kamna

Nearly every night she loses herself in the chaos and destruction that is Gotham City. It's a beautiful city in the daytime, but it's glorious at night. Any given evening you can find the wicked and insane running amok trying to pull off their acts of violence without being cornered by The Batman. Kamna has yet to run into The Batman. She's watched him from rooftops as he found his way to the middle of the chaos in an attempt to bring order. To bring fear.

She finds him fascinating of course. He's as flawed and insane as those he fights, yet he believes he is the instrument of justice in this beautifully destructive city. The reporter in her wants to corner him, to get answers, to figure out what drives a man to do the things he does. To demand to know what special powers he has, and how he got them. There are so many questions, but The Batman doesn't give interviews. He wants to be left alone.

The criminal in Kamna hopes to never run into the overgrown Bat as she is working her way through whichever fancy home, shop or museum that she chooses to target on any given night. She wants to pull off her job without drawing any attention to herself. She wants to get away with her privacy intact. Kamna is good at what she does, and so is The Batman.

It seems inevitable that one night their paths will cross.

It's at night when she feels the most alive. Her days are spent being a good girl. No, correction, a woman hungry for the truth. She has long outgrown being a girl. If asked she would swear she stopped being a girl long before she was out of her teen years. Life has a way of aging you. Experience has a way of taking away your idealism and replacing it with a healthy dose of realism. It's not that she would call herself a cynic, but sometimes at night in Gotham it's hard not to be.

The freaks come out at night. They reveal their true colors. She knows she is not the only one disguising her true nature as well as her appearance. Sometimes when she is following a story she finds herself wondering if the person she is interviewing is one of the freaks at night. How many of them are cops? Businessmen and women? Mothers? Fathers? Students? They reveal one side of their personality under the rays of the shining sun, and become someone else entirely under the cover of night.

The night doesn't offer much cover this evening. It's a starless night with a moon that is entirely too bright. It's not a full moon. Only a crazy person would wander the streets of Gotham on a full moon. Though during the day, Kamna would tell you only a crazy person would wander the streets of Gotham at night. She would say it with a smile, and a tone that made you believe she believed it as well. She's that crazy person who prowls the streets even on a night with no stars in the sky and too bright of a moon. Tonight she is following a story. When it's darker she may be the one creating the story. That is what she loves about nights in Gotham. There is always a chance to create your own story.

When I was a little girl I wanted to become a journalist so that I could help save the world. My father laughed at me. He warned me that the press, just like all other careers that wielded power, was corrupted. He said I was naive if I believed I would ever be permitted to expose the sharks in society for the predators they were. My father, he was a good man, but he was very cynical. He didn't trust the world he lived in. He thought that the only people you could truly believe in was you family. My father died much too young and broken. I wish I could have found a way to help him. I think his distrust for the world around him attributed to his early death.

My brother believed our world is dangerous. He mastered martial arts at a very young age by studying with the best teachers my father's money could buy. My father was a doctor who didn't believe the world around him could be saved. My brother was a man who believed that the only way to protect the world was to teach people how to protect themselves. In their own ways they tried to save the world. My father by saving people, and my brother by empowering them. I wanted to uncover the truth of the world we live in. To bring news to those around us by exposing those sharks my father warned me about, and shining the spot light on the real heroes that walk around us.

I don't mean those that wear costumes as they take to vigilante justice. I mean those doctors, police officers, the boy who runs out into the street at the risk of being hit by a car to save the woman who tripped while crossing the street. There are good people in our world. People who work hard to help those less fortunate. The philanthropists who donate to charity and build home and career opportunities for people who feel hopeless. The inventors and doctors and scientists who work on progress. These are the stories I want to tell. Yes, there is a thrill in exposing the bad guy, and playing a part in getting them off the streets, but the true joy comes from introducing the world to heroes. To reminding them that hope still exists around us if we only know where to look. I guess in this competitive world of journalism I am holding tight to optimism while most are cynical like my father. Perhaps I'm a fool, but I'm still working to change the world.

Sometimes Kamna wondered if it was fate that led her to Smallville during the last Meteor shower. She had stopped for gas, and to take some cash out of the atm. Her real destination was Metropolis. She had a job interview with The Daily Planet, and wanted to make a good impression. It was one of the most respected newspapers in the world after all. She had just completed her Master's in Journalism at Washington State University, and was ready to get her foot in the door at one of the best newspapers in the country. She'd heard rumors of strange things that happened in Smallville, Kansas and thought that bringing the paper a juicy story would increase her chances of being hired.

It was an expose on LuthorCorp. One that she worked very hard on researching. She wasn't naive enough to believe it would actually be published. Lex and Lionel Luthor had proved a long time ago that they had a way of making sure things they didn't want exposed were never seen in the press. The fact that LuthorCorp had connections at the Planet made it a calculated risk. Either the story would buy her a way into the door, or it would endanger her life. Kamna was willing to take the chance.

The gas tank was filled, and she found her way to the atm. Just as she was typing in her pin number the meteors hit. She hadn't even known a shower was expected. Something happened in that moment. Something that she would chalk up to fate and destiny. The shop owner was killed in the blast, but Kamna Patel walked away. In fact, she walked away with the entire contents of the ATM machine. She'd somehow managed to tap into the electronic controls and forced it to give her what she wanted.

It was a fluke, she told herself. Just a simple fluke due to the storm. She convinced herself of this until she tested out her ability to control computers by overriding security at a museum and walking away with a priceless heirloom or two. All thoughts of becoming a journalist at a paper so close to Smallville were tossed out. She knew enough from local gossip to know that avoiding all things Luthor and Smallville was the key to surviving if you were gifted with meteor enhanced abilities. Not that she could prove Luthor was behind what happened to some of the meteor infected people. He was a Scientist though, and she didn't want to risk him trying to unravel the mystery that she now was.

For awhile she traveled to various cities, perfecting her gift, and building up her own secret identity. After all, if you were going to run the risk of running into those costumed superhero types you had better be able to conceal your own identity. She stuck to the basics. No spider or bat costumes for her. Instead she prided herself in stealing from the ninjas that her father and brother had admired. She would leave at night, dressed in all black, her face mostly covered as she used the martial arts abilities she learned from her brother and the gift from the meteor shower she survived to take what she wanted when she wanted it. New York suited her tastes for a bit, but soon she decided it was overrun with superhero types. Gotham only had The Batman and it's own collection of freaks that kept The Batman busy.

Gotham was the perfect place for someone like Kamna to blend in. She got a job at the local paper, The Gotham Gazette, and found an apartment with a nice view of the city. By day she reported on the news in the city, and by night she pulled off jobs that would make the next day's headlines. It was a good life, and she finally felt like she fit in. She didn't need to travel anymore. Gotham was home.