I?: The Girl Who Ran: The Altruism Test- Currently Shelved

{IX: Jim} Angel Rosa

The radio crackled to life, "This is dispatch. We've got a possible hostage situation at the Gotham Bank."

Jim grabbed it off the dash, "This is Gordon and Bullock, we're on it. Send backup."

Harvey, startled out of a nap, yawned, "Possible hostage situation? How does that work? It either is or isn't, there is no possible."

Jim pulled into the road from where they were parked. "Shut up, Harvey."

"Well, somebody's wound up." But to his credit, Harvey didn't talk for the five minutes drive to the Bank. They saw the smoke from a block away. "Oh, s***." Harvey was right. A hundred feet to the left and right of the Bank was a no-man's-land of smashed and parked cars. Firefighters were already there, trying to douse the flames coming from three cars that had crashed into a couple of vans. Jim could hear the wailing of a couple of other police sirens.

Jim parked as close as he could and jumped out, "Come on. You wanna use the bull horn?"

"Sure," was Harvey's response as he started digging around, looking for the horn.

"I'm going in," Jim said as Harvey got out with the device.

Harvey sighed and rubbed his face with his free hand, "I guess I'm not going to be able to persuade you to wait for backup?"

Jim offered him a half smile, "Nope."

Harvey seemed to be wrestling with indecision. "Go, then."

Jim nodded and set off, wading in between empty cars. By now, all of Gotham knew the procedure by heart. If you're in danger, get on the sidewalk and cover your head. He reached the burning vehicles and circled around them. The heat was welcome in the freezing cold that now dominated the air. His head snapped up as gunfire rang out in the Bank. Harvey started yelling into the bullhorn about being surrounded. Jim looked behind him and saw a couple more officers had arrived.

He ran toward the Bank and stopped at the stairs. A body, obviously a scout from the way his corpse was separated from the others, lying in a pool of blood was at the bottom. Jim peered at it for a moment, then looked around, but saw no one. Somebody else had already gotten in the Bank. He left the bodies for someone else to take care of and sprinted up the stone stairs two at a time as he heard the sound of glass shattering. He grabbed the walkie talkie off his belt and reported the corpses and gunfire.

Then people came out of the door in front of Jim. Silence fell over everything, it seemed. He heard the unmistakable shudder of rifles being raised. The people raised their hands in surrender. A little girl with black hair broke away from the others to come up to him. "Stand down! They're the hostages!" A cop yelled.

The little girl tapped his knee. "Yes?" He tried to smile, but it fell as soon as it came.

"Please don't hurt them, Señor Police Officer. They saved us." She stared up at him with such innocence, he couldn't look away. He kneeled to look her in the eye and saw her tutu and unicorn shirt were splattered with blood, but it did not seem to be hers.

"Who?" He asked. So, somebody had gone in.

"La Angel Rosa! And another girl with bright red hair! Like fire! They are nice. They got rid of the bad men, and the fire girl told us to come down because it is safe." Her eyes glittered with excitement.

"Shh, pequeño, stop speaking nonsense! They were just two girls, no Angel Rosa." Her mother came and took her hand, nodding at Jim before pulling the girl away toward the street.

He smiled and directed the rest of them to the street to wait for questioning. He couldn't believe it. The girl was covered in blood and she looked happy. Was that what he would have been like if he'd grown up in Gotham? Just accustomed to ignoring the blood and dirt? Happy to be alive in this hellhole?