Wax Figurine | T. Drake ✔

[00]

It was usually silent at that time of the night. Usually but that night, it was quite loud.

The earsplitting sounds of explosions were keeping her from sleeping and she didn't know what was going on outside. But then she was fully aware that anything could go wrong at any time in Gotham and she didn't live that far from the city to not get affected by it.

A solitary bio-dome with a pod accommodation and a laboratory was cleverly hidden in the forest on the periphery of Gotham. It was camouflaged into the thick undergrowth of the forest and had all the necessary security systems to make sure that the sole occupant within did not come to any harm in case of an emergency.

Not many people ventured there so they didn't know that a teenager lived by herself in that small but efficient setup.

Around eighteen or nineteen years old, a girl lived in that hideout by herself and had never gone to the city as everything she needed was available in that compact home she had. Her parents had made sure that she would not have any difficulty in managing on her own as they already knew they weren't going to be with her for long back when they fixed that place up.

Olivia McArthur had grown up with experiments being performed all around her. Her parents were scientists who specialized in nuclear, biological and chemical sciences combined. Her father used to work for Cadmus and her mother assisted him.

But their lives were plunged into danger when Cadmus went corrupt and it resulted in their staff being targeted.

As an escape and attempt to protect their daughter, Gemma and Ashlar McArthur had taken refuge in a hideout the family made for themselves in the forest. It was a self-sustaining unit enough for hiding a family of three and all the undercover work they had been carrying out.

But that family didn't get to escape their chasers for long. Gemma and Ashlar were forced to choose surrender or else their daughter could be taken away too.

The accusations put over them due to their association with Cadmus landed them a lengthy sentence in prison and they dared not tell anyone about their daughter's existence for fear that she will be treated the same way.

So for Olivia, her parents left one night and never returned.

Ever since then, she had been in isolation, staying away from the city that she considered responsible for her parents' disappearance.

That night something disastrous was going on in the city again and she could hardly care less. Things blew up in Gotham very often, people died and sometimes those responsible for it got put behind bars. But she felt that it no longer had any significance to her.

The only problem she had was that the explosions were too loud, not letting her sleep in peace.

"Vanya, put on the news please."

Her only other companion was an automated voice that sounded somewhat like her mother as Gemma had programmed a system for their house's security and other functions.

And Olivia had named that software Vanya, using it to manage the tasks in their small but sustainable setup. For years the only company Olivia had had was that software, talking back to her whenever she wanted it to.

The screen showed a live broadcast of Gotham being put through perils by some criminals again. Bored, she switched off the broadcast, trying to look for something else to occupy herself with in the meantime.

Gotham was helpless without Batman and news had been circulating around that the Dark Knight had died on duty but the rest of the vigilantes were keeping it under wraps.

Olivia wasn't interested in any conspiracy theories but she too believed that Batman was no longer able to protect Gotham and after him, the city was half torn at the seams. The criminals were getting greater in number and it was getting harder to round them up.