Prison Tales

The girl sat in the middle of a cylinder. The sides were clear energy, evidenced by the faint thrum of sound and intermittent wavering. The cylinder itself was big enough for the girl to lay down on her side and sleep and there was a tray in front of her with the remnants of a meal.

She merely watched as they were prodded into similar cylinders, her eyes racing over them as if they were the aliens instead of their captors. Her long brown hair was caught into two loose pigtails and she sported a neatly parted set of bangs. She didn't move until their captors left, eyes following their movements to the door.

"So, whatcha in for?" She asked, a large smile cracking her solemn expression.

"Snooping," Lois replied, looking around. "Whatcha in for?"

"I'm a secret weapon," the little girl replied. She giggled. Clearly, the girl wasn't more than eleven or twelve. "What were you snooping about?"

"Trying to figure out why they were using so much electricity," Lois said with a sigh. She regretted agreeing to the 'easy' story Perry had come up with to keep her preoccupied while the Planet was going through their latest renovation.

"My name's Ella, like Cinderella, though my guardian calls me Singerella," Ella said, slurring the last bit just a little.

"They call you Cinderella, eh?" Lois huffed. "Where are they?"

"They're probably looking for me. Everyone treats me like a little sister," Ella said, leaning back on her hands. The movement revealed the tight collar around her neck.

"What's?"

"This?" Ella fingered the edges of the collar. "It's just to keep me here. It's okay. My guardian is gonna find me and they'll all be sorry."

"Or maybe my guardian will find me," Lois half-joked, surreptitiously glancing at her watch.

"Not if you're depending on a signal." Ella sat up. "There's no reception here. That's what the last two people said."

"And where are they?" Lois asked, glancing around at empty cylinders around her and Jimmy.

Ella looked down and shook her head.

"Perhaps your guardian will find you anyways?"

"Not since we're in Gotham," Jimmy muttered behind Lois.

*****

"And this intruder didn't leave any hints other than a map with Gotham highlighted?" Bruce Wayne asked as he massaged the bridge of his nose.

"None, and now Lois is missing. I'm not sure that has anything to do with this, though," Clark replied.

He continued his pacing around Bruce's lair. Bruce eyed him as he made yet another turn.

"And where was Lois the last time anyone saw her?" he finally asked.

"Perry said he assigned her a story about wasted electricity at some warehouse district. I checked the district and nothing." Clark sighed. "There was no sign she'd ever actually been there."

"We can ping her phone," Bruce said. "Or rather, we can see where it last pinged. That should give you a start. Didn't she have some tracking device on her?"

He turned to his massive computer and started working. Screens popped up overhead with information, most of it useless to his current cause.

"That's not working either and it should be." Clark stopped pacing. "That's the other anomaly. Nothing Earth made should be able to stop that device and I can't hear it or locate it at all."

"Well, according to this, she hit the docks a few hours ago. Why the docks makes it interesting," Bruce grinned, pulling on his cowl. "Let's go ask some questions."

*****

"That was gross! That was gross! That was gross!" Dawnie said, dropping the thumb drive in Court's hand and shivering.

"And you still have to put it back," Court muttered, scanning the drive into the laptop sitting on a grimy trash can.

"But at least when this is over, we can go back and chop off his hands and burn them," Lucy said, taking her friend's hands and smiling.

"You're such a bad influence, Luce," Dawnie said with a laugh. Don rolled his eyes, fully aware that Lucy wasn't joking.

"Well, I try, I try," Lucy replied, glancing at Court who chuckled.

"Take it back," Court said, pulling the drive free and handing it over.

Dawnie glared at him for a second before swiping the drive. With a huff, she turned and headed back towards the club. A few seconds later, she was back, eyes wide.

"The Joker's in the club." She glanced at her brother who tossed her an IWA bar. She peeled it and devoured it in seconds. "His goons are turning the place upside down. Something about forgetting their money?"

"Probably forgot to pay protection," Court said, closing the laptop. He shoved it in a bag and handed it off to Don. "To the usual place. We'll catch up."

"Gotcha," Don said, snagging his sister's arm. They both nodded before vanishing into the night.

"And now we need to go." Lucy said.

"You sure? Where he is," Court began.

"I'm sure. Besides wherever there's this much mayhem, you know who'll show up," Lucy said.

"As you wish," Court said, tucking her hand into the crook of his arm. "Y'know," he began conspiratorially, "I know of this little bodega that's got the best tuna melt this side of the dimension."

"Promises, promises."

*****

Lois watched her new friend curiously. Their captors fed them, but the food was vastly different. She and Jimmy had gotten fast food cheeseburgers, still hot but she had a tray with various mysterious substances and threats of violence if she didn't eat certain ones.

She was sure she'd seen the girl squirrel away a few of them, much like a mental patient hiding their pills. Lois couldn't figure out why the analogy seemed so apt.

"They must really like you," Ella said, eyeing their new circumstances.

The aliens had seemed really excited to see Lois' ID. She and Jimmy hadn't realized that they hadn't been confiscated when they first arrived. She still had regrets. If Jimmy hadn't fished his out of his coat's inner pockets, perhaps the aliens wouldn't have noticed for a while.

That had led to an unwelcome change. Now they were separated into their own personal prison cylinders and instead of energy, they were made of glass. Lois wasn't unaware of the sinisterness of it, especially with the multitude of little holes at the top of the cylinder. Ella was unphased by the entire process, though a flash of disquiet had gone through her eyes when the lead alien had announced Lois' name before shuttling her away.

"Y'know…if you answer a riddle, I could probably help you out?" Ella finally said, glancing at the closed door. Her fingers toyed with the collar clasped tight around her throat.

"A riddle?" Jimmy asked, playing along. He was leaning against the glass, his eyes closed. It was clear he was getting a bit despondent over the circumstances, especially since he really had no signal as he'd seen when their captors collected both IDs and phones.

"It's an easy riddle. My friend Dawnie taught me this one; she said it was a definite sure win!" Ella said, climbing to her feet.

"Fine, what's this riddle?"

"Riddle me, riddle me, riddle me three. What's the one thing the princess always will seek?" Ella paused. "That's what they call my guardian but I don't think she's a real princess. None of us are, except maybe Aarti."

"Who's Aarti?" Lois asked.

"She's a friend, especially of my guardian. They argue a lot," Ella said.

"Well, if it's something your guardian is seeking, could it be you?" Lois asked.

"Yes!" Ella said, her face brightening. "You win!"