Why We're Here

Not Again

Steam engines date back years before the twentieth century."
The professor droned on, his voice in monotone. At least six of the twelve students in his class were asleep. I was nearly one of them, my cheek slowly rolling down my arm. I tried my best to pay attention, but his lecture was so boring, I couldn't handle it.
Finals were in a month, and all of the university was preparing for them. Every single tiny bit of knowledge counted. We had to take notes on everything, because anything could appear on those tests. It was the most stressful time of year. Half the time, I found myself more willing to jump in front of a car than go to class.
"Wake up, Lucy," my friend, Clara, whispered, "You'll miss all the fun."
I chuckled. Clara had become my friend at the beginning of the year. It was her that Barbara kept urging me to ask out. She was a very pretty girl. Her cheeks were rosy against her tan skin, and her eyes always sparkled. She had an undercut through her cinnamon hair. She always seemed to have some sort of dirt beneath her fingernails she always bit, which was oddly more endearing than clean fingers. She always smiled with her crooked teeth, and laughed like a donkey. Somehow, I found that cute.
"Yes, fun," I muttered, "I'd rather be hit with a train."
"A steam engine."
Both of us chuckled. I sat up straight and blinked rapidly in an effort to wake myself up. Even after two extra cups of coffee, I was falling asleep. Clara smiled brightly, "I hope-"
She was interrupted by a loud alarm. It was like the fire alarm, but louder and more urgent. Every single public building in Gotham had this alarm. It meant that the building was under attack by some supervillain or his team.
"You have gotta be kidding me!" I exclaimed.
"Under your desks!" the professor exclaimed, "Don't come out for anything!"
Clara and I dove beneath our desks. My internal monologue was one long string of cuss words. Retirement had not been going well for me. This was the second time I was faced with a fight since I hung up the gloves.
"Lucy," Clara gripped my arm, "What if they come in here?"
I glanced at her, "Don't worry, we'll be fine. There's bigger classes than ours, they would go there first."
"How do you know?"
I didn't have a good answer to that. One can never truly predicate the path of a supervillain. Especially not any here in Gotham. They were random, and deadly.
Logically, if they wanted hostages, they would go for the bigger ones. Then again, littler groups of hostages were easier to keep track of. There is no telling where they would go or what they would do. I didn't even know what villain was attacking.
I heard one student nearby whisper, "Batman'll save us."
I had to stop myself from shaking my head. Batman only worked at night, and that was four hours away. He only ever came out during the day for something important, and a simple university hostage situation was easy for the police to handle.
Batman and Robin weren't coming, and I was the only one who knew.
"We have to call the police," I whispered.
Clara raised an eyebrow, 'What about Batman and Robin? They'll save us."
"Someone has to call them," I replied, "Do you know if the alarms call the police?"
"I don't know, I think so."
Before I could reach my phone, the door to our classroom was kicked down. Six men dressed in all black with large green question marks on the front of their shirts came rushing in. I mentally cursed, they were Riddler's henchmen. He was the most annoying villain of all, with his incessant riddles.
"Everybody up!" the first thug shot his gun in the air, "Against the wall!"
There were a few screams, but everybody obeyed. Clara held onto my arm tightly as we moved. I stood with my eyes darting between each henchman. There would be no death today, even if I had to risk exposing my old identity.
The back wall had a metal pipe used to run water into our classroom. We often did projects with live electricity, so one needed water in case of a fire. The henchmen pushed us all against the wall and began to handcuff us to the pipes one at a time. I was the last in line.
"Wait just a minute," the henchmen who was about to cuff me state,d "Lookie here, boys, it's one of Bruce Wayne's brats."
I sneered. The other henchmen glanced at me and grinned. The first one, presumably the leader, laughed, "Chain her up real good, we'll take her up front to the boss. Get a big ransom out of this one."
"I don't know who you think I am but I am not Bruce Wayne's kid!" I tried, "I am Janice Marie, and I'm from Metropolis."
The henchmen closest to me scoffed, "Sure, and I'm the Queen of England."
He jerked me forward by my shoulder and cuffed my hands behind my back. Grabbing my waist, he flung me over his shoulder. I bounced slightly, groaning.
"Lucy!" Clara exclaimed.
I raised my head, "It's fine, I'll be fine."
"So you think," the henchmen laughed.
The one carrying me left with three others, leaving three guards with my classmates. He began to carry me through the empty halls. The alarms still blared, making it hard to think.
I had a decision to make. Obviously Batman and Robin weren't coming, it was to early in the day, which was relieving. That meant I had to either escape and risk exposing my identity or wait for the cops to handle it. While I had high respect for Commissioner Gordon, the Police were dolts. They didn't know a gun from a twig. There was a very high chance I would be shot before any of them even knew what to do.
The only chance I had to live through this was to fight my way out. Unfortunately, if even one henchmen remembered what I did, my cover would be blown. My death would be assured then, because Bruce would kill me.
That left waiting for Batman and Robin, or Nightwing, which I refused to do. They would never let me hear the end of it, even if they did come. I would be The Damsel forever, and that was not something I wanted.
"At least Dick can't see me now," I mumbled.
The henchmen tightened his grip on my stomach, "What was that?"
"I called you a dick."
"You'll eat those words."
"Kinky."
I earned a slap across the cheeks. Sighing, I shook it off. My dilemma was serious, and it had nothing to do with the fact that these henchmen were taking me to Riddler. Getting out would be easy, getting out without exposing my cover would be harder.
'At least there's no sign of Batman, Robin, or Nightwing,' I thought, 'Then I'd really be screwed.'
Of course, as soon as I thought that, the henchmen's radios buzzed to life.
"Batman and Robin on floor five," the voice over the radio said, "All units proceed to meeting point."
"Shit!" I exclaimed.
This was it, I was done for. As soon as Bruce and Jason saw me, I would forever be known as The Damsel. I refused to let that happen.
Pressing my hands against the henchman's back, I pulled my leg up to smash my foot into his nose. His hold loosened momentarily, giving me enough time to flip off his back.
The two other henchmen came after me. I leapt up, pulling my hands under my legs to where they were handcuffed in front of me. I flipped forward, going into a handstand and kicking either henchman in the nose. They fell unconscious. Once they were down, I turned to the other one.
"Who the hell are you?" he asked.
I smirked, "A pissed off martial artist."
I lunged at him, tripping him. His head slammed on the ground, making him go out cold. When I straightened myself, I spun around to see two figures standing at the end of the hall.
Batman and Robin stared at me. I felt my cheeks flush as I asked, "How long have you two been standing there?"
"Long enough," Batman replied.
Robin snickered. I glared at him.
"Not. One. Word," I pointed at the two of them.
Robin continued to snicker. Batman came forward and pulled a spray bottle from his utility belt. It was his amnesia spray he only used when one of our identities was compromised. When he finished, he came to me with his lock picking kit.
"You could have exposed us," he said in a low voice, "That was a risky move, you should have waited for us to help."
He unlocked my cuffs. As I rubbed my wrists, I sighed, "And be known as The Damsel forever? I don't think so. Besides, I handled it, they wouldn't have remembered in the morning."
"You didn't hit their heads hard enough."
"Like you're inside of their heads."
Batman simply glared at me. Robin peered out from behind his back, "I hope you know I'm never letting this go."
"Shut up," I replied, "Or I'll let you go right over a cliff!"
Robin clamped his mouth shut. The sound of running feet came from the floor above us. Batman glanced up, "Are there hostages?"
"Yeah, my entire class," I bent next to the henchmen who grabbed me to retrieve the cuff keys, "I'll free them while you kick some Riddler ass."
Batman and Robin were gone before I even finished my sentence. I groaned, it always annoyed me when they did that. Sometimes Bruce and Dick did that in the middle of a normal conversation outside of costume. It always made me angry.
I gripped the keys in my fist and rushed down the halls. The alarms had stopped, but that didn't mean the danger was gone. Hopefully, the guards in the classroom had gone. If not, I held one of the henchmen's pistol.
When I arrived, I found the guards had gone, but not without reassurance. All of my classmates were still cuffed to the pole, but something was different. All of them were crying, some even sobbing. On the floor next to the front desk, blood seeped out from under it.
"Lucy!" Clara cried, "The Riddler-he was here! He-he-"
Her sobs cut through her sentence. I rushed to the other side of the desk where the body of the professor rested. Blood still seeped from the hole in his chest. In his hand, a paper was folded.
I gently took the paper from the cold hand of my teacher. Unfolding it, I was met with one of the famous Riddler riddles.
It's created to destroy, it's man made and a man killer, what is this thing that sits in the cellar?
"Shit," I muttered, "Shit. Shit. Shit."
It was a bomb, it had to be. Bombs were built by man to destroy other men. It was the most logical thing for Riddler to have sitting in the cellar.
There had to be a trigger. Generally, villains liked to make it hard for the hero. I had known many a villain who had a particular liking for The Dead Man's Switch.
"Was anyone given a button and told not to lift their finger off of it?" I asked.
Everybody glanced around. Apparently, Riddler did not take the usual villain route. Unless he had another prisoner.
No, he didn't, because they escaped. It dawned on me that he was going to give me the dead man's switch. That's why they had taken me and left the rest of the class. That meant Riddler had to control to detonate the bomb.
Batman would know, Brue always knew. Whether Riddler let it slip, or Bruce figured it out through the process of deduction, he would know. Warning him would do nothing, but getting all these innocent people out would help tremendously.
"Alright, I'm going to let you go, and we're going to get out of here," I began unlocking them, "You have to listen to me and do everything I do."
Clara sniffled, "Where did you learn to do this?"
"My Dad was a cop up in Baltimore," I replied, "I know a few things."
When I had them all free, I ditched the handcuffs on a nearby desk. The pistol remained in my hand as I led the small group through the empty halls. Hopefully I wouldn't have to use it, but it was good insurance just in case.
"Stay quiet," I whispered.
One boy glanced around, "the exit is behind us, where are we going?"
"They'll be guarding all logical exits, so we have to find an illogical way out."
Nobody said anything. I lead them to the emergency stairs where we went up a flight. From there, I took them to the exit to the rooftop. There were several layers of rooftop on this university, and this was the lowest. On my first day here, I scouted out any possible exits and exit strategies.
Old habits die hard.
"What are we doing up here?" the boy asked, "We're trapped!"
I glared at him, "No, we're not. We have a better chance of getting out from here than we would inside."
"How?"
"If you would shut up and listen, I would tell you," I explained, "We're going to get down through the vents."
Everybody looked confused. I headed to the nearby vent shaft, a section which went straight down. Glancing over the edge of the building, I could see that it reached all the way to the ground. The only thing standing between us and it was a sheet of metal with a few loose screws.
I began to unscrew the bolts with the house key on my necklace. By the time I had the sheet off, all of my classmates had gathered around me. I stood to the side, "One at a time, everybody in."
Nobody objected. The annoying boy went in first. I watched him pop out the bottom and roll across the concrete. Next went Clara, the boy caught her. One by one, all eleven of my classmates went through the vent. That left only me.
Just as I was about to go through the vent, the door to the inside popped open. Robin rolled out, followed by six henchmen. Batman was nowhere in sight.
"Robin!" I exclaimed, "There's a bomb in the cellar!"
"We got that, thanks," he leapt up and kicked one bad guy between his legs.
I wanted to dive in and help, but I knew that would compromise both of us. Sucking in a deep breath, I muttered, "Good luck."
Jason didn't hear me. Without looking back, I dove feet-first into the vent. The sound of my body hitting the edges filled my ears. I could feel bruises developing on every inch of my skin. I know it should have hurt, but it gave me a new sense of life. I felt energized.
When I popped out of the bottom of the vents, I landed at Clara's feet. She was a mess of tears, dirt, and blood, though I didn't think it was hers. Most of the other students had already made it to the police.
"L-Lucy," she sobbed, her body shaking.
I leapt up, "It's alright, Clara, you're safe now."
Before I knew what was happening, she had her face buried in my chest and her arms wrapped around me. I was shocked at first, but didn't hesitate in wrapping my arms around her as well.
"Come on," I whispered, "Let's get you home."