It was a normal night in Gotham City as the masked figure landed silently on the roof of a three story building. Before the dust kicked up by the brief impact could settle back down, the figure was gone. She was now hidden in one of the deep shadows that are created during a normal Gotham night. What passes as normal in Gotham, isn't the same as in Metropolis or even Keystone City. Gotham nights are darker than most other nights. Deep dark shadows are everywhere while the only light available seems to come from the moon. During the best of conditions you would be able to see a figure, during a Gotham night, only see it`s basic outline, and unless you were right next to it, you wouldn't be able to make out it's features. It is during that darkness, that predators come out and hunt for their prey.
One such hunter was on the roof right now. She quickly, and silently walked through the dark places until she got to the edge of the roof. She crouched down next to a gargoyle and put her arm around it while she used her other arm to pull out a pair of small, thin, electronic binoculars. and slowly raised them to her eyes. She sat there quietly for a moment as she adjusted the range, and whispered into the night.
"I`m here. I see six men," she said.
"Ok, the Cowl Camera works. Now do me a favor and use the binoculars to zoom in on the big guy on the far right. He looks important," said the calm voice of the woman known as Oracle, as the binoculars went to its maximum magnification.
Batgirl noticed that it was a dimly lit room as the binoculars adjusted to the different light conditions and refocused itself so Batgirl received a crystal clear image of the room.. The room was very big and spacious. She moved the binoculars to the left and noticed at least a dozen wooden boxes. She moved back toward the small group of men and noticed two silver briefcases on the floor. Three of the men then disappeared from sight as they went and picked up the large wooden crate. They quickly reappeared again and dropped the crate on the large metal table. As the crate hit the table, the voice of the Oracle once again came through and disrupted Batgirl`s current train of thought.
"Ok Batgirl, I got ID`s on the people in there. The guy on the left. The one right now holding a crowbar with the big smile, his name is Lt. Terrance Scott. United States Marine Corps. The guy with the briefcase, is Samuel Grabino. Member of the Cortez Crime Family. All the others are just nobodies, from what I have on file they are just here to act as muscle and human shields."
"Ok. " said Batgirl as she aimed Decel Line Launcher. "want anybody awake?"
"Yes keep the Lieutenant awake. He looks like he could provide more answers than anybody else," said Oracle as Batgirl started digging through her utility belt. Her hand found its target and she pulled out a handful of small black pellets. She quickly readjusted her aim and fired the line. Other then a quiet pop there was no evidence that anything happened, until the line hit the other building. Batgirl then got up and jumped off the edge. Her cape flew behind her as she swung across the gap, at breathtaking speed and crashed through window of the building.
The window exploded into a million pieces as she came in and did a quick barrel role through the room. As she let the line go, she dropped the pellets and smoke filled the room. She got to her feet quickly and threw a batarang at one of the guys who had grabbed a gun. The weapon quickly flew through the air, and bounced off the man`s skull. As blood erupted from the wound, Batgirl turned and saw the Lieutenant aiming a weapon at her. She quickly jumped and in one swift movement hit the ground right in front of the Lieutenant, and watched him spit blood as her foot struck him in his stomach. He doubled over, and she poked him with two fingers hard right behind his ear. She hit a nerve cluster behind his ear and he fell to the floor hard, as he lost all feeling from his neck down. Batgirl took his weapon and used it as a club to knock another guy out. After about two more minutes the smoke cleared and Batgirl walked to one of the boxes. She opened it up and saw a stash full of automatic weapons. She threw the lid of the crate against the wall and bent down in front of the Lieutenant .
She crouched down on the floor and took a moment to look into his eyes. His eyes were wide open and panic filled, as a tear fell and landed on the dusty floor.
"Nerve strike. Talk or I`ll leave you like this," Batgirl said slowly, as more fear could be seen in his eyes.
Batgirl then heard Oracle speak softly on the other side of the line. Oracle supplied the questions, and Batgirl asked. After about ten minutes of questioning, Batgirl heard sirens approach the building. Batgirl poked him once again behind the ear, and as the GCPD broke down the door, she vanished into the Gotham night.
A half hour later Batgirl arrived at the Gotham Clock tower. As she landed on the deck, the door opened and Batgirl walked inside and pulled off her mask. Her dark hair spilled out as Oracle threw her a towel. As Batgirl wiped the sweat off her face Oracle started to roll toward a nearby table.
"Nice move you pulled back there, Cassandra. The big guy would be proud," said Oracle as Batgirl smiled and took a seat. "You did very well tonight. Thanks to you there are less guns on the street. Now go and get some sleep. You earned the rest of the night off," she said as Batgirl was about to protest. "Sleep. the police can handle crime for the rest of the night," Oracle said as she opened the door and Batgirl slowly walked out, head held low in mock defeat.
The next morning Melissa Olsen woke up at five A.M. to the peaceful sounds of her alarm clock and sirens as she prepared for her morning jog. Run a mile, all the way down to the edge of Chinatown and come back all while watching the pigeons fight for scraps in the park. For a big city girl like Melissa, thats about as much nature as she is currently prepared to handle. As Melissa ran down the steps she thought about why she had such stupid thoughts run around in her mind. Here she is a woman in the prime of her life. For most men she is the perfect woman. She has some brains, so you can talk to her. She has no children which means no stretch marks, and at the moment all she can think about is pigeons. Rats with wings, thats it, I`m going crazy, she thought, as she smiled at her own corny joke.
As she ran out her building and jogged across the street, she had a little mental argument about who told stupider jokes, The Joker or Jerry Seinfield. As she ran through the park she noticed how empty it was and started thinking about slasher movies. You know the one where the pretty half naked girl gets killed, by the big guy with the huge knife. As she stopped to get a drink of water, and fix her jogging shorts, she silently laughed about how stupid those girls have to be to get caught like that. Instead of thinking about that, and complaining about the humidity in the air, Barbara should have been paying more attention to the real world and her surroundings. As she tied her shoes, she felt a pair of strong hands grab her and pull her off her feet. As the hands closed around her like a vice grip, she instantly tried to squirm out of her attacker's and at the same time scream. Before she had a chance to scream, she felt pain shoot up her back as she was punched in her kidney. As she took another punch, her mind was yelling at her to run. Her mind was telling her to kick him in the balls, run and call the cops, but as much as she wanted to run, her body wasn`t able. See she was repeatedly hit hard, and then as she fell, she felt a cloth circle her mouth. As she breathed, she smelled weird fumes from the cloth and before she knew what hit her she blacked out.
After a while her body awoke, but her mind still thought she was asleep. It was only logical, because the room was pitch black and silent. Kinda like what you notice when you're in a deep sleep. After a couple of minutes where Melissa`s mind and body figured out its situation, Melissa tried to move but she noticed her arms and legs were tied down to a long flat surface. Melissa thought it was a table, because it was long and very hard. After a couple of minutes of trying to move, Melissa`s ears heard soft footsteps coming toward her. Her heart started pounding as the footsteps came closer to her. She was sweating bullets and tried to scream. She thought if she screamed somebody might come and save her. As her heart started to beat faster and faster, she screamed. She dug deep down inside and reached for one of those loud screams, that could wake the dead. As she screamed she noticed how weak her voice sounded. She didn`t hear a reply, but all she heard were those footsteps getting closer and closer. After a minute she felt a person standing next to her, and heard a soft click. She tried to figure out what the click was, and while her brain was working she felt a knife cut through her sports bra. As it was ripped off her body she placed the sound as that of a box cutter.
As her bra hit the ground, she felt a rush of cool air breeze right over her nipples. Against her will her nipples came to life and stood straight up. As she screamed out, she felt a gag being put over her mouth, and then rough hands grabbing her breasts. Those hands were grabbing and pinching her nipples. Rubbing and caressing her breasts and against her will Melissa felt her body getting aroused. A warm feeling spread across her body and focused itself into a small ball right between her legs.
As the box cutter cut off her remaining cloths the warm feeling became stronger and stronger as Melissa`s mind went into panic mode. She felt those hands go in between her legs, and gently stroke her. As she continued to scream, those same hands kept going, getting her body more and more aroused.
"You like that don`t you. I know you like it cause you're a dirty-ass slut. I know you wanna suck my dick right now don`t you. You want me to fuck the shit outta you right," her attacker said as he pulled the gag out and forced her to suck his fingers. Fingers which were soaked with her juices. She tried to fight him, by biting his finger but when she bit he slapped her hard, and forced her to lick his fingers clean. Then she gathered up what remaining strength she had left, and spit at him. It wasn`t much but he punched her hard in the side of her face. He then hit her hard in her ribs and started going to work on her face. Hard left followed by a hard right, and back and forth. Soon blood and teeth started flying everywhere as he stopped. He wiped his fist clean, on her body and then pulled down his pants and went to work.
The next day at 7:00 P.M. Cassandra Cain woke up fully alert in her giant cave which was located under the urban jungle known as the subway, where every day Darwin's theories of survival of the fittest are proven correct. Every day in the tunnels above her head the bigger, stronger animals push the smaller, weaker ones out of the way as everybody fights to get onto the trains. After an hour of light training which included combat drills on the holographic projector that Oracle installed, and a quick shower to clean the sweat off, Cassandra went to work. She sat down at her computer and activated the learning programs, Oracle sent over. The program was voice activated, and included essential skills like vocabulary, etiquette, and other associated items. After two hours of that, Cassandra would start Batman's programs. Batman's programs consisted of visual files on criminals, maps of her patrol routes in the city. As Cassandra was about to begin, there was a small beeping sound coming from the computer.
As Cassandra sat in her chair, the beep stopped and Oracle`s face filled the computer screen.
"Cassandra. The Bat signal just lit up. Batman and Robin are out of town right now, and Nightwing is on patrol in Bludhaven. I need you to suit up, see Commissioner Akins," Oracle said, as Cassandra jumped out of her chair and started to slip into one of her suits.
After a couple of minutes, Batgirl hit the open air and started the trip to police headquarters as Oracle continued to instruct her.
"When you get there Batgirl, try not to scare him too badly. I know its a Bat family tradition, to scare the commissioner, but with your mask he might take a shot at you. Go easy on him," she said as Batgirl flew through the air, her long cape sailing out behind her.
"He`s gonna ask about Batman. Just tell him that Batman is working on another case, and that you can help. That's when he'll start talking. Good luck Cassandra, " Oracle said as Batgirl landed quietly on the roof of the building.
Commissioner Akins stood on the far end of the roof nervously paced by the giant bat signal. His opened trench coat dragged on the ground as Batgirl silently approached. She was completely covered by the shadows as she stood less then five feet away from the signal.
"Hello. What do you need?" Batgirl said as Oracle giggled softly at the sight of the commissioner jumping in shock.
"Where's Batman?" Akins said as he turned to face Batgirl, who was still deep in the shadows.
"Busy"
"Ok, Gordon once told me this might happen. This is a sensitive case, over the last two weeks the bodies of a couple of women have washed up on the shore. The M.E. speculates that these women are rape victims but there is no way to be a hundred percent sure. Most of the evidence has been washed off by the effects of the water, and the fishes, and whatever else we have floating around in the water. What we do know is that the women were severely beaten. Not even the effects of the ocean could hide that fact," said the commissioner as he handed Batgirl a thick folder.
Batgirl took the folder and started looking at the pictures of the bodies the police found. Her eyes focused on one woman in particular because her body was not as decomposed as the others. The woman was Asian with various injuries all over her body. Her hair was in different lengths probably because it was pulled or yanked out. She had a long knife wound that went from the top of her chest all the way down to her navel. Her face was severely beaten as Batgirl noticed huge bruises covering her cheeks, and one of her eyes was swollen shut.
"How many?" said Batgirl as she shut the folder.
"About ten, that we know of," replied the commissioner
"Why wasn't this on the news?"
"Its an election year. City Hall wanted to keep this quiet to avoid a panic in the streets. Normally this kind of stuff would be front page material but City Hall has been in bed with the press for the last year, why do you think all the news about our great mayor has been good? The most we were able to do was get small paragraphs right before the sports section."
With that last comment Batgirl had heard enough. She took out her grappling cable and launched herself into the dark Gotham sky. About a half hour later, Batgirl made it to the clock tower and landed on Oracle's deck with a loud thump. As she hit the deck, the doors opened and Batgirl dropped the folder onto a table that Oracle just rolled up to. As Oracle went through the folder, Batgirl took her mask off and pulled up a chair beside Oracle as she went through the folder.
"All the women lived in about the same general area," Oracle mumbled to herself.
"This bastard is an equal opportunity piece of shit. Black, White, Asian, only thing common to all the victims is gender," she said as Batgirl looked at the pictures of the various women.
"No DNA evidence because all the victims were found in the water," Oracle said.
"According to police records, each of the victims were last seen early in the morning. That's reasonable, because there would be nobody on the street. Everybody would either be in bed sleeping or doing god knows what. You can't do something like this at night because of all the Bat people, and the fact that alot of people like to party," Oracle mumbled as she sipped some water from her glass.
"Lets see, so far we got women being taken early in the morning. According to interviews the police conducted with family and friends all the women had a habit of jogging early in the morning. Lets see what else the GCPD has discovered? Listen to this. Toxicology reports state that the women`s hormone levels were double the norm, and so far they don`t know why, " Oracle said as she went through more papers in the folder.
"In the last body the M.E. discovered a number of unknown pills in the stomach during the autopsy. Not fully formed pills because that would be too easy" Oracle said in a sarcastic tone. "What we have are just the outer capsules of pills. It could just be normal medicine but the police confirmed that the victim was not on any drugs, nor did she have any known allergies, so it can`t be allergy medicine. I wonder, if maybe this bastard drugged these women. Maybe he used the drugs to get the women more aroused then they normally would be while he did his deed. It would make his job a little easier, but there is no way to be certain unless" Oracle as she fixed her glasses and looked at Cassandra.
"What are you looking at?" Batgirl said.
"You. I`m trying to figure out what outfit would look better on you," Oracle said as she wheeled over to a closet.
"Why?" Batgirl asked as Oracle started digging through the now opened cabinet.
"Because, I need you to go undercover on this one" she said as she tossed a pair of black stretch pants to Batgirl. "Here try this on."
The next morning Cassandra Cain jogged through Gotham`s upper west side. Wearing black jogging shorts, and matching sports, Cassandra would have had the attention of every male on the block, that is if there was anybody awake. That was a good thing because it was the plan. The brain burning part of this case was finished and all that was left was the physical part. Women were being abducted and raped by a man in Gotham City. Logically he would be on the hunt for new victims. So while Cassandra jogged the streets, she kept an eye out on her surroundings. The plan was to let the man capture her. When he took her to where ever he takes his victims, Cassandra would apprehend him. Before Oracle sent her out, she had discovered that the GCPD had tried this plan already, and failed. The police report doesn't really state why, but Oracle thinks it is because the rapist looks for a certain type of women, who is in a certain age range. Oracle thinks that all the police women failed that test, either that or some other reason. So with the Black Canary watching from a safe distance, Batgirl jogged across the Gotham streets hoping to hoping to get caught. Oracle was hoping she got lucky but she was prepared in case she didn`t. She would have Cassandra try different parts of town each morning until she either caught the guy or Oracle ran out of the anti-toxin she had injected Cassandra with earlier. The anti-toxin that Cassandra had running through her veins was the standard form of protection against Poison Ivy and also against the Joker`s various chemical weapons. It was perfect in the fact that it had no known side effects but it also had its downside. It only lasted for about six hours.
After an hour of jogging, Cassandra noticed she was being watched by a man across the street. She had stopped to tie her shoe, and got a good look at the man. He was a thick bodied man, about 6`3 wearing a Gotham Knights jersey and hat. He seemed to be about his late twenties, maybe early thirties. Cassandra also noticed that he seemed to be a very cautious man, but still stayed with in a good striking distance of his target. As for his appearance he blended in perfectly with his surroundings because this was one of those rare years that the Knights made the playoffs. Everybody was wearing Knights jerseys and hats. After about ten more minutes Cassandra thought it was time to get her self kidnapped.
She quickly glanced at the Black Canary, who was watching from a nearby rooftop as she walked into the park and stopped to look at a bus schedule on the corner. As she was looking her eyes wandered and she caught the position of her tail and her backup. She pretended to scratch her noise, and as she did that she swiftly put two tiny plugs in her nose. As she used her finger to point at a time on the schedule she heard her target slowly walk up on her. She pretended to be shocked when he grabbed her, and put a gag around her mouth and nose. The gag was soaked with chloroform, and she grabbed a quick lungful of air and held her breath as she pretended to pass out. She let herself fall, and as luck would have hit her head on the sidewalk. As she lay on the sidewalk, the gag was taken out and she was thrown into the back of nearby car.
Twenty minutes later she was laid down on a bed and slowly started to wake up. She keep her eyes closed and calmed her breathing because she felt her arms being tied down. She did not want him to know she was awake until she was ready. As she laid there she took in her surroundings. From what she could tell, she was tied down, and was stripped down to her panty and bra. After he finished, she heard the door open and he walked out. When the door closed, her eyes opened and she started to undo the ropes around her arms. After a minute she got her arms free, and she bent over and worked on her legs. She undid her rope, just enough so that it appeared to be tight, but it was loose enough for her legs to easily slip out. As she heard footsteps, coming she worked on retying her arms. This was the hard part, and after what seemed like forever she had managed to on the outside make it appear that she was still tied down.
As the footsteps got closer, she relaxed and closed her eyes, and pretended to be asleep. She then heard the door close and heard soft footsteps walk to her. She felt rough hands stroke her face, as she opened her eyes and pretended to struggle. Soon she felt a knife cut open her bra, and heard it land on the floor.
As he was about to cut off her panties, she freed her arms and punched him. He fell back and then charged at her with the knife. As he came close she kicked the knife out his hand and grabbed his stomach with her legs. She squeezed her legs hard, and twisted her body. That caused the pressure caused by her legs to become unbearable and he blacked out.
After ten minutes the door in the room slammed shut and Cassandra slapped him in the face. That woke him up and he tried to grab her but he found that he was tied down. As he was sleeping, Cassandra stripped him down to his underwear and tied him up. She then stood over him and slapped him again.
"I should kill you," she said as she grabbed ice that she had taken from his refrigerator and threw it in his boxers. He screamed as she punched him hard in the stomach and pressed his privates against the ice. "You deserve to die," she said as she stood over him. At that exact moment the door opened and in charged the Black Canary.
"We thought you was in trouble," she said as she glanced at the body tied to the table. "Is that ice in his boxers"
Cassandra nodded her head, as Black Canary turned on the lights and laughed.
"I like that. Unlike the Bat it seems like you have a sense of humor. Looks like your more like Oracle instead of the Big Bad Bat," she said as she threw another handful of cubes into his underwear.
"Oracle, its me," she Black Canary as she picked up the phone and spoke into the dial tone.
"Is she ok."
"Yes. Its over. Send the cops over," she said as Cassandra grabbed her clothes.
Two hours later, Cassandra walked into the Clock Tower as Oracle left the computer room to greet her.
"Good job Cassandra," Oracle said, "I like the part with the ice, and the ropes. Dinah couldn`t stop laughing as she told me about it. Where did you learn that trick from anyway?"
"Stephanie, brought over movies."
"Ah, I`m going to have to talk to Ms. Brown about what kind of movies, she is making you watch," Oracle said, as she realized that she sounded like a mother.
"What do you think you`re doing," Oracle said, as Cassandra was opening the door to the guest room.
"Have to sleep. Gotta patrol East End tonight."
"No. Nightwing is coming up from Bludhaven, to handle the Patrol. You did a great job today, so as a reward you are getting a night off. No ifs ands or buts. Now go and take a shower, you're very sweaty. As a reward for the great job you did today, I`m going to take you to the Igloo. Ben and Jerry just came up with a new flavor of Ice Cream and I wanna try it out," Oracle said as Cassandra smiled and ran to take a quick shower.