Faith and the Bat

Faith still can't believe she let Giles talk her into coming to Gotham. She has been in hell dimensions, which were both cleaner and safer. Still, a werewolf definitely falls into their realm of responsibility. Unlike Oz, this critter seems to enjoy ripping his victims apart. It has had several encounters with the Gotham PD, all of which ended badly for the boys in blue. She has tracked it to a tower in Gotham's main bridge. The bridge is a massive gothic granite structure with several towers supporting guide cables all along its length. The werewolf has made its lair in the third tower on the north side of the bridge which is about half way across. It chose its lair well. There is no way for her to approach undetected, and she will be forced to fight amongst the cables. A fall to the road below would only stun the beast, but do considerably more damage to her. She hates to admit it, but she will have to wait. She paces hoping to take the edge off her frustration.

Bruce has tracked his wayward friend to the Gotham Bridge. Checking his dispenser once again, he silently prays Lucuis got it right. If this doesn't work, Bruce will have to do something he truly doesn't want to. It is times like these when he wonders what madness processed him to take on the mantle of the Bat. He could do good in a different way as just plain Bruce Wayne. He doesn't let himself dwell though. He has made his choice and now only the mission matters, or so he tells himself.

Hand over hand, Bruce easily scales one of the bridge cables up to the top. He glides through the shadows as if born to them. So silent is he, his prey fails to detect him. However, all his stealth is wasted when a young woman struts out onto the bridge whistling and shouting "Here boy, here boy. Mamma's got a bone for you." This mad woman is going to ruin his plan and get herself killed in the process. Bruce is forced back deeper into the shadows as his furry friend is lured from his lair by the noise.

The werewolf sniffs the air, while emitting a low growl. As a predator he can recognize another approaching. Despite her taunts, he starts to make his way away from her. She ups the ante by drawing her own blood. Once he inhales that smell, he is drawn to her. Blood is life and her life is strong. He has taken down bigger prey, she will be no different. Still, his keenly honed survival instincts warn him a direct strike is not best. He lopes down a cable keeping enough to the shadows to avoid her graze. His claws have no difficulty gripping the cold iron of the bridge as he swings underneath. She is still focused on his lair and that will cost her.

Faith is getting annoyed. She thought for sure the shallow cut on her arm would do the trick, but now she can just make it out clinging to the shadows near the top of the tower. Something about the shadow is off, but she is too annoyed to notice. Lack of patience has always been a weakness of hers, and it nearly costs her throat as her prey roars out of the dark behind her. His teeth drawing thin beads of blood, as she narrowly manages to pull her throat out of his jaws.

"Shit. There are two of them. How could I miss that? Great here comes the other one." Faith rolls to one side to avoid being trapped between the two werewolves but is surprised to see the second one has wings. It glides between her and the werewolf. An all too human voice orders and there is no doubt it is an order "Stay here. Run only when I tell you."

"Bugger that!" Faith replies as she leaps her would be defender placing herself between the werewolf and him.

"I will handle this. You don't know what you are dealing with." The winged figure tells her more forcefully. His gloved hand grabs her shoulder and tries to pull her back out of harms way.

"Paws off!" Faith snaps as she throws his hand off her. Having had enough of this, she rounds on him and quips "I have been house breaking dogs like this since I was a teen so you back off."

Hoping to take advantage of his prey's distraction, the werewolf pounces at her, but she is prepared this time. She drops below his attack although his teeth catch a bit of her hair and then throws a powerful punch into his chest which sends him flying. He lands hard and needs a moment for his rib cage to reform before he can rise.

"No." Bruce shouts as he sees the ruined chest of his friend. Relief floods him when he sees the bones reform. "The drug is even more effective than Lucius thought. If they can over come these side effects, Lex Corp might just have something." Raising his dispenser he fires only to have his shot ruined by the young woman running into the path. She takes the dart in the middle of her back and to his amazement stays on her feet a full 30 seconds before the drug drags her to pavement. Firing a second dart, Bruce subdues his friend just before his friends jaws close on his arm. "Don't worry boy. We can fix this." He says as he pets his former companion. Taking out his remote control, he summons his vehicle. Intrigued at who this young woman is, and unable to just leave her on the side of the bridge, he loads her into the car but gives the front seat to his companion.

Pulling into the Batcave, he is pleased to see Lucius waiting for him. With his help, they load the transformed Ace into the medical chamber. As Lucius starts the process they hope will return Ace to normal, Bruce gently lifts the young woman from his car. He places her on a cot he keeps in the cave. He does a quick search but only finds a few hundred dollars in cash on her and a cell phone. No license or other id. The cell phone is locked but Bruce decides not to hack into just yet. Still, he wants to learn more about his new guest before she wakes so he starts a facial recognition search. He is surprised to get a response quickly. Reviewing the file, he learns his guest is named Faith Lehane and was incarcerated for murder but received a special pardon for her release. Despite having learned her name and other useful data, he can't pull up much else about her. She is a ghost otherwise. Intrigued, he redesigns the search program and sets it running. He is pulled from his research when he notices Alfred standing just behind his chair patiently waiting for him to be acknowledged. "Yes?" Bruce asks.

"I cleaned the blood from her neck but found no trace of a wound. She stirred while I worked which leads me to believe she will wake shortly. I suspect she will be hungry so I am going up to the manor to prepare a meal for her. I will bring yours and Lucius' down at the same time. " Alfred calmly reports.

"Thank you Alfred." Bruce replies while smiling to himself. He knows he wouldn't be able to find his socks without Alfred.

The drugs in that dart should have kept Faith out for another full day but Bruce trusts Alfred's instincts so he stops working and heads over to where the cot sits. Sure enough she is moaning and slowly fighting her way back to consciousness.

Faith slowly regains consciousness. She remembers a small pin prick just before blacking out and a winged figure. Fearing she may be in some demon's lair, she tenses her muscles and leaps from where she is lying. She is surprised to see the winged figure calmly watching her from a nearby catwalk. Taking in her surroundings she can see she is in a cave of some sort which has metal platforms attached all around its walls. She sees 3 ways out: an elevator, a set of stone stairs, and a tunnel. At the mouth of the tunnel sits a truly awesome looking car. "So what is going on here? You and fluffy old pals or something?" she quips trying to casual move towards the stairs while mentally preparing to make a jump for the tunnel.

"He wasn't always a monster. Someone made him into one. I owed it to him to help turn him back." Bruce replies in his gravelly voice.

"Sorry you can't cure being a werewolf. Once you turn that is it. Oh shit." Faith cuts off as her hand finds it way to her throat as the memory of him drawing blood resurfaces. "I am so screwed."

"Don't worry you will be fine. Your wounds have already healed." he tells her.

"Until the next full moon, then I get to go all furry." she snips back clearly freaking out at the realization she is now a werewolf like Oz. She can barely control herself as a human. She knows she will have no chance of mastering the wolf the way Oz has.

"What attacked you was not a werewolf. Just a poor animal victim of a madman." he tells her. He pulls something from his belt and tosses it to her. Instinctively she catches it. Opening her hand she sees it is a small silver coin. "If you had been turned, wouldn't that burn you?" he adds.

He has a point she realizes. Oz couldn't go near silver. "So if I am not turning into something like fluffy, what am I doing here?"

"Eating would be my suggestion." an older gentleman carrying a food and drink laden tray into the room.

"He must have come from the elevator. How many people are down here?" "Thanks but I am not hungry" she replies but her stomach betrays her lie by growling at that moment. A slayer is never truly ever full.

Meeting her eyes, Bruce pulls a sandwich off the tray and takes a bite. He chews and swallows before extending his arm offering her the rest of the sandwich.

Looking more than a bit offended, the older gentleman says "I would never poison anyone miss."

Between the older man's words/reaction and the winged one's show of good faith, Faith feels safe enough to grab a fresh sandwich and a soda.

She scarfs the sandwich so quickly the older gentleman quips "Perhaps you would like to taste the next one?"

She smirks at that remark. Her gut tells her to trust the old guy. The other she is not so sure about. Although he didn't take advantage of her when she was out. As far as she can tell, he didn't even sneak a peak, which she is mildly offended he didn't. She has always prided herself on how men desire her. She comforts herself with thought that he could be gay. "I mean look at how he dresses. He has to be into some weird shit." "So what is the deal with all this?" she inquires between bites from her second sandwich.

"I am Batman. I protect the citizens of Gotham." Bruce replies calmly.

"Hero huh. What are you some type of demon or just crazy?" she quips as she starts on her third sandwich.

Alfred chuckles quietly and with dignity that only English Butlers can manage and even Bruce has to smile. "Someone had to." Bruce replies.

"Well cool. I save the world too. Vampires are my specialty, but I can kill just about anything supernatural. So unless you want to swap save the world stories I think I am going to jet." she remarks.

"You have to understand I can't let you walk out of here" He pauses, seeing her tense and take up a fighting stance. "But I would be happy to drop you at your hotel. I will require you to wear this" He says holding up a motorcycle helmet with the visor blacked out. "though. I am sure you understand the importance of secrets." he replies. He is intrigued with this young woman. She reminds him a lot of himself. He can see the barely contained fury in her. She lives for battle.

"I guess that's five by five. After all if you were going to cop a feel, you already had your chance." She snarks back as she extends her hand for the helmet. "I am staying" she starts to say but he cuts her off.

"The Gotham Arms is well past its prime and the narrows is not a safe place for decent people these days." he tells her only partly to show off his knowledge of her. There is a nagging feeling of protectiveness he is feeling towards her.

"Well I blew my entire superhero budget on these bitching flying boots, so it is what I can afford at the moment. Besides I am a big girl who can take care of herself." She banters. She finds this Batman very interesting. Judging from the way the suit hugs his body, he is one seriously chiseled guy. The fact he is mysterious and a bit of the bad boy only makes him more appealing. She shoves these thoughts aside as she is still peeved at him messing up her job. Suddenly remembering why she is in Gotham in the first place, she says "Oh before I go. I got check on wolf boy. I understand protecting your friend, but I gotta make sure he is not a threat."

"Fair enough. Wait here a moment." Batman replies. He then glides down to a lower platform. There he speaks briefly with Lucius and then gets Lucius out of sight. She has already seen Alfred, he can't risk her learning any more about him. He really should make Alfred wear a mask or something whenever there is company in the cave.

Faith paces on the catwalk as waiting has never been a strong suite of hers. She does try to call Giles, but her phone gets no reception in here. Giles won't start to worry for another day or so anyway, so she still has time to check in.

"This way." Batman gestures to a set of stairs that connect the various catwalks.

Not wanting to be out done, Faith just jumps down to the platform. She is pleased to see Batman reevaluating his opinion of her. "Hey, it is no big. I told you I have super powers." She quips.

"Accelerated healing, high drug tolerance, impressive strength and agility, super powers indeed. He could do so much more with those abilities. Yes, Faith bares watching." He thinks.