AGayLeaf

To listen to whislt reading

Gotham City 1635-2042

Twenty-six years ago a 7.2 earthquake forever changed Gotham city. The city would be declared to be no longer apart of the United States of America. A decision made by the government that was heavily influenced by the then presidential candidate Lex Luthour's new political party.

Law was lost. Gangs finally seized control after decades of attempts. A now forgotten vigilante effort failed

It wasn't until the Arkham Defence Initiative (A.D.I),and beloved Gothamnite Oswald Cobb took the mantle of restoring order into their own hands, did any semblance of control reappear. Eventually foreign corporations would reinforce this control. And finally after months Gotham would start to regain civility.

The newly arrived corporate executives(corpos) had planned to use Gotham as staging ground for new technologies taking advantage of its new found absence of law and regulation.

The city would soon become unrecognisable. Building upon the rubble and ruins, a new Gotham was made ,one of the future. A future that was no better than what the old Gotham held. The city was reborn as a blueprint. The modern "world tomorrow" was first tested in the former crime capital of the US. Now just a crime haven known as New Gotham City State(NGCS) or just Gotham City state(GSC)

In the present neon lights shimmer off the rain slick streets. New technologies blind the population in waves of the latest and hottest cybernetics that couldn't be found anywhere else in the world.

An obsession with cybernetic enchantment started to grow. And grow. And grow until the first cases of cybernetic influenced psychosis were reported in Gotham City State. Meanwhile the first aerial traffic lanes were set for new flying vehicles,a safe and luxurious way to traverse the city that now towers further and further into the sky,careless of the blood soaked depths below. As the newly founded mercenary networks became a normal part of the city's culture. Bloodshed is just another Monday. This new line of work was founded on the back of old Gotham gang culture.

Drugs are bought at street bars. Gangs are hired publicly and officially by corporations from urban warfare/gang war zones. Which large parts of NGCS already are class as due to being too poor to afford the Arkham company's Defence subscription.

The vain crusader of justice is dead. A facist husk of it walks the streets and flies above it in military grade vehicles killing any criminal that is deemed a threat to corporate assests or those who coughed up enough credits for a defence subscription. But death for anyone who violates order is the lucky outcome. As otherwise their brain will be made into computer processing power for Arkham companies intelligence and surveillance systems ,after time served in Arkham tower. A prison within in skyscraper office that not one soul has ever escaped,and the Arkham board promises, no one ever will.

There is no hope. No want for things to get better, they can't. No hero is known.

January 3rd,2042

"Months of work to undo this crutch isn't enough to prevent my need to document my mind. I can do little else besides write and reflect now. I try to fool myself enough to believe my ideas ,my thoughts will be different if I take a pen and walk through the same mental alleyway in my mind again. I trick myself into believing I will handle myself better this time. The night knows better. It knows I won't,It knows I can't sleep till the cries stop and the alleyway is walked through as I ask myself was it really for nothin? I evaluate if I ever helped or if I just made it all worse."

'The cries our louder now than ever before. Kids sleep on streets vulnerable and forgotten by the city. All they have ever known are the darkest pits of poverty. Others instead are runners from their homes, who flee from the closed doors of households that hold far more grim realities than what the bloody streets hold for them."

"Meanwhile as they starve and grow ill after drinking polluted water or being bitten by vermin of sewers that are falling apart at their seem. My family's legacy of charity is tarnished as the Wayne name is used to further the nightmare that today is with new harmful technologies and it's part in corrupting and enslaving this city with it's merciless greed for wealth and control."

"I want to go out there again. I suffer with the desperate need to do it all over,to feel the cold of air of the night from within inside the suit again. To be the one who answers the cries of the night when no one else will. But as much I need to,it doesn't change the fact I can't. My body aches in agonising exhaustion even as i sit writing. My legs no longer can alone hold me,my basic motor functions are reliant on a stick. Bounding me to my seat as I am unable to looks away from the city falling apart in front me. Dying with neon decoy. As I look out of my window I know ablied bodied fighters are doing what they can out here. Yet I can't help but think it's helpless. I feel apathy wash over me with every word uttered by fake personalities on the news. A sick uncanny blue ghost relaying the news everyone knows but can't bare to hear. Its over there are no ways back. All that is left is ways for things to get worse."

"It's day three of the new year and things already have."

"A man in his late forties has killed serval people at a party. It was recorded to be cybernetics influenced episode of psychosis in the man who was a well trained killer. Hewas trained to be vanguard of corporate power,ex-private military,WaynePowers. But he was sick all the same no matter his. It doesn't change his right to receive fair help. Yet the only medicine prescribed to him was a bullet to the brain. Its not right,it's all so wrong.."

"The missing persons reports from New years are still filling in. Young women and men,older ones too all swept up by unknown hands in midst of celebrations. Unexpecting and unprepared they never stood a chance. Single mothers never to return to thier child. Spouses forever lost,sons and daughters never to make it back to their mothers. Young lives lost,their growth no longer able to recorded by parents. Friends robbed from each other never to be able to make memories together again."

To listen whilst/after reading

"SORRY MAN THIS IS IMPORTANT" The young,rough looking delinquent calls out as he charges through and into the one chance he has to make it in time. Unable to slip past the exhausted worker ,who is probably dragging himself home after a gruelling full day of work,the young delinquent was forced to push past. Unaware of his own strength the delinquent applies too much force to the action causing the worker with sunken eyes to hit the doors hard nearly stumbling into a fall that would have left him inbetween the platform and vehicle.

The impact of an adult man being pushed into the opening doors of Gotham City State's aged metro train barely draws the attention of even the two passengers closest to the culprit and victim of the 'aggravated' shove

"You psycho I could have fell onto the tracks, what is your problem kid!"

The agitated middle aged worker yells at the figure which is already rushing further into the train car. Only one bystander cursed under their breath in support of the shoved man. The rest looked to him with growing annoyance as he blocked a crowd from a door into their already late transport. The worker is left with only one option, put his head down and get out of the way. No body seems to give a damn. Why should he? It was at least less hassle then having to deal with one of those jokerz on his way home..

The moment the delinquent claims the obscured corner of the interior his hand wraps around a sticker covered beam so he may have a anchor to the moment, this is in hopes of preventing a futher spiral into the depths of a panic attack. He got the spot,hopefully it will save him for having to pay the fee he can't afford. All he needs to do is stay unnoticed from now on.

In rapid patterns he tapped his worn footwear on the cold metal floor of the public transit. The piling on of passengers drags at an agonising pace. Every second feels like serval minutes,each minute the chances getting to his destination before it is too late plummets. Desperate for reassurance the delinquent pulls out the barely functioning slab of circuits crammed into a plastic case he calls a phone. Message after message he fires off. As he begs the universe,offering everything he has to it just so he could get a response. Nothing mattered besides this. Every concerned and or stern text from his father and mother meant nothing to him. All that did matter was her

*Angel fire is typing..*

It was like an arching green line of life displayed on a hospital monitor after nothing but a eerie unmoving stretch of frightening emerald.

The ability to breath returns to the scruffy streetkid. And for a moment his erratic drumming of the floor stops. Now a anxious anticipation consumes him. Tension rebuilds in his heart as he waits and waits.....

In the next moment however the sign of activity ceases..

"No-No-no,please pleaseee"

The tough delinquent raised on the rough streets of Gotham. The kid who'd fight anyone who would dare target someone vulnerable. The boy who would skip lessons to just get more practice in his wrestling class to ensure he'd know how to inflict the most stern beating of his bully when they faced off in a rivalry match. This kid,this punk was reduced to a pleading bundle of fear on the brink of breaking down into a puddle of sobs and sorrow. This felt like it. When the best thing in his life is robbed from him. When he would lose the one Angel in this hell. The best and most resilient woman this godforsaken city ever had produced. His eyes begin to sting as the uncomfortable and still unfamiliar sense of crying gets ready to overwhelm his person.

*Angel Fire:Burnley old post office*

The tears froze before they could begin. The delinquent felt his whole self fortify as he read the brief message. He quickly typed out a response to assure her he was approaching. She needed to know help was near. He needed to be strong,he needed..to..to.....wait..it dawns him he barely knows anything about Burnley, first he would need to know where this post office is,which level out of the assumed serval levels of Burnley this place would on. The train had already started moving without him realising. They were approaching the second stop along the route as he finally looked up to the old screen built into the passenger car that showed their current location.

Time. He has time to sort this still, or so he tells himself. Not many people would have the to heart to hope but the delinquent was an outcast for a reason.

Right now he needed to know how to get to his Angel. He jumped to the basics first and used his phone to quickly get an idea of how to get to this old post office. Within a minute of pulling out his device he knew what level the abandoned establishment was on. It was on the last level of Burnley before the Undergoth. bad news. That meant the stop would be at least four or maybe even 5-6 levels below the metro stop. A stop he was yet to even know the location of. The streetkid attempted the tried and tested method again. Attempting to have the Net deliver his answer to him,unfortunately no clear answer could be given. As the City State's transit was a confusing anarchy of a transport system that even the web's smart AIs couldn't make sense of. The only option left available to him was a peeling map physically put up near the entrance to the car. A substitute for the perpetually broken projected map. Without a second thought the delinquent pushed off the beam he had held onto for physical and emotional support. As he marched over to where he hoped the answers he was desperate for were. Leaving the safety of his corner for the middle of the partially full transport. He looked upon the map with a confused, but determined expression as he began to decipher it.

The map was a multi coloured cluster of lines that intersected and forked off from each other. In parts its layered over itself and merged with other lines. It was challenge to make even the slightest sense of it. Enough of a inconvenience for most to just figure things out another way without it. But the streetkid's refreshed fierce steel resolve did not waver. It remained focused on untangling the cypher of different routes and stops until bit by bit he began to understand what he was examining.Eventually he had found the stop he needed.

By then the train itself was only few stops away from Burnley. He was so close to her now. So determined. So desperate..and it was clear as he turn around with intention to go back to his corner it hit him that he was also so..screwed. The miserable monitor of the metro had just entered the train car. A dull drone apart of the Arkham companies mass surveillance efforts. It was manually scanning tickets. Something the delinquent skipped over getting, having instead opted for the quicker vaulting over the gate tacit to catch the train that very well could be the difference between life and death.

He turned back around to play off the worrying development by calmly walking towards the door to the next passenger car ahead. His step was a bit to quick and body language too suspicious not for the monitor to notice,requesting the delinquent to hault. He froze for only a moment and thought about the empty pockets he had,not a single credit of change on him,he thought of an excuse and looked to his surroundings. There were not a lot of options available to him...finally he looked up to check how many stops they were until this run down,near rusting snake of steel arrived in Burnley. Four stops remaining.

Desperation for a trick or delay kept the streetkid in the same petrified spot. If he gets caught out now he knows he'll be thrown out of this train far too earlier to make it in time to get to her.

Unsatisfied with the wait the monitor drone calls out another order.

"Present your authorised ticket before forceful ejection to the soonest available platform"

As it prepared to draw in closer to the delinquent giving him even less of a chance to wiggle his way out of this. A miracle strikes. The transport slows on approach to its next stop. People begin to shuffle to the exit with even more haste than usual to escape the awkward confrontation. And as the train stops and people start to pile off and in. The drone finds itself on the other side of a disinterested crowd that unintentionally divides the delinquent and the drone. Blocking the surveillance servant from acting out its duty. And allowing the streekid to slip into the next car. Which is already nearly overflowing with tired sluggish bodies. Taking advantage of this,The delinquent is quick to position himself in the most awkward of places. To make it harder for him to be found by the drones inevitable sweep of this car in its pursuit for him.

After some awkward moments of passing through and into crowds,an opportunity arises as the streetkid sees someone who looks to be around his age. A girl with bold long and wild white hair. He gets up next to her as the doors facing the platform close and the train begins to move onward once more. At the same time the door to the car he had to just came from opened and quickly slides shut with a clunky crash. The punk doesn't look back he knows what it is,rather he looks down at the woman in front of him and removes his long, tattered and easily identifiable brown jacket placing it on her shoulders. A way to appear charming whilst also changing his look to make it harder to be identified by his pursuer

"Y'know a girl as hot as you doesn't deserve to be col-"

He's cut off by a confused tone of a familiar voice,that turns around and looks up at the plastered face of the delinquent with a spark of recognition in the blue-greyish pupils of a girl from the streetkid's recent history.

"Terry? Terry Mcginnis,I can't believe it,are..were you just trying to flirt with me"

She looked different, not beyond recognition from the front but the wild bushy white hair from the rear certainly didn't give the impression of the girl the delinquent knew as his former poplar chic classmate. However as a surprised Bobbi Sommer gazed upon the rough looking misfit ,all Terry could focus on was the sound of disgruntled passengers starting to get scanned by the drone just a few feet behind them as the monitor looks for the rugged, cut face of Mcginnis. He had to act now.

"Maybe I was..maybe i wasn't" he says as he his hands move to hover over the waist of Bobbi before a nod from her gives the greenlight for terry to hold her by it. He takes her off guard the second he does by whisking her away towards one of the windows of the transport as she lets out a small surprised wooo noise. Its accompanied by grunts and complaints from the people around them that Terry bumps into before he feels his back agasint the marked up window. Briefly he sees the light of the monitor's scan before he leans down into Bobbi. His face able to feel the warmth of hers as it flushes.

"You certainly are bold now, I'll give you that Mcginnis" Bobbi tells him. Though he doesn't fully listen. He hears the words but just sees the ways he can follow them up so he can maintain his cover from the drone

"Thats just the start. Watch this" he says before hosting her her up allowing and encouraging her to wrap her legs around his torso. To her its another surprise from the boy she knew back in high-school. For him a way to further block himself from the scanning of the drone,his face now fully blocked from the monitor's view due to having not only a grown woman in the way,but one with wild hair that only further thickens the veil he had hoisted up to hide his face. The attepmt is tested as the drone's blue scanning lights and buzzing sounds begins to examine the scene of the two from its position in the center of the train car ,it is only able to see Bobbi's maine of hair and her figure clad in Terry's long coat. Which is already baggy on him and extra so on her. Seeing it as nothing more than none detrimental shenanigans that won't disrupt order it turns and continues to sweep the train in search for Mcginnis. Not bothering to check the man behind the white haired woman.

"Who is this? You are a farcry from the Terry I knew " Bobbi exclaims as she smiles thinking back to simpler times,but also to the absurdity of the present moment. Her eyes comb over the face of the delinquent she hadn't seen for years. At least she knows he still is scrappy misfit with his nose that seemed always be broken by new fight,of which a new bruise or cut was probably eanred from. And of course that same old ratty brown coat he was inseparable from in high-school, which now hangs off her shoulders. It feels like great to her. There's a weighted silence as she looks at the man he now is. "Well is it a good farcry?" He asked,he was a streetkid. Lying to get by wasn't new,but it felt so weird to do it like he knew he had to here.

"Well..I did always like the old Terry. Kinda wish..no i really wish I wasn't so different back then. You and Dana were good people. I bet you two?..still are" Bobbi confessed. It was a surprise to Terry for the most part but the question of about Dana and him was always going to be asked with him playing his cards how he is. Now in the corner of his sight he takes note of how the monitor has nearly moved onto the the next passenger car

"Um ..,uh long story for another time. For now tell me what have you been up to. Are you still going by Blade" Terry asks avoiding the question and pivoting to a easier way to prolong the cover.

"Yeah,Bobbi blade mostly nowadays. Trying out for a band actually, so I liked the ring of Bobbie Blade on a poster more than just Blade. I think you may like the music. Truth be told you inspired me to get into the totally shway music in the first place" Bobbi happily explained enjoying a positive reunion after a long day. She was invested in it,wrapped up even. Wrapped up enough in it to let Terry's shallow response of "uh huh"' pass. But as she continues to share, she couldn't ignore how Terry's eyes foucee elsewhere for long. He was looking to door to the next passenger car. Her enjoyment wavers as she asks"Are.. are you good?"

It takes Terry a long second to process what she said as he was focused on watching the monitor finish the last lf its first sweep of this car and move on. However as the words finally reach his brain his eyes return to his former classmate "what? Yeah,yeah I'm good just, ah thinkinga bit..um..just thinking you know?"

"Thinking about what" Bobbie asks as she is let down and wears a considerate and concerned expression.

The streekid has to physically swallow his shame down to do what he does next.

He looks deep into the blue-greyish almost steel eyes of Blade. "Thinking about you. how I wished I picked you back in high school. About how much I miss you. How light drains from my day without you. And that every night I would close my eyes back then,and a bit now even; when did it-when do, I would see pure beauty lingering in my mind. I'd see you " he lied to her. He thought of Dana as the words verbalised throughout the painfully uncomfortable seconds speech he gave. Each second of the 'confession' was felt like sin agasint his true love. Bobbi is stunned unsure on how to respond just uttering "I..I didn't you felt that way." Silence hung over the two for a moment after, as Blade inched closer to Terry once again. He held his head low after the words he shared. But a soft call of his name from Bobbi prompted him to raise his head to meet her's as an awkward anomalous magnetism pulled their lips to meet. Terry braced as if ready to take hit as she closed her eyes and committed to a kiss. He closed his eyes and tried to picture his actual love as he played into the lie.

Guilt tears at his inwards as he forces himself to not let it show. This deception was needed to save her. He made himself look infatuated with the moment as the two opened their eyes. Bobbi's smile widens. "Not to bad for a misfit.."

Terry manages to maintain the facade for long enough. As they pull in to the next stop. Bobbi looks up to Terry from their hug,and asks simply if she can put her number into his phone.

"NO. I mean yes of course. Just let me do it. Wouldn't want you missing your stop because my half-broken phone held you up" he scrambled to recover from his instinctual denial of the offer. Keeping the truth unseen was more important to Terry than keeping the facade seamless however in his eyes the facade was still needed. He tried his best to make side ,to keep playing along in game he started out of necessity.

Even after the awkwardness of his odd response, Bobbi still shares her number as Terry pulls out his phone to input it into contacts. As he does however his breath becomes unsteady as he sees a harrowing sign.

Five missed calls from Angel Fire

"Everything okay ?" Blade asks noticing a hint of something in Terry,the color in his skin subtlety shifting to one that started to show his true fear more.

"Yeah. Just can't believe this is finally happening. Thought the day would never come.." Terry responds

"Well I guess ,maybe dreams do come true then Mcginnis" with that Bobbi leaves the mistft Terry mcginnis with a kiss on the cheek and a wave goodbye as she gets off at her stop.

As Terry finally breathes freely all the panic and worry crashes back into him. As he tries to call back his angel. She doesn't pick up. Attempts to get a hold her continue to fail and fail. The moment darkened, everything twists into a dark obsidian coloured dread,as choked as polluted sky of similar shade visbable outside of the windows.. No longer did seeing the train get closer to his destination fuel his hope,even if now they were only two stops away.

Terry starts to feel dizzy as he slumps agasint a filthy pole put there supporting those standing on the metro. He's sick with fear. It feels like it is already too late. "Nightmares come true too" he mutters in response to a Bobbi who is already gone.

..As the doors of the transport begin to open to his destination, as the doors are only a quarter of the way open,the delinquent flies out in desperation and in rising despair. He essentially leaps over to the platform, hitting the ground hard. He's the first one off and uses being so to his advantage as he beats the other passengers to the gates of the sataion,which like he did to catch ride intailly, he vaults over the gates ,finally making contact with Burnley streets. He begins to sprint following where his phone told him to go. For the last two stops there has been no activity from Angel-fire. Words could no longer describe how severely fear and worry ate at him. As he rushes down the stairs descending down levels,taking short cuts,making record pace in what feels like vain hopes its not too late.He hears it before he sees it. Yelling,mocking and berating. It has to be them. He was one level above. He didn't even register how much his body was being pushed. Terry did thing only he could and pushed himself further. Dashing to the edge of his level to peer down at the place he been dying to arrive at.

He sees her. Such a strong woman. Even as amateur wrester Terry would always respectfully say his love,Dana gave him a run for his money in the athletics department. He remembers how his friends back disagreed. Maybe he just saw all the strength and resilience he knew was on inside on the outside even when other couldn't. In that moment time froze. Shoulder legnth raven hair always a perfect stylish mess or well styled gracefully do,was now clumped in the first of thug Terry saw as pure evil. Her pale dress was dirtied and roughed up from running aswell being put through a beating. The four thugs hurled verbal abuse like no tomorrow. Mcginnis didn't bother with stairs as time resumed,it was now or never. He had to.

He threw himself over edge the level. He came down on a roof a building ,feet first. It hurt so much as his legs absorbed the impact. He didn't let it hinder him. He navigated down from roof,onto to streets. He rembers being in the alleyway across from the attack seeing her notice him. Eyes pleading and scared. He recalls the pain he ignored in his legs as he rushed towards her. And then?... and..then ,he doesn't know what happened.

He only comes to again as his aching knuckles bleed as him and Dana cling to each other. Finally allowing themselves to break down. Her shocked eyes. Her shaking and hard she held him is something he'll never forget. She was nearly murdered tonight. Death had never been so close to the two of them like this before. It shook them as thoroughly as it possible could have.

He doesn't know how long they sat there holding eachotherclose as they sobbed without an end in sight. As the unconscious bodies the thugs sent on her lie nearby. Everything hurt.

Dana and Terry struggled to drag themselves up the levels afterwards. Struggling to get to top as the adrenaline was leaving both of their bodies. They slump agasint a streetlight outside of the metro station. Without a single Gotham City Credit between them however the train wasn't an option. Mcginnis had to finally answere the 47 missed messages and serval missed phone calls from his parents. He would call his father asking in laboured breath to be picked up his voice shaking enough for his father's dissappearoval and stress to vanish from his tone as he said he'll be as fast as he could.