ʀᴇᴄʟᴜsᴇ! homesick

CH 9 PT 2: The Riddler

This is why I hate going to galas.

In these situations, I would love to a be a guy, because those superheroes could just rip off their tuxedos to reveal their suits underneath pull out a mask, and BAM! They were ready to fight crime.

Women, on the other hand, could not choose functionality over looks most of the time. Definitely not as easily as men could, so it fled my mind that I could actually need to bring my supersuit with me. I was definitely regretting my decision now, as the Riddler's goons were rounding up people as they tried to escape, I hid in the shadows.

Batman was nowhere in sight. Neither was Nightwing, Red Robin, or Robin himself.

I tried to slip past the back entrance, so there was one last person to worry about, but I was caught by several of the Riddler's goons, making a last sweep to pick up the stragglers. I didn't even hear them coming, or sense them. Where was my spidey-sense when I most needed it? Was I losing my touch?

I was forced up into the room where the hostages were being kept, the edge of a gun nudging me in the back. I wasn't stupid enough to try anything to escape and draw attention to myself.

About a hundred people were lined up, dropping everything they considered valued into large bags that the Riddler and his henchmen had gathered. Wallets, money, jewelry all fell into the bags for them to steal.

I was the only Wayne in sight, and I prayed that my new found family would come quickly. I'm placed near the end of the line, and when it's my turn, I place my earrings, my phone, and any other jewelry that I'm wearing. I conveniently forget about my necklace, and I'm hit with a butt of a gun when I do. I roll my eyes, and take it off, pretending to drop it into the bag, while slipping it into my sleeve.

They pass down the line, and I exhale a breath that I had been holding. My eyes are glued to my feet, and my mind wanders, come on where were they?

Footsteps echo across the hall, and a pair of green shoes enter my vision. I look up, and a towering figure stands in front of me, the Riddler, clad in his notorious and unfortunately, iconic question mark costume.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here? The new Wayne... all alone without her family. Tell me girly, where are they?" The Riddler asked, probably wondering where the richest people in the room had conveniently left the room right before he robbed the place.

I look into his eyes, and say, "Obviously you're not as powerful or smart as you think you are, or else you would know, wouldn't you Riddler? They're long gone from here."

His eyes harden, "Oh you think you're smart, don't you?" He pulls me out of the line, and into the center of the room. "You have to answer 3 riddles, and everyone goes free. Every one you get wrong, someone dies." People gasp, their lives are in my hands.

I start panicking, my palms are sweaty, and I feel overheated even though it was about to snow outside. "But-"

"And every minute you waste, more will die in your place. Tick tock little Wayne."

"Parker." I mutter under my breathe. I don't understand why it's so hard to keep my last name straight sometimes.

He smiles, resting his cane in front of him, tapping his fingers in an even rhythm, thinking of a good riddle. "What has neither nails or bones, but has four fingers and a thumb?" He asks.

After a few seconds, I think of the answers. The Riddler motions for one of his henchmen to sim his gun, ready for my failure. It's an older woman, shaking as though she was shivering underneath all her heavy furs.

"Wait, wait, wait, it's a glove." I answer, freaking out that I would cause someone else's death. The Riddler nodded, and the man moved on to the next person in line. A guy my age, actually in my English class. I couldn't look, I couldn't face anybody in the eye if it was my fault again. I don't know if I could live with myself, knowing that I had not been smart enough or kept my mouth shut for once. The riddle however, had been fairly easy, I thought that these were supposed be hard? But there's still no hero's in sight, so I try to delay as long as possible to give them more time.