batmaid 7

Tanya

You know what? Maybe I should stay inside the mansion in the future. Maybe the maid job isn't so bad after all.

That was the thought going through my mind as I lay in the hospital bed after receiving treatment for the vampire bat-ism. What exactly do you call turning into a human bat person, like a werewolf?

Well, whatever it was, I was just glad I hadn't ended up as a furry flying pest attacking people throughout the town.

Instead, I spent several hours in a freezing bath—maybe more. I kind of lost consciousness now and again while in it, and now I was recovering here in the hospital, trying to figure out what exactly I should do with the knowledge that Mr. Wayne's company was not exactly the safest place in the world. The attack by a crazy lunatic nearly turned me into a bat person. And that was day one. Should I continue to try and push for good within Wayne Enterprises proper, or stick to being the maid of the manor?

At this moment, I was definitely leaning towards sticking with being the maid. After all, the deals I had already worked out would have technically gotten me a very interesting position. As it stood, I would be the secretary at the manor, dealing with Wayne Enterprises' information, which would slowly introduce me into the higher echelons of the company. Of course, that did limit some progress in getting an executive position, but with enough income saved, I should be able to come to a good position for retirement in a few decades.

Sure, not as rapidly as some other positions, but long-term planning was always the best way to deal with these situations. Besides, trying to avoid being at the research part of Wayne Enterprises should probably be at the top of my to-do list from now on. That place was a hazardous area. But then again, I guess I would have to visit it sooner or later, even if I did acquire some sort of safe position in the company. After all, the whole reason we had been there to talk to Dr. Langstrom was because he'd been misappropriating funds and we had to check up on him. What a long and annoying battle I would have to fight internally over the proper way to handle the situation.

Sighing, I leaned back, watching the TV as it talked about recent developments in the city. The police were on high alert because, apparently, an immortal man had broken into the Gotham Bank and stolen a bunch of money. The news was saying "immortal," though I had to wonder if he was truly immortal or what. There was camera footage of the incident on the screen, showing a giant of a man, looking like he was wearing clothing from another era, getting shot by the cops and seemingly not caring. He just ripped the bank vault door off the hinges and went inside. It was cell phone footage, so it was possible there was some great editing going on, but I couldn't detect anything easily.

"Why is this city like this?" I muttered, shaking my head.

"Hard to say," came a voice from the door. My eyes instantly went towards it, where I saw Bruce Wayne leaning against the doorway, looking at the TV. "Strange things seem to be happening more and more, I wonder." He scratched his chin before smiling and looking at me. "How are you doing, Tanya? I heard you woke up a few hours ago, so I came over as fast as I could."

"I'm doing well, Mr. Wayne," I said with a smile. "Don't have bat wings, don't have fur. All in all, a very good day."

Mr. Wayne chuckled before he said, "Yeah, I heard there was something like that. I only got a brief look at what was going on before Batman showed up." He moved across the room and pulled a chair to sit down next to me. "Sorry about what happened yesterday. If I'd known the lab would be that dangerous, I wouldn't have brought you along."

I shook my head before saying, "I understand, Mr. Wayne. But how could anyone have known that man had gone insane up in his tower? Don't blame yourself for that."

He nodded before putting his hand on my wrist. "I hope this little experience isn't going to put you off working for me. It's good to have an old friend around."

I shook my head before saying, "Working for you? No, that's no problem, Mr. Wayne. Although I am considering not going to the research labs anytime soon."

Mr. Wayne chuckled at that before saying, "Understandable, though I think Dr. Freeze will be disappointed. He seemed to enjoy your conversations with him."

I smiled at that before saying, "Well, maybe I'll reconsider in the future." I leaned back in my bed before looking over at Mr. Wayne. "What about the good mad doctor? Was he caught?"

"Mr. Langstrom is in police custody but being held at Wayne Labs. They attempted to give him the same antivirus that they gave you, but it so far hasn't really taken. Right now, there's a lot of confusion about what we should do with him. There's not really a prison cell built for a man-bat, to say the least. Sending him to the insane asylum doesn't seem like the best way to deal with him, considering he can probably rip his way out of that. And, well, the asylum has only really helped people when you can communicate."

I nodded at that before saying, "So they're basically making a new type of cell to hold him, aren't they?"

"Pretty much. Though I will say, as bills go, it's going to be a lot easier than paying for him to continue his research into mad science and monsters."

I chuckled at that as Mr. Wayne smiled before saying, "You know, you don't have to call me Mr. Wayne. Bruce is fine."

I put on a smile before saying, "Of course, Bruce. It's just force of habit. It's always been one for sticking to titles and all that."

Bruce nodded his head before saying, "That's just like Pennyworth, I assume."

"Ha, correct," I said with a nod, before adding, "I will try and improve on that, Mr. Bruce." I caught myself mid-sentence, which got a smile from him as he nodded his head. "By the way, how's your eyesight? Some of the doctors were concerned that it wouldn't be as good after what the virus had done."

Looking around the room, I said, "I think it's fine. I understand that I lost my eyesight for a bit, but it seems to have come back without issue."

"Good, good. I'd hate to think my new secretary was going to have to put on some glasses because of me," Bruce replied with a chuckle.

I laughed and said, "Nope, I still have, I think, 20/20 vision. Though I guess I probably will need to have a doctor who specializes in eyes take a look to make sure. You never know; the older you get, the worse your eyes get. That's just how it is."

"Of course," Bruce said with a smile. "I had your car brought to the hospital parking lot and have already paid for all the time you need to recover, so you can leave whenever you feel up for it. If you need a few more days, feel free to take those days, although I think the doctors will try and force you out of here soon enough."

I nodded and said, "Of course, they need these beds for people who are actually sick and injured, not someone who's getting over nearly being turned into a bat. I'm curious, though—why did Batman show up?"

"Hmm," Bruce said, looking at me as I pondered. "I don't know. It's odd that Batman showed up the moment I got down with this illness. It's also odd that he was able to pick me up and take me away so quickly. What exactly happened there?" I asked, looking at Bruce, who scratched the back of his neck before saying:

"Don't tell anyone this, but I have had a few meetings with Batman now and again. Nothing too serious, just a few conversations he's had about individuals under my employ. His calls have turned out to be right in the past, enough so that I'm willing to trust him on a few things. I don't know how he knew what was happening, but when he showed up, I was willing to listen to him and let him take you quickly. I mean, I wasn't sure what to do at that moment. I was already about to dial 911 when he jumped from the rooftops and landed in front of me. The man is spooky, I'll say that. Gave me a fright."

That got a chuckle from me as I said, "Would have liked to see that. You don't seem like the type to get frightened easily. I mean, you had a man-bat appear in front of you, and you managed to hold your own for a bit."

Bruce chuckled before saying, "Monsters are different. Monsters, you can understand what they want, and it's just violence. Mysterious figures prowling the night, righting wrongs or maybe committing them—you don't know."

I nodded, understanding now. "True. The scariest thing in the world is not the monsters under your bed but the ones walking around at night. People have a lot more capabilities to do wrong than your average monster, and for fewer reasons. They make even less sense," I said, shaking my head, thinking about some of my past life.

Bruce nodded before he got up from the chair, brushing his pants off. "Anyway, I don't want to keep you up too long. I know you're trying to recover. Maybe you want to catch up on the news. Just wanted to make sure you were good and let you know your car was here."

"Thank you, Bruce," I said with a smile. He nodded before saying, "Good to have a boss who comes to look after me."

Bruce Wayne smiled and said, "Boss? I thought I was your friend."

That got a chuckle out of me. "Well, of course you're my friend, but they're expected to come check up on you. A boss is not so much expected to do that."

"Huh, so how do you know I came in the capacity of your boss and not your friend?" Bruce asked, which was a good question. I raised my hand to my chin, thinking.

"I got you on one, finally," Bruce mused before leaning down to put a hand on my shoulder. "Don't think too hard about it. Just know that you have people who are looking out for you."

"Which is the best way to look at it," I said, getting comfortable in the bed as he nodded, stepping away and leaving through the front door. That left me to watch the news and think about what exactly Bruce was doing. Was there something more than friendship there? Was I going to have to consider possibilities beyond being the maid of the manor? Last time I did that, I tried to become the secretary, and that hadn't ended well. Shaking my head, I simply looked up at the TV and tried not to think about it.

Bruce Wayne

As I lowered my head and got into the car, Alfred rolled down the inner window between the back of the limo and the front.

"How is she, Master Bruce?" he asked as I took my seat.

"She seems fine. No loss of eyesight, no urge to eat bugs, or whatever the bat genome was going to do to her," I replied.

Alfred chuckled as he started the car and drove away from the hospital. "Good. I'll have to pay her a visit later to make sure she's fine," he mused before continuing the conversation. "Did she make any comments that would indicate she has figured anything out?"

"I don't think so," I said, knowing exactly what he meant. Tanya had spent a few hours around Alfred, who was putting on the best New Jersey accent he could before she lost consciousness. She'd also heard my voice, even if I was putting on my best Batman voice at the time. There's always a concern someone might figure it out, but so far she hasn't made any comments to indicate she had, which was good. A little bit disappointing, though. I wonder what Tanya would think if she knew the truth. That was a golden opportunity for her to learn it. Well, I wasn't going to punch a gift horse in the mouth that she hadn't figured it out. It's probably for the best that no one but me and Alfred knows the truth on that one.

Shaking my head, I said, "For now, we're good. Tanya doesn't know about our secrets and is recovering well in the hospital."

"Which means now you have to focus on that new criminal that showed up. What was the name he was claiming?"

"Solomon Grundy," I mused, looking out the window. I wasn't sure how to take that. Someone claiming to be a creature from an old childhood rhyme was not what I was expecting to deal with. There's always something weird going on in Gotham, from The Riddler to Man-Bat to Solomon Grundy, to that guy who kept performing petty crimes all over the city on specific dates that were important for some reason. I'm still trying to figure out his motives. Thankfully, all his crimes have been rather petty so far, so I was more than willing to let the police handle him. But I was concerned. There did seem to be an escalation to his crimes. Sooner or later, I might have to step in and go after him myself if the police didn't catch him soon.

"Yes, Solomon Grundy," Alfred said as he turned the car onto the freeway. "How are you going to defeat a local legend?"

I shook my head before saying, "I'm going to have to do my research. Hopefully, it's just some criminal posing as the supposed monster of the past."

"But there's always the chance it's not," Alfred said, to which I nodded my head before saying, "In that case, I'm going to have to look into exactly how Solomon Grundy was dealt with all those years ago and deal with him again in the same way. Assuming there's got to be some way to put him down, at least temporarily."

Alfred nodded before saying, "The police are going to have a hell of a time trying to hold these new types of criminals that are showing up. It's rather strange, really, that these things are showing up now."

I nodded in response, thinking momentarily before saying, "Something seems to have shifted. Yeah, we've had some weird things happen here in Gotham, but the last three years I've been dealing with the Mafia and gangs and the oddball like the Riddler. But now we're getting supernatural and paranormal things showing up, like that robot that attacked your niece."

"Hmm. Perhaps your work to bring down the normal criminals has led to an opening for abnormal criminals," Alfred theorized.

I shook my head. "I hope not. That means that the more criminals I bring down, the more insane things are going to show up here. That's not a great way to look at this situation."

"Hmm, true. It's never good to be rewarded with more work after completing some of the work," Alfred said with a nod as we turned off the freeway onto the back roads. "Although I am concerned. What are the police and local authorities going to do if more and more abnormal things start showing up in the city?"

I shook my head before saying, "Assuming they put more funding into the local penitentiary and the asylum, after all, if they have criminals that are not in the standard vein of a criminal, it would be best to put them in a place that can hold them. Though I don't really know what you can do to a criminal that can lift a vault door off the vault itself."

Alfred nodded his head before saying, "Perhaps we should look into a donation to the police department and its correctional facilities. If the government doesn't provide the proper resources, maybe it's up to the good citizens of Gotham to do so, unfortunately."

I nodded in agreement as we came to a stop outside the manor. The door opened, and I stepped out, cracking my neck, about to make a comment when a pager went off. More exactly, the pager specifically giving off a tone that raised my eyebrow. Pulling it out, I looked at the bat symbol on it before saying, "This can't be good."

Alfred got out of the car and looked across the roof at me, saying, "What's happening, Mr. Wayne?"

"The alarms at Wayne Tech just went off. Someone broke in. The guards are going to be called, but I might need to make an appearance myself. After all, Man-Bat is being held there right now, and we can't afford him escaping again. It could be some local criminals trying to steal some tech from the labs."

"That makes sense. The night's work is never done. Good luck, Mr. Wayne."

I nodded to him before saying, "Thank you, Alfred," and rushed into the manor, quickly using the hidden door to get to the Batcave and grab my gear. Tonight was going to be a long night, I could already tell.

Victor freeze

What a wonderful day. Today was a great day, in fact. Science had proven it possible. Dr. Langstrom's insanity had opened an opportunity for me to use my cryogenic research to put him in stasis. Paid for by the police and okayed by Wayne Tech, and as far as all the tests go, the stasis was complete. He would not be a problem anymore, and he should be capable of being brought out without issue when we figured out how to cure his mutation. Let's call it that. But that was a minor victory. The grand victory was proof—proof that you could use my method on a living subject and they would continue to live. Sure, the heart was beating at such a substantially low rate no one would really notice it, but still, that meant the subject was alive and capable of being revived.

With that proven, two grand things became apparent. One, my time-buying measure for my wife, Nora, would soon be okayed. I didn't care how long it would take—I would cure her of that disease. She only had a few years left, technically one really. That's how long I had to get this process okayed, or at the end of the year, the damage would become too substantial for her to ever really be cured. But now, with this experimental success, we could enjoy that last year to its fullest as we now knew that at the end of that year, we could put her into stasis until she was cured.

For the other, well, having a successfully cryosleep process would bring in much income from the government, particularly since they would be quite interested in the use of it for long-distance travel across the solar system. I'm sure they would be more than willing to pay out quite a large amount of money—money that I could direct towards the research to cure my wife. Everything was going to be good now, all thanks to Bruce Wayne giving me the chance of a lifetime. I had to thank that man when I got a chance. Without his efforts to get me a new life here in America, I would have had nothing. Now, I had the chance to make sure the world went the way I wanted it to.

Smiling, I looked over at the frozen man. Perhaps I should find some way to thank him as well. Well, once I had the funding, I guess I could move some of it towards looking into a cure for him. Though, to be fair, he'd done it to himself. Really, if a mad scientist wants to turn himself into a Man-Bat and I had to put him on ice for the government, that was his own mistake.

I moved back to looking at my computer, typing out the last of the report and filling out the information I had used on the formula to freeze Man-Bat so that he was contained and alive without being killed by the cryostasis.

The process to make cryostasis was one of the most difficult methods ever devised. Up to this moment, it had only ever been used on the dead, simply because you didn't have to worry about someone who was already dead complaining. After all, they're dead. There's nothing much a person can do if they somehow get worse than that.

This is why a lot of early attempts at cryostasis had, well, failed. There were plenty of failed cryostasis projects across the world, all of them failing due to generally getting too cold and not having the proper chemicals in their system. Occasionally, you heard about the extreme case where the system that was meant to keep them cold failed, and the bodies began to decay rapidly in a warmer temperature. But a lot of the time, the reason the process failed was due to microfractures. The body got so cold that it became like ice and it cracked. Some cracks went all the way through the body, so even if you somehow were able to revive the body, well, now the person is basically broken in half.

Guaranteeing their death in most cases. This process, of course, didn't freeze you to the point where you froze solid. You were still pliable with the chemicals I used, meaning that you wouldn't crack, that your body could still operate, but at a much, much reduced capacity. You need to be exact with the chemicals, though. A lot of these were experimental, to say the least. Some of them downright radioactive. The radiation was not deadly; the amount you would get from the chemical going through your system would not kill you via cancer. It was dangerous, but it was a lot safer and more likely to work than, say, that one man in, I believe it was, the Rocky Mountains, who was keeping himself on ice via his family dumping more and more dry ice on top of his corpse in a fridge somewhere. Yes, I really doubt that man was going to be revived anytime soon, or ever. Homemade cryostasis was never going to work. But this version should. This version should allow Nora to go to sleep and wake up a few hours later, from her perspective, to a cure. It may take me years, but I would get it.

My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of gunfire, my head popping up in confusion. "What is that?" I said quickly, moving towards the outer door and popping it open a bit to look down the hall. I saw Wayne Tech guards exchanging fire with another two individuals. The guards had pistols, while the other two individuals had what looked like submachine guns and were wearing body armor.

The Wayne Tech guards were quickly dispatched, and the individuals moved down the hallway, looking left and right as they made their way to each room. More individuals moved in behind them, quickly breaking into the rooms.

Thieves were here to steal tech, I realized rather quickly. Thieves that did not care about lives, nor my own. Fear gripped my heart before determination set in. I would not die to a bunch of thieves on the verge of my greatest accomplishment.

Quickly, I moved further into the room and grabbed the laser I used for part of the cryoprocess, pulling it off the stand and pointing it towards the door. I had maybe two good shots in it, and it had never been tested on a living individual, but, well, this wasn't really a test. This was self-defense. Taking a good deep breath, I held the laser there, waiting, hoping that whoever was doing this had specific rooms they were going to break into and mine was not among them. Unfortunately, it would seem I was wrong, as the door burst open from an explosive. Two individuals rushed into the room, and those two individuals were hit by the laser as I pulled the trigger. They screamed as they were flash-frozen solid.

"What the fuck is that?" someone screamed, then unloaded their submachine gun towards me. I fired off another blast into the hallway that it had come from, but the individual ducked down. The bullets ripped through his two comrades, shattering them as the laser froze the wall behind him.

I fired off another shot with the laser before it died, freezing the doorway nearly solid. This might buy me some time, I thought as I stood up, smiling at my success, only to feel woozy. Looking down, I realized why I was feeling woozy rather quickly. I had been shot; a bullet had penetrated my chest just to the right of my heart.

"No, no," I said in shock, stumbling a bit and putting a hand onto the counter. Everything I had done was for nothing. I had been shot. I had killed two people, and now I was going to die from a bullet to the chest. Sure, maybe I'd survive, but with the door frozen, no one would likely be able to get in here in time to rescue me. "No," I said again with determination.

I wasn't going to die here. I had to do what was necessary to save Nora. If that meant using myself as a guinea pig, then so be it.

Quickly, I moved over to the cryopod next to the Man-Bat and started inputting the code to prep it, making sure it would dispense the chemicals properly so that anything inside it would be cryopreserved and not frozen solid.

Blood was leaking down my chest at an accelerated rate, but thankfully I kept this room rather cold, and the ice from the doorway was helping with that. It would keep me going for a bit longer, I thought. Long enough to get myself in here and frozen. Worst case scenario, I'd be in it maybe a few hours, maybe a few days, just long enough for them to get doctors here to perform surgery to save my life. And once I survived that, Nora would have more evidence that my cryo project would work. The company would have to pump even more money in because it was obvious that my process could be used to save people.

My brain was getting fuzzy, things were getting a bit murky. I didn't have much more time, I realized, so I finished putting in the code and slid the hatch open, stumbling into the cryopod and pressing a few buttons to start the process as soon as I was comfortable inside.

As I relaxed inside, the door sliding over me, I took a few deep breaths, trying to calm myself. I must not have taken a wound to the lung, or maybe the bullet wasn't deep enough. I hadn't coughed up blood, or maybe I was just too cold to realize it. Either way, I began to lower the temperature. As needles entered my arms and veins, I could feel the chemicals starting to run into my body. It was cold, painful, and cold.

The door burst open, another explosive being used to clear the ice away, and the individual who had survived my laser blast stepped in, looking around. I tried not to move, hoping he wouldn't notice me, but he did rather quickly.

"Fucking scientist," the man said, moving towards me, looking at the panel on the side of the cryostasis pod, and smashing it.

Immediately, I knew something was wrong as I felt more chemicals being pumped into me at a faster rate. I tried to move to signal him to stop, but it got so cold so fast. The world started to turn black. I just managed to pull my hand away from the side of the tube. If I was going to freeze solid, I would rather not lose my hand when the tube opened.

The world faded. I saw the man smile, his crooked nose popping out of his purple hat, as he said, "Enjoy your icy hell, Mr. Freeze," and smashed the panel again. An electric shock went through my body as the revival protocols on the tube activated as well as the freezing. The last sense I had was everything spasming before everything went black.