Audrey spruced up for another day in jail. Today she just wore jeans and a large tee shirt, tied back around her hips. The police knocked while she was in the middle of eating her Nutrigrain bar, and she opened the door with it sticking out of her mouth. She held out her wrists, and instead of cuffing her, they just dragged her after them. Once at the makeshift station, she laughed. In fact, they pretty much were still using the burned station, just with a few less desks. Gordon's wheelchair was in the middle, the man himself texting someone. The officer's left Audrey in front of him, then walked off.
"I need a police escort now?" she questioned indignantly. He narrowed his eyes at her, and she grinned.
"We need Batman."
"Well duh. Wasn't that why I was here all day yesterday?" She inquired, almost confused.
"We need him right now."
"Why?" he handed her a cell phone, ignoring her concern.
"Call him." she headed up to the roof for privacy and slid across black soot for a few feet before calling the Manor.
"Alfred?"
"Miss Audrey?"
"The Bat still home?"
"He is washing up. Do you need something?"
"Interrupt please. Gordon wants him." there were seconds of silence, and then the squeak of a door and the sound of a shower running.
"Master Wayne."
"Alfred, what have I said about-" Bruce began to snap, anger leaking out.
"I have seen you naked countless times before, sir. I do not care anymore." the butler cleared his throat, "Miss Audrey is on the phone. Commissioner Gordon is requesting your presence."
"My presence or Batman's?" Audrey laughed at Alfred's silence, despite the disquiet in her heart.
"Batman's." She relayed, understanding.
"Batman's." Alfred repeated.
"I'm a night creature. It's seven o'clock in the morning. Did he even think about that?" there was a click, and then the shower was four times louder.
"Bruce, I think it's important." She spoke loudly into the phone. There was a thud and a groan of pain while Alfred chuckled on the line. Audrey laughed quietly.
"I'll send him on his way in due time." Audrey hung up, then erased the call from the list and walked back the concrete stairs. Gordon took the phone back.
"Twenty minutes." she promised. Thirty minutes later, a dark shape walked through the darkness of the building, and stopped beside them. Audrey kept her gaze on him, but he didn't even spare her a glance, only having eyes for Gordon. She lowered her gaze briefly before looking back to Gordon.
"We need to deal with Fawkes. She is causing too much damage."
"She's bored," Batman growled, "She'll make a move soon."
"What kind of move? Do we need to evacuate the city, or do we need to bring in all the fire power in the country?" Gordon queried, an unusual frustration building within him.
"We can't evacuate the city. She'll want an audience." Batman paused, choosing his words carefully, "We know who she wants." they both looked at Audrey, who was picking at her fingernails, "and her game is to take over." Audrey suddenly reached forward and grabbed Gordon's phone, pulling up a news feed.
"She's made the first move. It's like a game of chess, without the rules." she held up the phone, and Batman grabbed it. The bridges that led onto the island were wrought with car accidents. It appeared there was a gas being vented onto the bridge that was entering the car's AC system and causing temporary disorientation. Cleanup would take hours, and more accidents were occurring by the minute.
"What do we do next?" Gordon questioned. Audrey and Batman looked at eachother, and she nodded.
"Got any gas masks, Gordon?"
"What? I'm not going to let you go up onto a bridge-"
"You're going to stop me? Gordon, you two have real work to do. I can handle this much. Trust me." Gordon grit his teeth, then pointed to a closet. She walked through the empty doorway and opened the metal box inside, grabbing a mask and hanging it around her neck before coming back. Batman threw the keys to the Tumbler at her.
"Don't fall." she moved outside and jumped through the hatch and into the vehicle, then raced through the streets, weaving between cars. People began to honk at her, then the honk died out midstream once they realized whose vehicle it was. She tore through the streets until she reached a bridge, where she slammed on the brakes. The Tumbler squealed under her and spun into a tail spin, stopping facing away from the bridge. She pulled up the mask around her nose and mouth, then got out and locked the vehicle before pocketing the keys and starting for the ladder.
"Oh thank God." Someone cried loudly. Audrey looked at the person, then pulled herself up onto the metal ladder of the large truss bridge. She could see the canister from which the gas was floating down, but as expected, the gas was clear. The ladder creaked under her, and her eyes went wide as it broke off the side and swung out, throwing her off and onto a car. Sharp pain shot from her shoulder upon contact and she groaned, then rolled onto her back and sat up. There was a large dent in the car's roof and blood from where her skin had split. She got up and climbed to the now vertical ladder, and began climbing again, each movement of her left shoulder bringing fresh splitting pain to her mind. She reached the top and climbed onto the narrow pathway between the railings. Once on the high point of the bridge, she stood rooted to the spot. Her heart was pounding as she looked out across the beam at the canister. No doubt there was a second one on the other point, and she wasn't sure if this was the perfect time to test her acrobatic skills. She took a deep breath despite the knot of fear in her stomach, and ducked under the railing and onto the metal bar. From here, she could feel the cold beginning of Spring winds that bit through her tee shirt, and she cursed her stupidity as she dropped to her knees and straddled the bar, then pushed herself forward.
"She's going to jump!"
"Are you stupid? She's probably moving to detonate that thing there!"
"Who is that?!" she kept her eyes on the container. When she got to it, she laid down on the bar and yanked the container off, feeling herself lean dangerously to one side. Her fingers dug into the small ledge on the bar and she pulled herself upright. Container firmly under one arm, she scooted herself backward until she ran into the metal railing, then ducked through and chucked the container out into the river. She waited for it to splash down, then began walking on shaky legs down into the valley between peaks. The upward again journey was not so easy, and she had to stop once at the top to regain her breath from the nearly forty five degree slant walked. Once again, she ducked under the railing and straddled the bar, then scooted herself toward. Only this time, when she pulled off the container, her slightly uneven strength managed to send her completely over the side. In the blink of an eye, she found herself clinging to the underside of the bar, holding on for dear life as her terror raged inside of her like a hurricane. Her clammy palms gripped at her wrists, arms wrapped around the bar, and she tried to swing herself back over. Upon that idea failing, she stared furiously at the bar in front of her face, trying to solve her problem. The container went flying into the water, and Audrey focused on the gibberish just before her eyes, taking in the hastily scrawled message-Too late. She breathed deeply several times, then slowly began pushing herself back to the railing. After ten agonizingly slow minutes, she reached the railing and hooked her legs around it, then used the bar to push herself up into a sitting position. After catching her breath, she stood and ducked under the railing, then began the trek back to the Tumbler. Once there, she found Batman leaning against it, watching her. She threw the keys at him.
"Impatient much? I almost died up there." she gestured toward the second peak, and he just opened the hatch.
"Fine then. Don't care about the fact that I could be dead right now. I'll just go climbing across bridges another four times since we still have two more bridges to go." she jumped into her seat and the hatch closed immediately after.
"You're alright?"
"Those are going to be the only two words I hear out of your mouth directed at me for the next two days, aren't they." she could almost see him smirk, and rolled her eyes, then pulled off the gas mask and let it hang around her neck.
"I'm leaving you at the second bridge and taking the Tumbler to another incident in the middle of town. Try not to die." she smiled deviously at him, then began to climb out when he opened the hatch. He shot away as soon as her feet were on the pavement, and she pulled up the mask as she walked to the side of the arch bridge. It was essentially flat, with steel arch supports underneath. Where the container was, she had no idea. She walked along the side, watching people get out of their cars and scream at each other about the wrecks they were still getting into. Cursing as she patrolled the entire bridge, she then climbed over the side and slid down the rocks toward the river bank. Then she spotted the container, and withheld a frustrated scream. Instead, she went for the support beams and began monkeying on unsteady feet until she was directly below. There was a fan attached to a battery pack blowing the gas up through a hole that had been drilled into the asphalt and concrete. She hit the fan hard with her fist, snapping the fan part straight off and leaving just the base and the battery. Seconds after, while she tore at the container, she began to feel minor effects, she assumed. She got the container and dropped it into the water, then stayed still to recoup a moment. It looked like there were diamonds shining in the asphalt and that the water was a giant mirror. Even more frightening to her was how appealing that mirror began to look after a few seconds. She felt her hands loosening their grip, legs sliding apart and then just held her breath as she plunged into the icy waters. The shock of the just above freezing water snapped her back to her senses as she kicked through the murky green back to the surface. The cold bite of the air was amplified, making shivers go down her body as she swam back to the bank to pull herself out. Everything looked razor sharp now that she'd been shocked back into awareness.
Audrey yanked herself out of the water and onto the rocks, then up onto the bridge. People were still freaking out, but seemed to be calming down as she watched. Letting out a hefty sigh, she looked to the last bridge. To her horror, as she watched, the concrete rainbow arch bridge seemed to buckle inward, then blow outward, spewing cars and concrete everywhere. For a few seconds, she couldn't pull her eyes away from the mass homicide. Once she did, she felt despair in her gut as she ran for the police station. Ten minutes later and asthma kicking in full force, she ran through the empty door gasping and skid to a halt before Gordon.
"Give me a radio, and tell me what to do." someone tossed a small, sturdy handheld at her, and she clipped it onto a belt loop.
"You know where Batman went?"
"Center of down to investigate an incident."
"Good. That means he's doing what he told us. Habicht, as of now, you are an honourary member of the police force." Gordon handed her a gun and holster that she unwillingly strapped onto her hips
"You are going to report to me directly for instructions. I'm going to the hospital now, you'll come with me."
"The hospital?" she questioned as she pushed his wheelchair out to a cruiser of which she took the keys off a rack.
"My six weeks in a leg cast are up. We'll see if I can get this sling off." she nodded and helped him into the passenger seat of the car, then folded up the wheelchair and put it in the trunk, before getting in the driver's side.
"Sirens." was all he said. She took perverse pleasure in starting the car and hitting the sirens before tearing out of the parking lot. Seven minutes of mind numbing lane changes and speed limit breaking later, she pulled up and parked at a meter spot, then got out and got the wheelchair. Gordon sat down in it, and she locked the car before pushing him quickly into the hospital.
"I have to say, wheelchair races would be so much fun." she quipped in an attempt to lighten the mood that hung over them. Gordon reached back with his free hand and smacked her, leading to a harsh laugh breaking out of her throat. She wheeled him into the elevator and hit the button for the sixth floor.
Twenty minutes later, Gordon was cast and sling free with explicit instructions to avoid running for longer than two minutes at any given time, and no lifting. Clearly, his doctor knew that today was not a day to be unable. They got back in the car, and Audrey stuck the keys back in the ignition.
"Where to, Commissioner Gordon?" she questioned. He surveyed the area through the windshield and windows.
"Go to the Ewing Building."
"Sirens?" he nodded, and she took off, going well over seventy the entire time, swerving to avoid cars and pedestrians, who jumped out of her way. They stopped outside the Ewing Building, bumper to bumper with the Tumbler. On the building, was a flaming lack of windows in the shape of the Bat symbol. Batman was nowhere to be seen. Audrey got out and stood on the asphalt, looking at the flaming bat. As she watched, more fiery words lit up just above and below the bat.
"Too late?" Gordon stated and questioned the words. Audrey scowled.
"Fawkes. The same thing was written by the gas canisters on the bridges. She won't do much until the sun goes down." Gordon looked at her.
"Why?"
"Because this is a game to her, and you've pushed the most competitive player out of his prime operating period." Audrey explained, unable to put words to how she could understand Fawkes, and uncomfortable with the fact that she could.
"So why does that mean she'll wait?" Gordon pressed for clarity.
"She wants us at full strength. Gordon, if your leg starts to hurt-" he shot what could only be called his death glare at Audrey. She shut up.
"I know my limits, and you're not my daughter. Don't worry about me." Gordon reprimanded Audrey. She scowled at him, then both turned their heads as their heard a shout. A blonde woman was running toward them, crying.
"I need help." The woman sobbed, latching onto Audrey's arm.
"What's wrong, ma'am?" Gordon questioned, ever calm in the face of panic.
"A light fell on our car. My husband was inside and I can't move the light on my own. Please!" The woman sobbed, pulling on Audrey's shirt.
"Show us." Audrey commanded, deciding on her own. The woman released her and began to run back into a parking garage, Audrey and Gordon following. As the woman had said, one of the interior lights in the parking garage had fallen from the ceiling and crushed the BMW. Audrey looked at the light, and then situated herself on one half of the car. Gordon moved to the other side, and the two lifted the steel framed light slowly, throwing it onto the hood of the car. Audrey stepped back, panting from the effort, and then attempting to open the door. Having no success, she looked back at the woman.
"Do you have a tire iron?" She questioned breathlessly. The woman nodded, still crying, and opened the trunk, pulling out the metal rod. Audrey took it and ruthlessly swung it at the window, feeling the glass crack under her swing. She tried again and again until the glass shattered. She pushed out the broken pieces clinging to the frame, then forced her shoulders into the car to unbuckle the man. He was bleeding heavily from a gash on his temple, and his legs were trapped beneath the steering wheel.
"Habicht, what are you doing?" Gordon asked angrily.
"Getting him out." She returned, pulling his right leg to the right of the wheel and then up. She did the same with the other leg, then pulled herself out of the window to stretch her back.
"I'm going to need your help." Audrey told the woman, "I just need you to grab his other arm." The woman nodded, and together the two women slowly maneuvered the man out of the window and onto the asphalt.
"There's a hospital down the street. Can you get him there?" she questioned the woman. She nodded, and grabbed her husband under the armpits heaved him up onto her back. Audrey watched her go with pity.
"Let's get back down to the ground." Gordon instructed, and began walking back toward the entrance from where they were on the third level. She followed obediently.
"Why?"
"You and heights don't seem to get along today, or so I've heard." she socked him lightly in the shoulder.
"Don't try me, old man. I can survive a fall better than you."
"Then what the hell happened here?" he questioned, gesturing to the blood on her shoulder.
"I fell on a car roof." she shrugged like it meant nothing, and he shook his head.
"I can see why Batman gets possessive. Do you care about your own well being?" she laughed.
"Not especially." she grinned and then was surprised by how fast he moved downhill as they reached one of the ramps.
"Fast much?" she questioned. Gordon laughed darkly.
"Not enough muscle to slow down." Audrey only managed half a laugh before something hard struck the back of her head.