CHAPTER THREE:

THE GIFT OF SURPRISE

In the shadows, Spoiler moved quickly and silently. While she was nowhere near as adept at that as Batman, Batgirl, Nightwing, or maybe even Robin, she felt that was still quite good at it, and she believed there was still a chance for her to get even better.

She needed to find an even better trail if she was to be able to fully track Talia down, but she knew it was not going to be an easy task. The League of Assassins (or was it the League of Shadows?) had been around for centuries, as had Ra's, and they were quite good at staying hidden until it was too late for their victims.

But she couldn't allow her classmates to become their next victims.

While she didn't have a full idea as to why Talia had kidnapped them, her best guess was that Ra's was not in the best shape. While explaining him to her, Batman had said that Ra's used Lazarus Pits in order to survive for as long as he had, and that after using them for so long, they had begun to lose their power.

Was that what was happening?

She didn't know, and she likely wouldn't know for sure until she got the exact words from Talia herself. She wanted to try and stop this from going all the way to Ra's. but she did know that not everything was going to be in her control. As much as she wished it was, there was no way that would ever happen.

I have to remain in the shadows, is all, and as long as I am able to do that, then I should be able to find Talia and the League and maybe prevent this thing before it ever begins. I'll need to check up on the team back in Gotham soon, let them know what's happened and what could happen. If Batman learns of this, he might be able to send me some help, some way, somehow. Please, God, let all this work out.

All those days of training came back to her mind.

They had been hard, painful, and exhausting. She remembered getting home and collapsing from being so worn out. The lie she had given to her mother was that she was part of an after-school club where they worked out together.

Of course, that had resulted in many an interesting story as to why she kept coming home with bruises, scrapes, and even cuts every once in a while from her time out with the rest of the Bat-Family.

The fact her mother had not yet learned her secret identity was a shock to Stephanie. Then again, maybe her mother had learned of it—she was a smart woman, after all—and had decided not to say anything of it, knowing that she was helping Gotham in the best way she knew how. If her mother did know, then that would be something Batman wasn't a fan of, but Stephanie didn't mind, so long as her mother didn't force her to give up her crimefighting identity. Without it, she didn't think there would be another way for her to prove herself to the city of Gotham.

Thinking this whole time had allowed her to make it through the shadows and find her way to a ledge where she could sit and look around for Talia and the League.

They were extremely well-trained, but then, so was she. Even if they someone were able to give her the slip, she believed her training would allow her to find them soon enough.

Before she knew it, a sound blew through the air, one that was far different from the wind. It was a yell. A scream, actually, and it was a scream that she knew all too well.

"HELP!"

Susan, she thought.

She quickened her pace, praying that nothing befell her classmates before she reached them, hoping that Talia wasn't that cruel.

Just minutes before, near the Wayne Tower of Galway, Talia and her League mercenaries were dragging the annoying children across the rooftops. They would have drugged them, but Talia did not want that to be in their system when they were presented to her father.

That was not the only thing on her mind, of course.

She had seen the young woman they'd decided not to take in the museum, recognized her. It had been the child who dressed in the black-and-purple costume and fought multiple times in clashes with Batman and his allies. Her beloved had found her, it appeared, and sent this little girl to stop her.

If that was the case, then Talia could not help but chuckle at the thought. How was it that this girl—she could not remember what she had called herself—could think she even remotely stood a chance against her and the League of Assassins?

Not to mention, it did not appear that Batman had followed her across the ocean. If that had occurred, then maybe she would have posed more of a threat, but only because of her beloved's presence.

She loved Bruce, that much was true. She wished that she could have his child. But her only attempt at allowing that conception had been thwarted when Bruce took his drink and poured it out on the floor in front of her. It had enraged her, made her wish that she could beat him.

But at the same time she loved him too much, and to see him harmed always brought a tear to her eye.

Still, her father's plans had been thwarted by him so many times that she still saw him as one of her greatest enemies. Thus, any of those he trained were also her enemies, and she could not allow a single one of them to stand in her way.

Especially not this stupid brat clad in purple!

She had not appeared to follow them, but knowing how Bruce and his allies worked, she guessed she was being followed, or would be soon enough. Once she was sure of that, she was going to silence her once and for all.

A little girl, Bruce? she thought. Is that all you are able to do? If you are here, then you tricked us well. But given the fact she was with these children already, who appeared to be part of some kind of trip with their school, I do not think that is the case. If she thinks she can stop us, then you are going to once again know what it is like to lose someone you care about!

She heard the voice of one of her men, and looking over to him she asked, "Could you repeat that?"

"Are we being followed, do you think?" the mercenary asked. He had dark brown eyes, and his skin was much paler than those around him.

"I'm not sure," she admitted. "I wouldn't doubt it, but I know we are not being followed by the law enforcement. They are too stupid to find our trail and see what it is we are doing. They will be asking questions to those who were in charge of these children, but by the time they know for sure what has happened, it will already be too late."

"Who else could follow us, though?" the mercenary added. "Batman cannot be here, surely."

"No, he isn't," she said. "But there is someone who could be following us nonetheless."

Even behind his mask, she could tell there was confusion on his face. She decided not to say anything about this, because she knew not all of those in her father's employ were up-to-date on Batman and his family.

She looked back at the children, all of whom were tied up tightly and shivering in the cool air around them. One of them looked straight at her, and she was delighted by the fear she saw in her eyes. She wondered why one of their classmates was ready to fight, while all these others were weak and in need of being disciplined.

Maybe she would never know.

But when this was all over, it wouldn't even matter.

When Talia looked away, Susan turned her head to Blair. "What is she doing?" she asked quietly. "Why was she looking at us like that?"

"I don't know," Blair whispered back. "I still don't understand what she's doing here. I've seen her on the news before, back in Gotham. She's one of Batman's enemies. She's even appeared to have some kind of infatuation with him, from what I've seen."

"Infatuation with Batman? Her?" Biff scoffed. "That doesn't seem right. He has to be a lot older than she is, right? She looks maybe ten years older than us."

"Sure," Susan said. "Just ten."

"But that still makes zero sense as to why she is here," Harry said. "I don't know who she is, but she should be back in Gotham, not trying to capture kids like us! What the heck does she even want with us?"

"I don't know," Blair admitted. "I'm not as worried for us, though."

"Who are you more worried for than us?" Susan asked.

"Stephanie."

"Oh," Susan said.

"She was kicked hard, and I saw blood on her mouth before we were taken out of her sight," Blair said. "Still, there was something I saw that doesn't make complete sense. When these guys were trying to capture us, she was able to fight one of them off."

"She's trained in karate, I know that," Susan said. "So, she was just using her skills."

"Maybe. But she also seemed really familiar with this woman. Why the heck would she and this woman know each other? There's no way Stephanie could have met her when she was terrorizing Gotham, right?"

Susan sighed. "I don't know. Gotham's a crazy place, though, so I think it could definitely be possible. I nearly ran into Two-Face when he was holding up a bank. If I had gone only a couple steps further, I might have actually gone into the bank."

"That could have gone really bad, then," Harry said. "I guess you were two steps from Hell."

Understanding the reference, Susan couldn't help but laugh. She had never thought she would laugh at a joke from Harry.

Unfortunately for her, Talia heard this, and she happened to look into the eyes of the intimidating woman. Fear found its way into her heart once again, and she had no idea what she was supposed to do in that moment.

The horrifying expression on her face led to Susan breathing much harder than usual.

Her heartbeat sped up.

Even in the cool air, she felt sweat run down her face.

So many thoughts and emotions swirled through her brain. She finally decided on what she was going to do, and while it was a dangerous decision, maybe it was just crazy enough to work.

"HELP!"

She screamed the word, and the woman immediately rushed forward to grab her by the chin. Before Susan knew it, she had been slapped hard across the face. It hurt a great deal, and a whimper escaped from her lips. Despite a quick smirk, Susan could tell this woman wanted to punish her severely for what she had done.

"If you do that ever again, you are going to find yourself being hurled from the top of the building!" she growled. "Do you understand?"

Susan slowly nodded.

When the woman had looked away from them again, Biff demanded, "Why in the heck did you do that?"

"I just wanted to see if there was someone around us that could come and help," she said softly. "I know it's a long shot, but I thought it could work. Maybe I'm wrong, but do you really want to suffer whatever's in store for us?"

All of them could admit they did not want that fate.

Talia inhaled and exhaled, feeling her anger subside for the time-being and returned her thoughts to the mission at hand. By this point they were almost at Wayne Tower. There was a mode of transportation not far from there, and if they made it there soon, then her father would not have to be kept waiting much longer.

"Are we ready to make the jump to the next building?" one of her mercenaries asked.

"Yes," she answered. "Most of you can go right now. Now, for the rest of you, you will help me with our subjects. Once we are able to get them over there, we can find our mode of transportation of our base of operations. I do not want my father to be kept waiting much longer. He will not be happy if that is what happens. We all know what he does when he becomes angry."

Many of them nodded, with some of them bearing the scars of Ra's al Ghul's anger. Whoever was subjected to it was fortunate enough to survive it, so in many ways that became a gift.

The mercenaries she motioned to made the leap between this building and Wayne Tower and the buildings leading up to it.

She grabbed the rope holding these children in place, with another of her men grabbing another one. After she was sure that all her mercenaries were either present with her or waiting for them on the other side, they quickly ran from the edge of their current building to the next one, leaping off with certainty they would land safely. And safely did they land. That led to another leap, which was higher than the previous one.

During both these leaps, the children screamed. Talia hated it, but there was no helping it. She could knock them out, but she knew they would awaken and scream anyway, and drugging them was completely out of the question.

So, she dealt with them screaming no matter how much she despised it.

What she did not automatically realize was that Spoiler had been able to catch up to them almost, deducing where the League was heading and judging how far away she needed to be so that none of them noticed her before she was able to save her classmates.

Stalking them slowly was harder work than she wanted to experience, but she was going to have to suck it up if she wanted to see this mission through to its end sooner rather than later.

Her thoughts shifted again to how Mrs. Guzman was taking the disappearance of five of her students. Spoiler was sure that she was distraught, wondering what she could have done to prevent what she believed were five kidnappings. She was also likely contacting the parents of those kidnapped, telling them what she believed occurred. Just thinking of how Crystal Brown would react when she heard that her daughter had supposedly been kidnapped broke Spoiler's heart.

There was no way that she could call her, because that would lead to her being discovered much sooner than she wanted. She still had to get through this mission, and while it would never become easy, that was a challenge Spoiler accepted. She had been wanting to push herself harder recently, and while this was not the way in which she had meant to do so, at least this might be enough to truly prove herself to Batman.

It wasn't so much that she did not think he did not believe she was capable, but more that she had been trying to prove that she was more than others might think of her. It did not help that her father was one of her own enemies. Because of this, she had not been taken seriously at first, and some who came to know her still had trouble not seeing her father within her. For the last two years she had been trying to purge that thought from their minds, and she still wasn't sure if it was completely gone.

With this, maybe she would finally be able to prove that was not something she had within her. She would finally be able to make them all see that the only part of her father she possessed was the obvious fact that she was his daughter.

There were those she knew had been able to purge that thought from their minds, like Robin, Batgirl, and Catwoman. But had Batman ever purged it from his mind? Given that he was always thinking about how he could stop his enemies, he likely could not stop thinking about the connection between her and her father as a way that he could be stopped.

It had never seemed fair to her, of course, that she should be compared in such a way, and because of the issues she was facing already on this current mission, those thoughts of doubt because of how she had been judged before were clouding her mind then and there.

Attempting to push the thoughts away resulted in them only returning and forcing themselves upon her. Sighing, she kept running from area to area, eventually making her way to one of the rooftops. She peered into the distance, finding black figures that had do discernible shape. Still, how many other people were running on rooftops at this time of night?

Even as she was stalking the League, her doubts were stalking her and trying to tell her that she should just give in. Trying to push them away again was even more difficult than before, and it resulted in her having to take a moment to stop and think.

What could she do to stop them?

In a situation like this, they were proving to be quite a hindrance. They were preventing her from gaining on the League, and trying to run whilst she thought about them was not a very good idea, because it could easily cause her to lose focus as she crossed a rooftop.

So, she forced herself to look at one of her memories again, hoping that she could maybe find some comfort, some hope within it:

Not long after the first time that she had helped the Family take down her father, they returned to the building with the Bat-signal, where Batman turned and looked right at her, causing her to feel anxious and even smaller than she was. At this time, Robin was at the Batcave and Nightwing was in Blüdhaven, and so Batgirl and Catwoman were the only others present.

"You did well," he admitted to her. "But you still aren't ready for what this job entails. You became the Spoiler to stop your father, and now that he has been taken care of, if I were you, I would stop there and go home. Your mother will feel much better because of it."

"But there are still more threats in Gotham that I could help you with!" she retorted. "Cluemaster was only the first that I could find a way to defeat. If you let me help more, then maybe I can prove myself to you!"

"I'm sorry," he said. "I can't just let you run around without the proper guidance. I'm not willing to give it to you right now. I don't want another young hero hurt on my watch, especially because of the fact your mother is still here in the city."

"This has nothing to do with my mother!" she said. "All I want is to bring to justice those who have wronged others! Looking at your whole rogues gallery, I would say that's pretty much all of them. But I have a feeling this isn't only because of the fact I have a mother. It's also because my father is one of your enemies, isn't it? You're worried that I'm going to turn into him one day! Aren't you?"

"It's not like that," Batman said.

"Answer the question honestly," she pleaded.

After a moment of what she took as deliberation, he finally nodded. "Yes. I've seen some who start out as heroes, hoping they can make a difference, but they lived long enough to see themselves become something worse. They became the very thing they hated. I won't allow that to happen to you. I want you to remain safe, and allowing you to continue as the Spoiler is not the way to go about it. You are going to need to go home and forget about all of this. You need to realize that this not all fun and games."

"I've known that from the very beginning," she replied. "My father blew up the house of one of my good friends, killing her and her entire immediate family—five other people!—in the process. There is a part of me wanting to fulfill my vengeance, but there's also a part of me that wants to fight for those who have lost similarly. Those who had loved ones that died in horrible ways here in this cesspool of a city. The longer those such as my father are still on the streets, the more innocent blood will be spilled. You have to trust me. You have to understand that I am nothing like him, and I never will be! I have more to prove! Trust me!"

She could not have believed that he would not take her seriously, that he was willing to stop her from doing the right thing. She understood the risk that came with remaining Spoiler, but if more people could be saved, then that risk was worth taking, in her opinion.

"Very well," he finally said. "You have to realize you are entering a world you want no part of. But you will be trained as well as the others like you. I don't fully trust you, but if I ever am able to, then maybe you will join us."

"Thank you," she said.

With that, he turned his back on her and used his grapnel gun to swing away. She watched closely, hoping to one day do it as he did it. Before she left, she felt a hand on her shoulder, and she turned around to find Batgirl.

"For the record, I thought you did really well," she said. "Don't worry about him. He wasn't too happy for someone like me to join him. But he came around. It's not official, but—" she hugged her, the first of many "—welcome to the Family."

She stood and watched Batgirl, followed by Catwoman. At that point, Stephanie could only smile.

It was this memory that helped her to focus on her mission even more than before. Having heard the cry for help, having read what clues she could in order to understand what was happening, she knew she was ready, even if this was going to be the fight of her life.

Wayne Tower was in the distance.

However, the distance between her and that tower was not as far as it had been earlier. She had been able to traverse the long distance without much trouble.

It gave her hope to know that she could keep this up, and that she could get to the League before anything bad happened to her friends and classmates.

Was there anyone in Wayne Tower?

Back in Gotham, Lucius Fox was the business manager and the supplier of Batman's gadgets, being one of the very few people who knew that Batman and Bruce Wayne were one and the same.

He also had a son named Luke who was not yet in on the secrets of the Bat-Family, as far as Spoiler knew, but she wondered if Batman would ever allow him in on it. He was close enough to his father and was around at the Tower enough to possibly have caught on to something that was happening.

Though she had only met both Lucius and Luke a handful of times, she had still come to think of them as friends, and she was happy to know there was someone Batman could confide in besides Alfred. There were definitely times where she felt he needed some kind of therapy with the amount of anger he sometimes exhibited.

Leaping from one building to another, using her grapnel gun to grab onto the ledge of a building that was slightly higher than the one she was currently on, she climbed up and turned towards the Tower. Looking as closely as she could without binoculars, she saw the specks moving even closer to the Tower. This was her chance, and she could not blow it.

She was closing in.

The thought of facing Talia fully did bring some fear to her heart, given that this was the woman who had been trained since birth by her father, the Head of the Demon, to be a true assassin who could take almost anyone out.

There were also the ninjas, who had to be very well-trained. Spoiler knew she had been trained extremely well, but it was possible that some of these guys had been trained just for the purpose they had been given: to kidnap and kill.

She'd met some of them in Gotham during the Family's scuffles with Ra's in the past, and she had usually come out on top, with barely a scratch. But she had also been accompanied by many of her allies.

Without them, she was going to have to use ingenuity.

They were powerful, she knew, and they were able to overpower her if she gave them that chance. She wasn't going to give them that chance, though, because she was going to once again come out on top.

There had been those couple of ninjas she had taken out in the museum, but they had been merely caught off-guard because they believed she was nothing more than a little girl who had no way to defend herself. But now, there was the possibility they were expecting her.

Talia had recognized her, after all.

If Talia had told her men that she could be coming, then she was not going to be able to maintain the gift of surprise as much as she hoped. But there was still the chance that she could take a few of them down before they realized she was there.

For the next few minutes, she crossed the rooftops of Galway, and Wayne Tower was drawing closer. Those specks she had seen before were gaining shape, and she could see details of their clothing and of Talia's hair.

But as she came even closer, she slowed herself, praying she would not be seen before she wanted to fully reveal herself.

Just a short distance from her, Talia was dragging the children again, and they were preparing to cross from this building to Wayne Tower. Right before she made the leap, something caught her eye.

She turned her head in that direction, believing she would see it. She was sure that she had seen something, and if that was the case, then she was going to make sure it was there. But before she could do this, one of her men walked into her line of sight.

"Did you see something?" he asked.

"Yes," she answered. "I was sure that I had seen something. But it's also quite dark out, even with these buildings becoming lit. We must hurry. We've waited too long, and my father is not going to be happy with us if we do not make it to him sooner rather than later."

But she could not shake that nagging feeling that she had truly seen something.

She could not shake the thought that she was being followed. There was the obvious guess as to whom she was being followed by, but there was no way that she could be the one.

The little girl did not have her suit.

There was no way she could.

She was on some kind of vacation or field trip with these other children, and she had not been expecting something such as this to occur.

Thus, she was not able to follow her.

Shaking the thought of the girl being the one stalking her and the League from her mind, she returned it to the task at hand.

But there was still that one nagging thought.

Something she could not shake, no matter how much she wanted to push it away and never think of it again.

Would this thought ever go away? She couldn't even think about whether she had ever felt something like this before. If she had, then she had never felt it like this before.

"What is she doing?" Susan asked Blair behind Talia.

"I don't know," Blair replied. "Thinking, maybe?"

"Thinking about what? How to kill us?" Biff suggested. "If that's the case, then I wish she would just get it over with already. I'm sick of having to be tied up for so long."

"That makes two of us," Harry said. "You're my friend, man, but I wish I had never been so close to you that I can smell just how disgusting you are."

"Screw you."

Back with Talia, she had finally been able to shake her head and clear her thoughts long enough to resume what it was that she had been doing.

"We are going to make the jump!" she announced to her men. "And then we will climb to the top of the Tower. When that is done, then we can hurry to our transport. Then we'll make it to our destination, and the next phase of the plan can begin. Have I made myself clear?"

Her men all nodded, and she grabbed the rope as tightly as she possibly could. Looking behind her, she saw the children were afraid, and that was exactly what she had wanted to instill in them.

She was the daughter of the Head of the Demon, and she wanted to be feared as much as he was. She wanted to be taken seriously, to be seen as one of the greatest fighters and one of the greatest leaders that ever lived. Her father had always shown her love like that, but her siblings had not been quite as kind.

Fortunately, Nyssa and Dusan had not been around in quite some time, and that had allowed her to easily become her father's favorite. She knew he loved her with every fiber of his being, and she knew he would be pleased with her success.

Taking a deep breath, feeling no fear, she took off running, the men who held the other ropes in tandem with her. They jumped off the building and reading themselves to climb up the side of Wayne Tower. The suits they wore had suction hidden within the gloves and boots, and it would come in handy here.

She heard the screams of the children below her as she hung from the side, and she could not help but smile. They were beneath her, so there was no reason for her to ever feel worry for them.

Slowly, she and her men began their ascent. When they reached the top of the Tower, they would be even closer. While these thoughts were becoming repetitive, it was these thoughts that helped her to imagine their eventual success that much easier.

Below her, Harry was sure that he was going to throw up. He had never been a fan of heights, and this was only exacerbating the fear that he had never been forced to face in such a way before.

Biff was in the same boat. His stomach was gurgling, and not in the way that meant he was hungry. He was sure that there was going to be an eruption from his mouth, rising from his stomach, and there would be no stopping it.

Susan did not feel this way, though she had to admit that she did not want to die. Looking down at the ground far below her, she started thinking of her family and friends and whether there were things she had said to them that she had never meant before. If she died here and now, then she would never be able to take those things back.

As for Blair, she was able to remain calm. It wasn't easy, obviously, but she was able to be level-headed thanks to the fact she had always loved extreme sports and had gone snowboarding on high mountains before. She sympathized with the others, though, as she had once been in their shoes.

After what felt like an eternity, they reached the top of the Tower, and that mode of transportation was only that much closer.

"We are nearly there," Talia said with glee. She turned to her men and examined the children, who were in perfect condition for the most part. "Take them away."

Just as she turned her back, however, she heard a sound. It was like a soft thump on the surface of the top of Wayne Tower, but it still caused Talia to feel trepidation, much to her surprise.

Then came the voice:

"Stop right there, Talia!"

Whirling around, Talia beheld the little girl from before. She now wore the black-and-purple suit with a purple hood and a filter mask that she had seen before in Gotham. She also saw that she had somehow been able to catch up to them. She had been able to follow them all the way here, and now she was telling her to stop!

"You!" Talia snarled. "I warned you! I should have made sure to tell you to never interfere with our plans, but I guess I could have never expected you to be so ready to follow us. He really did teach you well."

"You've got that right," Spoiler retorted. "Hand over the children, or I'll break your face."

Watching the scene unfold, Blair could not help but feel extremely confused.

"Wait a minute," she said. "Isn't that…Spoiler?"

"Who?" Harry said.

"Spoiler. She's one of Batman's allies," Blair said.

"I don't think I've ever heard of her," Biff said. "But if that is her…then what's she doing in Europe?"

"She should be in Gotham, right?" Susan said. "With Batman and all the others!"

"Yes," Blair agreed. "Something doesn't seem right."

But it didn't matter. If Spoiler was the one who was going to save them, then Blair was totally fine with that.

"Do you really think you can intimidate me, child?" Talia asked Spoiler tauntingly. "I'm far older and far more experienced than you will ever be, and you should have enough sense to know which of us is better in a hand-to-hand battle."

"Maybe I do, maybe I don't," Spoiler said. "But even if you do outmatch me, I can't let that stop me from doing what's right. If you want to kill me, then so be it. I'm right here, and I am not going anywhere. Come and get me, you old hag."

At this, Talia growled, and Spoiler prepared herself for the hardest fight she might ever be a part of.