"How much longer, Selina?"
Catwoman groaned in frustration. "Do you mind, Bird Boy? I'm trying to focus."
She quickly twisted the hairpin, and the padlock sprung off the gate with a satisfying clink.
"There! It's off! Happy now?"
"Finally..." Tim replied with relief. "I felt myself shriveling up and dying over here."
"Didn't Bruce ever teach you patience?"
"That's next week's lesson. Remember, I'm only a level 10 disciple."
Selina rolled her eyes and pushed aside the collapsing metal gate to the museum's library section. Red Robin's remote hacking device made the security cameras and alarms a breeze to disarm. They were in the main hall in less than a minute. The only task left was to track down the library annex and pick the lock on the gate, which Selina could practically do in her sleep. At least she normally could without a restless teenage boy whining in her ear.
"Where the hell do we even start with this?" Selina asked, looking at the endless rows of bookshelves stacked 30 feet tall.
"I've done studies on ancient languages," Tim stated thoughtfully. "But the symbol doesn't look like anything I've seen before. It's not Greek or Egyptian...and if it's an early form of Arabic or Sanskrit then I don't know it yet."
Tim opened the holographic projector on his electronic wrist guard, revealing the image of the symbol.
"The writing is definitely logo-syllabic, that much I can tell," Tim stated.
"Speak English, little bird," Catwoman chided sarcastically.
Tim sighed as he gestured to the writing. "Basically, it's a language in which the symbols can represent sounds or individual words. Egyptian hieroglyphs are the most common example of a dead logo-syllabic language."
Robin bit his lip, deep in thought. "The Asian languages are both ancient and logo-syllabic...but aren't extinct. And I doubt the League of Assasins would write their symbols using languages spoken by over a billion people worldwide. So what other dead language uses logograms?"
After a long pause, his eyes began to sparkle with an idea. "Cuneiform...that's it!"
"Sorry, what?" Selina asked, confused.
"Cuneiform...it's the earliest written language in the world." Tim tapped a few buttons on the keypad and brought up a picture of the Rosetta Stone tablet. "It was developed to record Sumerian writings in Mesopotamia...which was located in modern-day Iraq."
"Not exactly something you learn in grade school here in the States, is it?" Selina joked. "So I guess that means we're headed to the C's section to find some books on Cuneiform."
"It could also be under Mesopotamia in the M's," Tim replied, gesturing to the far end of the hall.
Selina nodded to herself. "Alright, let's split up. We'll cover more ground that way and save ourselves some time. I'll go ahead and take the M's..."
"Or I could take the M's. You know... so you won't have to walk as far," Time remarked, eyeing her heeled thigh boots with a smirk.
Selina put her hands on her hips. "Kid, I've been wearing heels longer than you've been alive. I think I can handle a little walking," she said, starting down the hall.
Tim shrugged. "Suit yourself."
...
YOU ARE READING
Love Under the Hood - A Jason Todd X OC Story
FanfictionScarlett Vesper, an aspiring model who moved to Gotham City to escape her controlling mother, suddenly finds her life in jeopardy when she meets Jason Todd and accidentally becomes a pawn in his deadly game.
