The night in Gotham, the cylindrical beam from the car lights gradually rounded the street corner before shining straight on the street. A sports car slowly pulled up to the entrance of a circus located in the western suburbs of Gotham.
The ones that got out of the car appeared to be a young couple. The tall father carried his daughter in his arms, walking ahead while the mother, holding the tickets and a bag, followed along. On the surface, they seemed like a harmonious family of three. But all of that ended with a scream from the daughter in the father's arms.
"Wow!!!"
"Stop shouting." Bruce covered Aisha's mouth tiredly. Selina walked over arm-in-arm and suggested, "Maybe you shouldn't cover her mouth. What if she bites you again?"
Bruce sighed and dropped his hand. Aisha, overly restless in his arms, tried to jump out but was caught by his other arm.
The reason why this family of three came to be at the entrance to the circus traces back to the few days of extraordinarily "harmonious" parent-child time.
Theoretically speaking, there is nothing in this world Bruce cannot learn, including parenting theories. However, rather conveniently, all of these parenting theories mainly remain only theories. They wouldn't necessarily greatly benefit anyone in actual practice. Instead, they could be said to be completely useless.
No parenting theory in the world can teach you how to handle an ancient cosmic chaotic creature that hatched from borrowing part of a soul from a dream. Therefore, after Bruce studied parenting theory intensively for ten minutes, he realized that he might have to fashion an entirely new discipline himself.
But as the old saying goes, knowledge comes from practice; the same goes for child-rearing. After spending three days with Aisha, Bruce had actually discerned a pattern.
Whether it was a characteristic of a chaotic creature or of all children, Aisha took a keen interest in things that could move and make sounds.
Initially, this should've played right into Bruce's strengths, like building a robot or a toy car to play with Aisha. But he later discovered that Aisha didn't just enjoy watching moving things, she liked watching moving people.
How Bruce discovered this law was all thanks to Selina.
Since Bruce was in urgent need of help, Selina had stayed at Wayne Manor for the past few days. While butler Alfred was overjoyed, Selina herself was a little bored.
Looking after a child is exhausting; Selina tolerated it for Bruce's sake, but the artistic cells deep in her bones had nowhere to vent. Hence, Selina set up a set of parallel bars on the manor's lawn and swayed on it in her spare time, consolidating her acrobatic foundation.
Then Bruce realized that Aisha would be remarkably calm watching Selina play on the bars. She could even remain silent for ten minutes.
Bruce and Selina were overjoyed. During the day, Selina would swing back and forth on the parallel bars, performing various acrobatic moves and entertaining Aisha. At night, Batman drove the Batmobile, carrying Aisha and speeding on the highways of Gotham.
As for why it had to be the Batmobile, it was because Aisha only liked vehicles that could emit a huge rumble. Other sports cars didn't have enough horsepower, and Aisha would start screaming the moment she got in. Only when the Batmobile reached its top speed would she quiet down.
In the last couple of days, Selina performed acrobatics for Aisha during the day – aerial acrobat, walking on the wall, jumping through a ring of fire, unicycle, and more. If Catwoman's physical abilities were slightly lacking, she wouldn't have been able to withstand these three days.
At night, the roar of the Batmobile echoed through the streets and alleys of Gotham. The criminals of Gotham were completely subdued these past few days. When they heard the terrifying engine sounds of the Batmobile echoing all night, it sent chills down their spines.
However, this situation ended on the third night because the Batmobile's tires were stolen.
Yes, you heard that right. The Batmobile, which cost tens of millions of US dollars, had its tires pried off by someone.
This happened at dusk when Bruce was about to take Aisha out. He had parked the Batmobile a little farther away the night before. However, he didn't worry about safety because, aside from the visual similarities, the Batmobile and other vehicles could be considered two entirely different species.
There are plenty of car thieves in Gotham, but had they been able to jimmy the Batmobile, why would they still be stealing cars in Gotham? Wouldn't it be better to become an engineer for any automobile brand?
Yet fate can be unpredictable. When bad luck strikes, it piles up. There did happen to be such a genius car thief available, who could've been a technology director or an engineer, but chose to steal the Batmobile from Gotham.
When Bruce arrived at the Batmobile with Aisha in his arms, he found his car, which now only had three wheels. He was at a loss for words.
Of course, he had spare tires. But the problem arose from the Batmobile's complicated technology. Even for a simple tire change, Bruce had to do it himself. But right now, with Aisha in his arms, he couldn't spare even a minute, let alone tow the Batmobile to the Batcave for tire change and repair.
Without the Batmobile, Aisha refused to sleep. If she didn't sleep, neither could Selina nor Bruce. Sleep-deprived, they would have even less energy to coddle Aisha. This became a vicious cycle.