Chapter 12: [SS]Living a new life

Ruby, that's a name that's been gaining traction lately. Unfamiliar. But I overheard it from one of the policemen accompanying us on our field trip. 

I have played many Batman Games, read a few comics, and seen a few shows. And while I had spent years in the down low of the city and heard dozens of unfamiliar names every one of them was small, no one to fight Cobbelpot, no one to fight Falcone, this was a new one rising to the stage of Gotham. 

And if the guards were anything to go by this dude was big. How? Many answers came to mind but truthfully it could be anything, with not even a twig of information to start the theory boat, I guess all of them call only be put on the back burner. 

Still, as my head bobbed and weaved sitting in the bus, Dina weaned a pout as she smacked the handheld in her hands over her bag, and almost as if by first instinct her eyes full of childish rage turned to me, "Mira! Don't buy War Company! This game sucks!" Like a dutifully...daughter? She informed me about her completely objective assessment. 

Dina in all her wisdom had decided to pick an RTS as her first game on her shiny new handheld, which as I don't even need to point out, is a terrible idea. 

Consoling the pouty kid, I slid away the console from her hands, "Let me see, Alright." She nodded and let it go, seeing the game that had been paused was amusing, to say the least, it was a world-war-two game, she was playing as the SS and losing badly for a lack of Anti-Tank.

As my hands gripped the controls of the game a sense of familiarity set in, I had played many real-time strategies in my lifetime, on a PC, on a console, and on a handheld. I loved this genre to bits, shame it had been so long since I played one. 

It was defiantly trippy as I gave the commands for the construction of a Panzer Support Command. And as my panzer grenadiers held off the advancing Shermans with AT grenades for engine damages, my first Panzer, a Panther rolled off the assembly line, and I felt a blooming smile grow on my face. 

Survive, survival, by any means necessary I had drilled this chant into my core, but as the game drew to a stalemate and as my side seat gamer girl focused her attention solely on the screen—it hit me, Human beings don't just survive, right? If it was survival then. Food, water, and shelter would be it. 

No, we live. And I had forgotten to do that? That would be utterly stupid of me, won't it? 

Handing back the console I pulled out my phone and for the first time in ever, I initiated a conversation on the text channel. 

Me: So I played a video game today...

——— 

I didn't even need to ask. It was already there when I pulled back the gate to my room, Barabra was typing away at a computer that wasn't there when I had left for school. 

It was a black tower with red accents and from the looks of it some very perforated case. 

"Barbara?" Still, I kept my voice calm, no need to startle the lady setting up my system. 

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"Oh, Mira," She said as she pulled up another tab on the PC, "Your text reminded me to set up a PC for you." 

"Reminded?" That was specific. She smiled an embarrassed smile, "Busy, and I kinda didn't have time."

"Could have just told me, could have figured out the install myself." 

"I wanted to build you your first one. Other than Bruce, it's basically a tradition here. Even Dick didn't have a custom system till I built one for him." 

Nodding at her words, I slipped my school bag onto my bed and proceeded to lean over her wheelchair to see her work. 

"Wanna take a look inside?" Her forefinger tapping at the transparent side panel, she asked. 

Sliding the case over the desk—clean, cable managed, modular power supply, a beefy black, and red graphics card hiding most of the motherboard away beneath its frame. 

"The entire thing is back and red eh?" I commented causing her to smile, "I figured they are your favorite colors." 

"Really? I don't know..." She laughed, "Mira, you only wear black and red. Everything you own is back and red."  Really? At that moment I realized that, yeah it was. Everything I own—well 'use' is black with red accents.

"I never noticed that," I verbalized my thoughts, red and black. Red-black, I like it. Unconsciously a smile was drawn over my face. 

"Yeah, my favorite is Black and red." 

Barbara was silent for a second as she stared at me. "What?" I prompted. "Happy?" Her lips dipped into a wide grin, I could only nod. "Yep. Very." 

"So, about that game, you were talking about, I have put the PC version in your games library and if you want to buy a new game just tell me," She rebooted the system and wheeled her way to the door where she paused, "Good luck that's a competitive game," She said as she resumed her exit. 

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