Chapter Text
“You think we’ll get stopped by airport security once we land?” Carlton asks, amused, looking through the plane window, overseeing Gotham City from above.
“Don’t speak that into existence, Carlton.” Jessica replied, chastising Carlton with a look.
Sammy made an annoyed sound at the hypothetical scenario Carlton spoke about, snuggling up to Jessica while resting his head on her shoulder.
“You think we’ll get to see Batman? I really wanna see Batman.” Charlie asked, opting to look out the plane window too.
“You’re more excited about seeing Batman rather than the fact that you’re going to one of, if not, Gotham City’s best school?” Jessica replied to Charlie, giving the brown haired girl a look.
“Well… I like the idea of both!” Charlie says, embarrassed, towards Jessica.
“Didn’t Dad go to Gotham City once? And he got rescued by Robin? When we were like fourteen or something…?” Sammy asks Charlie, his voice a little groggy from sleeping throughout almost the entirety of the flight.
“Your dad got saved by Robin?” Carlton asks, whipping his head to Sammy’s direction once he heard him say.
“Mhm.” Sammy mutters to Carlton.
Suddenly, a woman came up to them, clearly part of the cabin crew. “I’m sorry, but the flight is about to land, and we recommend you all to have your seats up correctly.”
Charlie squeaked out a quick ‘sorry’ to the flight attendant, as they all begrudgingly positioned their seats correctly, Sammy complained a little about not being able to rest on Jessica’s shoulder anymore, and Charlie simply looked away, not being able to witness her twin brother and her best friend be stupidly in love together.
Soon enough, some time later, the flight landed into Gotham City, and they all exited the plane in a quick manner.
“Thank goodness you didn’t speak that into existence, Carlton.” Jessica huffed to Carlton once they were finally able to fetch their luggage from the airport.
“Of course not! I wouldn’t wish that on any of us! I’ve gotten too many close calls with law enforcement to dream of that happening to us!” Carlton says to Jessica in a high and mighty voice.
“You only say that because you grew up with your dad being a part of the SLCPD.” Jessica barks back at Carlton, who just brushes her comment off with a laugh.
“Alright, stop being babies, the taxi is waiting for us outside.” Sammy says to the two, breaking their bickering apart.
“Yeah! And Jessica, didn't you say you wanted to encounter Poison Ivy once in your life?” Charlie chirps at her.
“First of all, I said that while I was drunk! And second of all, that was last year!” Jessica replies to Charlie, walking away from Carlton and towards the twins’ direction.
“Just get in the taxi.” Sammy tells the two, not having to tell Charlie that as she’s the only one who’s actually already sitting inside of the taxi and waiting.
Once all of them are already inside of the taxi, and making their way into Gotham City, does Sammy ask Charlie. “So… we’ll be helping you out with the apartment, and the three of us will be staying in a hotel nearby, right?”
“Yeah, that’s the plan.” Charlie reassures her twin brother, as the taxi makes its way to the apartment building Charlie chose ahead of the school year starting.
Once outside of the taxi, after Sammy gave the driver a tip, they all drag their luggage inside of the building and take the elevator up to Charlie’s apartment.
“What's the apartment like? I remember you saying that your parents helped you with the basic furniture.” Carlton asks Charlie, as the elevator reaches Charlie’s floor, the sixth floor.
“I like it, it’s pretty cozy, but I still need to sort some things out, like how I’m going to finish my little office space, which used to be the guest room, since we already put a desk in there.” Charlie says to Carlton, while she hurls her luggage to the door, unlocking the apartment with the key she had been given.
“Finally, we’re in!” Carlton exclaims once they are all inside of Charlie’s apartment, opting to take out a throw pillow from the couch and laying down on the floor.
On the other hand, after tucking their things to one side, Sammy and Jessica make their way towards the couch, sitting down like normal people do, unlike Carlton.
Jessica pats down a space next to herself on the couch, gesturing at Charlie to sit down and join them.
Charlie complies happily.
“Should we eat out? Or should we get some takeout instead?” Sammy asks at a random moment, calmly, breaking the comfortable silence between them all.
“Takeout.” Charlie, Jessica, and Carlton reply to Sammy simultaneously.
“Takeout, seriously? Are you all that tired…?” Sammy asks with an unimpressed look.
“We could get like… Joker food poisoning! And our drinks could be filled with Killer Croc’s own feces!” Carlton defended his words, to everyone else’s eyebrow raised looks.
“Should I ask why you think that our drinks would be filled with that?” Jessica says to Carlton with a grossed out expression.
Carlton just shrugs and raises his hands in the air as if he were a criminal that has just been caught for a petty crime, “you could never know, Jessica.”
“Okay, okay! I think… we should all take a breather from one another, after spending multiple hours together on a cramped plane… and stuff.” Charlie speaks up, remembering the bickering Jessica and Carlton were having at the airport, and how that could escalate.
“You two can go to the hotel you guys paid for, and actually do a proper check-in.” Charlie suggests to her twin brother and Jessica, gesturing at them.
“Meanwhile… you on the other hand, go outside, take a breather, and head on over to the nearest 7-Eleven, since I remembered you like the hotdogs they sell.” Charlie orders Carlton, pointing at him.
“Alright, after that we all come back to your new apartment for takeout?” Carlton complies with Charlie, but opts to ask her a question after.
“Yeah, that’s the plan.” Charlie replies to him, and answers any other doubts that Sammy and Jessica might have.
In a few minutes, Charlie’s friends, and her brother by association, were gone, leaving her apartment building via the elevator in awkward silence.
And no, Sammy and Jessica didn’t forget their luggage, offering to take Carlton’s own luggage with them to the hotel just to be polite.
Once they were all gone, leaving Charlie alone to her own devices, she decides to get things sorted out, by first opening up her hefty luggage and getting the rather small amount of clothes she brought, out of the way, as she planned to buy more clothes in Gotham. Only bringing essentials and a few of her favorite clothes to wear from back home.
Among the other things she brought, were a couple of books from home for pending re-reading purposes, a brand new journal she bought a couple of days before leaving for Gotham, her laptop, a small digital camera, a few of her CDs, and of course what she needed for her classes at Gotham University.
Charlie opts to put all of the things that weren’t clothes, or at least, meant to be in a bedroom, inside of the office space she made out of what was originally the guest bedroom, placing said pile of things on top of her desk.
She’d organize it all more thoroughly later.
After separating her things, Charlie makes her way towards the balcony, which surprisingly, she hadn’t properly checked out until now.
Sliding the balcony door open, Charlie steps into the balcony, sliding the balcony door shut behind her, “I think Dad would like this balcony…” Charlie mutters to herself, giving the balcony a quick overlook, before something else catches her off guard.
Gun shots.
She hears the sound of gun shots and of yelling, a male voice yells, which intrigues her, “it’s the fuckin’ Red Hood! I told you two jackasses to not pull this shit off here!”
“How was I supposed to know that the freakin’ Red Hood would be here?!” Another male voice tells back, sounding agitated.
“It could’ve been anyone else, I would’ve even taken the freakin’ Bat! At least Batman doesn’t kill!” A third male voice yells, this one having genuine fear in his voice.
Charlie knows that she should be heading back inside, that she shouldn’t be out on the balcony of her new apartment, located in Gotham, this late at night, but not late enough that it would be midnight yet.
But she ignores that little voice in her head urging her to make the correct decision, instead choosing to take the riskier choice, and staying out in the balcony, despite the gun shots and these criminals being more scared over another masked vigilante, and not over Batman.
Suddenly, the sound of footsteps are heard, and the criminals try to attempt to make a run for it, but fail miserably at doing so, getting caught by who Charlie assumes to be the Red Hood.
As quick as it happened, it ends, and Charlie assumes that the criminal men are dead, or at least, bleeding out from their wounds, when she sees a figure make their way out, large and intimidating, a flash of crimson red, blurs of black and dark brown are seen in her vision.
The Red Hood, a masked, intimidating individual, makes a run for it, a red helmet adorns their head, as opposed to a domino mask or to a cowl akin to the likes of Batman, a dark, set of clothing all around, dark boots included, with a cropped, leather brown jacket being the finishing touch.
Charlie doesn’t miss the guns on the Red Hood’s hands, but as the Red Hood turns their head to look back, to look back at Charlie’s general direction, Charlie jumps, a little more so as she hears a deep, garbled, almost robotic voice, coming from the Red Hood’s helmet.
And the Red Hood was gone, leaving Charlie alone, once again to her own devices.
“Charlie, we’re back!” Jessica’s voice calls out of nowhere, breaking the thoughts bubbling inside of Charlie’s mind, opening the apartment door, with Sammy and Carlton in tow.