Two days later Jim was working late at the office trying to get any leads he could on Strange's whereabouts and where Catwoman ran off to. Batgirl forwarded all info she found over to him as well as what she knew of Hugo's plan which involved the brutal slaughter of every last criminal in Gotham.
Not that Jim would lose any sleep over most of these criminals should they parish but what Strange was committing was worst than anything any of them had done save for maybe the Joker, and NOBODY deserved to die the way that they were being killed.
Thing was Hugo was basically a ghost. The background that Arkham had looked up on him before hiring had been faked, he had no previous records or anything, it was like he just showed up one day out the blue.
"Who are you Hugo Strange, really?"
Suddenly a batarange came flying over his way and stuck on the wall. Getting up from his chair he walked up to the batarange and pulled it out of the wall. On the batarange was a note with a single word on it.
Rooftop
Batgirl was standing next to the Bat signal when Jim arrived, her back to Jim as she stared out to the city.
"Any new leads on Strange?" Batgirl asked finally turning around to face her father.
"Not at this point," Jim admitted, "All his records have been falsified it's like he's a ghost. Nobody knew who he was before he arrived to Gotham."
"There has to be something to help us find this guy."
"There might be one thing," Jim took out some pictures taken from video footage from the past monster attacks. "We thought we were chasing only one monster but take a look at the monster from the gas station attack and the one from the attack on the robber's car."
Batgirl looked at the two photos then she noticed the difference, "One of them has a illuminati tattoo on their right shoulder.
"We did a run on every citizen in Gotham who had that particular tattoo on their shoulder and only one name popped out. William Loomis, he was serving a life sentence in Blackgate for a terrorist attack that left over a hundred dead. Now look at the other one more closely.
"He is missing the middle three fingers on his right hand, and has a scar over his left eye."
"Miles Fletcher, was responsible for more than a dozen murders three years ago, when apprehended he claimed that they were aliens out to get him."
"I remember him," Batgirl replied, "I locked the poor bastard up in Arkham myself."
"This means that we know where Hugo is getting his men for his army."
"But how?" Batgirl asked "Hugo was fired from Arkham, if he showed up on the facility he would be noticed. Someone had to be sneaking them out."
"There was no signs of a break in either, as every prisoner was removed legally. So that rules out Catwoman.
"Someone else is working for him, either a guard or a Warden or a…"
"Cop," Gordan finished.
"Get all records of any prisoners transferred out of Blackgate and Arkham, we need to find out who is taking them out of their prisons and put a stop to this now before anyone else is mutated into those things.
Down at Blackgate a dozen prisoners were loaded into a black van, leading the escort was Talia Al Ghul, decked out in her officer uniform and going by her falsified "Talia Tate," name.
"Where did you say you were taking these group of prisoners again."
"To Iron Hights," Talia replied as she closed the door and locked it. "They all have some outstanding warrants in Central City will be escorted there for trail." Talia handed the warden some papers to sign. "If you can just sign and we will be on our way."
Despite the warden's suspicion he signed the papers anyway, approving the transfer. Talia then hopped in the drivers seat of the van and drove off.
"Let father know we are on the way with another load." Talia hollered out at Hugo who was riding in the back with the prisoners."
"Very Well Ms. Al Ghul."
"Mind if I ask how many more before your project is complete? I don't know how many more of these phony prison transfers I can pull off until the cops finally catches on to us."
"Trust me Ms. Al Ghul, this last batch right here is all we will need."
"It better be," Talia growled to herself. Despite living up to his promises so far Talia still wasn't one hundred percent trusting of Hugo Strange. Mainly because of bringing Catwoman on board and her later fleeing them. If this plan didn't work , and her cover was blown before her father was ready, she was going to kill Hugo herself.
"So have your father found anything yet Ms. Gordon?" Alfred asked when Barbara arrived back to the Batcave.
"Nothing yet but he is going to look into Blackgate and Arkham ASAP. He has reason to believe one of his own cops is working for Strange and breaking prisoners out via prison transfer to use for his monsters.
"Would one of Gotham City's finest really help pull off such a despicable act such as this?"
"I don't know Alfred, but it makes since the more I think about it. Catwoman was working for Strange."
"Under Distress I might add." Alfred pointed out.
"My point is if Catwoman was forced to work with Strange maybe a officer is too. It's the only logical reason for how prisoners can get removed from two maximum secured prisons and not raise suspicions."
"Lets just hope that like Catwoman they were forced to work against their will."
Suddenly the bat computer went off and Barbara ran over to check on the alert.
"What is it Miss Gordon?" Alfred asked.
"I rigged the satellites yesterday to pick up any trace of those monsters in order to stop another attack before they happened." Barbara replied as she typed viciously on the keypad
"And you found Hugo's next target?"
"Yes," Barbara clicked enter and a red popped up.
"15th Street, East side of Gotham,"
"That's were Falcone's old hideout used to be."
"He was released from prison recently, along with most of Falcone's men. And now Hugo knows it to. Putting on her helmet Batgirl hopped on her Bat Cycle and raced over to Falcone's hideout, hoping to get there before the monster did.
"Glad to have you back boss." One of Falcone's men said as they sat down for the first meeting since Falcone's release.t
"No prison can hold me forever, not when you have your lawyers dig up a old affair to blackmail the district attorney with. You should have seen how fast they got me out."
"You're a true genius boss."
"Yeah one of the best."
Suddenly there was a sound like the door getting ripped opened.
"What the hell was that?" Falcone yelled "Bruno, Lefty, go check that out!"
"Sure thing boss," The two gangsters pulled out their guns and followed where the sound came from. "Man that better not be the Bat, we haven't even done anything yet."
There was the sudden sound gunfire, Falcone and the rest of his men listened on nervously as the sound of panicked gunfire filled the room.
"It ain't even slowing him down Bruno! It ain't…" Suddenly everyone heard the sound of Lefty screaming and the sounds of bones being crushed."
"Oh man! Oh man I'm getting out of here!" Bruno was heard crying out before he let out a blood curling scream, and the sound of a blood thirsty roar echoed the building along with the sound of what heard like limbs being ripped apart.
Falcone and his men's faces went white, this wasn't Batgirl they knew that, this sounded more demon like.
"The rest of you, get that thing!" Falcone ordered, trying to hide how scared he was.
"S-s-s-sure thing b-b-b-boss." They replied all shaking in fear as they walked down the hallways with their guns.
Within seconds the hideout was flooded with the sound of screams and gunfire.
"Get it!" Someone screamed before opening fire.
"Oh god! OH GOD!" Another screamed
"STAY AWAY! STAY AWAY!"
Soon all of the screaming and gunfire stopped and Falcone clinched his gun as tightly as he could, no longer even attempting to hide the terror in his eyes.
There was the sound of something rolling towards the open door to Falcone's meeting room, Falcone looked towards the door and saw the head of one of his men rolling towards him.
That's when he saw the monster lung at him. Falcone screamed as he fired a his shotgun at the monster's head. The bullet made a direct impact and fell to the ground temporarily stunned. Falcone took that time to try to make a break for it. Running towards the rooftop the monster got up and quickly followed suit.
"No, no, no, no, NO!" Falcone screamed as the beast chased after him.
It was raising when Batgirl arrived to the hideout. Taking off her helmet she gasped in fear when she realized the monster had already beat her.
"No, no, no, no, NO!" Batgirl heard Falcone scream. She looked up and saw the monster chase him to the rooftop and tackle him to the ground biting, and attacking his face.
Batgirl gasped in horror as she finally saw the beast for the first time, It was nothing like she had ever fought before, it was huge, it was fast, and it wasn't human. Shooting her grapple up to the rooftop her eyes widened in horror when the monster turned and stared at her, blood dripping from his teeth and nails. Batgirl stared at Falcone and saw that she was to late, his nose had been bit off and more likely eaten, his eyes had been gouged out and his face had been so mutilated it was unrecognizable.
Batgirl's fear soon turned to anger, this ended now. As the monster charged she threw several Batarangs at the beast, landing them in the chest, neck, forehead and eye. The beast screamed in pain as it pulled each batarange out. Blood spewed from where it's left eye use to be, and the beast roared in anger as it attacked. Being half blind didn't stop the beast from it's murderess pursuit. Swinging blindly Batgirl had to dodge to the right to avoid the beast claws digging into her chest. Batgirl then landed a fist to the monster's side only to grab her wrist in pain afterword.
"The monster's skin is to tough to punch." Batgirl realized, "That's why bullet's don't make a impact." She had to defeat this monster another way.
The monster took a swing and knocked Batgirl backwards, nearly causing her to fall off the roof. The monster then charged at Batgirl going for the kill. As Batgirl picked herself up off the ground she noticed a power line right below the roof. She knew what to do, taking out her grappling hook, she waiting until the beast was almost right on top of her and fired, wrapping the cord around the beast's waist. Before the monster had a chance to break free Batgirl kicked the monster and it fell off the rooftop and landed on the powerline. Batgirl watched as the powerline electrocuted the beast. The beast screamed in pain for a few moments before it stopped moving. Batgirl hung her head in shame, that thing was no longer human, but she wondered if there was another way she could have defeated that beast.
Her father, Talia and half a dozen other officers soon arrived shortly to inspect the damage. Talia's eyes widened as she saw the monster dangling dead from the wires.
"Batgirl, what did you do?"
Batgirl didn't answer as she slowly walked to her bike ashamed of her act.
"That thing was no longer human," Jim replied trying to side with Batgirl's actions. "I'm sure Batgirl had no other option." Jim turned to Batgirl for confirmation "Right?"
Batgirl just put on her helmet and drove off, not answering her father. As much as she wanted to believe she made the right choice she couldn't help but to look at the facts and that was that she took a life.
And no matter what the circumstances there was no excuse for that.
Question, should I up the rating for this story to M? With the amount of violence and blood I am thinking it might be hard to continue justifying a T rating for this story.