Disclaimer: I don't own any Marvel or DC characters seen, mentioned, or used in this story

Rochelle was currently in the back of her car strapping her armored plated Kevlar suit on while her faithful butler Alfred was driving her towards her wards last known location and that of his sort of girlfriend but not really just a very close friend

'For the love of god, kids these have no idea how romance works' Rochelle thought with an eye roll has she carefully removed her mother's pearl necklace and gently almost religiously placed it in a small little box with an advance bio-metric scanner and lock on it.

Of all the things she possesses, her mother's pearl necklace was her most treasured item. Rochelle Wayne growing up found herself more connected to her mother than she ever did her own father. Her father wasn't abusive or anything like, he was just never around all that much while she grew up. Her mother more often than not had to play both roles of a parent as her father was almost always at work either at the hospitals or for Wayne Enterprise

The night they died, Rochelle was slightly ashamed to admit she felt more sorrow for her mother's loss than she did her own father. Even to this day the image of him dying didn't seem to strike her as powerfully as the death of the woman who raised her

"I take it the party went well Madam Rochelle?" Alfred asked with some interest in his tone

"You could say that" Rochelle said as she slid on her boots and secured them to her legs before the metal plating began to shift on her shins.

Alfred raised his brow at the comment "If I may Madam, did you perhaps happen upon a potential 'Mr. Wayne' while there?"

Rochelle snorted in amusement as she attached the chest piece of her suit on. She was happy to find that this latest model's plating allowed her greater flexibility and the bonus of giving her well-endowed chest more breathing room. She's often thought of getting reductions but she could never find it in her to go through with it for some reason. "No Alfred I didn't. But I did run into an interesting man while I was there"

"May I inquire his name?" Alfred asked with some curiosity

"Peter Parker. He seemed nice enough, a little shy though. It was…cute" Rochelle said with a distant look in her eye before she schooled it into a blank expression and she slid on her re-enforced armored cowl that began to shift and settle itself on to her face. "This is close enough Alfred, I can make it the rest of the way on foot"

"Very good Madam" Alfred said as he punched in a series of buttons on the front console

Suddenly Batwoman was shot out of the car and used her cape to soar into the night sky while Alfred simply turned and began his drive back to the manor

Batwoman came to a landing on a building that over looked the East End and used her cowls magnifying lenses to see if she could possibly pick up the forms of Robin and Batgirl

'I swear Richard, you better hope to god I find you before Dent does' Rochelle thought angrily as she held up her gauntlet and a small holographic screen appeared. She had her scanner triangulate on Robin and Batgirl's suits built in tracers.

The map showed two small red dots moving towards one of the warehouses on the far side of East End towards the docks. Batwoman's eyes narrowed under her cowl's lenses as she took out a grappling hook and aimed towards a distant building and fired before swinging off to either rescue her wayward ward or stop him from making a huge and likely fatal mistake

…

"Robin, are you sure we don't need Batwoman to help us?" Barbara Gordon aka Batgirl asked her partner as they were observing a building that currently housed Two Face's gang.

Two Face aka Harvey Dent himself had just arrived several minutes ago in a pretty bad mood from what the two could see. He raised his voice a bit as both Dent and Two face before making a few angry gestures before he and his men headed in

"Don't worry Batgirl, we can handle anything old Harvey can throw at us. Besides we're supposed to one day take over for Batwoman right? How can we if we don't prove to her that we can handle her rouges on her own just as well as she can" Robin said with a shrug

Batgirl seemed to mull the answer over as she turned to view the building that had several guards up top that oddly enough have yet to move.

'They probably froze into ice sculptures' Batgirl mentally joked as she felt a gush of cold air hit her. Even with her suit insulated and using her cape as a pseudo blanket she still felt the early winter chill beginning to set in

Robin joined her in observing the rooftop and frowned at how quiet things have been for the last few minutes. "Hey Batgirl, do you notice something odd?"

"What do mean?" Batgirl turned her attention to the red, yellow and green clad teen with a raised brow under her cowl

"Well Harvey's not this quiet. I mean with how pissed he looked earlier I'm half surprised we haven't heard any gunshots going off" Robin said before pointing up towards the building's rooftop "Also those guys up there, I haven't seen them move an inch"

Batgirl's eyes narrowed as she looked to see that Robin was right. They haven't seen any kind of movement both up top and down below or heard anything. If they didn't see Two Face and a couple of his men enter the building earlier they would never have thought that this place was being occupied by one of Gotham's most dangerous criminals

"Well let's take a closer look" Robin said as he took out his grappling gun and was about to aim it when he and Batgirl heard the sound of a cape billowing in the wind and someone else landing on the rooftop

They both turned to see the black and grey armored form of Batwoman getting up from a crouch and approaching the two with a look of anger on her half covered face

"So how was the party? Meet my future step dad by any chance?" Dick joked, already feeling a bit irritated that his 'mother' was here before he and Barbara could actually do anything.

"What do you think you were doing?" Rochelle growled out in anger both at Dick's and Barbara's actions

"Uhh finding the bad guy and bringing him to justice?" Robin said with a shrug "You know, the thing we do every night!"

"You two were about to go up against Harvey on your own! Do you have any idea how dangerous that is?" Batwoman said in a hard tone "Dent isn't some run of the mill thug Robin! I've told you multiple times, Dent, Joker, Bane and Ra's are people that under no circumstances are you to engage unless absolutely necessary!"

"You've taken him on, on your own tons of times in the past! Why can't we for a change?" Robin said with his eyes narrowing behind his domino mask

"Because I have more experience than you, I have the better training, and I don't let some misplaced sense of pride cloud my judgment!" Batwoman snapped

Batgirl was beginning to feel a bit uncomfortable from the argument breaking out between Batwoman and Robin… again.

It's been happening a lot more often lately and she and Alfred were beginning to get worried. Hell, her father and Harvey were beginning to notice the building tension between the original dynamic duo.

She chanced a look back at the building and did her best to drown out the now heated argument between her mentor and her partner whose also her boyfriend but not really, just a close friend that she sees in a romantic way kind of thing.

Their teenagers, romance for them is supposed to be overly complicated.

She took out a small pair of binoculars to better see the men on top. What she saw caused her eyes to widen in shock

"Holy shit…"

The comment was loud enough to catch Batwoman and Robin's attention as they soon converged on Batgirl's position and took out their own pair of binoculars to see what it was that got such a reaction out of her.

What they saw wasn't pretty even by Gotham's standards of brutality, and this is taking into account Killer Croc's cannibalism and the Joker's more horrific crimes like blowing up a children's hospital last month.

The reason why the men looked like they were standing and haven't moved an inch was because they were being held up by some mysterious black substance that seemed to have erupted from both their mouth, which completely tore of the lower jaw, and their stomach. The blood had already coagulated from the looks of it meaning that the men were dead long before Batgirl or Robin had arrived

Batwoman's eyes narrowed as she took in the scene. She was about to put her binoculars away when, out of the corner of her vision see saw the faintest of movement in one of the darkened windows of the building.

"Did you see who entered that building?" Batwoman asked her two protégés as she scanned more of the windows for any more signs of life

"Aside from Two Face and a couple of his guys, no. We haven't seen anyone else" Robin said a bit disturbed by the state the dead men were in. 'Hell of a way to go…'

"Two Face likely just walked into a trap" Batgirl said as Batwoman launched of the rooftop and glided down to the building

Robin and Batgirl watched her go for a moment before nodding to each other and following close behind. The two landed behind Batwoman who had already entered through the door and making her way inside. The trio slowly made their way down the dimly lit hallway as they looked for signs of Two Face and his men, including a possible third party.

"AHHHH!" a screaming voice caused all three to stop dead in their tracks

Batwoman activated her detective vision to see if whoever was injured was close by. She could faintly make out a few outlines of people's bodies in the distance. Her eyes narrowed when she saw that of the seven bodies she was picking up, only two still seemed alive based on body temperatures and heart beats detected.

"Batgirl, radio for GCPD, tell them that we have multiple fatalities and two possibly wounded individuals. Robin with me" Batwoman said as her cowl deployed a sort of metallic face place over the exposed part of her face. After nearly getting her jaw broken by Deathstroke a year ago, Lucius Fox the CEO of Wayne Enterprise and her tech supplier, had installed her battle mask to help better protect her face. It also had the benefits of preventing her from inhaling any potential toxins in the air.

Batwoman also activated the voice modulator to disguise her voice and give it a low sort of growl to it. She made out Robin drawing a pair of escrima sticks as he shadowed her towards the center of the building where most of the people were.

Upon entering the room, the three were shocked by how little damage there was, aside from the pools of blood forming beneath many of the restrained thugs, there was no signs of any kind of fight

'An ambush, whoever killed these men waited until they all entered the room before attacking them' Rochelle thought as she saw that all of Harvey's men were restrained by a substance that looked very similar to the kind that encased the men on the rooftop. However, in here it seemed to act as a sort of net and restrained the men who each had their head partially caved in with bits of brain coming out of their head 'Extreme blunt force trauma had nearly crushed their skulls to pieces'

A groan of pain caught her attention and she looked to see Harvey Dent himself propped up against the wall, a small satin of blood coming from his right breast. She immediately covered the distance and applied pressure to the wound while checking him for any more serious damage both externally, baring the half of his face that was horrifyingly disfigured and using her deep tissue scanner built into her cowl for anything internal.

Dent's eye opened slightly and looked to see Batwoman standing there "N-now… y-y-you… show… u-u-up!"

"Dent, what happened here?" Batwoman asked as she applied pressure to his still bleeding wound. She could here Batgirl behind her contacting commissioner Gordon while Robin searched for any more possible survivors

"A-ambush" Dent growled out quietly "Wasn't f-f-for me…"

"Who was it for?" Batwoman questioned just before another scream tore through the building, this time it was coming from above them

Batwoman looked up before looking to Robin "Robin, come here and keep pressure on Dent's wound!"

Robin quickly approached the two and crouched down beside Dent and replaced Batwoman's hands with his own as he tried to stem the bleeding until paramedics could get here. He looked to see his mentor rising and head for a set of stairs

"Where you going?"

"To meet our mysterious guest" Batwoman said as she climbed the stairs and followed the sounds of someone begging for mercy

She used her cowls audio sensors to try and listen in on the conversation while she silently approached

"P-Please! I swear I don't know!" a man's pained filled voice spoke up

Whoever was interrogating the man didn't respond verbally, instead Rochelle made out the distinct sound of bone being broken

"AHHHH! PLEASE I SWEAR I DON'T KNOW!" the man shouted again as another sound of bone being broken followed

Batwoman quickened her pace and just reached for the door that she noticed had a small bloody handprint on it and prepared to enter when she finally heard another voice speak. This one actually gave her pause at the sheer deep animalistic malice in the tone

"I find that hard to believe Jerry! After all, you could be telling me lies just to stop the pain!" theyhissed with a sort of dark amusement in it, not Joker's twisted kind but something every bit as terrifying in a primal sort of way

"I s-s-swear, I don't know. Please let me go!" the man said as he began to weep from a combination of fear, pain and likely embarrassment

"Alright then. I'll let you go…" the voice said with a sigh before Batwoman picked up the sound of bone breaking again and something making a wet thud against the ground

She immediately kicks the door in and entered to see a man with both legs broken, a bruised and bleeding face with his neck bent in a way that symbolized it was broken. Batwoman scanned the room for any signs of the assailant who did this and just made out a figure in black leap out a window several meters above her

She narrowed her eyes at the form before she shot a grappling hook near the open window and zipped toward it. She used her built up momentum to launch herself out the window and land on the adjacent rooftop and landed in a roll. She scanned the area for any signs of the unknown figure, but found none

Rochelle narrowed her eyes in anger and annoyance as she contacted Robin and Batgirl "Robin, Batgirl, I saw the assailant but the escaped before I could get a good look at him"

"Copy that, GCPD incoming" Batgirl said just as Batwoman picked up the sounds of multiple approaching police sirens and ambulances "Did you find the man that was hurt?"

"Interrogated before executed, snapped neck" Batwoman said as she continued to scan the rooftops for the unknown person… assuming it was a person. That growling voice didn't sound human. And it was too organic to be some sort of voice modulator, her cowls audio receptors confirmed it

"I was able to stop the bleeding" Robin spoke up "But Dent's going to need a transfusion or else he won't make it to tomorrow"

Rochelle couldn't help the small pang of concern at hearing that Dent might not survive. Even though their relationship was practically non-existent now, she still cared for the man. He was her friend for years before he became her lover… and eventually fiancé.

But the Joker and to some extent the mob made sure whatever happy ending she could have with him died when Two Face was born.

"Is Gordon aware of this?" Batwoman asked in a neutral tone

"Yeah… he's going to have Harvey escorted to Elliot Memorial Hospital and placed under heavy guard. Whoever did this might decide to try and finish off Dent later" Robin said through the coms "Hey, don't worry boss, Harvey's a tough SOB. It's going to take a lot more than this to keep him down"

"Who knows, maybe this very close brush with death may have him rethink his life as a criminal" Batgirl said in a slightly hopeful tone

Batwoman was about to respond when she picked up movement behind her. She immediately turned and readied herself for a possible fight but found no one there. It didn't take her long to realize that the unknown assailant was likely behind her, possibly this entre time.

'He made a noise because he wanted me to hear him. It wasn't an accident, it was a statement' Batwoman thought as she heard and saw GCPD finally arrive 'Better let Gordon know what the hell is going on'

Several minutes later, Batwoman, Robin, Batgirl, Gordon and several of his officers and Bullock were on the roof watching the medical examiner observe the dead man that were still up her encased in that mysterious black substance

"Seen anything like it before?" Gordon asked the dark knight

"No…" Batwoman said as she folded her arms across her chest under her cape "The substance is made up of some kind of organic polymer, I can't identify a single element from the periodic table in its structure. I also found that it's tensile strength is around a hundred and twenty-five pounds per square millimeter"

"Jesus…" Gordon said as he rubbed his head "Who or better yet what the hell are we dealing with here?"

Batwoman looked towards Gotham and couldn't help the sudden feeling that things were about to get a lot worse if that was even possible

"I don't know Jim… I honestly don't know…"

…

A lone figure landed on a small water tower that was located over in Otisburg.

"Well that was a bust" Spider-man said as he scanned the nearby rooftops for any other possible vigilantes on the prowl tonight. Seeing Batwoman and her two sidekicks had left him a little jittery. Aside from her, there were two arguably three other 'capes' in Gotham. The Huntress, Azrael, and Catwoman, the last one was more of an anti-hero if anything along with to so some extent Huntress.

"Should have consumed his mind…" a dark voice hissed out, it was coming from the substance that he was wearing or attached to him

Peter couldn't help but snort in grim amusement "Yeaaaaaah no. You remember our agreement, I don't roast you, you don't eat people's brains unless I feel like they really deserve it"

"Spoil sport…" the voice hissed out again in some annoyance

"Besides, I think you've had enough. Don't think I didn't notice how much chocolate you ate earlier" Peter said before he launched himself off the roof and shot a 'web line' out and used it to swing back towards his apartment.

He had a class tomorrow…

…

So next chapter deals with Peter settling into his life in Gotham and we uncover a bit more about him and why he's here in Gotham in the first place. Also Spider-man makes his 'public' debut!

I was tempted to have Batwoman encounter Spider-man this chapter but decided to put if off a bit longer, build the suspense a bit more.