Authors Note: This story has been written in response to a challenge by another writer: 'adm-frb'. This is my fourteenth (published) story, but my first (published) crossover story.
This story belongs in my Forsaken universe and uses characters and events from that story. The story fits in chronologically between Chapters 173 and 174 of the current Forsaken story. Various other existing characters from Forsaken will feature in this story. All the events of this story are based in and around the City of Gotham and the 'Gotham' TV series, although in an Alternative Universe.

As usual, I look forward, with some trepidation, to any reviews. I promise to accept all criticism. In addition, I am still, British so my spelling and grammar may look and seem strange to some.

Synopsis: This story fits into the 'Gotham' storyline around Episode 9 of Season 1, with Selina Kyle staying at Wayne Manor with Bruce Wayne, for her own safety.

September
Thursday night

Gotham City

The night was calm and very dark.

Shadow was a block over, moving parallel to myself.

I had seen the young girl, whom I was now following, a few times over the previous nights. There was something about her that appealed to me – and not in that way either! She was young, probably thirteen, maybe fourteen and very athletic. She was able scurry across the rooftops like a cat and I had seen her on a couple of occasions beat the crap out of somebody almost twice her slim stature.

The girl wore black, with some weird goggles on her head and a hood. I thought I had been quite stealthy, but I must have given myself away as at one stage as she had turned towards me and then stared at me for a full minute before smiling.

"Catch me, if you can!" She called over to me, with a brief laugh.

A challenge!

The girl; I'd decided to call her 'Cat', due to the way that she was so surefooted, shot off across the rooftop and I followed hot on her heels.

"You know, this sort of behaviour is so beneath you!" Shadow announced from the other building over our communications.

"Catch me, if you can!" I replied.

Unbelievable!

If I did that, I would have been shot by Hit Girl, but no, Hit Girl gallivants off on some ridiculous chase, all for fucking fun! I would just have to watch her back, so I started running across the rooftops, jumping the gaps in between the buildings.

I had to admit, it was fun to watch the chase. The girl was in front, but only by about twenty yards. Hit Girl was keeping up and narrowing the gap, although my heart almost stopped every time that they both jumped off into nothing, before coming down hard onto another roof, rolling to absorb the impact.

At the beginning of the evening both Hit Girl and I wore NVGs, although I had now noticed that Hit Girl had stowed hers for less inconvenience at the speed she was moving. I was impressed by the girl; she was fast and very nimble. I estimated her as being slightly younger than I was and she did seem to have a rather nice figure beneath the steam-punk costume that she wore.

Could Hit Girl win the chase?

The chase was what I lived for!

I loved the chase, especially when I had the edge, although the purple object now pursing me was very good, despite her full bodysuit. I said 'her', noticing that the person was slim and there were definite breasts. This had to be one of those Vigilantes that I had been hearing about who operated in other cities, such as New York and Chicago. For some reason I was not scared of the ominous form pursuing me across the rooftops, but I was not sure why.

If any city needed Vigilantes, it was Gotham!

Oh, jeez, you had be kidding me; the brazen bitch was showin' off now!

I knew that Hit Girl enjoyed showboating, but one day it was going to get her into shit. Hit Girl was performing fancy somersaults and flips now, as she jumped between buildings. Yes, Hit Girl was very athletic and acrobatic to boot. Only one member of Fusion even came close to Hit Girl's standard and that was Wildcat; yeah, I was jealous of that little bitch!

My own acrobatics were useful, but my backflip was for shit, to say the least and I was the first to say that when Wildcat reached thirteen or fourteen she would be a very formidable vigilante! Assuming, of course, that she was still alive. Wildcat still had to learn, she was not, as indestructible, as she thought!

If Hit Girl kept this up, something bad was going to happen!

I had to stop!

It was the first time in ages that I had run and jumped so hard. That purple Vigilante was good, very good! I sat on a convenient roof edge, my left leg dangling into nothing, while the purple Vigilante sat down a few yards away from me, to show that she intended me no harm. I took the opportunity to get a closer look at the newcomer.

The Vigilante wore a suit that was primarily purple and black with some pink. The chest was covered by what could only be armour of some sort, in the form of a contoured plate made up of flexible panels that had obviously not hindered the wearer's movements across the rooftops! I could see where a similar back plate joined under her arms. The shoulders were protected by armoured pads, which joined with additional armour that extended down the arms. The hands and lower arms were encased in similarly armoured gauntlets.

The legs and thighs were encased in armour that extended down to her boots. The Vigilante's weapons and equipment were mounted on her thigh armour and on a utility belt that ran around her waist. I could see a pair of pistols, some throwing knives and the safe end of a Katana sword that extended up from her back.

The only skin that I could see was around the lips that smiled at me. The head was encased in purple armour, too.

"Not bad!" The vigilante growled in an electronically augmented voice.

"I could say the same!" I called back.

"Till we meet again..." The purple vigilante said before she rolled off the roof and I watched as she landed on a fire escape two floors below and then headed for the street.

I gazed up and saw movement, which turned out to be another Vigilante on an adjacent building.

The other Vigilante nodded, before disappearing into the darkness.

We had spent the past three nights, including the current one, learning the City, and what an enjoyable experience it had been, too! Gotham was full of scum that deserved to be put down, or handed to the Gotham City Police Department. An interesting issue there, as to some extent the GCPD were little better than the scum they were supposed to be arresting!

Sergeant Voight, back in Chicago, had given me an insight into what was seen as the most corrupt police department on the east coast. The GCPD was rotten from its Commissioner, right down to the lowest beat Cop. There were some exceptions, but bribery and corruption was rife. Cops would turn a blind eye for the colloquial brown envelope stuffed with cash. What was worse was the fact that it was so openly being done!

There were some good Cops and I had identified a small handful who went out of their way to do their jobs properly and refuse any form of coercion. It would be useful to know which Cops could be trusted to uphold the law and who might be open to helping us, if necessary.

Ultimately, Gotham was a den of iniquity that screamed out to be cleansed. You might even go so far as to call Gotham 'heaven' for vigilantes like ourselves. So far, Shadow and I had kept to the shadows and not shown ourselves, despite having wanted to intervene, several times. We had also kept ourselves separated, so if one were seen, the other would not be compromised.

Our job was reconnaissance, the advance party, preparing the way for the rest of the team.

The Gotham Safehouse

We were exhausted and pleased to be back in our accommodation.

Although, the word 'accommodation' was to be applied very loosely to the rusty warehouse that would be our base. It was convenient, anonymous and very cheap. However, Mindy had been kind to us and had arranged for the ten of us to have somewhere nice to sleep. She had acquired three RVs, two for sleeping and one as a communal area.

We would be joined, in due course, by Lucille, Mia, our armoured truck, Titan and armoured pickup, Iron Hide, not to mention several motorcycles, too. For security, Dave would be driving our newly acquired, tandem-axle tractor, with a fifty-three-foot box trailer. In that trailer would be Titan and Iron Hide, under cover, plus more than a few motorcycles. The armoured vehicles were much too specialised to be driven on open roads. Marty and Erika would be driving Lucille and Mia, our two command vans that were loaded with the majority of our equipment. Chloe and I had driven the eight-hundred miles or so to Gotham, in the SUV, which was parked beside the three RVs.

The other members of our team would arrive after dark on Friday.

Despite things happening so quickly, we had made many arrangements before leaving Chicago.

Among these arrangements was the option to take up an invitation to a 'Wayne Enterprises Fundraiser'. Due to Mindy's wealth, she had previously received invitations to these events, but had never taken them up. However, now seemed the perfect opportunity!

There was to be such an event that Saturday night, at the Gotham City Opera House. Dave and I had decided that it would be a good idea to meet some of Gotham's dubious 'nobility'. Marty and Abby had rapidly compiled a lot of information on the current situation in Gotham and the City's somewhat colourful history.

It seemed that the City had improved a decent amount while the main financial core of the City was being run by billionaire Thomas Wayne. The man controlled a lot of the City and had seemed to control it well with a lot of philanthropy, but then only about six months previously, Thomas Wayne and his wife, Martha, were gunned down in what had seemed to be a mugging, and their young son Bruce was left to inherit the reins.

The City had 'benefited' from its own criminal fraternity, primarily based around two key crime families. These were the Maroni family and the Falcone family, both of Italian descent. They were very bad news and for now, they seemed to be just picking at each other, with the GCPD paid off by one or the other for protection.

I could not wait to get my teeth into Gotham.