Author's Notes: Kate is impersonated by Beth in all scenes.
The Batmobile patrolled Gotham like it owned the streets. Batwoman targeted a Scare that was running from her. Instead of using the sidewalk or running into the park, he conveniently kept running on the pavement. Beth fired a cable around his legs and then stopped just in front of him. "Who's your boss?" Beth questioned the masked Scare.
"No one's going to talk to you," he spat.
"Oh really," Beth said placing a pistol in front of his face.
"That's nothing compared to what my boss would do to me if I talked," he told her.
"You can go tell your boss that I'm coming for him," Beth said as a nearby jewelry store alarm went off.
"Check out the jewelry store. I have a stake in it," Kara ordered via radio.
"God damn it," Beth swore, leaving the drug dealer on the road still tied up.
Beth went over to the store looking through the windows with her pistol ready. She went around a corner and nearly shot a black kid. "Do not shoot that kid or there will be hell to pay," Kara warned Beth.
"You set off the alarm?" Beth asked accusingly.
"I just wanted to get your attention," he said adorably.
"You have it. What do you want?" Beth asked crossly.
"My brother went to school early one day. He never came home. He's been gone for three months," he said holding a missing person's poster. "No one seems to care. Do you care, Batwoman?"
"Kid, let me tell you something very important," Beth said taking a knee in front of him. Suddenly, a truck ran over her drug-dealing suspect on the road. "Damn it," Beth sighed.
"Keep going, I believe in you," Kara mocked.
"I ain't here to save the children, but...," Beth began.
The kid eyed her expectantly. "I actually lost my train of thought, silly me," Beth said to herself.
"Really?" the kid wondered.
"I don't save people. I kill people," Beth said seriously.
"Well...maybe you can kill the people that have my brother," he said hopefully.
The wheels in Beth's brain turned on this. "Alright, you have a deal."
What Beth and the kid didn't realize was that Ryan Wilder had been watching them and overhearing their conversation.
The next morning, Jacob Kane, Sophie Moore, and Kate Kane were at a press conference inside the Crows nest. "I have intelligence that Alice is still alive, and I believe she is involved in a war between competing parties. I am personally offering a million-dollar cash reward to anyone that can lead to her arrest," Jacob said to the press.
"What do you tell critics that see this as a desperate attempt to rectify the worst manhunt of all time?" one reporter asked.
"That they can go fuck themselves," Jacob replied. "I am a father with two daughters. I want Alice found more than anyone. With the public's help, I know we will find Alice and bring her to justice."
Kate eyed her father but kept a straight face.
In the Bat-Cave, Kara was watching news analysis of the press conference. Beth came in with the missing person's poster in her hand. "You see that? You fuck with me, Beth, I get a million bucks," Kara warned.
"You make a million a week," Beth rolled her eyes.
"More," Kara corrected her.
"I need to find the people that have this kid," Beth said showing her the missing person's poster.
"That's not really your mission," Kara rebuked.
"I don't give a shit about the kid. I want to find who the kidnappers are and kill their ass," Beth clarified.
"Oh...but why?" Kara wondered.
"I think...I think it will make up for all the black people I've killed over the years," Beth said thoughtfully.
"He's a foster kid with a juvenile record. GCPD closed his file...soon after it was filed," Brainiac 5 reported from the computer. "He's been missing for three months. He lived in Wayside, a particularly low-income area of the city. Statistically speaking, less than 1% of child abduction is by a complete stranger. Predatory kidnapping occurs in 1 out of every ten thousand reports."
"Okay, so what if this case was a predatory kidnapping?" Kara asked slightly interested.
"In half of these cases, the child is murdered. If the child is murdered, the killing is done within three hours of the abduction in seventy-five percent of such cases," Brainiac 5 replied.
"Well...shit," Kara muttered.
"So, you're saying the statistics suggest he's either with family or dead already?" Beth questioned.
"This is Gotham. It has a higher incident rate of child abduction, sex trafficking, and slavery beyond the national level," Brainiac 5 allowed.
"Still want to take this on?" Kara asked.
"You know what? I'll think about it," Beth said losing interest.
Meanwhile, Ryan was having a sudden flashback in her van from when she was ten or so. She arrived at her group home with comic books in her hands. "Hey, I'm Ryan...," she began.
"Why the fuck is your name Ryan? That's a boy's name. Were you once a boy?" the Hispanic girl asked rudely.
"My favorite animal is the snow leopard," Ryan continued.
"Oh really? Why not the black panther?" the Asian girl mocked.
"My favorite color is yellow," Ryan kept going.
"Like piss," the Hispanic girl mocked.
"And my last foster mom says I watch too much TV," Ryan concluded.
"Well...no shit. You talk too much. You need to shut the fuck up," the Asian girl advised.
Ryan got on her bed only to hear a tap on the window. "Open up, I know you can hear me," an older white girl said behind the window. Ryan opened the window allowing her to come in.
"You're going to get your ass busted," the Hispanic girl told her.
"You going to be boring your whole life," Angelique shot back. She got on the bed next to Ryan and started reading her comic books.
"Am I on your bed or something?" Ryan wondered.
"No, I'm gay. That makes it okay," she said. "Ghost kid? What's so special about him?"
"He...can...be...invisible," Ryan said embarrassed.
"That is so lame," Angelique rolled her eyes.
"Well, I can relate to him is all," Ryan said.
"Well, for the record, I see you," Angelique said thirstily.
Ryan gave her an odd look. "New rule, you keep opening that window for me, I'll have your back...literally and figuratively," Angelique offered.
"Okay," Ryan said giving her a pinkie swear.
Ryan drove around Gotham looking for a lead on that kid. She stopped by a shop that had a comic book rack out front and went to check them out. "Green Lantern comics are free? Damn," Ryan winced.
She then experienced another flashback of her younger self going through the comics. "Crap, crap, crap, now that's...art," she said as she got herself a Ghost Kid comic.
"What you doing, sweetie?" a woman's voice said from behind.
"Shit!" Ryan said alarmed. "I'm not stealing. It's free," she pointed out.
"Don't worry, I'm not the police. I'm known to the neighborhood as the candy lady," she said showing her some jelly beans. "You want some?"
"Nah," Ryan said weirded out.
"So, my son went to boarding school and now I have a minivan full of comics. I was about to donate them but maybe you might want to pick through them first," she offered.
"Sure, I'll take a peek," Ryan said naively and went over to her van.
As expected, the woman shut the van door and kidnapped her. Sixty days and sixty jelly beans later, Ryan was still trapped upstairs. Eventually, a volunteer group of college students came to the door with a missing person's flyer. The creepy kidnapper lady came to see them. "We're looking for a little girl. Many are worried for her," the leader said.
"Well, what does she look like?" the creepy kidnapper lady asked.
"Fair skin, blue eyes," he said.
"That is just awful. The only missing kid I have is black," the creepy kidnapper lady said.
"Well, thank you for your time," the leader said appreciatively and walked off with the rest of his group. Soon thereafter, Angelique rescued Ryan and became her white savior.
At the Bat-Cave, Beth obnoxiously ate an apple as she contemplated her options. "Still undecided?" Brainiac 5 asked.
"Yeah...," Beth admitted.
"In that case, you have a new target. He goes by the alias Ocean. He is a known associate of Safiyah. Squeeze information out of him and then kill him," Brainiac 5 instructed.
"Can you at least give me a lead?" Beth asked annoyed.
"I have four possible hideout locations from random sources," Brainiac 5 said helpfully.
"I'll go as Kate," Beth said putting her facial masque on.
On a hunch, Ryan went back to the same house she had been kidnapped for sixty days. She knocked on the door and got the creepy kidnapper lady. "I'm here to claim Kevin Johnson," she said to her.
"Who?" she asked.
"Fifteen, male, African American," Ryan said showing her the missing person's poster. "Last seen with you."
"And who might you be?" she asked.
"Someone who cares," Ryan said vaguely.
"I have seen him, and he's with a family that loves him," she revealed. Ryan was suddenly stunned by two guys with TAZERs and then sprayed in the face to knock her out. She was then dragged inside the house.
Kate entered an apartment and found a chemistry lab in the kitchen. She looked over a sample of snake-bite on the table. "You break it, you buy it," a woman said as she ambushed her.
Kate quickly turned the tables on her slamming her into a laptop and then into a lamp. The women used the lamp on Kate missing each time. Kate kicked her onto the couch forcing her to drop a hotel key. Kate grabbed a hold of the woman and head-butted her to her knees. Kate took out her butterfly knife and place it on her throat.
"Where's Ocean?"
"Who?" she asked. "Look, I only came here to bag the place."
"Maybe you are and maybe you're not," Kate sighed as she contemplated killing her. "You're lucky I'm wearing this face tonight. Get lost," she ordered.
The woman ran out leaving the hotel key behind. Kate picked it up and then got a call from Brainiac 5. "We have a problem. It involves your father."
Ryan woke up on the second floor and managed to untie her legs and hands. She played dead as the creepy kidnapper lady came in. "Honestly, how did you get kidnapped twice like this?" she shook her head disappointedly.
Ryan leaped up and pushed her against the wall forcing the knife out of her hand. Ryan then tossed her down some stairs. Ryan punched her twice to the face hard. "I'm the girl you couldn't break."
"Bitch, please," the lady rolled her eyes.
"Where's Kevin?" Ryan demanded.
"He ran out of jelly beans. Now, you'll never find him," she said.
Ryan punched her again knocking her out. She was now out of leads.
Kate arrived at the warehouse where her father's tracking device on his watch led her. The warehouse was already surrounded by Crows. Jacob was already out front when Kate arrived. "I got your call."
"Yeah, it's taken care of. False lead on Alice," Jacob said somberly.
Kate noticed four body bags being taken out of the warehouse, one of which was smaller than the others. "I shouldn't have gone alone but as soon as they turned on me, I sent the signal. A SWAT team took out the hostage-takers. One of them was just a kid. He was black, too. We are going to get so much flak for this," Jacob said anxiously.
"Was he, at least, armed, this time?" Kate asked.
"Yeah, we're good on that front," Jacob nodded.
"Well, justice will prevail," Kate said optimistically. "I actually got myself a lead."
"Oh yeah?" Jacob asked curiously.
"Some guy that goes by Ocean," Kate said. "I crashed his drug lab but he wasn't there."
"Got a way to find him again?" Jacob asked.
"Maybe," Kate said referring to the hotel key.
"Good work. Take the rest of the night off," Jacob said.
"Do I get the million dollars if I catch Alice?" Kate teased.
"No, because you're a Crow now," Jacob said giving her a hug as he walked her away from the scene.
Later that night, Black Mask and his associates visited a snake-bite factory in Gotham. The factory was well-lit and particularly brazen. Workers went about making injections from shroom oil and fear toxin. The injections were then placed in non-descript boxes for delivery. "I don't think I want to pay that, Sal," Black Mask said as he followed around an Italian drug boss.
"I don't give a shit what you want to pay. I set the prices here," Sal told him off.
"Listen, Sal, in case you haven't heard, I'm the guy in all of Gotham. You want a face in my marketplace, you're going to have to give me a bargain discount," Black Mask insisted.
"A discount? I'm into that," Sal said reasonably.
"Show him the money," Black Mask ordered his associates. They poured stacks of bills on Sal's table. "Think about it. Good business is where you find it."
"Let me put this into perspective. Word on the street is that you're just some knock-off, and the real Black Mask got his ass handed to him a year ago. You make my friends nervous. A lot of people would like to see a guy like me put a guy like you out of business," Sal said boldly.
"I don't know...I don't know. Maybe I'm just not making myself damn clear. I don't want to fuck with you, Sal, but I have the connections, the sales organization, and enough muscle to shove this factory so far up your ass that you'll shit snow for a year," Black Mask threatened.
"Blow this black mask's head off," Sal ordered offended.
Black Mask's associates pointed guns at Sal at the same time. The whole factory had armed men pointing guns at each other. "Guns, guns, guns," Black Mask mocked. "This mask and this suit are bulletproof. But I'd hate to get blood on my white suit."
"Just kidding," Sal ordered his men down.
The doors to the factory were suddenly blasted open by the Batmobile. Batwoman emerged from the smoke with a machinegun pistol in her hand. The armed guards took cover positions as they aimed at her. "Come quietly...or there will be trouble," Beth told them.
"Fuck you, lady," one of them said as he pumped a shotgun.
Two dozen men fired all at once at her in a barrage using submachine guns, shotguns, and pistols. The bullets bounced off her suit harmlessly. Beth calmly walked in the middle of the gunfire and fired her machinegun pistol at her first victim blasting his chest open. Beth took down two more with her pistol in front of her, turned to her left, and fired on a man on the second level. She then fired on the fifth above her as he was shooting at her. As she walked through the factory, she continued firing killing seven more men, and quickly reloaded her pistol with magazines on her belt. After gunning down three more men, one of the shot guards fired on his own boss, Sal, killing them both.
Beth placed her hot pistol in its holster and slowly walked up to Black Mask. He stared her down not intimidated by her in the least. Black Mask sent his two bodyguards away so they could be alone. "Your aim could use some work," Black Mask chided.
"Let's see if I can get a bullet through your eye hole," Beth challenged.
"You can have the first shot," Black Mask offered.
The two stared each other down for a good moment. Beth unholstered her other pistol and went for a shot. A flash grenade suddenly went off near Beth stunning her. Black Mask then fired a TASER dart on Beth's suit sending her to the floor unable to move. Black Mask gripped Beth by the base of her cape and tossed her through a glass window. Before Beth could recover, Black Mask expertly unbuckled her utility belt disarming her, and then threw her into another office window. Beth quickly got to a knee and fired darts from her armband. Black Mask quickly moved out of the way as if expecting it. Beth went for a punch only for Black Mask to catch it. He then blasted her with fear toxin gas from under his sleeve. Beth stared as his black skull mask morph into something grotesque. Distracted by the fear toxin, Black Mask beat her down to the floor and then casually placed a gun in front of her lips.
"Too easy," Black Mask said unimpressed. "Don't fuck with my business ever again," he said and then put his gun back into his white suit pocket.
Beth closed her eyes in mental anguish and humiliation. "Damn it," she said disappointed in herself.
Author's Notes: The cynical ending is meant to just be cynical. A case can be made that you can talk a kid down when he has a gun. A case can be made to shoot him immediately to save your life or another. Personally, I didn't want the kid dead but if a Crow commander were really in a tight spot like that, what would likely happen? I also didn't want Beth to take the shot. I had issues with the way Ryan, Sophie, and Alice get their leads and ended up in certain locations without having a clear knowledge of things. Robocop is what I want from a Batwoman series. Give me the social commentary if you must but also give me guns, violence, and killing bad guys.