The streets of Vale's industrial district, shrouded in the gloom of the late evening, were not a friendly place. Free from any law enforcement since the invasion, the city's criminals had been left to sort things out on their own. Nobody in their right mind went around these parts after dark, not if they could help it. Thankfully, Mercury noted, he didn't fit that description.

The thin, silver-haired youth strode down the street, whistling to himself. It had been two days since the Atlas military had successfully created a safe zone inside of Vale, but they had every officer in the city defending the perimeter, making it easy for a less than savory sort like himself to get around without arousing suspicion. That would make this next part a bit easier.

He and Emerald had been waiting for Cinder to get in contact ever since the tower fell, but until that point, they needed resources. And because Emerald was needed to keep watch at the rendezvous point, it was Mercury's job to "forage" for food and other necessary supplies. Mercury scanned the streets until he saw a small general store on one corner that was still open for business. Perfect.

He walked into the store, smiled at the cashier and said, "If you'll excuse me, my friend and I are in need of some supplies. I'm sure you wouldn't mind if I grabbed something to eat would you?"

The man glared at him. "You got cash?"

Mercury tried his best to look distraught. "All our lien was in a safe that's outside the safe zone. Please, sir, we have nothing to eat!"

The cashier did not look impressed. "Look, kid, this isn't a soup kitchen. If you don't have money, you don't get anything."

Mercury sighed, a bit of a dramatic gesture. "I was hoping that I wouldn't have to do this," he lied, "but you give me no choice." Before the man could blink, he leapt onto the counter, and then swung a kick at his head.

The attack should have knocked the cashier out at the very least, but Mercury was thrown off balance by a sudden impact from behind, and the attack simply grazed the salesman's shoulder. Mercury was sent sprawling to the floor, and looked up to see an intimidating visage. A woman stood over him, dressed head-to-toe in jet-black leather, with a long tattered cape that trailed behind her. She wore a mask that covered her entire face, with no obvious holes for her eyes or mouth, and a pair of long, pointed protrusions resembling ears. In the center of her chest, there was a gold symbol, the stylized image of a bat.

The girl turned to the cashier and said, "Go." The man fled out a side door as Mercury jumped up to his feet.

"I don't know who you are," he said, chuckling, "but you just made a very big mistake." He lunged forward, kicking the girl twice in the stomach and sending her crashing into a shelf. She recovered quickly, and flipped up and over him, landing on the counter behind him.

"Your legs," she noted, "mechanical." She ducked as he kicked at her again. "Good to know." She moved faster than she had any right to, jumping off of Mercury's outstretched leg and kicking him in the face.

Mercury dropped to the floor, firing a volley of bullets from his legs. The girl was quick, and dodged most of them, but one projectile grazed her in the side. The shot should have just bounced off of her aura, but instead Merc saw the hit draw blood. Despite the injury, the girl kept going, and threw a handful of throwing stars straight at Mercury's face. He deflected them with ease, but they gave her enough of an opening to charge forward and sweep his legs out from under him. Mercury fell flat on his face, but was back up in only a couple of seconds.

Those seconds, however, were enough, and Mercury heard the sound of breaking glass as the girl fled into the streets. Of course, at this point, the rational thing to do would be to grab the supplies and run. However, Mercury was not in a particularly rational mood. That little bat-girl had knocked him on his ass twice, and had somehow figured out about his legs just by watching him for a few seconds. Mercury wanted payback, and he also wanted answers. Scowling, he rose to his feet, and pursued his attacker into the night.

Stepping out of the store, he looked around to try to find where the girl had gone, and spotted a cape vanishing over the roof of a nearby building. "Gotcha!" He said, and then jumped onto a dumpster, propelling himself off of it and into the air with the guns in his legs, then jumping a second time off of a wall and onto the roof. "Come on, little bat!" He called. "Come out, and I might make this painless!" He spotted something move in the corner of his eye, and spun to towards it, leg raised and fired off a salvo of dust bullets, which struck their target squarely, reducing the throwing star to a lump of molten metal. He barely had time to realize what had happened before a kick to the side and a fist to the face caught him and the exact same time.

Mercury kicked back, hitting the girl in the leg with a crunch of broken bone. She spun twisting his arm behind his back. Thankfully, Mercury's aura was still above dangerous levels, so all he had to do was…

She hit him in the jaw. Not like a strike to the jaw that bounced off of his aura, a hit directly in the jaw, as if his aura wasn't even there! Mercury was stunned. How had she done that? It took him a few seconds to realize that he wasn't just stunned psychologically either. Aw, shit. I can't feel my legs! And it wasn't in the usual "cold, unfeeling metal" sort of way, either. He literally couldn't move his legs, or his arms for that matter. Helpless, he crumpled to the ground.

The girl knelt down, and with surprising strength she simply tore Mercury's left leg clean off, at the point where the metal met flesh. Quickly and silently, she did the same to the right leg as well. Then, barely even looking and him, she grabbed Mercury around the waist, lifted him up like he was made of paper, and then grabbed what appeared to be a grappling hook from the belt around her waste. Mercury still held firmly, she swung down to the street below, where she left him, lying on the sidewalk.

He had started to think she was just going to leave him there, but a few minutes later she came back, and sat down on the street beside him. "Police are coming, going to take a while."

Mercury groaned. "Who… Who are you? How did you do that?" He tried once again to move his limbs, but failed.

"Batgirl."

"That's your name?" He asked, incredulously. "Your parents must have had a sick sense of humor."

She shook her head. "Not name. Who I am. There's a difference."

"What are you, some crazy huntress? Or some nutcase who thinks she's X-Ray?" The "Batgirl" was silent. "So, what, we're just gonna sit here until the cops come?"

"Yes."

He sighed. "I'm not a patient person."

"Fine." She pointed at him. "You start. Who are you?"

To be continued…