received from Lex which shatters glass using sound frequencies or something like that. "You're Batman! Why does it matter?"
"I know this is a foreign idea to you," he suddenly snapped, "but you need to have a plan."
"And I know this is a foreign idea to you," I glared, slightly offended by the comment but also trying to distract him from the fact that I was placing the resonance device onto the window, "but sometimes you just need to trust you're skills."
I had finally placed the device, and had a smoke bomb concealed in my other hand. I grinned. "Here, let me show you."
I pressed the button on the side of the device, and it started to rapidly beep. He finally started to catch on, his head darting up and locking eyes with me, a mix of panic and anger written all over his face. I pulled the pin on the smoke bomb, the beeping still getting louder.
"Blackoutー!"
"You only live once, Bats!" I snickered just as there was a loud screech and suddenly the glass beneath us shattered, beginning to fall towards the museum floor. Instinct took over and I didn't waste another second before jumping in with the falling shards, throwing the smoke bomb ahead of me.
I heard the people below scream as the sound of glass hitting the floor met my ears and smoke clouded my senses. On second thought, maybe it would've been a good idea to somehow get the people out of the way so the glass wouldn't, you know, impale them.
Oh well.
Judging by my loose calculations, I think it was about 50 feet from the sky window to the ground. And I had been falling for a few seconds, so the floor should beー
My thoughts were interrupted by the sight of the tile floor not even 15 feet away. I twisted my body like I had done many times before, putting my hands out in front of me. As I was almost at the ground, I used my momentum to tuck myself into a somersault-like roll and let the tension ease out through my body.
I rolled up onto my feet as the gray smoke started to clear. All men in the room had gone silent, but I was greeted with the barrels of theirs guns instead, aimed and ready to fire. I put my hands up in surrender. "Boys, boys! Calm down, it's just me."
"It's Blackout!" one of them called.
"Finally!" another said, relief flooded his voice, "have you all seen the feds out there?"
A man walked up towards the front, who I assumed was the leader. "I've heard about your work. You here to help?"
I smirked. "Not exactly."
The next thing that happened was movie-perfect timing. The smoke behind me had just started to disappear, and I felt a small gust of wind as Bats landed behind me. A smirk was still plastered on my face, my arms crossed as I shifted all of my weight onto my right leg. I watched the leaders eyes trail up, most likely watching him stand up. The room was dead silent, all of the other men's guns still raised, waiting for their leaders' command.
I broke the silence, grinning. "You can surrender now."
"You're working with the Bat now?!" the man in front of me snarled.
"Nah," I said, one hand hovering over my gun, "I was just looking for some fun. So I guess I'll be the one to give you the choice: either just give up now, or do something really stupid. And I would never actually promote violence or anything like that, but please pick option two."
Apparently, one of the men from behind me had his gun cocked, because the next thing I know bullets were flying. On instinct I turned to duck, but didn't have to walk far before a wall of black covered my vision. I slightly started to panic. Was I dead?
Then the wall moved away. I looked up, seeing Bats throwing some of his mini-metal-bat-shaped-things at the thugs. I scoffed as I pulled my gun from its holster and shot one of the guys sneaking up from behind him.
"I could've saved myself, you know!" I sneered as I ducked under a punch from a man.
"Right."
I rolled my eyes. Was it bad that I could just picture the sarcasm in his voice even though it wasn't there?
"Honest!" I grabbed the guys' head and slammed it against my knee. I nearly hissed in pain; I wasn't sure if I just hurt him or me more
I continued to fight, snickering as I dodged kicks and fired shots left and right. I wasn't entirely sure what had happened to Bats, but I'm just going to assume that he was okay because he was, well, you know, Batman. I'm also going to assume that one of these losers called in for back up, because I could've sworn there were not this many guys when I first got here.
I tackled another thug to the ground. And now a follow-up question: how the hell did the backup even get in here? Freakin' Gordon and the GCPD can't do their damn jobs, can they?
Out of the corner of my eye something glittered. I slightly glanced to the right and saw maybe four thugs trying to open a safe. I rolled my eyes. Morons.
I grabbed the arm of the man I was currently fighting (cough, beating, cough) and used my momentum to swing him towards Bats who was off to my left, taking on like, what? Five guys at once?
Well, I'm sure one more wouldn't hurt.
With him out of the way and everyone else distracted by the Dark Knight, I pulled out a smoke bomb and tossed it to the ground as I took off in the direction of the safe. Coughing mixed with the grunts and shots around me as I ran quietly across the floor. I arrived at the safe, finding the four men had busted it open and were rapidly filling up duffel bags to the brim with cash. I leaned against the wall, crossing my arms.
I rose an eyebrow, none of them noticing me yet. "You're all really funny, you know?" I asked, amused, "you honestly think you're going to escape with all of that when Batman is right outside?"
They spun around. I smirked, cracking my knuckles.
Lets have some fun.
Third Person POV
It was safe to say that Bruce was a little more than confused to find Catwoman's partner actually fighting the criminals and not him.
It still didn't take away from the fact that she completely ignored him and proceeded to blow the window and start fighting, throwing any element of surprise he had previously had right out the doorー it just made him slightly less pissed.
But apparently he spoke too soon, when the young femme fatale threw the thug she had been fighting towards him (which was obviously such a good idea, because it wasn't like he was already taking on five men or anything like that) and dashed off in the direction of the safe. Once a criminal, always a criminal, he sneered to himself as he slammed one of his fists into a thugs head.
There was suddenly smoke filling the room, which he could only assume meant she was about to do something incredibly stupid. The gray, misty wall blocked his view of anything happening near the safe, so he turned his attention back to fighting.
He was down to the last two men when suddenly there was a loud crash, and the door of the safe blew open. A single masked thug was running out, a black bag slung over his shoulder and Blackout on his heels, who was shouting profanities that he would've literally taken soap and washed out Dick's mouth for even thinking about.
The fact that she still more or less seemed to be on his side shocked him. He knocked out the last guy as pulled out a batarang, throwing it at the criminals feet. Being too distracted by Blackout, he easily missed the small piece of metal coming towards him and roughly fell to the floor when it hit him, the bag flying out of his arms.
Bruce did a double-check to make sure there were no more men, and when he looked back towards Blackout, he wanted to slap himself on the head. She stood in the middle of a sea of unconscious bodies, a hand on her hip and the duffel bag now slung over her shoulder.
He suddenly had a very strong urge to pull out his kryptonite ring and head to Metropolis in search of a certain reporter. Now he finally saw why she was helping him: he just made it a hundred times easier for her to take what she initially came for.
And Bruce couldn't do anything about it.
A smirk grew on her face as she stepped over a man. "Well, that was a lot more fun than I anticipated, Batsy," she snickered, "maybe this whole 'good guy' thing won't be so bad after all."
She sauntered passed him and towards the door. "I'll leave you to deal with Gordon and Friends. See ya soon, Bats!"
When she disappeared from his sight, he snarled.
He was definitely going to Metropolis.
Brielle's POV
I laughed as I sneaked around the feds with the duffel bag on my back. That was totally awesome! Not only did I get to have some fun, but I got to annoy Bats and got some cash in the process. I take back everything I've previously said: maybe hero-ing was kind of fun. I mean, I probably wouldn't be able to steal large amounts of cash after a fight, but at least I'd get two out of three.
I was currently headed back towards the apartment to get some sleep before I put my official plan into motion tomorrow night. This was a little bit of unscheduled fun, but I did only have six days before I had to be an actual hero, so I better live it to the fullest.
Now, what is my grand plan, you ask? Well, if you've learned anything throughout this story (other than to not try anything I do at home-- stay in school, kids) then you probably have figured out that I'm kind of a "go big or go home" girl. So, for my first act, I will be doing something that nobody should ever do.
I'm going to break into the Batcave.
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OMG NEXT CHAPTER IS GOING TO BE SO MUCH FUN TO WRITE AHDKLDH😝 But anyways, I first want to say thank you all so much for 1k! I honestly never thought I would get this many views, because sometimes I think this book is kinda crappy. I love you all, thanks for reading!
xo Alexa