Chapter 3

Tanya

Is there something in the water of Gotham? It was a question I was really starting to wonder, as I looked up at the TV. The most recent news report on tonight's activities, had me shaking my head. It was rather insane.

Some man claimed that he had time-controlling powers, had apparently drawn clock hands onto his glasses, and had gotten into a fistfight with the mysterious vigilante on a clock tower that he had been holding hostage… for some reason.

The details were not being made exactly clear about why he was holding it hostage, what his master plan was, or if he even had these time-controlling powers. All I could really determine from the information given was that it was absolutely insane that a man thought he had time-controlling powers, drew clock hands on his glasses, and got into a fistfight with Batman.

Like, what was even the point? If you have time-controlling powers, why would you let Batman get that close to you? It's absolute insanity.

Which is why I was starting to wonder if there was something in the water that was slowly driving us all insane. Maybe I should have it tested for lead poisoning, but I don't have that kind of funding to find out. I would definitely be buying a water filter, in the future. Though that probably would explain some of the insanity I've seen over the last few years. Why would people be dressing up as vigilantes or criminals and going out there committing crimes unless they had a little bit of brain rot, perhaps a bit of Swiss cheese up there as well?

Shaking my head, I looked away from the TV screen on the train and looked out the window, watching the city go by. It was evening, and I was returning from my time at Wayne Manor. Night was soon to be upon us, and though I was going through a nicer part of town thanks to the new route I used, I could still see the bad parts of town and wondered how this city allowed such things to occur. Was it just uninterested in creating a better environment?

Perhaps it wasn't that it was uninterested in creating a better environment, but an interest in creating the right kind of environment. There were always rumors I'd seen that organized crime had a lot of control over the city. Perhaps organized crime saw the benefit of having these bad areas of town, areas they had total control over, areas that would produce new recruits to their organizations because the situation was desperate enough in those areas that those recruits would have very few job opportunities.

It was not outside the realm of possibility. My first life had a similar issue when it came to Japan and crime families. The yakuza, oh sure, now they get a lot of romanticization, but that's due to basically a decade or two separation from when it got really bad, when the crime families went after each other with a little bit more gusto than people were used to and exposed their problems.

Not to say those problems were never there; they just were very good at keeping them under wraps before things got to the point where the Japanese government decided to deal with them.

Probably a similar situation here. The mobs keep the worst of the problems under wraps, and the government ignores it. But obviously, it's been getting worse and worse as the years went on, to the point that the government just ignores the worst problems as well.

They were doing a good job of legitimizing the need for vigilantes with stupid moves like that. That's really the only thing I could say on the matter. Well, I can probably see a bit more on the failures of society that would allow such a situation to develop, but what was the point? I had no control over the city's incompetence. I just had to survive it, which I think I was doing a pretty good job of. Although I could really use a better job than being a personal maid to the Wayne estate. At least I have a chance to actually look into the possibility of getting a job at Wayne Industries.

Conversations had been short, but Bruce had actually agreed that if I wished to do a little bit more work for Wayne Industries, he'd look into the option of finding me a job there. So things were looking up a little for me.

Not to mention, I'd be making a much better mint and be able to move from the apartment I currently had to something perhaps a little bit closer to the nice parts of town and closer to the roads I would need to get to my job. Now all it took to improve my life was some hard work and dedication. Well, if there was one thing I was known for, it was hard work and dedication.

Give me time, and I'll rebuild society. Though I'd rather not do that; I'd rather just work within the confines of the society I'm in. So give me time, and I'll make a good life for myself. And that's exactly what I'm going to do with this life: enjoy it, make sure I can retire in peace and comfort, far, far away from these criminals, with any luck.

Looking out the window again, I saw a part of the city's lights turn green, which was not good. That was a sign that that Riddler fellow had made another attack on the city's infrastructure. It seemed to be getting more common and often, and the police really needed to do something to put an end to that. The situation was going to develop into a nightmare.

Anyway, the hospital losing its infrastructure capabilities showed exactly how big of a nightmare that could be, and that's what I preferred not to happen. Hopefully, the situation will be resolved soon. I did feel like it was taking forever for the cops to solve the crimes of this riddle maniac.

My thoughts were interrupted as the train immediately shuddered, and everyone was flung towards the front as conductor tried to attempted to do an emergency stop in the middle of nowhere for some gosh darn reason. Holding on to the pole next to me for dear life, I wondered what possessed the driver to stop in such a way. But as the train came to a stop, I was allowed to finally get a look. I thought I saw some sort of coppery thing blocking the way. Shaking my head, I got up and popped the window open, popping my head out to look at the front of the train and seeing a giant penny sitting on the rails. Abraham Lincoln was looking down from the memorial at the train, and I was forced to tilt my head in confusion.

"Wow, that was a lot more effective than I thought it would be," came a voice to my left. So, I chanced my head to look down the tracks. The tracks did not have much room along the edges, as it was primarily meant for train traffic. However, it became level with a building to my left where a group of individuals were standing: three goon types, their faces hidden behind handkerchiefs, wearing white hats, and a third individual who didn't seem to care about hiding his face and looked like the stereotypical wise guy from the 50s and 60s, sharply dressed with a pinstripe suit, and a rather pale woman with her own sharply dressed clothing, wearing a yellow shirt under a brown vest and brown pants, having black hair and a notable yellow stripe in it.

"Daraheim," the man said, looking at the woman. "You've outdone yourself again."

"You needed something flashy, sir. I made you something flashy," she indicated the giant penny before saying, "Shall we get to work now?" gesturing toward the train.

"That we shall, that we shall," the man said, jumping up onto the tracks and then pulling the door open, stepping into the train car behind the car I was in.

"What's going on?" a woman asked from across from me.

I turned, saying, "I think we're being robbed, like the old west."

She raised an eyebrow before saying, "It's a train robbery. Why, I sure haven't seen one."

Though the answer was soon coming, as the sharply dressed man and his female assistant opened the door from the car behind ours, stepping onto the train, saying, "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I hope you don't mind. I'm just here to pick up that penny out the front, you know how it is. Pick up a penny on heads, get a lucky day; pick up the penny on tails, actually you're not supposed to pick up a penny on tails, and that one is on tails. I guess I won't be picking it up, but I will be picking up some other things, like all your money. Please do me a favor and drop everything of worth in my compatriot's burlap sack," he said, indicating the female who was holding out the aforementioned burlap sack.

"You've got to be kidding. Who even does this?" the woman across from me said, drawing the notice of the individual who'd entered the car.

He smiled, the most wise guy's smile I think I'd ever seen, as he said, "Why, the Penny Plunderer does this."

"Penny Plunderer?" someone else asked. "Why are you after the most useless piece of coinage in the world?"

Said smile turned to a frown before he said, "Daraheim, show the band why I'm after the most useless piece of coinage in the world."

The woman stepped forward to the man, putting her hand on her belt, revealing what appeared to be some sort of roll of coins. She released one and held it up like a magic trick, made it disappear; nothing happened after that except the man toppling over, mumbling and incoherent confusion and unable to move.

There were screams of confusion as he started convulsing before he stopped moving entirely.

"Little much, Daraheim. I didn't mean to kill him," the Penny Plunderer said, looking down at the body.

"Perhaps you did not, Mr. Plunderer, but it serves as an effective reminder to keep control over the crowd," plus she leaned over and pulled up his coat, revealing he was a police officer of some standing, as he had a gun hidden underneath said coat.

"It's a member of the transit authority, one of their ride-alongs, most likely because of the money they're transferring in the back of the train.

"There's a reason I hired you; you're better at this than me when it comes to spotting the cops," he said before nodding, adding, "Remind me to give you a little bit of a raise when we get out of here." Oh, that's right; he turned back to the crowd. "I'm not just here for your pennies. Well, I'm here for a penny, a penny worth; you catch my drift?" he chuckled, looking through the group before his eyes caught me. "You see, amongst your many, many people here is someone named Tanya Pennyworth, niece of Alfred Pennyworth, Butler of one Bruce Wayne, a man so damn loaded he's got himself a mansion in the woods. She's also, from what my research indicates, a maid," he said, walking in my general direction, looking at me as I was wearing a rather prominent maid uniform.

"You wouldn't happen to know anything about that now, would you?" he said, looking down at me with a smile that said there was really no way out of this.

Smiling, I decided to play a little bit of a game and see if I could get out of this. "I don't know what you're talking about, good sir. My name is not Tanya; it's Tasha," putting on my best German accent, which was pretty damn good for my first life's reincarnation.

The Penny Plunderer looked to his compatriot. She looked at him before saying, "She matches the description in all other ways, and to be fair, Tasha is not very far off from Tanya."

He nodded before saying, "All right then, bag her."

"What?" I asked as his female compatriot closed the bag full of all the money she had gathered from the train and pulled out another larger burlap sack and with a fluid motion brought it over my head and down my back, lifting me up and dropping me over her shoulder, head first into the sack, which was immediately closed.

I was left rather stunned by being thrown into a burlap sack that way, and two, she had to be extremely strong to just do that, to lift someone who was about her own weight completely without any trouble out of her seat and into a sack in a matter of seconds, well, that indicated some rather mysterious powers beyond whatever she had done with that coin a moment ago.

I attempted to get as comfortable as I could within the sack as I heard him and the woman speaking. As he said, "Very flashy, my dear."

"It's what I do?" she said matter-of-factly as I heard the sack closing tighter, leaving me trapped inside.

"Frankly, if you let me use a little bit of spellcraft, we could have cut down on her weight quite a bit."

"I know, I know, but you know how it is; do things outside the norm and you get people getting a little bit antsy. Don't need the Batman poking around just because we turned a girl into a coin for a 24-hour period."

"Hmm, unfortunate. All right." I felt another crash into my head, obviously the first one full of coins and wallets and other valuables as Ms. Daraheim prepared to leave this train, I assumed, and I felt us walking in a general direction that indicated that.

"Well, ladies and gentlemen, you have survived the attack of the Penny Plunderer. Now, do yourselves a favor and pretend that no such attack ever happened."

"What about the giant coin in front of the train?" someone called.

"No worries, no worries; my associates and I will move it out of the way," the Penny Plunderer said as he shut the door. A few moments later, I felt myself leaned onto something a lot more solid than the train, probably the building next to the train, indicating that my attempts to escape were going to be very limited for the next few hours. I guess, oh well, Mr. Wayne had a lot of money to pay whatever this man was demanding, I think.

Hello. I prefer not to have that put into my mind. Now that I think about it, after all, I'd probably have to work off said debt even if he didn't outright say it. Yes, I definitely prefer to escape by myself if possible, just to avoid accruing such a lifelong debt that I'd be trapped as a maid for all of my youthful years and into my elderly years as well.

"All right, Miss Darāhim, remove the coin."

"How do you want it removed, flashy or not?"

"As flashy as you can make it."

With a snap of a finger and what sounded like a coin flying through the air, hitting something metal, and then an explosion.

"Hot damn, now ain't that a pretty sight. You blew the railroad tracks to smithereens," the Penny Plunderer said, which got a confirmed nod, I think, from the woman.

"The front of the train's pretty roughed up too. They'll probably think there was some sort of terrorist attack and explosion from The Riddler, and if there's no result, it'll give us time to move as far as possible before putting as much distance between this incident and us before the Bat comes poking around."

"Good point, good point, Miss Darāhim. Let's get moving," he said, and I felt us starting to move again, probably down to a nearby roof, then to stairs, and probably from there to a car that would take us far, far away from the literal attack on a train I had just been subjected to. What an annoying situation. I need to find a way out of this fast before something horrible happens to me.

Reaching around, I found my purse, which they hadn't taken from me, and opened it, looking for something useful and quickly finding it. If I was going to escape this, I'd do whatever I needed to do. So, I just had to hope they'd let me out of the damn sack first, because otherwise, I'd probably just blind myself with pepper spray.

I need to get a gun, a proper weapon for this sort of situation. The city is going to hell in a handbasket, and it's going to be run by weirdos like Mr. Penny Plunderer at the rate it's going. People with weird, fantasized gimmicks. Just be normal. Couldn't this city just be normal for ten full days, please? I beg the universe, wishing for life to just listen. Hopefully, whatever place I'd be held in, they have at least clean water. I don't want to end up as crazed as these two because I was force-fed whatever lead-poisoned water they were drinking.

I was about to try and ask a question when I was swung off a shoulder into the back of a car without a sound, hitting the trunk floor hard. Before I could really make any comments asking what the hell was going on, where we were going, that sort of thing, the trunk door slammed shut directly on my head, causing me to hit it hard and collapse flat in the trunk, barely conscious as the vehicle started up and began driving away.

How long I was held captive in the back of the car, I wasn't really sure. Being rendered semi-conscious by the head injury didn't exactly help with keeping track of time. The next thing I really knew was being pulled out of the bag and dumped onto a cement floor, holding onto my purse and looking up to see that Miss Darāhim was looking over me with a casual eye before saying, "Stay in this room, don't cause trouble, and this should be rather light for you," before shutting a very heavy steel door to what amounted to a cement box.

Carefully, I got up, checking that I hadn't lost anything in the ordeal and then I still had my purse. Once all that was confirmed, I pulled out the tools I would need to get out of this.

This was not a great situation. And any way I looked at it, I had to deal with five threats: three goons who were probably on security duty, one head of the party, Mr. Penny Plunderer, a man who appeared to be just very good at organizing petty crimes, and his magician girlfriend with apparently the ability to lodge a penny in a person's brain. How she acquired such an ability, I didn't know, but I didn't want to have the penny in my brain. She was most likely target number one and a person I needed to defeat as quickly as possible. I couldn't let her get her hands on her weapons and put a copper coin in my brain, shutting me down and putting me down into the next reincarnation, if I was lucky enough to get it.

In order for me to escape, she probably had to die first. Everyone else could be severely injured, but she needed to be out cold or dead. It was that simple, which wouldn't be that hard. Pulling myself together, I quickly checked my knife and pepper spray, still there, and checked the room carefully to make sure that there were no cameras. Really, it was just a cement box from what I could tell. Possibly once used as some sort of cooling unit based on some holes in the wall to the upper left. Perhaps this was some sort of broken restaurant, slowly being decomposed and scavenged for parts on the outskirts of town. That would make some sense, but there was no way to know for sure until I got out. How I was going to get out, well, that really became a problem.

Oh, what was inside here was a chair sitting in the exact center of the room with what appeared to be handcuffs to the railings of the chair, indicating that I would probably be handcuffed there soon enough and probably filmed to send a letter to my uncle asking for money. Not exactly something I was going to let happen. So, I did a closer inspection and found that the chair was not bolted down, nor anything of that nature. These guys were not very good at their job, were they, I realized, or they didn't think I was that much of a threat. I would have to make it quite clear that they were wrong.

Taking a seat in the chair, I waited, closing my eyes and just trying to recover from the head injury, waiting and listening for any movement. It took a while, but finally, I heard footsteps approaching, two pairs. Who would that be, I wondered, carefully arranging the knife in one hand and the pepper spray in the other?

I said comfortably, only opening my eyes when the door was opened and I saw two of the goons step forward.

"All right, kid," one of them said, "We got your uncle on the phone, and we need you to say you're alive. Make no problems, and this will be over."

They approached, offering a hand for me to take to get up. Looking at it, I asked out of curiosity, "How much money are you demanding?"

They looked at each other before saying, "A couple of hundred thousand."

I raised an eyebrow before saying, "Really, that much? That seems a bit low."

They looked at each other again, confused. That shared look went on a little too long for them though, as I pulled out the pepper spray and aimed it at their faces. One spray later and they were both screaming in pain, and I was up. I moved past them quickly and slammed the door shut, locking it in place, which got rid of two out of my five problems. Well, I temporarily got rid of two. The other three could free these two if I wasn't careful.

What was the best way to make sure that they didn't get free, I thought quickly. Checking, I found nothing around to help in that area, so the best option was just to keep moving and running as quickly as possible.

Running around like a chicken with my head cut off wouldn't do me any good, so I quickly had to establish where I was. Left, right, left, and I found my next identical marking of what I guessed was a kitchen. It was correct, obviously abandoned for some time. Creeping forward, I looked around the corner and found that it was a bit more problematic than just a kitchen, though. There was a gate in front of a wide-open area, and through said gate would appear to be a covered, open area, a ball in an abandoned mall. Where the hell is that, I thought, or not? Then again, there are many abandoned malls throughout Gotham, so there was no way for me to know exactly which one I was being held hostage in. I did know, though, from where I was standing, I could see Miss Darāhim, the Penny Plunderer, and the third guard stepping back into the kitchen. I quickly searched through the shelves and found a few more knives and strapped them to myself to defend myself. After all, I needed to be prepared to do what was necessary.

As I turned the corner, though, I noticed something that might make this a little bit easier. Leaning over, I checked the gas lines and turned them on full, smelling the air to confirm. The mall may be abandoned, but it seemed no one had ever gotten rid of the gas lines. This could be useful. How? I didn't know, but the threat of an explosion was a powerful tool, especially against someone who used explosives as Miss Darāhim did. Exploding that penny indicated even if it was some sort of magical explosion. Secondary explosions were possible with gas in the air, which would nullify her field of use on those weapons. But I needed something else to countermanage her other abilities, though.

"Hey, where's the other guys? They should be back with our hostage by now," Mr. Wise Guy, the Penny Plunderer, commented, which got a comment from his Darāhim.

"I don't know, maybe there's something wrong," I overheard, looking over the edge of the counter. I saw her getting up, obviously coming to check. This was my chance to do something, I figured. So, I slipped behind a doorway and waited for her to come by, grasping two knives.

Holding my breath, I waited till the woman passed me by, then jumped out, shoving two knives from either side into her neck and turning as hard as I could. What I did not expect was the sound of metal on metal nor the creak sound of plastic armor. Later, the head popped off, spewing multicolored liquid everywhere.

It had bounced on the ground as the body fell. I blinked in utter confusion for a moment before realizing it must have been a mechanical head.

"That was unnecessary, violent, but I will admit, very flashy for a death," before the head closed its eyes, and I think, "died," even. Obviously a machine, I saw now, looking into what must have been mechanical works. Though for Gotham 6, looking down the neck, I could see mechanical gears that looked like they belonged in a steampunk machine, clicking to a slow stop.

"What the hell was that?" I found myself looking at the dead thing and hoping whatever this liquid that was spilled all over me was not some sort of contaminated insanity juice.

Taking a breath, I leaned down and rolled the body over, now noticing the slight oddities about the body that could be used to indicate it was a machine. The neck was a freaking ball joint, in fact, a lot of the limbs seemed to be on some sort of ball joint, more of a doll than machine actually. I shivered at the thought that whatever had made this and hoped to all that was good in the economy that I never ran into what it made. A quick check though also determined that there were no firearms on the body, which was unfortunate.

"Could be useful," I thought as I stood up straight, looking back towards the area where Mr. Penny Plunderer and his last remaining goon were sitting on a couch in front of a TV.

"How was I going to get past them?" I thought, before the glass above them shattered and a dark figure fell through, landing in between them.

"Oh, fuck, Batman," the Penny Plunderer said, reaching for a firearm, only to get smashed in the face by a fast-moving fist that rolled him out of the chair onto the ground. The other goon reached for his weapon, only to get kicked so hard he went flying into a nearby tree.

Batman then focused on the Penny Plunderer, grabbing the man by his wrist and pulling him up quickly, tying him up, and then tossing him back down, then moving over to the other goon and doing the same.

He came back to the Penny Plunderer and grabbed him, saying, "Where's Tanya Pennyworth?"

"Don't know what you're talking about, Batman. I'm just a humble individual making his way in the world, and you just beat the hell out of us for no reason."

"Don't lie to me, Penny. I'm aware of your new agent's murderous tendency, and I wasn't very happy to learn you are working with a murderer. Now, the cops aren't going to be happy to learn that either. Now, where is your new agent and where is Tanya Pennyworth?"

"Well, why don't we ask her, hey, Blake? Blake, do you know any Tanya?" he said, calling in my direction, probably assuming that Darāhim was not missing her head.

Reaching down, I grabbed it before throwing it into the central area, getting a confused look from the Penny Plunderer and the Batman.

"Miss Darāhim is no longer able to help you," I called as I stepped out, covered in the strange multi-colored mechanical blood of the homicidal doll.

"Holy fuck, she was a robot," the Penny Plunderer said before looking at Batman and saying, "Well, that explains everything. I mean, you can't hold me responsible for a rampant AI, can you?"

Batman punched him out cold before turning towards me and saying, "Miss Pennyworth, are you all right?"

"Been better," I said, stepping forward and dropping the knives on the ground as I came through. "I thought you were dealing with something to do with the Riddler. I saw lights turned green in the city."

Batman tilted his head before saying, "I've already taken care of the Riddler."

"Huh, impressive, him and Clock King in one night," I said before looking at him and saying, "Any chance you can give me a ride back to the city? I have no idea where I am."

He smiled before saying, "I'm afraid we'll have to wait for the police to arrive so that you can give a statement on what happened here. Though I will say, you were well on your way to getting yourself out, so what would you have done if you hadn't figured out that Miss Darāhim was a robot?"

"Figured that out when I cut off her head." I said, taking a seat on the couch, "Just got lucky there. "

The Batman made a disapproving noise, but I wasn't exactly going to start an argument with him over that. I'd survived, and that was important. Hopefully, I could avoid any more craziness in the future.