A/N: Olivia Benson is in a loving relationship with Alex Cabot in this story. The other major 'ship is Bruce Wayne/Rachel Dawes.

Olivia Benson and other characters from Law & Order: SVU belong to Dick Wolf and Univeral.

Batman and other DC characters belong to DC Comics and Time/Warner.

Kitty Pride and other Marvel characters belong to Marvel Comics.

I'm not making any money from this story, it's a fanfic that's been written strictly for fun. I hope you enjoy it.

Batman & Benson 5

Chapter One

'What a nightmare!' Commissioner Gordon thought grimly, as he pulled his car up to the crime scene. 'On top of everything else that's going on lately, this is the last damn thing we need.'

Gordon got out of his car and walked straight over to the group of police officers who stood by the Emergency Services truck. Along with detectives Harvey Bullock and Renee Montoya, Commander Karen Preen from SWAT was also there--her black-garbed boys and girls had laid siege to the hostage scene, their automatic weapons pointed at the Ruby Dee's family restaurant. Gordon saw that the restaurant--part of a national franchise that was normally a very bright and cheery place--was now dark, and the shades were drawn over the main windows in front.

"Anything happen since I got here?" Gordon asked.

"Not much, Commish," Bullock said. Like Montoya, he was clad in a bulletproof vest with the letters GCPD stenciled across the chest and back. "They've been sitting tight since they took over the place."

"There was an attempted break-in at Star Labs earlier," Montoya said. "Harvey and I responded to the call with several other units and found this bunch running out of the Star Labs building. They weren't able to grab anything, since they were scared off by the alarm system. We gave chase, and wound up right here."

"Bastards stormed the restaurant and took everybody hostage," Bullock growled. "There was a birthday party going on--it was just breaking up when these clowns arrived and took them all hostage. The place is packed with little kids who're no more than five, six years old!"

Gordon glanced at Preen. "How is SWAT situated?"

"I've got the front, sides and back covered," she reported. "I've got people on the adjacent rooftops, and I've also had the Gotham Power Authority cut power to this entire block."

"Do we know how many hostage takers we're dealing with?"

Preen gestured at Bullock and Montoya. "The detectives here inform me that the group consists of five people."

"That was what it looked like to us," Bullock added. "At least five bad guys--maybe six."

Montoya suddenly pointed upwards. "Commissioner, look!"

Gordon glanced up and saw the Bat-signal was brightly lit against the nighttime sky. His heart swelled when he saw the signal, for even during these dark days, it was still a magnificent sight. The only problem was, Gordon didn't turn it on--nor did he order anybody else to light it up.

"Curnow," Gordon said with disgust, when he realized who could have done this. "She's trying to bait the Batman."

"That bitch," Bullock spat. "You don't think Bats will fall for it, do ya, Commish?"

Gordon just smiled. "If I know the Dark Knight, Harvey, he's already here."

B&B

"Shut up, you little brats!" the scary masked man yelled.

Little Aaron had tried to shush Pete, but his best friend was so scared that he kept right on crying. This made the scary man--who was dressed from head to toe in black--even more angry.

Aaron, Pete and the other kids who had attended Angela's birthday party had been ordered to sit on the floor with their backs up against the wall, and once they did this, Petey started crying. When Aaron asked him what was wrong (aside from the fact that this birthday party had been so rudely interrupted), Pete told him that whenever they made people sit or stand against a wall in the movies, they shot them. And that was what was gonna happen here. Pete was convinced that the bad men were gonna shoot them all.

Pete kept crying so much that it really made the scary man angry. And the last thing that Aaron wanted was for the scary man to be mad, because he carried a really big handgun, which Aaron would normally think was pretty awesome, if he wasn't being threatened with death by it.

"Petey, you hafta be quiet!" Aaron pleaded with his friend.

"We're gonna die!" Pete cried, as he started bawling his head off.

"I want my mommy!" Becky Lang suddenly screamed in terror, as she began to cry.

It was almost like a domino effect, as all of the children--even the birthday girl, Angela--started to cry hysterically all around Aaron, who grew more frightened by the minute.

Danielle, Angela's older sister, abruptly got up from where she huddled with the adults and came over to the kids. "Let me sit with them, please," she pleaded with one of the other scary men. "I can keep them--"

Aaron and the other kids let out a collective cry of shock and terror when the scary man savagely hit Danielle across the face with the gun. She fell to the floor and lay there very still.

'Is she dead?' Aaron wondered, as the icy grip of terror gripped his heart.

"You only do whatever we tell you," the scary man yelled at her. He turned to his partner and added, "And as for the rest of these whining brats, shoot one of them--that should shut the rest of them up!"

Aaron's eyes grew wide as the scary man came over to him and the other kids with his big gun drawn. When he aimed it at them, all Aaron saw was that large muzzle. And, for the first time in his young life, he wondered if dying would hurt….

"Eenie meenie minie moe," the scary man said in an creepy calm tone. He waved the gun around at each of the children. "Catch a tiger by the toe…."

But Aaron didn't even notice him. Instead he stared in amazement at the strange shadowy shape that arose from behind the scary man. The shadowy shape had red eyes, and little pointed tips on its head, as it reached out for the scary man with what looked like a pair of claws.

"If he hollers, let him--URK!" The scary masked man ceased his sadistic choosing chant once the shadowy thing effortlessly embraced him from behind in a head lock that Aaron had seen wrestlers use on TV.

The scary man dropped his gun as he tried to fight back, but the shadowy thing--who had what looked like large leathery wings--held onto him firmly. One of his arms was wrapped around the scary man's neck, and no matter how hard the scary man fought, the shadowy thing would not let go.

Then, the scary man let out a gasping, wheezing sound, and his whole body went limp. The shadowy thing released him, letting the scary man fall to the floor. And Aaron saw that the shadowy thing was actually some kind of a large bat.

"What's taking you so long?" the second scary man--the one who hurt Danielle--said as he came over. "Just shoot one of these little--"

Aaron watched, awed, as the shadowy bat thing punched the second scary guy in the face. The blow made the scary guy spin around as he fell right to the floor. Then Aaron was further stunned to see a third scary guy, who guarded the adults in the other room, get his lights punched out by another man. He was dressed in a red and yellow outfit, with an 'R' on one side of his chest. When he knocked out his bad guy, the guy with the 'R' bent down to look at Danielle.

The shadowy bat thing was now hunched over the man whom he had just punched. He held him up so they were face to face. "How many of you are there?" the shadowy bat thing asked in a cold whisper. "And don't lie to me, unless you want to be carried out of here on your back."

"F-Five," the scary man replied--only he didn't look so scary to Aaron now. In fact, he looked more terrified than Aaron felt. "T-There are f-five of us. P-Please, I-I know w-who you are, and I don't--"

The shadowy bat thing just punched his lights out, then tossed his limp body to the floor. The guy with the 'R' on his chest looked up from his examination of Danielle and said, "She's out cold, and bleeding badly."

"Get them out of here," the shadowy bat thing told him. "The other two are mine."

The shadowy bat thing went down a darkened hallway, where to Aaron, it looked as if he melted into the darkness. Aaron wasn't sure if he was in awe or scared to death of that thing…whatever it was. He was just grateful that it decided to pick on just the scary bad guys.

The guy with the 'R' on his chest got the adults to get up, and two of them, Becky's dad and Pete's older brother, picked Danielle up and carried her over to where Aaron and the rest of the kids were.

"Ok, guys," the man with the 'R' on his chest said. Aaron saw that he also wore a mask, but unlike the scary men, he seemed like he was a good guy. "Everybody get up and hold hands; we're all going out the back, in single file, ok?"

"But what about the other guys?" Pete nervously asked, as they did what they were told. "The other two bad guys?"

The masked man with the 'R' on his chest gave him a broad grin. "I wouldn't worry about those guys. My friend will take care of them."

'Whoa, they're dead meat!' Aaron thought.

B&B

Commander Preen took the phone from one of her subordinates. "Yes. This is Commander Preen of the Gotham City SWAT team." After a pause, she added, "You should know that we have the place surrounded, and--"

She stopped speaking and listened again for a moment. Then she held up the phone and said, "He will only speak to you, sir."

Gordon held out his hand. "Give it here."

As Preen gave him the phone, she whispered, "It would be nice if we got a some sort of a sign from the Batman, sir. So far, it looks like we're on our own in dealing with this situation."

"Give it time, Commander," Gordon muttered. Then he raised the phone to his ear and identified himself.

Once he did that, the deluded maniac on the other end of the line began making his demands. "I want a fully fueled jet waiting for us at Gotham International Airport! And I want a bus to be waiting outside the restaurant to take us to the airport! Oh, and bear in mind, Commissioner, that for every hour that I have to wait for this to be done, I shall kill one of the--HOLY JESUS CHRIST, WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING??!!!"

When the man abruptly began to scream in a shrill manner, Gordon held the phone away from his ear and held it up for the others.

Montoya cursed in Spanish as she stared at the phone in horror. "Is that the hostages?"

"No," Gordon calmly replied. "It's the hostage takers."

Bullock grinned broadly. "Sounds like Bats made his move, huh?"

Gordon nodded. "Commander, you wanted a sign from the Batman. Well, here it is. Get your people ready to move in."

"Yes sir," Preen said with an impressed look.

B&B

As he went for the last two, Batman switched off his infra-red, which reverted his vision back to normal sight. The remaining two hostage-takers were out by the front doors, which--despite all of the shades having been drawn--was still the brightest room in the restaurant, thanks to the massive police spotlights that shone in from outside.

The first thug went down with just a quick kick to the stomach and a karate chop to the back of the neck. Batman paused momentarily to gaze at the remaining punk. Judging from the demands that he was making on the phone, this remaining scum sounded like the leader.

Batman dove straight at him.

"Oh, and bear in mind, Commissioner," the thug smugly said into the phone, "that for every hour that I have to wait for this to be done, I shall kill one of the--HOLY JESUS CHRIST, WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING??!!!"

The thug started screaming in a high, shrill tone until Batman slugged him hard across the face, knocking him to the floor--where he dropped the phone and continued to scream hysterically at Batman like the little bitch that he truly was.

Batman grabbed him by the lapels and hauled him up so that they were face to face. The man stopped screaming and started blubbering. "This isn't right…you're not supposed to be here…it wasn't supposed to be like this…y-you're being hunted; they're hunting you…y-you're not supposed to be here…."

"Listen to me, you little punk bitch," Batman snarled at him. "The devil himself could send all the demons of hell after me, and it still wouldn't matter. Because here, in Gotham City, I am the hunter and scumbags like you are my prey. Do you understand?"

"Y-Yes," the man whined. He looked like he wanted nothing more than to go back home and crawl into bed with the covers pulled over his head.

Batman nodded. "Good, be sure to pass the word to all your little friends at the county jail when you see them."

The Dark Knight then flung him straight through one of the plate glass windows.

B&B

"Oh, my," Montoya said with a smile, as they watched somebody go sailing through one of the restaurant's massive windows.

The drawn shade in the window had wrapped itself around the hapless man as he crashed through, protecting him from the worse of the shattered glass. But he landed hard on the concrete sidewalk that surrounded the restaurant, and Gordon figured that had to hurt.

'And it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy,' he thought, grinning.

And then, for just a brief moment, Batman appeared in the smashed out window. He made a quick all-clear gesture--and then he was gone, fading back into the blackness.

"There's your sign, Commander," Gordon told Preen. "Send in your boys and girls."

"Yes, sir," Preen said. But she hesitated in making the call over her radio. "Um, technically, the Batman is also a wanted fugitive. You know that, right, sir?"

"Batman?" Bullock said, with a shrug. "I don't see Batman here. You see Batman, Renee?"

"No," Montoya replied with a shake of her head. "Nada."

Gordon stared thoughtfully at Preen and said, "Commander, if you and your SWAT team find the Dark Knight in there, you be sure and do your duty."

Preen momentarily looked startled at the thought of taking on the Batman. But, being the professional that she was, Preen steeled herself as she ordered her whole SWAT team into the restaurant. Then she politely excused herself to go join her troops.

'Putting her fear of facing Batman aside to get the job done. Brave woman,' Gordon thought with admiration. 'Not that it really matters in any case, because the Dark Knight's already long gone.'

Once he was alone with Bullock and Montoya, Gordon whispered, "We need to meet later--all of us--after this situation is wrapped up."

Bullock nodded. "You got it, Commish."

When Gordon started to dismally shake his head, Montoya asked, "Something wrong, sir?"

"Nothing," Gordon replied. "It's just that whenever I call for a meeting lately, I feel like a member of the French resistance."

B&B

"Great job," Robin said, as Batman got into the Batmobile.

"Not bad yourself," Batman replied. He started up the engine, which purred like a tiger. "How's the girl?"

"There was an ambulance waiting right by the rear entrance, she's been taken to the hospital." Robin broke into a broad grin. "I've got to say, Batman, that you really know how to show the bad guys the door--or, in this case, the window."

"He pissed me off," Batman growled. "Threatening to kill children if he didn't get his way--then whining like a sniveling little snot himself once I took him down. He told me that it 'wasn't right' that I was here."

"What did he think all of this was?" Robin asked derisively. "A video game?"

Batman pulled the Batmobile onto Adams Drive. "I think the problem runs deeper than that, Robin. He didn't expect to see me because I'm being hunted by the police."

"Well, he's right in that respect, Batman. We are being hunted by the cops."

"And now it looks as if the criminal element had been emboldened by that fact," Batman said. "Thanks to Cadmus' all-out persecution of meta-humans, crime is now on the increase all across the country."

When he pulled up to the corner of Adams and Miller, Batman stopped when a man who had been standing on the corner abruptly ran out into the street, waving his hands.

"Does he need help?" Robin asked.

"On the contrary, Robin, he's trying to help us. Read his lips."

The man frantically pointed down Millar street as he kept saying one word over and over again.

"'Cops,'" Robin quoted him. "He's saying there are cops just down Millar street."

Batman flashed the Batmobile's headlights in thanks as he pulled the car around in a 180 turn and headed back down Adams.

"This is really getting ridiculous," Robin said, as he gazed up at the Bat-signal in the sky. "That's the third time it's been lit up tonight. Looks like Inspector Curnow's getting very lonely."

"She's going to have to get used to dealing with disappointment," Batman said, as he drove them out of the city. "Meanwhile, we need to deal with this present situation, Robin. It's festered long enough."

Robin glanced over at him with surprise. "You think it's time to finally take on Cadmus?"

"No, I think it's time to finally take down Cadmus," Batman said firmly.

B&B

"Damn it," Inspector Leslie Curnow muttered.

She stood alone on the roof of the headquarters of the Gotham City Police by the side of the Bat-signal--well, she wasn't really alone. A fully armed--and well armored--SWAT team also kept her company. The SWAT team members, who were all hand-picked for their jobs by her, were all well hidden within the nooks and crannies of the rooftop, with their rifles aimed at the night, primed and ready for the arrival of the Dark Knight.

But Leslie knew he wasn't coming. In fact, it was very likely that Batman wasn't ever going to answer the Bat-signal. She angrily switched the spotlight off, then waved her hands at the hidden SWAT team.

"That's it!" she called to them. "Let's wrap it up for the night."

Donald Julio, the commander of the SWAT unit attached to the ABS--the Anti-Batman Squad; which Curnow ran--emerged from behind the massive air conditioning unit. "I don't think he's ever going to answer that thing, Inspector."

"I know. We need to change our tactics in dealing with the Bat." Leslie gave one final glance at the Bat-signal. "Destroy it, Donnie. It's of no further use to us, anyway."

As her SWAT team began to dismantle the Bat-signal, Leslie answered her cell phone. It turned out to be a text message from a Mr. Owens, which simply read: 'Need update on rodent problem.'

Leslie groaned inwardly. 'Mr. Owens' was the public handle for her boss--General Hardcastle, who was her real boss; not the traitorous Commissioner Gordon, whom she'd merely been pretending to take orders from.

Judging from the number of messages from Hardcastle that she'd been receiving, the folks at Cadmus must be getting impatient for results regarding her apprehension of the Batman.

'Rodents still a problem,' she texted back. 'Will now switch to new methods.'

As Leslie sent that message to Hardcastle, she hoped it would placate him for now. As for Leslie and her team, she realized that it was time to go on the offensive. "It's time to take the fight right to the Dark Knight," she told herself resolutely. "Starting tomorrow night."

B&B

As the Batmobile left the city limits, it was spied upon by a dark-clad figure from a rooftop. To anyone viewing this man, with his entire body covered in black, save for the slit across the face that exposed his eyes, he would appear to be a ninja. And they would be wrong. As the dark-clad man viewed the Batmobile through his night vision goggles, he was impressed at the sleek design of the vehicle, and the fact of how it didn't make a sound. Once the Batmobile left the bridge on the other side of the river, the running lights on the vehicle switched off, and it blended into the surrounding darkness.

'So the Batman thinks he can avert prying eyes by switching off his running lights, eh?' the man thought, with a smug smile. He flicked a switch on his goggles, which transformed them to infra-red. 'But he can't escape my thermal--what?!'

The man was stunned as he stared up and down the more than half dozen exits to desolate roads that led from the bridge to the outlying rural areas, and saw absolutely nothing. Apparently, he had just discovered the hard way that, in addition to running silent, the Batmobile also had no heat signature whatsoever.

'Hope the mistress understands,' he sheepishly thought, as he flicked on his communications device in order to report in.

B&B

The hulking bald man in the Eastern-style clothing nervously approached the petite figure on the sofa. She lounged on the cushions, her feet bare, and casually dressed in a kimono robe. She had a series of photos spread out around her; pictures of their prey, the Batman. Many of the photos were blurry, out of focus, and too dark--showing only parts of the Dark Knight's physique while he was in motion. A hand here; part of his cowl there; his impressive wingspan in another. Yet, as haphazardly shot as these photos were, they were presently the only decent images of the Batman that they could find.

"Yes, Ubu?" she asked.

He took a deep breath and simply told her the bad news. "They lost him…."

"Again?!" she said, as she stood up quickly. Yet she said this not in anger, but in genuine surprise. "We had a man on the other side of the bridge, armed with infra-red and thermal vision, yes?"

He nodded sadly. "And he discovered that the Batmobile gives off no heat, as well as no sound."

"Amazing," she said with a smile. "Simply amazing! What a brilliant tactical mind. He truly thinks of everything."

"Shall I call in the men for the night?" he asked.

"Yes, Ubu, tell them to come home." She regarded one of the pictures of the Batman with a wistful look. "And to think, he was once my father's prized student. My father actually knew him, Ubu; he referred to him as the son he never had--all while he ignored the daughter that he did have. If only I could speak with my father one last time, if only I could just learn the Batman's true identity."

"We will find him, my mistress," Ubu promised her.

"Yes, Ubu, we will," she said. "If nothing else, as the daughter of Ras Al Ghul, I have inherited my father's patience. And it shall serve us well."

B&B

"She finally turned it off," Renee Montoya said as she entered the Commissioner's office. She had went outside to use the ladies room.

"I'm surprised Curnow's stuck with it for this long," Rachel Dawes said from the sofa. "You'd think that by now she'd get the message that Batman was no longer answering the Bat-signal."

"Dumb broad just don't get it, doesn't she?" Harvey said with a laugh. He sat across from her on in a easy chair. "Ya can't catch the Batman--ever--much less try and call him like a damn dog!"

"She'll come to realize that soon, and change her way of doing things," Olivia Benson said darkly. She sat next to Rachel on the sofa. "She's a former member of the Army special forces, remember? Those people are trained to adapt."

"Liv's right," James Gordon said, as he stirred his tea and came back over to where the group were seated around the coffee table. "It's just a matter of time before Curnow takes the battle to Batman."

"And you seriously think that Bats doesn't know this?" Harvey said. "That he won't be ready for Curnow and her pet SWAT team? I mean, come on, folks, the Batman's taken on tougher SOBs before. Remember the Joker? Mr. Freeze?"

"Leave it to you, Harvey, to set us straight," Renee told him with a smile.

"How did you let Curnow get her own devoted SWAT team, anyway, Jim?" Rachel asked.

"Wasn't my idea, believe me," Gordon said wearily. "I turned down her request when she first brought it to me. Told her if she needed SWAT support, that the regular SWAT units we had would be good enough for her. But then Curnow went over my head, straight to the mayor."

Rachel shook her head. "Didn't Garcia realize how much more power he was handing her?"

"Yeah," Olivia said grimly. "Now Curnow's basically got her own private army within the department."

"And word has it that she's actually crewed it with people from outside of the department," Renee added.

"It's probably filled with her ex-special forces buddies," Harvey grumbled.

"The mayor went out of his way to apologize to me," Gordon said. "But he told me that he granted her request so as to not rock the boat."

"With respects, Commish, but to hell with rocking the boat," Harvey angrily retorted. "We know who and what Curnow really is! We should just let the damn boat tip over!"

"But that's just it, Harvey, we're not supposed to know who and what Curnow really is," Olivia patiently told him. "If we move against her, we'd be tipping our hand too soon."

"What are we waiting for?" Harvey wanted to know.

"The location of the secret Cadmus prison," Olivia answered. "The concentration camp where they're holding meta-humans against their will--without a trial, or without even being officially charged with a crime. Both Batman and The Question, among others, are working very hard to find this place."

"And once it's location is found, we can make it public and blast a hole so wide in the side of Cadmus that they'll have no choice but to sink," Rachel added.

"It's a good plan," Gordon said with an approving nod. He then tapped the papers that were placed on the coffee table in front of them. "But, until that happens, we've got to stick with what we've been doing all along."

"Yes," Olivia said, getting back to business. "Um, ok, we've decided to grant Bruce Banner asylum. But where are we going to put him?"

"I thought we were putting him in the Convex Avenue safe house with the others," Renee said.

"Yeah, well, there's the problem," Olivia told her. "If he should turn into the Hulk, the safety of everyone else in the safe house will be compromised. Now Alex has assured me that Banner has his little problem under control."

"As long as he doesn't get angry," Rachel added, with a doubtful look.

"Yeah, well, Alex says that Banner's doing very well with meditation and all that, and that he's got the 'hulking out' part under control."

"'Hulking out'?" Gordon said with a frown. "First time I've heard that phrase."

Olivia smiled. "I've been hearing all sorts of new phrases like that these past few weeks, sir, thanks to dealing with these refugees coming to Gotham City. But all due respect to Mr. Banner, I'd feel better if we put him in a safe house of his own. That way, if he does 'hulk out,' he won't be compromising anybody else's safety. Alex has spoken to him about this idea, and Banner has agreed to it."

"He won't mind staying in a safe house all by himself?" Renee asked.

"Banner won't be alone," Olivia said. "There's a Ms. Ross who will be staying with him."

"And what are Ms. Ross' powers?" Gordon asked.

Olivia shook her head. "She has none. She's Banner's girlfriend."

"Aw," Renee said with a smile. "Now that's true love for you."

"Nah, it's true insanity," Harvey muttered. "Shacking up with a guy who turns green whenever he sneezes? Unless he's really great in bed. Hey, that might be it! Whenever he 'hulks out,' he's got a really big green--"

"Ok, Harvey!" Renee abruptly said, as she slapped Harvey on one of his beefy arms. "That's enough of that, eh?"

"No, I mean it," Harvey said animatedly, "when he's the Hulk, the guy's got to be hung like a--"

"Harvey," Gordon cut in curtly. "Enough."

Rachel briefly rolled her eyes. "Um, I think we're all agreed that Mr. Banner and Ms. Ross can stay in another safe house by themselves, right?"

"There's the unused apartment on Apex Avenue," Renee offered.

Olivia nodded. "Good, that's where they'll stay, then."

"We're done for tonight, right?" Gordon asked. "Anything else, Liv?"

"Alex's made contact with a few more meta-humans requesting asylum," Olivia said. "But she won't know anything solid for a few more days. So we're done for now, yeah."

"Be sure to thank Alex for me," Gordon told her, as they got up from the table. "She's been doing a great job in locating these asylum seekers."

"I know a better way of thanking Alex," Rachel said. "Why not make her an official member of our little club?"

"You know something," Gordon said with a nod. "That's a great idea!"

"Works for me," Harvey said in approval.

"Yeah," Renee agreed. "I'd vote for that, too."

"Oh, Alex would be thrilled," Olivia said with sincere gratitude. "Thanks, very much, everyone. I can't wait to tell her!"

But Olivia's cheerful mood was later shattered, when--as she waited for the elevator--the doors opened, and she found herself staring at Inspector Curnow.

"Inspector Benson," Curnow said with just the slightest hint of a sneer. "Working late in Commissioner Gordon's office--again? If I didn't know better, I'd swear there was something going on between the two of you."

Olivia wanted nothing more than to tell Curnow what to go do with herself and storm off--yet she wouldn't give the bitch the satisfaction. Instead, she entered the elevator and coolly punched the button for the parking garage.

"What we're doing, Inspector Curnow, is police work," Olivia calmly replied, as the elevator doors closed. "Not that I'd expect you to understand what that means, seeing how you're originally from the Internal Affairs Division."

Curnow flinched, as if she had been struck. "Oh, believe me, having worked my ass off to get to my present position, I know full well what police work means, Inspector. And you would do well to pay me the proper respect, Benson, or else I--"

"Or else--what?!" Olivia said sharply, as she turned and stood face to face with Curnow. "We're both the same rank, you stupid bitch. And respect has to be earned. So far, I don't owe you anything."

Curnow stared right back at her eye to eye. "You may not be the same rank as me for very long, Benson. You see, everybody knows you're Batman's buddy. And, as far as I'm concerned, that makes you my prime suspect."

"I haven't heard from him in ages," Olivia said with a smile. It was a lie, but to hell with Curnow.

"Why don't we find out just how much you really know about the Batman?" Curnow said. "I'd like to see you in my office tomorrow at nine am sharp."

"Am I under arrest?" Olivia asked her. The elevator doors opened.

"No, but if you don't show up tomorrow, you will be," Curnow informed her, just before she left the elevator.

Olivia's car was on a different level, and so she stood in the elevator, watching hatefully after Inspector Curnow as she strode smugly away.

As the elevator doors closed on her, Olivia thought, 'She's going after Bruce by trying to get me. Looks like Curnow's changing her tactics after all….'

Her cell phone rang, and Olivia smiled when she saw it was Alex. "Hello, babe," she said, answering the call. "I've got some great news to tell you."

"Are you coming home right now, Liv?" Alex asked. Her tone was tense and a little anxious-sounding.

"Yeah, I'm heading home right now. Why? What's wrong?"

"I can't say over the phone," Alex said cryptically. "Just come home right away, Liv. Please."

Alex then hung up on a startled Olivia. Once the elevator doors opened, Olivia shot right out towards her car. She didn't know what was wrong, but Olivia had planned on breaking the speed limit in a rabid attempt to get home to find out.

B&B

"Oh, now, this is exciting," Dr. Dabney Donovan said with glee as a live video feed image of the next research subject appeared on the massive view screen.

General Hardcastle stared in disgust at the corpse-like visage of Victor Fries, A.K.A. Mr. Freeze. Their most recent arrival at the Cadmus facility sat stiffly on the edge of his cot with his eyes closed. Barefoot, Fries was dressed in the basic male prisoner ensemble of a gray t-shirt and pants. His cell was especially equipped with an illuminated heated ceiling that served as a massive sun lamp--which kept Mr. Freeze warm enough so that his body would not grow the skin of ice that encased him all over in an armor-like shell that was damn near impenetrable.

"For all intents and purposes, Victor Fries is dead," Donovan said grandly, as he consulted his notes. "No heartbeat, no brainwaves, nothing. All of the tests we ran on him showed no sign of life whatsoever."

"And yet he still lives," Dr. Hugo Strange added. He sounded annoyed. "It's very odd…."

"How do you account for this?" Hardcastle asked.

"We've detected ice just beneath Fries' skin," Donovan replied. "It's almost as if he literally has ice water for blood."

Hardcastle shook his head. "He's literally an iceman?"

"Fries' body is essentially the same as that of a human being who had been cryogenically frozen," Strange said. "But as to why he's still walking around? We still haven't been able to crack that, General."

'Perhaps we shouldn't even try,' Hardcastle thought, as he stared harshly at the dead face of Mr. Freeze. Out of all the freaks they had imprisoned here, Freeze was the one who unnerved Hardcastle the most.

Just at that moment, Mr. Freeze opened his dull, dead eyes and stared straight at the camera in his cell--right at Hardcastle, who watched him.

And Mr. Freeze's lips split into a broad, malicious smile.

Hardcastle abruptly stood up as a chill slid down his back. It was almost as if the son of a bitch knew Hardcastle was watching him! Then the general flinched violently when he thought he saw movement from the corner of the darkened conference room. "Lights!"

Yet when the lights came on, there was nothing there. 'Damned snowman has got me so on edge, I'm now seeing things,' Hardcastle anxiously thought. 'Enough of this!'

"Kill him," Hardcastle ordered as he glared back at the leering face of Mr. Freeze. "Put this miserable bastard out of his misery right now!"

"How do you kill someone that, technically, is already dead?" Hugo Strange asked him.

"And think of the possibilities, General," Donovan pleaded. "Victor Fries may hold the very key to vanquishing death itself!"

'If that's what everybody will look like as a result, then perhaps we should leave well enough alone,' Hardcastle thought with a shudder. Still, against his better judgment, he nodded. He had orders from above to work with the eggheads, to give them free reign to experiment on their prisoners as they saw fit.

"Very well," he told them. "But from now on, I want the guard on this cold-blooded bastard doubled."

As he turned to leave the conference room, Hardcastle glared at the corner where he thought he saw movement once more.

'Damn job of being a warden to these freaks must be getting to me,' Hardcastle thought, as he stormed out of the room.

B&B

Kitty Pride heaved a large sigh of relief as she slumped up against the wall in the adjoining room, her heart pounding in terror. 'That was close!' the little girl thought. 'That was WAY too close!'

She had used her mutant power to step through the wall, thinking that the room on the other side was empty, when Kitty found herself right smack in the middle of a conference of some kind. And that creepy General Hardcastle was there, and he saw her! He had looked right at her!

Kitty had jumped back through where she'd had come from and stayed put in the storage room, hoping that Hardcastle wouldn't come after her. Her power enabled her to go through any wall she wished--but it was a matter of knowing which wall to go through.

Kitty had learned the hard way that this installation was several miles underground when she had tried to escape by going through one of the outer walls. She had kept running through solid rock, with no end in sight, until she turned around and went back. Since then, Kitty had been making her escape by going up level by level--which was painfully slow and tedious, thanks to the multitude of workers who swarmed around this base.

Kitty had taken breaks by sleeping in storage areas and stealing food wherever she could. She didn't know how long she had been here; there was no sunlight, nor were there windows. But after escaping her cell, she managed to make it up to this level--which, from a sign she'd seen on the wall, she knew was the main administration level.

'But this level was still underground,' Kitty wearily thought, as she slid down into a sitting position, with her knees pressed up against her chest. 'How much further can it be?!'

Exhausted beyond the point of no return, Kitty placed her head into her hands and began to cry. She missed her former life at Professor Xavier's school, where she had finally found a caring home with people who loved her. 'What was going on? Why was this happening to us? Where is everybody else?!'

Kitty flinched when she heard a rattling noise just outside the door. She shrunk in fear at the sound--until the thought occurred to her that her friend Logan wouldn't be afraid. Logan, A.K.A. Wolverine, was one of the toughest men Kitty knew who was never afraid of anything. She should take a page from his guidebook.

Kitty took a deep breath and brushed her fear aside as best she could as she got up, went over to the door, and opened it a crack. There was a cart in the hallway outside, with a collectiong of plates containing half-eaten food on the top tray. The meeting in the adjoining room must have broken up, and the steward was cleaning up the refreshments.

The cart had a lower tray in-between its legs that was enclosed by metal doors. Kitty wondered if there was anything inside of that area, because it looked big enough for her to fit inside of. Kitty was startled out of her thoughts when she heard footsteps approaching--the steward was coming back!

'No time to wonder!' Kitty gritted herself as she ran at the cart and passed through the metal door on the side. She was relieved to find herself kneeling inside the cart, with nothing else there.

And then the side door of the cart was flung open.

Kitty let out a shocked gasp--which she'd stopped by slapping both of her hands over her mouth--as the steward stuffed a pile of dirty tablecloths into the area where she knelt. Thankfully, the man never bothered to look inside, or else he would have easily seen Kitty. He just stuffed the tablecloths into the storage bin under the cart and shut the door.

Kitty huddled with the tablecloths, almost as if they were her favorite teddy bear, as she felt the cart she had stowed away on get pushed a long way. As she heard the man and cart get on an elevator, Kitty fearfully wondered if she made the right decision. 'What if the kitchen was located further down, on a lower level? What if I have to start all over again from the bottom floor of the base?'

Yet Kitty decided to remain where she was and ride it out. They left the elevator and emerged into a noisy area where men were shouting back and forth over the din of clattering dishes. Kitty knew she was now in the kitchen just from the smell of cooking food.

The cart came to a stop and remained there. When Kitty slid the door open a crack, she saw there was nobody standing nearby. So she slid right through the metallic door and emerged in what looked like a mini parking lot for carts. Kitty nodded in satisfaction. 'So far, so good.'

Then, when she noticed that the noise had suddenly dimmed in volume, she turned around and saw that the entire kitchen staff--all one hundred of them--had stopped what they were doing and now stared right at her.

Kitty stared back at them in horror. Still barefoot, and clad as she was in her drab gray prison garb, it must have been pretty obvious to the chefs that she was an escapee. And so she did the best thing she could do in this dire situation.

Kitty ran like hell.

A new clamor arose from behind her as several of the chefs ordered Kitty to stop, while one of them kept saying "But she's just a kid!" over and over.

Kitty ran towards the first wall she saw--which was made of concrete blocks. She didn't know where she would emerge, but anyplace was better than this.

She flashed through the wall at her best speed, and when Kitty came out on the other side, she was shocked to feel grass beneath her feet. She glanced down and, sure enough, there it was: a lush green carpet of grass. A glance around showed her that she stood outside, and it was nighttime.

Kitty smiled. 'I did it! I'm finally free of the prison!'

Then she was startled as an alarm began to sound, and brilliant searchlights flickered on as they searched the grounds--as they searched for her.

'Maybe I'm not free just yet!' a frightened Kitty thought, as she began frantically running across the grass.

B&B

"Alex!" Olivia called, once she walked in through the doorway of their home. She was almost tempted to say, 'Honey, I'm home!' but didn't. Judging from the grave tone Alex had on the phone, this was not the time for levity. "Alex, you here?"

Alex came out from the kitchen. She was still dressed in her work clothes--which was unusual; since Olivia knew Alex always changed into something more comfortable the moment she walked into the house.

"Are you alone?" Alex asked.

"What? Yeah, I'm alone," Olivia replied. "What's going on?"

Alex then glanced over her shoulder and said, "It's all right. You can come out now."

Olivia was surprised to see a woman emerge from the kitchen with a gun in her hand. Once the woman saw it was Olivia, she lowered the gun and let out a sigh of relief.

For her part, Olivia was stunned to see who it was: Agent Samantha Spade of the FBI. The blonde looked weary and disheveled; her jacket was ripped at the shoulder, and her face was covered with dirt.

"I'm so sorry, Liv," Sam said, sounding as if she were about to cry, "but I had nowhere else to go…."

"Hey, I told you it was ok," Alex assured her, as both she and Olivia went over to Spade and comforted her.

As much as she was afraid to know the answer, Olivia still asked the question. "What happened?"

"The situation with Cadmus," Alex told her, with a shake of her head, "it's far worse than we thought."

"They're coming for us, Liv," Sam said grimly. "They're coming for us all…."

To Be Continued....