Chapter 4

Batman

Taking a knee, I looked at the decapitated head that Tanya had tossed into the room, wondering what exactly I was looking at because this was not a human being.

The blood was not really blood; a multi-colored pool of fluids. Carefully, I withdrew a vial and gathered up some of it. I could study it at a later time, trying to figure out where it had come from.

As for the mechanics of the strange machine... wow, could you even call it a machine? I didn't see any gears or wires or anything that looked mechanical or robotic. All I saw inside the neck, as I picked it up, was an empty space, a hollow hole, besides some glowing fluid lighting up the interior, allowing me to see how hollow it was.

"Strange," I said as I turned the head to look at it. I had seen video footage of the attack; I'd just ask for a terrorist attack. As far as I was concerned, this creature had been able to do things that were not normal abilities that fell outside the standard crime seen inside the city.

I'm used to criminals doing normal, even the most radical, insane of my opponents. So far, The Riddler's crimes were carried out through the use of technology and average everyday goons. This... this was something new, and it was concerning.

Turning towards the penny pulling River, I wondered if I would have to do a little bit more interrogation on him when he woke up. After all, somehow he'd gotten his hands on this abnormal goon and made them work for him.

Well, unless, of course, they were a free agent; that was also a possibility. They seemed rather loyal to Penny Plunder, so I would assume, considering their non-human origin, he had someone gather them up or collected them.

However, it was not without the possibility that this was some pre-existing entity that had gone to work for him. But then, who would create it? And if there was one, were there more? Were these entities predisposed to crime, or was this one an outlier? Many questions were running through my mind, and I had no answers. So for now, I simply stood back up and placed the head on the counter, figuring I'd grab it on my way out when the cops were nearby.

Back still turned to Tanya, I whispered into my cowl, "ETA on police arrival?"

"Twenty minutes, good sir. How is my niece?"

Turning so I could see her through one, I said, "She seems fine, a little too fine if you ask me, for someone who just sliced the head off a living being."

"Hmm, she has always been able to deal with situations rather calmly. I think it's just in our nature."

I shook my head before saying, "That may be so, but it isn't good for someone to easily kill another being." My mind flashed back to a similar situation, in a way, how Red Hood had fallen from my high place into a rather digestive acid. Sure, I tried my best to save him. I wasn't exactly the same as going out of your way to snap a person in the neck, but that left a mark on my mind.

"Master Bruce, you must realize not everyone has the same beliefs as you. Tanya's life was put at risk by the creature that kidnapped her, and she responded as necessary to save her own life. She may need therapy in time once the whole trauma of the situation has settled into her psyche, but she may also not. Some people are just capable of dealing with things better than others."

Shaking my head, I turned to side away from tanya. "Maybe, Alfred, maybe. But for now, I think I'm going to poke around and see how Tanya is doing."

Walking forward, I approached my new hire, though she didn't know about that.

"Police should be here within the next twenty minutes, Miss Pennyworth," I started, which got a nod from her as I continued by asking, "Are you harmed in any other way? I know this situation was not something you were expecting today."

She smiled before saying, "I'm fine. In the grand scheme of things, this is not the most terrifying experience I've ever had."

Behind my cowl, my eyebrow raised, wondering what could have been more frightening for someone who'd never been in a combat situation than this.

"I'm going to have to probably spend days cleaning this dress out though," she mused as she looked at where the multicolored blood had spilled on her dress.

"Any idea if that blood is contagious or anything?" she said, looking at the stains as they tie-dyed her uniform.

I shook my head. "Thing is, I'm not familiar with it. Whatever this is, it's new. Something about the way..." I said that apparently got her to chuckle. "...what?" It made me look at her.

"The way you say 'new' sounds like that's a bad thing."

"Anything I don't know about could be a bad thing. I like to be prepared, and I'm used..." which got a nod of approval "...enough."

"Good. I'd like to think that the so-called 'night vigilante,' silent protector of the city, is thinking ahead of his enemies."

She chuckle before saying, "Hello, I guess you're a lot smaller than some of the reports, and also you don't appear to be half-bad."

I chuckled at that before saying, "Our news reports have a tendency to overstate some of my activities and what I look like."

"I can see that," she mused, as she leaned back, shaking her head, saying, "You know, I just got used to the idea that the city has a caped protector running around, and now I have to deal with the fact that apparently, magic is a thing," she shook her head, which was an interesting note to me.

Tilting my head, I said, "Magic? What makes you say this was magic?"

She pointed to the lifeless doll head sitting on the counter. "Dolls don't spontaneously produce multicolored blood and start moving around. They also don't tend to have the ability to create explosive coins. Sure, I could try and say that there might be some scientific things going on here. This could be some sort of nanotechnology run amok. But I'd rather not think that because that would mean I'm covered in nanotechnology, and I do not want to know what happens if that was reality."

She chuckled but in continuing so, "I guess this could be the signs of an alien invasion. It's one or the other, really. This is either science so far ahead of us it appears magic or magic that could appear as science to those who discount magic."

"Hmm, interesting perspective," I mused, considering these possibilities myself, though discounting them rather quickly. I don't know, I've seen some strange things in my life, but I just wasn't going to assume alien invasion or magic out of nowhere. I needed a little something more concrete.

Nanotechnology was a good possibility, although if nanotechnology was responsible for this, I would assume the doll, let's call her that, would have been able to pull herself back together and pop her head back on her body. Looking back over at the still decapitated head, I could confirm that the body was not getting up and doing that, so nanotechnology seemed unlikely.

Turning back to Tanya, I said, "Well, Miss Pennyworth, if you need some sort of therapy for your experience, I'm sure your employer will be willing to pay for it."

Tanya's eyebrow rose at that before saying, "Right, detective vigilante, you probably looked at my employment history while researching why I might have been kidnapped."

"Of course," I lied, not wanting to let her know anything more than she needed to.

Shaking her head, she said, "Well, I will keep that in mind, Mr. Vigilante, but I will probably not be taking those services. I'm fine. As soon as the cops get here and I give my statement, I will be going home and hopefully not getting involved in any more insanity."

"God willing," I said with a nod, which got a nod but a twitch as well, as if she didn't like that comment.

"Perhaps I should look more into my new employee," a thought popped into my mind. After all, I knew very little about her, and the last time we had a proper discussion, I was very young, comparatively. She seemed to have a lot more secrets than I was expecting…

Then again, should I be doing that? Would that not be an invasion of her privacy to look into her life? If it wasn't a threat to my activity that night, it was most likely unnecessary. For now, I would let sleeping dogs lie. If the situation never developed that I needed to look into her, I'd do it without a second thought.

"Hmm, so who's paying for all your toys anyways? Is it some sort of CIA operation?" Tanya asked, which got me to look at her with a raised eyebrow.

"Damn, I was expecting more of a reaction," she mused out loud before chuckling, "Just trying to figure out why the city of Gotham has a silent protector."

"The city needs someone to balance the sheets back to the way they should be. The situation in the city is not good for anyone, and I'm just trying to make sure that it gets better."

She raised an eyebrow before saying, "Interesting take. I believe it from what I've seen of the incompetence of the police force. But you're risking a lot to go out there and fight crime. And with a lot of pretty toys like that, I just have to assume you have connections."

I stayed quiet for a moment, avoiding the statement best I could before saying, "Sometimes, good men have to step up and do good things. That's all you really need to know."

"Hmm, damn. Guess I won't be able to solve that mystery. Though, I wonder, how you're going to be able to reverse the tide on things, considering you're just one man. And of course, you're not just one man; you have more operatives than anyone knows."

"I'm Batman. I'm where I need to be when I need to be there."

"Hmm, real mystery then," she mused as Penny Plunder slowly got up.

As Penny Plunder said, "Oh, I have the biggest headache. What happened?"

Before I could move, Tanya already left out with a right hook that had a lot of power in it, and he was out cold again.

"That's probably not good for his health," she mused before checking his handcuffs to make sure he was secure.

I did the same to the other goons, making sure they were secure before Alfred's voice came over my ear, saying, "You only have a few more minutes. I would suggest saying your goodbyes; looks like Detective Bullock is the one who'll be paying this area visit, and well, he's not exactly a fan of you."

I nodded instead of straight, turning towards Tanya with a calm voice, saying, "Well, looks like the police are almost here. You think you can handle it from here?"

She smiled before saying, "I got out of their little attempt to hold me prisoner, now, didn't I?"

I nodded my head in agreement before saying, "Well then, good luck, Miss Tanya. Hopefully, we never run into each other again."

She chuckled before saying, "In most cases, that would be an insult. In this case, I think you're correct in that assumption. Let us hopefully never meet again under these circumstances."

I smiled at that. Better circumstances than goodbye. I raised up my grappling hook and fired it up into the ceiling, using the motor to pull me straight up and through the already broken glass, planning on the roof.

I looked down to make sure she was fine before moving quickly to the edge of the building, looking out as the police cars started filing in. Things would work out, though perhaps Bruce Wayne should talk to her more. Something about her demeanor with this whole thing was intriguing.

Tanya

So let me get this straight: this guy kidnapped you because your last name is Pennyworth.

"That's how I understand it," I said for the third time as Detective Bullock munched on a donut and lived up to the stereotype as another officer brought him a coffee.

"Unbelievable. This town is going to hell in a handbasket," he said, munching down on his donut before saying, "Hey, do you want one? I can have a guy grab one from my car."

"No, thank you, but I'm watching my figure," I said, not wanting to insult the man but also not wanting to take part in this proverbial living meme that was in front of me.

There were some stereotypes that should not exist, but there was nothing I could do to make them vanish before me.

Bullock nodded as he continued, "So, all right. You get kidnapped because your name is Pennyworth. Is there some reason why your name means something?"

I shook my head before saying, "I think it just has something to do with my employer and family relationships."

"Really? What's up with your employer's name? I need to ask you a few questions to see if he got any phone calls about this."

"My employer is Bruce Wayne; my uncle is Alfred Pennyworth. He was a long-time employee of the Waynes. That is most likely why I was targeted."

"Yeah, that'll do it. Rich family and goddamn Gotham," he mused before looking down at a stretcher that was passing by, carrying the body of the unnamed doll. "What's with the glowing mannequin? Know anything about that?"

I shrugged before saying, "Not particularly, only that it was alive."

"A glowing mannequin that was alive. Goddamn, Penny, what did you get yourself involved in?" He looked over towards the front doors of the mall, where we could just barely see Penny Plunderer and his goons being thrown into a paddy wagon.

"I'm unaware myself. I assume it has something to do with criminal nature. I don't really run with that crowd, if you get my meaning."

"Of course, of course. Shouldn't be asking you those questions anyways." He made himself comfortable, taking a seat in the chair, looking at the scene and stroking his chin. "So, you took down five guards all by yourself. That seems unlikely. Tell me again, how did this all play out?"

"Two guards came to bring me to a phone. I got the drop on them and locked them up. Another guard, the doll, mannequin, whatever you want to call it, was sent to retrieve me. I managed to get the jump on her. Before I could figure out what I was going to do about the other two, an entity fell from the roof and attacked the other two guards and the leader."

"The entity was probably Batman, right?"

"I don't know," I said with a shrug. "I would assume so, considering he was wearing a black cape and cowl, but I never got a chance to talk to him." I said, telling a lie, but I think one that was needed.

As I understood it, Batman was still a vigilante and technically on the wrong side of the law. So admitting I had a conversation with him was probably not good for me, simply because that meant I'd heard his voice and they'd be bugging me to come by whenever they wanted to have me listen to a voice of someone they suspected of being Batman.

"All right, all right. So, you didn't talk to him, he didn't talk to you, you kept beating up the other three guys, and then I guess he put in the call. Correct?"

"Yes," I said with a nod.

"So, why didn't you run away?" He said, looking at me, which caught me by surprise. The way he'd been acting made me think he was a little bit on the slow side of detective, perhaps got his detective ship through just being around long enough, but that comment indicated to me that he was not as dull as he pretended to be—sharp enough to figure out something was not right about my story.

"I didn't really have the chance to. He knocked out the three guards, ignored me, put them in restraints, took the head of the doll, and left. Before I could really wonder what the heck was all that, I heard the sirens coming, so I just stayed put, considering I needed the help to get home anyways."

All lies, but I doubted anyone could prove them. A 20-minute difference would be hard to prove. There were no dead bodies, after all. Maybe he could ask the goons what time they were captured or knocked out, but those would be round times, and the thing about memory is it tends to change the longer time goes. They may not remember the exact times, and it would probably lead to confusion.

"I can hope so, at least," Bullock nodded as he went over his notes before deciding to sigh , saying, "Well, I'm just glad we got to you before any real problems came. You don't really know what the eventuality of the whole thing is, and for all we know, he's been kidnapping women to live in his batcave. Who knows what that man is up to," he said matter-of-factly. 'I doubt it', that comment, but I would have laughed internally later. For now, I just simply nodded my head, saying, "Don't need to think of such things anyways. Is there any more statements I need to give, or can I have someone drive me home?'"

"Yeah, yeah. I will get you a ride home. One more question before I do that: how did you know the doll was a doll? That's a rather violent attack to have undertaken on a person."

I shrugged, saying, "I didn't know, and violence is measured by the appropriate use, as far as I'm concerned. Kidnapping me is a violent act, holding me hostage is another violent act, threatening me is, again, a violent act. The proper response is violence in return."

"Huh, old stand your ground type of argument. Well, you're lucky the damn thing's a machine or something. I'll have to ask whoever we have for this kind of shit to look over it. But as far as I'm aware, there's no law against breaking a machine, so you'll be good. But in the future, don't do that. Like, I get it, violence to protect yourself, fine, yes, but courts could be weird, particularly in this town."

"Noted, officer. I'll try and make sure I have a stun gun ready for the next time someone tries this."

"Ha, hopefully that doesn't happen. All right, Officer Phil, give this girl a ride home. Make sure to take the fastest route; don't know if there's any other members of this conspiracy out there. Would rather not have her kidnapped tomorrow, In our custody, if possible"

"Noted, sir," that officer said, offering me an arm to hold onto as I stood up. "Thank you, Officer Bullock. Good luck with finding out the rest of these Penny Plunders."

"I think it's a small gang. Shouldn't be that hard. Good night, Miss Pennyworth. May you not have any more trouble this month."

I nodded my agreement to that and followed the officer to his vehicle, taking a seat. We were offered front seats, which I knew was outside of decorum from what I understood, but it was probably better than being put in the backseat.

From there, I was driven several miles back into town to my apartment. The conversation I had with the officer was barely anything, not even memorable, as the car came to a stop beside my building. As I stepped out, stretching, I said, "Thank you, officer. Have a good night," and he said, "Have a good night yourself," before I closed the door and he drove off. Cracking my neck, I stepped up to my apartment door and slipped the key out, quickly entering and locking it behind me.

From there, it was all a matter of getting myself cleaned up—stripping out of the blood-covered clothing and dumping it in the washer, then heading up to my bathroom to take a very long shower, making sure to get all this stuff off my skin.

As I said, I had no idea what this stuff was; it could be nanites, it could be magical fuel, it could be all kinds of things. It could be corrosive to skin. Whatever it was, I'd rather not have it on me for more time than needed. Finally, I pulled myself out of the shower, wrapped myself in a towel, gave a rub, and sat down, enjoying being free of whatever chaos had decided to throw my way today.

"I wonder if Being X was screwing with me," I thought. It seemed kind of like his M.O. Then again, he hadn't appeared to me to say, "Pray to me and be saved," but maybe he didn't do that because he'd seen he wasn't going to work out and knew that Batman was going to show up. That's the problem with dealing with a potentially fourth-dimensional entity—it has some understanding of the time-space continuum well above you, so it can plot its things out in a longer time span.

For me, it had been nearly 20 years since I heard a damn thing from Being X, but it may have just been yesterday. Hopefully, though, that was not what was going on. Hopefully, life would not throw me another Being X curveball.

Fine, I laid back on the bed, looking up at my ceiling, enjoying the plainness of the wall there. Sure, it had just been an incredibly crazy situation, but maybe it really had nothing to do with Being X. This town was, well, just crazy. Or maybe it did have something to do with him, but it wasn't personal—more of, "Well, I hate her; why not put her somewhere where she'll run into problems every now and then?" Would make sense if you wanted to make your enemy suffer without paying ultimate attention. Gotham seemed like the place to do it.

Almost made me think, maybe I should try and move to Metropolis or the other cities in the area, but I had plenty of ties to the city that could get me quite a bit of money for a professional career here—an option to get into Wayne Corporate; it was just too good not to stay where I was. Sure, something told me that the more I was in the city's financial levels, the more problems like this might occur, but hey, that's what security is for, and I would probably need to hire a bit…

Did make me wonder, though: who was Batman?

I'd actually got to look at him. An interesting look, to say the least. Cape, cowl, muscle suit with armor, I would guess. Literally, the man had to be wearing armor shaped like muscles to look as impressive as he did. Said part of my brain that had been born female into confused overdrive, looking at him. Heck, the male part of my brain had a lot of respect for his chiseled physique, it made me a bit jealous.

Not to mention the tech and toys he was using for his little crusade was interesting, spoke of a man of wealth, someone with a lot of money, or someone backed by a lot of money. CIA still seemed very likely, maybe the FBI. Would they stoop so low as to use vigilantes to deal with the situation? On the surface of it, you'd think no, I mean, they have the full power of the US government at their back; they should have no need for vigilantes to do things.

But then again, let's be fair. The FBI is not known for being exactly fair. They got Al Capone on his taxes, for goodness sake. Some even argue that those tax return problems were made up by the FBI, though I have not seen evidence for or against it. I will at least admit that there are always sketchy things when it comes to the FBI. It could even be a CIA op, which wouldn't have the problem the FBI does with being a little bit on the illegal side. Why would the CIA want to be knocking out crime lords in Gotham City?

When you really think about it, those are the two most likely options: either the FBI was having problems getting arrests in Gotham because the mafia was so entrenched, so they have resorted to using a vigilante squad wearing the Batman uniform to deal with them. Or the CIA was trying to knock out the mafias to put someone of use in place; perhaps they wanted to run drugs from South America to Gotham, and the mafias were a little bit anti-foreign drug—it's never an impossibility.

Sigh. I was considering just lazily falling asleep when my phone rang, forcing me to get out of bed quickly.

Stumbling over to it, I picked it up, saying, "Hello, Tanya Pennyworth here. Whom may I ask is calling?"

"My favorite niece, good to hear your voice. I heard that there's been some sort of attempt on kidnapping you tonight from the officer who called the manor. Are you all right?"

I took a seat while smiling and saying, "I'm all right, Uncle. It was a bit startling, but everything is under control now."

"Good, good. I couldn't handle myself if I had some outlet to your misfortune."

"It's fine, it's all worked out. And in the end, I will probably be returning to work on Friday and early tomorrow with no issue."

"My niece, you don't need to do that. If you need the day off, feel free. I heard it was a rather traumatic event."

"Uncle, it was a traumatic event, yes, but I'm not one to hang out in my apartment and just relax. I'm glad to do some work and not think about it. And coming to the end of work would be more than fine for me. There's plenty of paperwork to do in that office you've set aside for me."

"Of course, of course," Alfred said before making noise that indicated he was thinking, "You know, Mr. Wayne is going by Wayne Industries tomorrow for his general checkup of the installations. We could use a good note-taker while he's on that trip. If you'd be interested in doing some work outside of your office job."

"I am quite interested," I said, already seeing the prospects of getting into Wayne Industries. Being a secretary to a millionaire probably would be very financially good for me. Sure, it's a bit part, but it's a part. And if I became his go-to person to take notes for him, well, that's a lot of income in the end. Plus, the more I work for him, the more he might give me more jobs, more jobs, more money, more financial stability, more security, the line just goes on and on.

"Wonderful. I will let Master Wayne know that I've found him a competent secretary for tomorrow. Make sure to wear your best; it's a formal place."

"Of course, of course, Uncle. Should I have anything in particular to keep in mind?"

"Not that I'm aware of. You'll just be visiting some of the labs on the lower sections. Mr. Wayne is interested in making sure that everything there is on the up and up. There was an issue a few years ago when the company was not fully under his control, and we just want to make sure that waste is not occurring down there."

"Will do," I said, relaxing a bit as Alfred continued.

"It would probably be in your favor to use the money from your next check to buy your own car. Though company supports public transportation; it seems a bit iffy these days."

"Does it?" I said, looking out the window at the public transportation question, and he wasn't wrong. I mean, I just been kidnapped because of it. Not to mention it was well blown up after I'd been kidnapped. Also, apparently the Riddler had once turned off all the public transportation trains, so that also was another threat. If you can turn it off, you can turn it on. I hate to see the mess that would make.

"Yes, I will have a member of the household send you a list of vehicles to purchase that would go well with the Wayne Corp professionalism."

Hmm, that's a bit odd, not going to let me choose my own vehicle. But hey, I was all for professionalism, so I simply smiled as I spoke into the phone, hoping the tone carried in my voice that I was happy to accept such a thing. "Gladly just send it by."

"Wonderful, wonderful. Have a good night, Tanya, and do stay out of trouble."

"Of course I will," I said, relaxing as the phone clicked off. I put my phone down before looking at my computer, getting an odd idea. I turned it on, did a little bit of a Google search, and found something interesting.

Wayne Corp or the tech part of the division had their own vehicles. They were just generally normal cars, but they were sold to senators because they had extra security. Was my uncle trying to make sure that I was extra secure by making sure I had a bulletproof window? Bless his heart. If so, I would gladly accept, though the price range was well outside my own capabilities, even with the next check. Of course, he was going to pay for the upgrade to a secure vehicle, well, I wouldn't push too hard on it.

Sighing, I got up while stretching and then dropping face-first on my bed, happy for tomorrow where I would have a chance to increase my lot in the Wayne Industries.