CHAPTER TWO:
SPOILER IN EUROPE
Stephanie heard a voice in her ear. She thought for a moment that it was just her mother telling her to get up, telling her that she was late for school.
Then she remembered it all.
The pain, the kidnapping…
…Talia.
"Oh God!" she exclaimed, sitting up quicker than she'd meant. The blood rushed to her head, and she felt dizzy for a moment. When it faded, she was able to see clearly again. She looked around her and saw Mrs. Guzman kneeling down beside her. "What in the name of God happened?" she feigned.
"I'm not sure," her teacher replied. "Where are the other students who were with you? Susan, Blair, Harry, and Biff? Why is there blood on your chin?"
Stephanie quickly wiped it away, then looked back up at her teacher. "I don't know," she replied, being somewhat honest. She actually had no idea where Talia had taken them. She wished she did, but for the moment, she would have to deal with the fact she had little to no knowledge of it all. "I just remember seeing them all disappear into this hallway, and then...I felt a lot of pain. I don't remember much else, honestly. I'm really sorry."
"Don't be, Stephanie," said her teacher. "Oh God, I have no idea what to do! This is too much to think about! I'm going to have to tell the parents about what's happened! I know they're not going to be happy. I know I'm going to get into a lot of deep crap for this. Sorry for saying that."
Stephanie was only half-listening. Her mind was really on what she needed to be doing next.
She wondered where Talia would be taking her classmates.
While she did not care much for Harry and Biff, she did care for Susan and Blair.
She wasn't going to leave either of them behind. She'd also been taught by Batman to never leave someone behind, no matter what they had done to her. There were exceptions to such a rule, but she knew for sure that that was not one of them.
An hour later, she now sat in the lobby of the hotel, wondering to herself what she could have done in order to stop Talia from taking her friends, as well as Biff and Harry. She knew the Demon's Daughter was stronger than her in hand-to-hand combat, but she had also known that she wouldn't have been able to take her down so easily…
…not without the Spoiler suit.
She would have to get away from her teacher and hurry to the hotel room in order to retrieve it, but she did not think that would be the problem in this case.
The problem, she believed, was finding where Talia and the League of Assassins had ended up. They weren't easy to track, not unless you were Batman. But even he had once admitted to having some trouble in locating them at least once. She didn't think it was because he wasn't as good as he usually said, but rather because Ra's, Talia, and the League had learned his moves over the years.
"We need to get back to the hotel," Mrs. Guzman said. "This is no place for children right now, especially after what has just happened!"
The shrill voice her teacher now possessed was one that grated on Stephanie's sensitive ears, though she still understood the sense of emergency that now surrounded them.
That's why I need to get out of here, she thought.
As her teacher spoke to the other students about what was happening, Stephanie waited until many of their backs had been turned. She didn't want to give Mrs. Guzman a heart attack, but she also didn't want her friends and the boys to be used in whatever hellish scheme the al'Ghuls had concocted this time.
She slowly slinked away, ensuring no one saw her. As she left the spot, she found there was an open window, which was due to the repairs going on within the museum. She climbed onto the sill, looked back and then on all sides, including behind her, to make sure that no one had followed her or was watching her, and then jumped out.
When Mrs. Guzman had completed her speech to the students about getting them out, having now made her way through the throng of them, she looked around for Stephanie and found her gone.
"Stephanie?" she called out in an extremely concerned voice. "Stephanie? STEPHANIE! Where are you?"
By this point, Stephanie couldn't hear her. All that she thought about now was what truly mattered. She needed to find the League of Assassins and Talia before anything could be done to her classmates.
It didn't take her too long to get to the hotel. While it was usually a twenty-minute drive, she had learned from Batman to speed up when either running after an enemy or trying to stop something from happening, including a bomb. That, and driving a bus in what were usually crowded streets didn't help their time, either.
When she ran through the front doors, she saw a receptionist look up at her. Alarm appeared in her eyes, and Stephanie realized there was still blood leaking from her mouth.
Must've been a hard hit, she thought, wiping it away again. She looked in a mirror nearby and saw that her lip had actually been split. Then again, most of Talia's attacks are meant to kill.
She ran to the stairwell and climbed each and every one. Thanks to her training, she was not out of breath by the time that she reached her floor (floor nineteen), and she kicked open the door leading into the hall.
What she did not realize was that she had nearly hit a woman and her young daughter, who looked to be nearly four-years-old.
"Oh, I'm so sorry," she said. "I didn't realize you were there. I hope I didn't frighten you. Anyway, I'd love to stay and chat, but there's some really important stuff I need to get done today, so have a great day, and God bless."
She held open the door for them as long as they were still there, and as they walked through, she saw the woman smile and nod at her as though she accepted her long-winded and fast-spoken apology.
Room ninety-two came into her view very soon, and Stephanie used her keycard to get into it. The room looked as though nothing had changed, but Stephanie knew for sure that everything had changed in some way or another. In order for her to find her friends and classmates, she would have to resume her position as Spoiler.
It wasn't that she minded, as she loved her role within the Bat-Family, but she also wished that her vacation could have gone without any major interruptions. She looked under the bed and found her suitcase. She retrieved a key so she could open a lock that would allow her to unzip the compartment that held the suit.
As soon as she saw it, she grabbed it.
The suit was mainly black, but there was purple under the arms and on the sides of each leg. It did not take her too long to put it on. At least, not as long as it once had. Due to the skintight material, it had once taken her over twenty minutes to put it on. After having worn it so much, it now took her around five.
Once the main suit was on, she removed the purple belt, and after putting that on, she found her black boots and gloves. There was the rod she used to attack her enemies, as well, which was currently in its small form, ready to be to be activated and used. She fastened it to her belt.
The penultimate part of the suit was the black filter mask. Putting it on, she pressed a hidden button that would not only filter her voice, but also provide her with a steady stream of air that would help if she ever actually needed it.
And finally, she found her purple cloak.
The cloak was what completed her look, what made her Spoiler. Pulling the hood over her hair, she knew for sure that she was ready for this mission.
She knew it would be difficult, given that it was Talia, and likely Ra's, that she was going up against. But she believed she could do it.
She was going to leave from here and find the League of Assassins. If they believed she was going to stay here and not go to save her friends—yes, she even called Biff and Harry friends, despite the fact they had been jerks to her in the past—then they had another thing coming.
Walking to the window to look out upon Ireland, she saw a reflection of herself.
Her blue eyes shone brightly, and a strand of blond hair had fallen near her right eye.
Batman may not be here in person, but he will definitely be here in spirit, she thought seriously. I won't allow to allow Ra's and Talia to stop me from achieving my goal. Ra's has used the Lazarus Pits to cheat death for thousands of years, but the only thing that will be rising tonight…is justice.
Before leaving the room, she looked back at her gifts and picked up the unopened gift she had received from Barbara.
She had no idea what it was, nor did she feel like opening it just yet.
All the same, she believed it would come in handy, and so she placed it in a pocket within the cloak, where she also found her grapnel.
She did not waste any time in getting out of the room after that.
She opened the window and snuck out of the window, hoping that everything would work out. She had faith, but that did not mean there weren't doubts in her mind.
But she wouldn't allow those doubts to consume her. She had seen how doubts had ruined others when they needed to succeed most.
She had grown beyond such doubts long ago, after her father had first revealed himself to be Cluemaster. He had ruined her life, then, until she had found a new family with Batman.
Her best friend, Catwoman, and the love of her life, Robin, had also very much helped. And there was no reason for her to forget how much they had helped her though the years.
"You can do all you want to stop me, Talia, but if you think you can take me down because of doubt, then you have another thing coming," she said under her breath. "I've dealt with freaks like you before, and Bruce taught me how to take you and your father on. I may not have done the best on those challenges, but that doesn't mean I can't learn from my mistakes. I may not have any allies here, but that definitely does not mean I don't have a chance. Let's do this."
She moved around the building, at first using the edges of each window. It was not the easiest thing for her to do, of course, as it took a great deal of concentration. But, like almost everything else she had dealt with today, she had learned how to be patient and how to concentrate greatly, thanks to her training.
She wasn't about to let that training go to waste, either. When the edges were no longer there, she retrieved the grapnel, aimed it above her, and pressed the button that released it. She soon found herself zipping upward, and a feeling of astonishment filled her body.
It did that every single time when she zipped up to another building, ledge, or gargoyle, and it never lost its fun. Once she was up on top of the building, she realized she couldn't keep focusing on what she considered fun. She needed to go forward and find the League.
Sure, it had been a little bit of time since they had appeared, and they could very well have escaped, but Spoiler believed they had to be close, if they were planning on stealing children.
There were many more children all around Galway, enough to help whatever the League, Talia, and Ra's needed to do.
Just what was it that they planned to do, though? Spoiler couldn't think of a single thing.
But then her mind returned to the fact Ra's used the Lazarus Pits to regain whatever youth he still had.
There had even been a time where he had explained how, over the years, he had used them so much that their properties had begun to wear out.
Could that be it? Could he be needing the children, including Susan and Blair and the others, to regain any of the youth that he might still have within him? It's not that he has much that he can get, of course, due to how much uglier he's become over the years, but I think he'll do everything he can to live and to try to stop all those who oppose him, including Batman and the rest of us.
She shook her head as a result of the fact that she couldn't think of the correct reason. That was a hunch, and she didn't think her hunch was incorrect, but she would need proof in order to fully understand everything.
From where she stood, she could see the Wayne Enterprises building in the distance, with its communication tower being the first thing that she saw. She felt that it would be good for her to go there and see if there someone that could help her on this mission.
There was also a breeze that came off the water from somewhere in the distance. Looking to her left, though, she suddenly saw sparkling water, with homes built right there by it. The sun was starting to go down, and the water was reflecting the scene. If it was not for the fact she had something more important to do, then she would have happily stayed where she was and watched it go all the way down.
Of course, the only good thing that would come of that would be that the Bat-Family almost always worked at night. It helped conceal them.
But that wouldn't work here, for she had a mission that she needed to complete, and she couldn't rest until she had finished it.
A sound reached Spoiler's ears, and she looked down into the alleyway from which the sound had come.
There was a couple that stood in that alleyway, with both of their backs now against a wall, the woman's face pressed into the man's shoulder. Spoiler looked just ahead of them saw a mugger pointing a gun right at them, which caused her eyes to widen and her brows to drop.
She quickly jumped to the next building, though she did it as silently as she could. When she was on top of the building, she looked down into the alleyway again. The mugger did not look up at her as she looked down upon him.
"Ye can't do this!" the man said to the mugger. "Ye can't! It's unethical!"
"I dinna care whether or not it's ethical or otherwise," the mugger growled. "All that matters to me is that ye stop talking! I prefer to kill in peace!"
The woman began sobbing, and the man put a hand on her head and closed his eyes.
Spoiler was shocked to see that both of them were so ready for death. She did not understand how either of them could think in such a way.
When it came to things such as this, she was so ready to take on those who pointed the gun at her, to knock them through a window or smash them into a wall.
The gun cocked.
The woman cried.
The man's eyes closed tighter.
The mugger smiled maniacally.
And Spoiler jumped into the alleyway.
As soon as the gun went off, Spoiler had tackled both people to the ground, then stood to her feet and ran at the mugger.
Having not expected her, he did nothing.
By the time he'd raised the gun, Spoiler had kicked him in the gut, in the face, and between the legs. The mugger groaned in pain, and then slumped to the ground.
"Thank you so much!" the man said.
The woman had taken her tear-streaked face off his shoulder and was smiling as much as the man had. Spoiler saw the man was wearing a purple button-up shirt and black jeans, and the woman was wearing a red dress. The colors reminded her of herself and of Tim, as well as of their relationship.
But she was able to move past that.
"You're welcome," she said. "I don't know what's about to happen here in Galway, and it's better if the both of you get off the streets as soon as you possibly can, do you hear me?"
"Yes," the woman said. "Who are you?"
"Spoiler," she replied. "I come from America. I'm supposed to be here on vacation." Then she sighed. "Looks like this trip isn't going to go back to how it was, but that's life."
Without another word, Spoiler used her grapnel again and zipped up to another building, hoping she had succeeded in making an impact on the two of them.
If she had, then that was great, and she hoped to do so again with those that she prayed she would save from Ra's and Talia.
If not, then she had no idea what in the name of God she could do about that.
That would be their problem, after all.
"She was amazing!" she heard the woman exclaim to the man.
"Yes," was all the man said.
Under her filter mask, Stephanie could not help but smile.
But when it came to everything else that was happening, she went back to calling herself Spoiler, just so that she wouldn't accidentally name herself with her real name to others.
Now, if only I could find a way to get some back-up out here, she thought. I do have a communicator that gives me video, but is that what'll help me in this situation? Even with that, even if I call them, then I'm on my own. I'm still here in Europe, on my own, and I can't even locate the League of Shadows, or Assassins, or whatever they're called! Whatever. I guess, when it comes down to this, I should just try to call them and see what happens. Maybe I'll get lucky.
And so, she retrieved the communicator from the pocket in her cloak that was opposite from the one she used to store her grapnel and Barbara's gift.
It was black, and on the back of it, there was the symbol of a bat. Upon the surface, the only button was the one that would allow her to turn the device on.
But as she unlocked it and tried to call the team, she found there was a "bad connection" notification at the top, which made her just sigh with frustration.
How was it that Bruce had not found a way to make a communicator that wouldn't have issues like that? It didn't make sense, but it didn't matter.
She needed to find out where Talia had gone.
There weren't too many ways to do this, but thanks to her training, she thought she knew of one.
The fact she was on her own as a result of all this was extremely annoying. She wanted to be able to call the team and let them know of what was happening, to make sure that she just might have an ally around here that could help her.
But that didn't seem to be the case.
She was going to have to do all of this on her own, and it was not at all going to be easy.
Her mind was buzzing with all these ideas. It was like it was on fire.
"You gotta keep moving, Steph," she whispered to herself. "They may not know you're here, but your friends are counting on you, and you need to get over there and save them!"
She jumped across the rooftops with the help of her grapnel gun, running as fast as she could towards the museum.
Maybe…just maybe…one of the assassins had left something behind that she could use to track them down.
She'd seen Batman do this many times before.
One of the best examples she could think of was when they had been tracking her father down to stop him for the first time:
"Where do you think he went?" she asked Batman as they stood on top of the roof of the last-known location where he'd been seen, a warehouse over by Founders Pier.
"They always leave something behind," he replied. "You just have to know where to look."
They entered the warehouse through the skylight, and when they hit the ground, Stephanie watched as Bruce examined their surroundings.
"Here," he said to her. He knelt down and she walked to him. Looking down at that spot, she found what looked to be a card. She knelt down, too, and picked it up, examining it closely.
It belonged to the Iceberg Lounge, run by Penguin.
"You think he dropped this?" she asked.
His eyes narrowed, and Stephanie realized he was using the forensic vision within his cowl to examine it even better. "He did," Batman answered. "It has his fingerprints on it."
"Okay. So, we're going to the Iceberg Lounge?"
"Yes."
Maybe it wouldn't have been the very best lesson to some, as she had not been fully made to do it herself, but it had still taught her a great deal.
She was going to use that lesson once she got to the museum.
She was sure there were signs somewhere.
Hitting another rooftop, she found the museum in the distance, which caused her to smile some. She was going to get in there, find the evidence, and go find Talia to save her classmates.
If Ra's is in trouble because the Lazarus Pits aren't working for him as much anymore, then Talia might have kidnapped my classmates to try and rejuvenate him. It might not be the best theory, but it's the best one I can come up with on short notice. At the same time, I can't help but wonder why in the name of God I'm dealing with Talia out here! Why couldn't it be Riddler, or Mad Hatter? At the worst with those two, I would just be going through finding a crapload of trophies along with his riddles, or going through something resembling a drug trip. But no. Instead, I have to deal with Talia and the League of Assassins!
Now that she had finished venting in her mind, she could return to the matter at hand. She had just arrived on the last rooftop before the museum, and she could see that there were law enforcement cars in front of the entrance.
But she could not see any sign of her classmates, which led her to believe that they had all returned to the hotel.
Of course, there would have been an even greater heart attack for Mrs. Guzman once she got back there and saw that Stephanie was not in her room either. While she felt bad about that, she knew she needed to get this done, so she couldn't keep her mind on that whole thing.
"Here we go," she said to herself, once more praying that she actually found something that could help with her investigation in the museum. "This better not have been a waste of time!"
She jumped over to the roof of the building and found herself near an open skylight. She found herself amused by this, as she could not help but wonder why someone would actually leave the skylight leading into a museum full of priceless artifacts open.
Then she realized: the League must have been the ones to leave it open.
As her eyes widened, she came to understand that this could be a great clue for her! Of course, she would have to go inside and make sure there was nothing else in there, but at the same time she could not help but feel accomplished already.
She found her way down to the ground floor of the museum and started looking around for other clues that might have been left behind by the League.
As she searched, she came to see a little bit of blood on the floor. At first she didn't think anything of it, as she herself had been bled when punched hard in the mouth.
But then she realized yet another thing: that had not been where she had lain after being punched.
"Oh my God, it's a clue!" she said.
She examined it, finding there was a slight trail. She wished she could take the sample and find a way to analyze it, but she was here in Galway, not in Gotham, which meant she didn't have access to a forensic lab, or to Batman or the Batcave.
The one who was the best at forensics beyond Batman was Catwoman, actually, who had actually been a criminology student at Gotham University at one point before turning to crime and then reforming and becoming part of the Bat-Family.
If Selina were here, then I would be able to get some information from her, Stephanie thought. She came to understand then that she was still referring to herself by her real name, which she knew wasn't the best idea if her mind was at all probed by an enemy or even a hero that had no sense of boundaries. She shook her head to clear it, and then reminded herself that she was now Spoiler, and that she was also on an important mission. Anyway, if Selina were here, then we could easily figure this out together. Of course, it could also take some time, but even then, we also had Alfred at the Batcave! He was always there to help us out with that information. I just wish they were all here, because I could really use them about now.
"Hey!"
Spoiler looked up and saw a police officer with brown hair and eyes of the same color. His skin was a pale white. She remembered that their full name as a police force was An Garda Síochána ("Guardians of the Peace of Ireland"). Of course, that had no meaning to what was happening right now.
"Uh, hello," she greeted. "Look, I'm not from here. I'm from America. Gotham City, to be exact."
"I don't care who ye are, ye're coming in with me!" he yelled. "There were children abducted from this area, and I want nothin' more than to take down the lowlifes that did it!"
"I'm going after them, in case you're wondering," Spoiler replied. "I'm going to find them, take them down, and get these kids back to their teacher before their parents can worry too much."
The officer appeared to calm down just a little, before he suddenly removed his gun from its holster and pointed it right at her. Spoiler put her hands up, though not because she was giving up.
It was because she wanted him to feel that he was at least somewhat in charge of the current situation, to feel less afraid.
But of course, she was going to have to get out of here. There was no way that she could remain here, even if she wanted to continue to look for clues. For all she knew, she had just found one of the most important clues, one that would help her find her classmates and save them from Talia.
Even if it wasn't, she would have to make do.
"Sir, you're going to have to excuse me," she said to him in a calm tone, even though her heart was pounding frantically. There was no way she could get shot right now It just wasn't something she wanted to happen. Then again, who does? "I need to go and find the people who were kidnapped. I'm sorry, but you have to let me go."
"I can't let ye do that, no matter how much good ye might do," he said.
Sighing, Spoiler put her hands down.
"Then, I'm sorry."
She instinctively put her hand in a pouch on her belt. "Put your hands up, or I'll shoot!" the officer yelled.
"Spoiler alert: I can't let that happen."
With that, she threw down the smoke pellet.
As smoke filled the room, there was a gunshot. The officer ran through the smoke to find the mysterious young woman, but there was no sign of her.
On top of the museum roof, Spoiler sighed with relief. She was glad to have escaped with the help of the smoke pellet, and without even being hit by the one bullet that was fired.
She didn't have much evidence, but that didn't mean she didn't have a way to track Talia. She tried to think of locations Talia might have gone to, and then she nearly smacked herself in the head as she remembered one of the major landmarks here in Galway.
Wayne Enterprises had, in fact, opened another location here, which she knew from the news and from being told by Bruce himself, and so Spoiler believed that Talia might just go past it. She and Batman had a long, weird, and creepy history with each other, so while there was the possibility that this theory seemed far-fetched, she was going to go along with it.
She started running over the rooftops again, praying that her theory would come true, and that she could stop this madness before it truly began.
