A/N Sorry for the big gap between posting chapters, but updates aren't going to be particularly regular for the forseeable future. but on the plus side, 1000+ word chapter! I have only just finished writing it and have not had a chance to proofread properly, so forgive any errors. I also put in the bit about Babs wanting a new Batsuit as I think the design I previously used is not as well suited to other, more free-running based designs I have since had. Knowing Babs, she'll probably build herself another one. Enjoy, and please review!
Barbara flinched as the phone in her back pocket vibrated. Shifting in the hospital chair, she pulled it out with stiff limbs and checked the message.
From: Unknown
Disturbance reported at stock exchange. Suit up, get here fast.
She bit her lip and grinned. "Dad, I gotta go," she said, kissing her unconscious father's forehead and picking her bag off the floor. "Study group."
She ran down a corridor and cut through a fire exit onto a small balcony running along the edge of the hospital, for maintenance purposes. She sprinted along it and vaulted off halfway down, landin with a roll on the roof of the back entrance. Two paramedics ran out beneath her.
"Where we headed?" one asked, unlocking the door of an ambulance.
"Cherry Hill," his partner replied. "Should take us, what, three minutes?"
Perfect. She dangled off the edge of the roof and dropped silently onto the top of the ambulance, loose clothes providing more agility than her batsuit. She would have to adapt parts of it to make it easier to move in- it would sacrifice some of the safety, but it would be worth it.
The ambulance lurched into motion and Babs grabbed hold of one of the roof bars for balance, hoping nobody would point her out to the driver. It took just two minutes to reach the courtyard where her garage was and she leapt off while the ambulance was still rolling, running as she landed to the garage door.
Two minutes to put on her suit, and she listened to the police radios as she did. Three bikes with hostages, driving out onto west thirty-ninth. As she pulled on the cowl, police reported that the entire underground road had turned pitch black.
"Party-time," she murmured.
One minute to get to fortieth, where they would be coming out, flying through the dusky evening sky as her cape rippled in the wind. She cannonballed into a landing on a bridge at the entrance from thirty-ninth to fortieth, wand pressed a button on her cowl.
Colours warped and shapes bulged as her eye lenses flashed into thermal-imaging mode. Three red shapes flew under concrete, chased by a fourth. She estimated how long it would take the first to come out into she open, switched off the camera, and stood perfectly poised at the edge of the bridge.
Three, two, one…
A sudden rush of wind, and then she drove her heels into the biker's face as she fell, knocking him off the bike she twisted round and grabbed the handlebars, then realised something.
"HOW DO I STOP?!" she screamed at the hostage.
"I DON'T KNOW!" he yelled back.
"RIGHT!" Narrowing her eyes, she spun the handles to one side and drove them off the road, before squeezing two prong things that sprouted off of them. The bike screeched to a halt.
So you know how to do advanced trig, but not how to ride a bike. Nice work, Gordon.
"Thank you," sobbed the hostage. "Thank you, Batgirl."
"No problem, buddy. I gotta go." She pelted up to the side of the road, pointed her grapple gun at the next bridge and hoisted herself up. She ran and dived off the edge, pulling her arms out at the last second and soaring above the ripple of darkness that was Batman's cape, shrouding the rest of his body from her view. It must have looked quite poetic.
She soared across another bridge and landed, just as Batman's bike soared out of the other side, riderless.
"Barbara!" Bruce Wayne's voice crackled in her ear. "Grab the hostage!"
She took careful aim and fired the grapple gun at the suited man on the back of the bike. The claw grabbed hold of his tie and she was pulled forwards by his weight, slamming into the railings with an "oof!"
She left the man there, sobbing, and glided down to where the Batman was standing, a perp curled up at his feet. He was staring at a tablet he had taken off him, and handed it silently to her to examine.
APPLICATION COMPLETE, it flashed.
"Gimme ten minutes to work it and I'll tell you what the hell's going on, but right now we don't have the time. Bane?"
He nodded. "You good with riding pillion?" His voice was low and gravelly again.
"Sure, but we're not gonna get very far on the ground."
"I wasn't planning to."
As police cars surrounded them like a pack of dogs, she climbed onto the bike behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist as he scanned the scene for an exit route.
"The tow truck," she muttered into his ear, the whirr of helicopters high above them. He shot his own grapple at the ramp on the truck, pulling it down with a crash. The bike roared as it sped up the ramp and launched itself into the air, soaring over the police.
"WHOOOO!" Barbara yelled, and Bruce laughed.
The hid the ground with such force that Babs felt her bones rattle, and the bike sped off down roads and alleys and into a shadowy corner.
There's a hatch on top of that," Bruce pointed to a black lump," jump in, and don't press start."
"I would be annoyed that you didn't trust me, but I totally would have tried to drive whatever this is." She dropped onto black carbon fibre benching, and strapped herself in. Batman joined her a moment later.
"Bike safe?" she asked him. He gave her a thumbs up as he flipped controls.
The alley flooded with light and the whole contraption started to whir and vibrate as, with a tremendous shudder, it rose into the air. The police at the entrance to the alleyway were yelling and running away as their hats flew off in the crosswind; the Bat rose into the night sky and soared off.
"You ready for round two?" Bruce asked her. She grinned at the back of his head.
"Dude, that was just a warm up."