Daughter of the Timeless

Gotham City and The Unders: Arrival

I feel vertigo and motion sickness settle in as we arrive in the sparkling city of Gotham. I have only been here three times, and the glistening darkness of it all always fascinates me. As soon as my head and stomach settles, it lurches yet again. It smells awful here.

A mixture of urine, gasoline, oil, smoke and feces permeates the air. Metropolis always smells like summer air, some smog and gas, but never like this. Metropolis is the cleanest city on earth, considering. 

Maybe the pungent smell has something to do with Doyle placing me right in front of a river sewer grate, under a bridge. All the chemicals, flushables, directs down here. The bottom of my feet are slicked with some kind of slime. I shudder.

"Please tell me we don't have to walk through that." I beg pointing at the rusted arched gate. It looks like it hasn't been opened up in over 200 years.

"I'll carry you if it makes it any better." He says. 

He uses his laser vision to super heat the latches holding it in place. With a puff of the most disgusting mist ever, it opens.

"Come, on. We don't have time to waste." He says, kneeling down on the ledge.

I climb on his back, piggy back style. "You all owe me anyways. This wouldn't have happened if y'all hadn't been snooping and causing trouble with my Dad."

"He isn't your Dad anymore." Doyle says lifting himself and I up, bolting forward.

"He will always be my Dad." I say under my breath. 

We are raised into a blur, and in a moment we are so far into the underground labyrinth, my head feels dizzy thinking of the way out, or where further in leads to.

He walks us further down a long tunnel. It opens up into a bright sunlight domed room. The ceiling being a massive grate leading to the world somewhere above in Gotham. All around the room are multiple levels of catwalks and door ways riddling the walls. In the middle is a massive pool of green goo.  Doyle sets me down on my feet, right near the cesspool. 

"Don't fall into that. You will glow and might grow scales or something. Croc likes to bathe in it after a fight."

"Did I hear my name?" A low masculine hiss fills the room. Lumbering through one of two opposite facing doorways placed in the room, a gargantuan lizard human covered in slime shakes the ground as he walks. "Speechless, Barbie doll? Are we?"

"Not here to cause problems, Croc. Just here to get her to Joker." Doyle speaks up with a gulp,  pointing at me.

Great, bring all attention to me. Just fine and dandy. Ruin my life, get me killed in the same night by a shedding slimey human lizard. 

But why is he afraid of the giant lizard? If he has even half of Clark's strength he could take him down in one hit. Powers or not, I think Doyle is just a little boy still. He is barely a year older than I, and I have out matured him which says a whole lot seeing as I am the most immature person on the planet.

"Ah, gotta save the Doll for the clown eh? Alright." He hesitates after he looks away. "I smell the Bat." His eyes narrow in my direction.

"You smell of the alien, Amazon, and the bald one. You even smell of the Bat." He is in my face in seconds, all with a growl.

I don't flinch or move. I just look in the other direction. He stops abruptly. 

"Little Doll has guts. Just like the Bat." He sing songs turning away laughing. 

If my eyes could shoot daggers, I would cut him through into a million pieces. He goes back into the door way he entered through.

"Doyle."