batwomans_gotham | Can't run from me.....

The pushing made him think of Alfred suddenly. School, a cold winter's morning.

"I don't wanna get up, five more minutes," came his voice. Then he blinked. Wait, his voice didn't sound like that. What was there, helium or something in that explosion that just happened?

Explosion.

He shot up suddenly, almost knocking heads with the little girl in front of him. That was funny, he didn't remember a little girl being with him right now, the only one that was his best friend was Rachel, but she wasn't Rachel, she was...

Katalyn. He wasn't just Bruce, he was Batman. And something very bad had just happened here. He looked down, not exactly afraid to see the change that had been brought upon himself, but more like resigned, knowing what had happened.

"Great. Just great. At least the costumes shrank with us."

She gasped when she saw him, then looked down. "Oh man," she said, staring at her flat chest and awkward legs and arms, which were just starting to outgrow her torso.

"We're kids," she said, falling back on her butt, pulling off a glove and looking at her hand. "Like.... small."

Suddenly her street urchin instinct kicked in, and she pulled on her glove and got to her feet, suddenly feeling extremely vulnerable and almost as if she'd already been snatched and taken by some pervert. "We have to go, now! Now, come on!"

"This really sucks," he looked at his own small self with a sigh. This had happened to him one time too many. He placed his own age about nine or ten, from the height and shape of his body, and prepared himself to deal with the instincts that came along with being a child that fuddled the rational areas of the mind. He had always been mature for his age, as he had said once, he hadn't been a kid since he was eight years old.

"Wait, what about the scientist?" His annoyingly high childlike voice rang out. Boy did that not fit in with the whole Batman scheme. "We have to look for clues, we have to find out where he went! He's gotta be a kid too, and we have to turn ourselves back. Where do you think you're going?"

"Nowhere without you, and we can't stay here any more, it's night time!" she said desperatly, grapping his arm. "Come on, please, just trust me. We'll have to come back tomorrow, there are bad people out at night who just look for kids! The scientist is long gone by now, we can catch him when we get big again, just please follow me."

He began to protest, his stubborn mind totally bent on finding that scientist, and something small in the back of his head reminded him that it was his fault in the first place. But then he remembered that he in fact was a kid and wouldn't be powerful enough to fight of some attackers, no matter how hard he tried.

"Fine. Whatever." He pouted a little and let her lead him to whatever she was talking about.

"There are bad gangs around here," she said, voice soft and full of fright as she pulled him up and then lead him deeper into the alley, finding an old manhole and unsheathing a claw, working at it desperately for a few minutes before she finaly managed to shove it open.

"Come on, these pipes are abandoned. Only people who live here are here," she said, pulling him down after her, feeling a little better when she'd gotten down.

It was pitch black in the tunnels, but she could see fine, and nodded, her tiny heart racing as she tried to calm down.

"Um... that way," she said, pointing and taking Bruce's hand so he wouldn't get lost, pulling him after her as she started leading him down a series of complicated and abandoned tunnels.

He simply let her lead her where she wanted, he didn't really know this area all that well though he seemed to recall knowing the fact that people lived there. Somehow, being down here as a small child, brought an odd feeling to his stomach. It was tingly and not at all pleasant. Oh yeah, fear. That old fear of his that he had buried under so many years he wasn't sure if he was afraid anymore. But now as kid? Oh yeah, he was.

"I hope there's no bats down here," came a small voice behind her, a sheepish admittance at that.

She blinked, then shook her head.

"Big rats... spiders, maybe a snake... but no bats. They can't get in, too far away from outlets," she said softly, a few minutes later she nodded, feeling a little better. "We're here."

"Good." He visibly relaxed, the spiders and snakes and rats didn't bother him as much as those things did. Which stood to reason why in the world was he still wearing his costume, but oddly enough his costume had more of a security blanket feel at the moment.

"What is this nasty place?" He looked around, wrinkling his nose up in disgust.

She had just been opening up the secret trapdoor that went to her cavern, and was pulling him up inside, when the comment hit her. She yanked him up and then shut the door, turning on the light to reveal a dirty, small compartment area that had been filled. One corner had blankets and pillows. Next to it was a cooler for food, and then a few stacks of old, dusty books.

She stared at him, then her eyes filled with tears as she shoved him as hard as she could.

"Shut your mouth about my home!" she yelled, furious. "Not all of us are rich, you know! Not all of us have homes, or servants, or big, fancy lawns and room and rooms full of toys! Not all of our mommies could die coming out of a fancy opera play, some of them died while trying to be able to afford food for the night! We're not all spoiled, rich, dummies that stuff our mouths whenever we please, and we can't all afford nice, safe places to sleep, so shut your mouth about my HOME!"

With that she started to weep, and turned, throwing herself onto the bed, starting to weep stormily and burry herself under the blankets.

He just blinked when she started yelling at him and then crying, not exactly sure what he did to provoke that kind of reaction. He did seem to dimly remember having this kind of effect on kids a lot, except this time, he was one. He realized what she just said about him, and he blinked faster, trying to figure out why he felt hot and his vision was all blurry.

"You don't know anything about me, so don't even try it," he said low and growly, and if he had been older it might have been menacing. Without the sniffle that happened after it. But he sat down, feeling a bit rotten that she had taken what he said so badly, holding his chin in his hands, looking at the dirty floor.

"You can't diss my home," she sobbed. "It's all I got. I don't got no other place. I ain't rich. You can't diss my home!"

There was a sudden bump from above, then the sound of something tumbling down the wall. A moment later, out a small hole in the wall, a slightly scruffy, dust-covered kitten wearing a Bat costume of her own appeared, looking out and mewing. She blinked at Bruce, then looked over at Katalyn and bolted for her, meweing loudly in sympathy and licking her cheeks.

Still overcome Katalyn's hands shook as she grabbed the kitty and held her close.

He scowled but didn't say anything else, he felt that he might make her cry more and he didn't want to make an enemy of her, not while they were like this. Even though he was so used to being alone as an adult, as a kid, it wasn't as easy.

"Why's that cat wearing a Bat-costume?" He asked a bit sullenly, chin still cupped in his hands while he sat.

It took her a moment to calm down, but finally she rolled over, holding the kitty and looking at him, still deeply hurt.

"I found her in a nexus," she sniffed, wiping her eyes. "She really liked the Bruce Wayne there, and when I saw her next she was wearing this. But a meanie was picking on her, and so I brought her home with me. I was gonna give her to you, but you're just as mean as that dumb Robin and you don't deserve her!"

He narrowed his eyes at her chastisement. He didn't really care much about animals either way normally, but cats did have kind of a different meaning to them, and he felt surprised at his jealousy that she was keeping the kitty all to herself.

"I don't care," he muttered. "I just wanna go home. I hate this fakey double Gotham." All he wanted right then was Alfred, to go home to his Gotham, his house, his cave.

"Well when Batwoman comes back you can just leave," she shook her head, surprised that she was really upset that he did want to leave.

He looked up, still sullen. "She can't come back. Not yet. She's still really sick, I don't know when she'll get better but it isn't soon." He drew circles in the grime that was on the floor. "And we have to stay together for now. So even though I really want outta here, we're stuck together." He suddenly felt like sticking his tongue out at her, but suppressed the urge.

"You don't like me 'cause I'm poor," she said sullenly.

He gave her a long look. "No, I don't like you because you're actin' like a little kid."

"So are you," she growled. Then finally she pouted.

"If you lived like I had you'd be afraid to. You're dumb."

"You're dumb. Whiny, too. I'm smarter than you." He gave a pout too, and a little scowl, he didn't like her to keep using the 'poor' card, he really couldn't win against that one.

"I am not whiny. 'm smart. If you were really smart you'd be scared, too. And I don't mean your big, dumb, fancy education smart. I mean the street smart you can only get by living on the street. Stuff you can't learn out of a big, expensive book or in your palace on the hill," she spat.

"I am street smart!" He said with a little kid growl. "I've been fighting crime longer than...uh...well, for a long time, anyway. And regular smarts can get you out of a lot more than street smarts can. Like this little problem we have now? We need scientists to figure this one out." He huffed, crossing his arms over his chest.

"We won't survive to find a scientist if we don't respect the dangers out there," she said back, hugging the kitten. "And you were never out here as a little kid. The rules are different for us, now. We can't hit the bigger people."

"I'd hit the bigger people. And I don't care about the dangers out there, I'm Batma..." He looked down at himself, trailing off. Then he scowled up a storm and kicked at the ground. He didn't like the changing of the rules. Well, in that case, he'd have to change with them.

Re: A few hours later

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