Belle Reve

  July 31, 15:30

  Bckgate Penitentiary.

  If Arkham Asylum kept the crazies—the members of Batman’s rogues gallery that had been decred legally insane—under lock and key, then Bckgate did so for the opposite.

  All of its inmates had their marbles intact, which in a way, made it worse than the famed asylum. At least the inmates in the former could cim insanity when confronted with their atrocities. The ones in Bckgate couldn’t.

  They did their crimes with a full understanding of the consequences, not just for themselves but for their victims as well. Thank goodness Jade’s mother didn’t fall on the higher end of the crazy spectrum, even before she went in.

  Dressing up like a tiger and committing crimes with your husband still counted as crazy to me. Though I probably shouldn’t be compining seeing that my animal of choice was the spider.

  “She’s out,” I said from my position in the driver’s seat while leaning on the steering wheel. Jade, seated beside me in the front, acknowledged my alert with silence and gazed straight ahead.

  An orderly wheeled her mother out of the prison and slowly brought her to the edge with the tall, raised mesh walls. Our vehicle wasn’t the only one in the parking lot, but there was only one that caught my interest; a van.

  A cursory gnce confirmed its purpose and answered the question of how Pau Crock would reach her home.

  I leaned back and opened the door. “That’s our cue.”

  Jade followed suit and joined me. The outfit I wore for the transfer hadn’t changed; I liked how it looked and felt, especially the greatcoat. As for Jade, the orange that assaulted the eyes was nowhere in sight.

  In addition to freshening up and giving her voluminous, dark, mane proper care and attention, she’d changed into a simple cream colored blouse with a green jacket on top of it and a brown skirt that went past her knees slightly.

  I didn’t know what impression she intended to make, but I could at least deduce she didn’t want her mom to know about the life she’d been leading. At least for a while.

  The walk from our car to where Pau would be dropped off didn’t take long. In fact, we arrived there before she did. And the closer the older woman got, the more closed off Jade’s body nguage became.

  By the time of the inevitable csh, she had crossed her arms and thrown her gaze to the side.

  “J-Jade…”

  Welp. Seems like there’s no hiding it. That look on Pau’s face said everything. Being in prison didn’t mean she’d been cut off from the outside world.

  “Hello… mum.”

  The sound of a car door closing shut cut through the tension and all of us looked at the source. It was the man driving the disability transport van alighting.

  “Do you know these people?” the orderly asked.

  “That is my daughter, Jade. He—”

  “He’s with me,” Jade interrupted and looked at the orderly. “I’m here for my mother. Is there going to be a problem?”

  “Not if she agrees.”

  “Jade,” Pau reached forward.

  Still with her arms crossed, Jade closed her eyes and released a loud huff. After a short bit, she unfurled her arms and took a step forward, taking her mother’s hand.

  “Mom, I’m here to take you home,” she said, her voice softer than before.

  “But… how?”

  “I’ll expin everything in the car.”

  Pau wiped her tears and looked at her orderly. “It’s okay Leonard, I’ll be fine.”

  He kept his eyes on me and I shrugged. “You’re sure?”

  “Yes. Thank you for everything.”

  “If you say so,” he let go of the handlebars and stepped back. Jade immediately filled the space he vacated and started to push her mother forward, sparing no one or anything the slightest gnce.

  The man whose job we’d stolen stood there arms akimbo and watched us leave. I spread my arms and gave him an apologetic look. “Sorry man.”

  After that I mimicked Jade and put everything out of mind, hurrying to our car. The younger woman gently and slowly picked her mother out of the chair and helped her into the backseat while I took the wheelchair and stashed it in the trunk.

  I found myself in the driver’s seat not long after that and on the receiving end of my new hire’s scathing gre. Quietly, I nodded toward the back where her mother sat and waited, letting that expin why I’d locked the front passenger side door.

  A short but intense struggle ter, she gave up and joined her mother in the back, much to the joy of the older woman.

  “Jade…”

  I smiled at a job well done, raised the privacy screen keeping the two halves of the vehicle separate, and then started the car, driving towards their home.

  As always, Gotham was a sight even the most overworked animators couldn’t produce even if you threatened them with more work and less pay. And this was with Batman and his ever expanding family in the mix.

  It made one wonder how things would be without the dark knight’s presence. Because his efforts to help the city went beyond beating thugs within inches of their lives. His phinthropic efforts, both public and secret, were nothing to scoff at.

  In fact, I daresay they were the only things keeping this city from becoming exactly what it wanted to be. When I compared how quickly and easily I cleaned up (not entirely but you get it) Bludhaven to Batman’s efforts, only one thing came to mind; opposition.

  Something or someone(maybe a group of someones, Court of Owls I’m looking at you) did things to undermine and undo the good the bat family did on a daily basis. They’d scrape some shit off the wall, and whoever or whatever would throw more to repce what had been purged.

  Overall, it sucked to be Batman and a Gothamite. Maybe I should make this city my personal project. God knows I’d made myself a busy body butting my nose in pces it didn’t belong. It would be no different here; except, the people who’d already called dibbs wouldn’t take kindly to me.

  Not that I cared anyway. Scum was scum. Just because they roosted in your city didn’t make them off limits. My hands were rated E for everyone.

  A long, depressing drive ter, we arrived at our destination, an apartment building that looked like it had seen better days. I turned off the engine and then the privacy screen before looking at the back.

  Looks like mother and daughter had finished their conversation.

  “Mom, this is Elliot, my boss. Elliot, my mom.”

  “Hello Jade’s mom,” I extended a hand.

  She seemed a bit hesitant but she took my hand anyway. “Hello… sir. My daughter,” she looked at Jade who seemed impatient and then back at me, “says you’re the reason I got to see her today. Please, what kind of work are you making her do?”

  “She didn’t tell you?”I looked back and forth between the two women. They really did look alike. How did I not notice before? ”What exactly did she tell you about our agreement?”

  Jade didn’t let her mother speak. “Just keep up your end of the bargain and I’ll keep mine.”

  “Jade! I’m sorry for her behaviour. Her father was, is—”

  “It’s okay,” I cupped her hand with mine. “I made a deal with your daughter that I would heal your injuries. In exchange, she has to be a hero. I found that to be a better alternative than sitting in prison for the rest of her life.”

  “Oh…” Miss Crock said and chuckled. “I see. That expins things.”

  “Where is it?” Jade asked.

  “Oh, you mean this?” I reached into one of my pockets and pulled out a sleek white case, waving it. Jade accepted it when I passed it over and she opened it after looking it over twice.

  A bright green illuminated the back seat and all of our faces. Inside the case sat an Airhypo, its barrel filled with a heavily modified version of the Lazarus’s pits’ waters.

  Instead of asking how to use it, Jade grabbed and turned the device over before settling on the narrow end. “This is where I jab her with it?” she asked.

  “Jade!”

  “Rex, mom.”

  “Don’t tell me to rex. You’ve not even asked if I want this. What if I don’t want to be okay? What if I don’t want you and Artemis to think everything will turn out okay if you turn to a life of crime!”

  That was my cue to step back and activate the privacy screen, but I didn’t. I wanted to observe the Lazarus sample in action, and I might miss that if I took my eyes off things.

  Jade lowered her hand and looked away. “It’s already too te for that. For me. I… I just want you to be okay. Besides,” her voice lost a bit of its softness. “Don’t you want to climb up the stairs with your own two legs and greet Artemis?”

  Pau closed her eyes and kept crying, making me feel like a douche. I reminded myself that this was for science and weathered the discomfort.

  “Okay,” the older woman nodded. “I’ll do it. But only if you promise me to keep your word to Mr. Elliot.”

  Those words must’ve put an unbearable itch in Jade’s eyes because it took her great effort not to roll them.

  “Fine,” she said and looked at me, asking how to use the Airhypo.

  It was a quick expnation that resulted in a final question. “Where?”

  “Anywhere will do, but I recommend the heart.”

  Miss Crock began to pull her shirt down and I stopped her.

  “Woah. No need for that. The hypo works through clothes. Trust me,” I said to Jade’s reproachful and disbelieving gaze.

  She shared a look with her mom and what I assumed to be a silent countdown before nodding and stabbing downward with the hypo, pressing the rounded tip into her mother’s chest. There was a muted sound of rushing air and the green illuminating everything abated.

  Pau gasped and grabbed both of our arms tightly. Jade looked at me for answers.

  “Don’t worry, it’s working. Shouldn’t take more than a minute.”

  Thankfully, her training in the killing arts came with a more than decent understanding of the human anatomy, so the kind of the overhaul her mother’s body and especially her spine experienced in this short moment and the implications were not lost on her.

  Slowly, Pau’s gasps slowed and the strength in her grip loosed.

  On her face, the effects of the treatment leaked through and smoothed out the age lines in her cheeks, beat back the budding crow feet cwing at her eyes, and overall, reduced her visible age by a few noticeable years.

  “Wow, you two look even more alike now.”

  Jade scowled while her mother grew even more confused. “What?”

  “I think you should help her out,” I said to the daughter, holding back a ugh. “What she just went through will take some time to adjust to, but she’ll be fine.”

  Outside the car and standing at her mom’s side door, Jade held the woman’s hand and helped her out of the vehicle.

  “I can move my legs,” Pau excimed.

  “Not so loud,” her daughter chastised and looked around. Once the coast was clear enough for her, she let her mother out fully and supported her with her whole body.

  “It’s okay Jade. I don’t feel weak at all. I feel like I am your age again.”

  ‘You are,’ I thought to myself.

  Thankfully, it seems someone else noticed and had the decency to point it out. “Well, you kind of are,” Jade said and shut the car door, pointing at the window.

  Her mother touched her face with both hands and I looked away, anticipating tears. I had seen enough for today. Convinced by her mother’s positive changes, Jade moved to the driver side window and I met her gaze.

  “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome,” I replied. “You wanna stay right?”

  “Yes.”

  “I assumed as much. You can stay. I’ll have someone pick you at seven. Your first mission’s tonight.”

  The cheshire grin she was known for took its pce on her features. “Aren’t you afraid I’m gonna run away?”

  I gave her a grin in return. “Try it.”

  “Hm… anyone ever tell you you don’t act like a hero?”

  “You’re the first.”

  Before our conversation could go anywhere else, Pau entered the frame and another round of profuse thanksgiving ensued. Here we go…

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  Scotnd

  July 31, 22:54

  “Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, Godiva.”

  In the Zephyr II’s command room, Economos conducted the pre-mission briefing while we all paid rapt attention. The woman he just made the subject of the conversation had the looks of someone who knew for a fact they were stunning and reveled in it.

  Sure, the quality of her holographic effigy contributed to the realism, but the sheer smugness and superiority stamped across her exotic features were so prominent even blind men would sense something wrong by being in a room with her.

  “Mercenary by trade and of Ghanaian and Chinese descent. It is not widely known, but she has been a thorn in the side of many of the world’s security agencies. Mainly due to this,” Economos, swiped his tablet and the effigy changed from one person to two people.

  Godiva was back, but now she had literal gold sparkles framing her upper body profile, and her smile had changed, worsened, now having a sinister and pleased edge to it.

  The reason for such an expression was the man kneeling at her feet. He had both hands pressed close to his chest, his tongue out while he wagged like a dog.

  “She possesses the ability of hypnosis. Those sparkles you can see around her appear when she uses her powers. From what we’ve managed to gather, which is not much, is that her would-be thralls do not need to see these effects for her powers to work on them. They just need to be nearby and hear her voice directly.”

  “Damn…” Agent Ramirez remarked, mirroring the overwhelming majority of the sentiments present. “This is why I hate this powers stuff,” he continued.

  Ignoring that, I gave Economos the signal to move on.

  “As you can already guess, this kind of power makes her a nightmare for security and clearance wherever she goes. So long as there is a human element—which is true no matter where you go—she always gets what she wants.”

  “And she wants what?” asked Agent Michaels.

  “Anything the highest bidder will pay for,” answered Economos. “State secrets, advanced government R and D pns, secret locations, contraband, weapons… she even has a few assassinations on her resume. And these are the ones we know about.”

  Everyone processed the enormity of what had just been presented, but it seems one person didn’t need that much convincing. “Hoss, please tell me we’re going after this bi—”

  Agent Ramirez’s “bitch” went unsaid at the look I gave him.

  “Beautiful but rotten on the inside woman.”

  “Nice save man,” Economos chuckled while the others ughed.