Bored.
Sighing, Cassandra idly traced the new stitching holding together the black leather along the inside of her muscular left calf. Alfred's expert mending had sealed the tear in her Batgirl outfit so perfectly that she could barely see the repair. Last night her uniform was cut where a particularly sharp knife had skillfully split the dark material. Sure it was stupidly arrogant on her part fighting with her eyes closed just to make the brawl more challenging. One of Penguin's men was much better at knife fighting than she expected him to be. His quick blade had actually sliced her clothing, although it hadn't left a mark on her skin. He'd been completely stunned when she snapped his steel blade while simultaneously dislocating his shoulder. Then he was just unconscious.
So bored.
On the street during the day, most people didn't look at Cassandra Cain twice. Sure, she was a pretty young woman - she was sort of exotic looking since she was half Asian - but she wasn't really that exotic for cosmopolitan Gotham City. In her street clothes she didn't seem all that different from other girls her own age. Perhaps a trifle more athletic than average, and perhaps her movements were a bit more graceful than most, but she usually blended into the background wherever she went. Of course Cassandra was much more shy than the average 17-year-old girl; always quiet and hesitant to speak. But really, the pretty teenager just didn't stand out when she was sitting in a café drinking tea or strolling through the park looking at flowers.
But at night, shy, quiet Cassandra Cain became Batgirl, the leather clad heroine who appeared mysteriously, punched out the bad guys, saved the good people of Gotham, and disappeared - typically without uttering a word.
So very bored.
Looking for rocks is dumb. Cassandra couldn't understand why Oracle was so upset about one stupid rock stolen from the Gotham Museum. Even if the Penguin had taken it, it was just a rock. She'd subdued all but one of the thugs, including the clever one with the knife, but the bad guy with the museum rock had skipped out early in the flight. Who wanted a rock anyway? Just like always, Oracle hadn't bothered to explain and no one had told her what was so special about the rock. Maybe everyone else already knows about dumb, green, glowing rocks?
Finally, there was some movement below and Batgirl came instantly alert. Three vaguely familiar and definitely scruffy men limped out of the police precinct, the big one with his arm in a sling and without his knife. Young Cassandra smiled tightly under her full-face leather mask. Those men would remember Batgirl long after their injuries healed! The teen crimefighter flexed her fists, pleased to see the men weren't permanently damaged. They were properly chastised and looked around nervously, probably for her. All the other goons had been taken to the hospital, but these three were pretty much still okay, just limping and bandaged. Their bail had just been paid, so they were out on the street again.
The three hoods climbed into a dark red car waiting at the curb. With a low rumble and a cloud of bluish grey smoke, the car rolled away to join the late-night traffic flow, carrying the three bad guys and with one of Penguin's men driving. Smoothly, Batgirl fired her grappling line to latch onto one of the ever-present ornaments decorating the surrounding buildings. The athletic teenager swung out over the street, keeping high enough up that the men wouldn't easily notice her. Most people in Gotham never looked up, and even if they did, her costume was black against the night sky.
Cassandra settled into the familiar rhythm of running along the rooftops and swinging across the open avenues of Gotham, silently following the red car. Oracle had insisted Batgirl must retrieve the stone, so Batgirl tailed the Penguin's men, hoping they would lead her to their hideout and the dumb rock. If they even still had it, of course.
Her lithe young body twisting in the air, Batgirl reveling in the freedom of soaring at the end of each swing, gliding through the air for a few long moments until she needed to run along a rooftop again. The grappling line was Cassandra's favorite toy of all the presents Batman had given her. The razor-sharp batarangs and the small, round smoke pellets were useful, but the grappling line was just plain fun. Cassandra resolved to remember to look through her belt pouches in case Batman or Alfred had added something new and wonderful to her arsenal. Cassandra didn't understand most of the stuff in her pouches, so she kept emptying them to make room for more batarangs. A girl can't have too many batarangs.
She used to keep a stash of walnuts in one of the pouches until Robin spent an entire night's patrol teasing her, calling her 'Squirrel-Girl'. Oh well. He still didn't know about her belt pouch full of the yummy butterscotch candy Alfred had made especially for her...
After 40 minutes of dancing across the rooftops and swinging through the night, Cassandra perched five stories in the air, peering over the parapet of an abandoned factory as she watched the men finally park and exit their car. The four fellows were in a hurry, completely unaware that Batgirl had followed them. As a loose group, they approached a squat, cement bunker that looked barely 20-foot square from above. The men spoke in low, guttural voices as the driver of the car unlocked the heavy steel door.
Batgirl chose that moment to strike.
Leaping over the parapet, the teen daredevil plunged down, gathering speed as she fell. Tumbling in the air until her legs were targeted at two of the thugs, Cassandra slowed her dissent just enough by spreading her serrated black cape. Rushing down out of the sky like her namesake, Batgirl slammed one booted foot into the backs of two of the bad men, pitching them down face first into the sidewalk. That pair was out of the fight, their limp bodies easy for her to read as out cold.
Before the other two bad guys could react, Cassandra whirled, kicking one hard in the center of his chest, slamming him up against the concrete bunker. His head bounced off the sturdy wall, and he was also out for the count.
Only half turning, Batgirl snapped her arm out, hurling a batarang so it cut into the forearm of the last man, making him drop the gun he had half out of his holster. As the poor fellow sucked in his breath to scream, the female dynamo struck him hard where his neck met his chest, momentarily paralyzing his larynx and robbing him of the ability to make a sound. A punch to the face and he was finished.
35 seconds.
Cassandra shook her head, scowling. She needed more practice - too slow. The one man had almost yelled an alarm.
It took a few minutes for the surprisingly strong young woman to drag each of the large men around the side of the bunker, leaving his unconscious body tied up and gagged. Never leave a threat behind you - one of the few good things her father Cain had taught her. Batman stressed that strategy too. When both men agreed, Cassandra knew it must be a good tactic.
Batgirl quickly searched the four men, but of course she didn't find the dumb rock. That would be too easy. The men didn't carry it, and the rock wasn't in their car. Cassandra hoped it was in the bunker. If she didn't find the stupid rock, Oracle would be even angrier with her for losing it.
Nothing had emerged from the bunker. Waiting quietly, Batgirl listened but she couldn't hear anything at all. Cautiously, the young, leather clad heroine crept inside.
There was nothing inside the bunker except stairs going down. A square built, winding staircase almost filled the interior of the bunker, spiraling darkly down floor after floor beneath her. Peeking over the edge into the 10' x 10' open central shaft of the staircase, she couldn't see anything in the darkness, Batgirl needed to activate the night vision lenses built into her cowl to see anything at all. Even then, all she could see was a long, winding stairway leading down several stories into the Earth. No glowing rocks. No bad guys. Nothing.
Activating her cowl communicator, Cassandra whispered, "Oracle?"
The former Batgirl's warm voice replied immediately, "Go ahead Batgirl."
"Followed Penguin's men. Found hideout."
"Did you find the stone? It's dangerous to some friends of ours, Batgirl."
Cassandra sighed, "Not yet Oracle. Don't worry." Biting her lip, the young heroine added, "Am detective!"
"I... yes, okay Batgirl. Just... be careful."
The teenager smiled, "Always careful. Batgirl out."
She wasn't sure, but Cassandra thought she heard Oracle snicker before the transmission cut off. The teen crimefighter shrugged. She WAS always careful. It's just that sometimes she got bored.
Stealthily, Batgirl began her cautious descent down the long, winding staircase.
Six stories down, the stairwell ended in a small chamber whose only feature was the staircase and a heavy wooden door that opened away from her. Pressing her ear against the wood, Batgirl could hear the indistinct voices of several men. There had to be at least three, but there could be more. One in particular had a nasty sounding laugh that was enough to provoke a shiver down Cassandra's spine.
Moving slowly and carefully, Batgirl twisted the doorknob and eased the heavy door open a scant half-inch. The man with the nasty laugh sneered, "... she can't do anything now, no matter what we..."
That was enough to prompt Cassandra into sudden action. Slamming the door all the way open with a powerful shove, the girl in dark leather leapt through the doorway to the side, moving low and quick into the nearest, darkest corner of the room. Moving fast, Batgirl assessed the situation.
As she had been trained to do, Batgirl scanned the room, cataloging the size and location and probable next movements of the five men, standing clustered on the far side of the 30 x 20' room. She registered four chairs around a kitchen table that was piled high with beer bottles. Two lamps, each by one of two decrepit couches, provided the light. In the back left corner on the other side of the men from where Batgirl was, lay a low wooden table and the sixth occupant of the room - a tied up female prisoner.
A girl with green skin and long blonde hair, wearing a Supergirl costume, lay sprawled across the low wooden table. Steel chains encircled both the woman's body and the top of the table many times. The missing chunk of green, glowing rock lay on the blonde woman's chest. It had been shoved half under her top and the fiery rock was now resting between her breasts. The fist-sized piece of rock pressed against the flesh over the green woman's heart, lighting her in its green glow.
The girl looked like the Supergirl Cassandra had seen on news footage, except her skin was green instead of Caucasian. The girl appeared drugged and her whole body shook with continuous, obviously pain-induced tremors. And she couldn't really be Supergirl since she would've broken those chains easily. Cassandra didn't know of anything that could hurt her or Superman.
The man with the nasty laugh stroked his meaty hand on the young woman's green, sweaty inner thigh, pushing her short skirt up towards her waist, his lustful attention focused so exclusively on the chained young woman that he hadn't reacted yet to Batgirl's sudden appearance.
Cassandra saw all this in the fraction of a second it took her to reach her chosen corner. By the time everything had registered in Cassandra's consciousness, she had run halfway up the wall, thrusting with her muscular legs to push herself out of the corner in a powerful, backwards lunge. Batgirl arched her slender, athletic body in a graceful arc over the heads of the four men who had formed an audience around the creep fondling the chained up green girl. Cassandra knew well how frightening she was to the criminal underworld. Her black leather outfit with its yellow outline of the Bat emblazoned across her chest proclaimed her Batgirl.
That fear and surprise gave Batgirl several seconds of action before her opponents reacted to her sudden appearance.
Flinging a double handful of razor-sharp batarangs into the group of Penguin's thugs while still in mid-leap, the teen daredevil completed her aerial maneuver by landing perched on the back of the larger couch on the far side of the room, leaving Batgirl facing her opponents. The small throwing knives had sliced three of the men, two of the burly fellows clutching their faces. One bad guy was down on his knees with his hands around the batarangs embedded deep in the meat of each shoulder.
Predictably, the last remaining man of the group of four was pulling his gun out from its holster under his arm. Batgirl launched herself directly at the man with the weapon, closing the distance before he could bring his arm around, deflecting the gun so it fired harmlessly into the wall. Continuing her trajectory, the young fighting machine broke his nose with her forearm, riding his body as he fell backward, adding her weight to his as she slammed him to the floor, knocking him unconscious.
Batgirl continued her forward momentum, somersaulting across the floor so she came up directly in front of the man who had been fondling the helpless girl. While not one of her typical fighting techniques, Cassandra took some pleasure in slamming both of her fists up between the man's legs, striking his manhood hard enough to lift the large man off his feet, tossing him over the wooden table and the chained blonde girl. He ended up whimpering in pain, clutching his ruptured privates, as well as disoriented from bouncing his head off the cement wall behind him.
Dodging defensively, Batgirl scanned the scene behind her. One unconscious man, one man with his shoulder sliced up who seemed to be out of the fight, and two thugs who had their guns out, their faces bleeding. Focusing in that special way of hers, Cassandra could tell when and where the shots would be fired. Moving almost faster than the men could see, she dodged a pair of bullets by moving out of their trajectories just as the men pulled the triggers. Batgirl cut the legs out from under the closest man. A hard chop from the edge of her hand rendered him unconscious.
The last man standing took off running even as he fired, a batarang still sticking out of his cheek just below his eye. The man's staggered run carried him out the door like he was being pursued by a demon. Tempted though she was to follow him, Batgirl understood her primary purpose was to save the innocent, not punish the wicked. She let the wounded fellow go for the moment, certain that she could catch him once she'd dealt with the green-skinned girl.
It took only a moment to render the other two men unconscious, rescuing them from the pain they were feeling. As she cautiously approached the chained up blonde girl, Cassandra stared at the glowing green rock. She'd never seen anything like it. The green glow f seemed to be inside the rock, like it was made from green fire, bright enough to cast shadows. It was... spooky. It was much, much brighter than she'd seen it before.
Activating her communicator, Batgirl asked, "Oracle?"
Reassuring as always, the calm voice of the former Batgirl answered, "Status Batgirl?"
"Found rock. Found green girl. Dressed like... Supergirl?"
Oracle squawked, "She's green!? And the Kryptonite... the rock... the green rock... you have to get it away from her Batgirl. Far away! Right now!"
Cassandra snatched up the glowing green rock, trusting her gloves to keep the... Kryptonite? ... from doing to her what it had done to the other girl. Turning without hesitation, Cassandra bolted from the room, launching her grappling line up the central shaft of the stairwell. As the line caught six stories above her and began dragging her up, the teen heroine continued to Oracle, "Carrying rock out. Is she… Supergirl is green?"
A little bit calmer now, Oracle replied, "Yes Batgirl, the girl has to be Supergirl and she's not supposed to be green. Only a Kryptonian reacts to Kryptonite - the green rock - by getting horribly sick and turning green. If you don't get it far enough away from her, she will die."
Reaching the top of the stairwell and vaulting the railing, Batgirl raced outside. She glanced around, and then ran to an old oak tree clustered with several other trees at the back of the lot. In moments, she had climbed 20 feet up into the tree, vaulting from branch to branch. She found a squirrel's nest hollow deep enough to hide the glow of the stone, pushing the stone in and covering it with leaves so it wouldn't be seen.
Swinging down agilely, Batgirl said, "Need Batmobile Oracle." She cut communication, having spotted a line of three cars speeding through the night towards her location.
Almost flying like the bat she was named for, Batgirl raced back into the concrete bunker, leaping over the edge of the stairwell and plummeting downward, using her cape to slow her descent and playing out her grappling line once again. At the bottom in seconds, the teen daredevil dashed back into the room to retrieve a fallen Supergirl.
The blonde woman was still green and trembling, but she didn't appear to be shaking quite as violently as she had been. Batgirl thought she was comatose, but then the green girl moaned like she was in pain.
A quick search of the unconscious thugs only proved they didn't have keys for the locks holding Supergirl in place. Frustrated, Cassandra lashed out at the table, splintering the wooden tabletop with a single, crushing kick. More by luck than planning, Batgirl discovered she could now slide the steel chains off Supergirl's trembling body. Not stopping to question her good fortune, the slender heroine boosted the Girl of Steel up onto her shoulder.
Only to discover that Supergirl really is the Girl of Steel.
Cassandra immediately staggered under the blonde girl's weight. "This girl can fly?" Cassandra thought wryly. Supergirl wasn't really that much bigger than Cassandra herself, but must weigh at least twice as much - Batgirl decided it must be an alien thing. Still, Cassandra was stronger than she looked. Resolutely trudging back to the stairway carrying the Maid of Might, Cassandra felt the young woman struggled weakly. Batgirl muttered, "Be still. Rescue." Supergirl did stop moving, but Cassandra wasn't convinced the delirious girl really understood what was going on.
The grapple whined a bit as the small motor retracted the line, carrying both Batgirl and Supergirl up the six stories. Cassandra thought her arm was going to be pulled out of its socket supporting both her own weight and the Kryptonian's while the grapple did its work. It was a bit of a struggle getting the unconscious blonde girl over the railing at the top without dropping her on her head, but it was still better than carrying Supergirl up six stories worth of stairs. Cassandra wished the alien superhero would wake up, but the girl was still green, trembling, sweaty, and at least mostly unconscious.
Depositing the Girl of Steel against the wall inside the bunker next to the doorway, Batgirl peered outside. As expected, the three cars were now halted on the street, disgorging eleven thugs, followed by their leader, the Penguin. With a final glance at the comatose Supergirl, Cassandra dove through the doorway into a sudden hail of gunfire.
With that many armed men all firing from the same direction, Batgirl's ability to anticipate trajectories and the timing of gunfire was severely strained. Fortunately, the leather-clad heroine had her trusty utility belt. In the middle of a back flip which ultimately would place her on the roof of the bunker, Batgirl tossed out several smoke bombs. Dense clouds of smoke shielded the teen daredevil for the moment, although the cool night breeze would clear the smoke all too quickly.
Several handfuls of batarangs disarmed seven of the men, and her clever placement of the throwing knives left those men unable to continue the fight but still alive. Of course that still left four thugs firing wildly through the smoke, and the Penguin himself - easily the most dangerous of the group.
Diving into the clearing smoke, Batgirl swiftly disarmed and disabled two of the gun-toting thugs. As she grappled with one of the remaining pair, the disoriented Supergirl stumbled out of the bunker, collapsing on her hands and knees only a dozen yards from the Penguin. Batgirl could see instantly what he was going to do, but he was too far away from her.
Time seemed to compress for Cassandra, and there was no sound except the rushing of her own blood in her ears. Several things happened virtually simultaneously. The nerve strike to the brute she was fighting, leaving him writhing in agony. The Penguin laughing his signature laugh as he raised his umbrella gun, leveling it at the disoriented, green-skinned Supergirl. Cassandra leaping instinctively into the path of the bullets.
Three slugs slammed into Batgirl, two tearing into her right thigh and one grazing her ribs before ricocheting off the cement bunker beside Supergirl's head. The teen heroine slammed gracelessly into the dirt, rolling onto the sidewalk in front of Supergirl, who seemed to have collapsed face down. The pain from the bullets was enough to paralyze anyone.
But Batgirl isn't just anyone.
Bleeding, her right leg collapsing, the teen heroine hurled her last smoke pellet directly at Penguin, the round capsule entering the barrel of his umbrella gun just as he pulled the trigger. The blocked gun barrel exploded in his hands, the villain collapsing backward in surprise and pain. The small man bled from a dozen cuts on his face and gloved hands, his trademark suit coat torn and filthy. He shook his head to clear it; barely able to understand what had just happened.
Grimly, Cassandra pulled herself upright, taking all of her weight onto her left leg. She pulled out her last three batarangs, drawing back her arm to throw them.
The instantly recognizable sound of the Batmobile arriving broke whatever courage Penguin had left. He screamed, "Retreat!" while scrambling away on his hands and knees before his one remaining henchmen dragged him to his feet. They ran, abandoning the injured thugs scattered and bleeding behind them.
Cassandra turned away, limping over to where Supergirl lay still collapsed face down on the cement. When Batgirl rolled her over, the green-skinned girl didn't seem to be any more hurt than she had been before. She was still trembling and sweating, but that must've been the sickness. Batgirl couldn't find any new injuries on the Maid of Might, just whatever the green rock had done to her.
Cassandra could feel herself growing ever more cold and lightheaded. The pair of bullet wounds in her right thigh were still bleeding. Her utility belt yielded a couple of emergency patches, enough to seal her skin when she poked them under her costume through the bullet holes. That only hurt a lot. The young heroine knew she was in danger of passing out, which wouldn't help either the alien superhero or Batgirl herself.
She looked down at the sweaty, trembling Supergirl for a long moment and then sighed. Her injured ribs screaming from the pain, Batgirl hefted the Girl of Steel up from the pavement in a surprisingly smooth motion, ending up with the blonde girl slung over her shoulder. It took a bit more effort for Batgirl to stand up, but she managed to shift most of the other girl's weight over her own left leg. Cassandra almost fell, barely able to use her right leg, but she hobbled slowly towards the waiting Batmobile. How on earth could a slender woman like Supergirl weigh so much? She must have the flap her arms like crazy to be able to fly. Cassandra giggled.
Batgirl realized she wasn't thinking clearly at all. Batgirls don't giggle. Her mental image of a very stern Batman wagging his finger at her almost made the teen heroine giggle out loud again. The young woman knew she was losing blood way too fast.
Distracted by her own confusion, Cassandra stumbled painfully into the side of the Batmobile, almost dropping the girl she was carrying. She wasn't sure, but she must still be bleeding inside her leg. That would explain why it was so hard to focus.
Batgirl muttered, "Batmobile open." Fortunately, the car recognized her voice and understood her clipped command, sliding back the roof of the car. The slender heroine unceremoniously tipped Supergirl into one of the seats, half collapsing into the car herself, and landing on top of Supergirl. Cassandra dragged herself the rest of the way into the Batmobile, only her training and stoicism keeping her from whimpering from the pain of the gunshot wounds. The teen heroine gasped, "Batmobile go Batcave." The roof of the car closed and the engines fired, the car steering itself away from the scene of the battle as Cassandra lost consciousness.
Soft lighting. Water dripping. Bats squeaking in the distance.
As she pried her eyes open, Cassandra found herself peering up at Alfred's concerned face. Her mask was gone - in fact she was entirely out of her costume. Covered in a sheet on the operating table in the Cave, Cassandra could feel fresh bandages on her thigh and rib cage under the loose, soft sweats she wore. The bandages felt to the young girl like being held tightly by a friend.
She smiled brightly up at the aging English butler. "Thank you for fixing me."
Naturally, Alfred tried to look as somber as always but Cassandra could see his relief and concern for her in the set of his shoulders and the relaxing of tension throughout his frame. "Of course, Miss Cassandra. I do wish you would be more careful..."
The teen heroine just shrugged.
Alfred sighed, "Sometimes I think you're worse than Master Bruce, my young Miss."
"Is Supergirl… not green?"
The old man glanced at one of the complex machines filling the Batcave; one that he had apparently moved into a more prominent position recently. "Let's just see, shall we?" When Cassandra tried to rise, Alfred placed a warm hand behind her to help her sit up while he adjusted the table she was on into more of a reclining chair. "Do be good enough to not tear out your stitches, young lady," he said tartly, but again Cassandra could see his concern shining through. She smiled her pleasure at her friend.
"Now," added Alfred moving to the machine's controls. "Let's check on our guest…"
Lights flashed, dials changed, and a large section of the sidewall of the machine slid back, revealing Supergirl lying on a cushioned table much like the one Batgirl was on. The main difference was that high-intensity lamps surrounded Supergirl. Through the bright light, Cassandra could see that some of the pink had returned to the blonde girl's complexion, although she was still a bit greenish. But Supergirl stretched as though waking up from a long sleep, and then sat up.
Alfred greeted her gravely, "Welcome to the Batcave, Miss Supergirl. How are you feeling?"
The Maid of Might smiled, "Like I was hit by a truck and then it backed over me. Twice." She stood, caught her balance on the table, and then straightened. "But I'm about a million times better than I was. Thank you for helping me, Mr…?"
"Pennyworth, Miss. But please, call me Alfred."
"Thank you, Alfred. It's kinda fuzzy but… Batgirl saved me?"
The butler took a step back, half-turning to include Cassandra in the group. The shy girl smiled and waved to Supergirl.
"Batgirl?" asked Supergirl tentatively.
When Cassandra nodded, the blonde girl carefully made her way out of the contraption she was in. She was a bit unsteady, but with Alfred's assistance, walked over to the Asian girl. She stuck out her hand to Cassandra, smiled, and exclaimed, "Thank you Batgirl. My name's Kara."
Cassandra took the offered hand and smiled, "Cassandra." She looked carefully at the blonde girl and then asked Alfred, "Still sick?"
The butler raised one eyebrow but answered forthrightly. "Yes, Miss Cassandra. Miss Kara needs more sunlight to purge the bad influence of the Kryptonite from her system. Several more hours in Batman's sun box will do it, I suspect." He added to Supergirl, "Batman built it for your cousin, in case he was ever poisoned like you were and needed a massive amount of sunlight quickly."
Frowning, Cassandra blurted out, "Where stone?"
Alfred shook his head. "We were waiting for you to revive, Miss Cassandra. Robin and the GCPD took charge of Penguin's ruffians, but the boy couldn't locate the Kryptonite. You don't think Penguin made off with it, do you?"
"No," laughed Cassandra. "He too fat to climb tree." The teen heroine explained to Alfred and Supergirl about finding the Kryptonite and then hiding it in the hollow of the oak tree. A quick call to Robin and the dangerous green rock was secured.
With those details settled, Alfred resumed his role of doctor / butler. "I believe you young superheroes could each do with a bit more rest." At his gesture, Supergirl nodded gratefully and moved back towards the sun box.
Cassandra smiled greedily. "If rest, will be cookies?"
Shaking his head but allowing himself a small smile, the proper English butler replied, "Yes Miss Cassandra, good Batgirls and Supergirls who get their rest will likely find a plate of freshly baked almond cookies to share."
Cassandra laid back and obediently closed her eyes. She whispered, "Yea!" Within moments, the teen heroine was asleep.