Strange Behavior – Chapter Three
All characters in this story are copyright DC Comics and I have used them without permission. I am making no money from this story.
The Clock Tower
2:40 AM
"Don't worry about it, Tim. I'm sure Nightwing and Batgirl can handle it. The last thing you need is to be caught sneaking out after curfew. In any case, everything will probably be long over by the time you could get here. And, just in case, I'll call Batman."
Tim snorted. "Good luck."
"This is Alfred," Barbara replied brightly. "Of course, he'll come."
"He probably tossed his com link."
That possibility had occurred to her. "I'll get ahold of him. I'm Oracle, remember? I can do anything."
"Well, let me know how it goes," Tim asked. He sounded worried, dejected and tired.
"Will do. Oracle out."
Barbara chewed on a fingernail and wondered. Would he come? Surely, things had not reached that point, yet. Damn! That was another ruined nail.
"Hey, girlfriend! How's it going?"
"I'm very busy right now, Dinah. We've got an emergency."
"What can I do?" asked Black Canary in a no-nonsense tone.
"I have Nightwing and Batgirl on it," Barbara backpedaled. "That should be enough." Although why I'm bothering to protect Bruce's ID at this point, I don't know, she thought bitterly.
"Where's Batman? I thought he'd be back in action by now."
Very tactful, Barbara thought. Since Bruce Wayne is out of jail, Batman should be back in action. Not that we ever said he was out of action, but of course she noticed.
"I was just about to call him," Barbara told her firmly.
"And this is one of those Batclan only affairs, so I can't help out."
I'm tired of dissembling, Barbara thought. She deserves better.
"Someone seems to be going after friends of the Batman," she told Dinah.
"Short list," Dinah sniggered. Barbara laughed at that. It felt good to laugh.
"Who's covering you?"
"Dinah, I am NOT helpless. Besides, I have better security than the JLA Watchtower."
"Considering how often they have to rebuild, that's not saying much."
"Dinah," warned Barbara, getting irritated.
"This is something I can do without compromising Batman's oh-so-secret ID. I'm heading over right now."
"Dinah," but the line was dead. Black Canary was not going to be overruled on this. Barbara decided to be amused rather than angry. It looked to be a long night and it would go faster with company.
She had put off calling Batman too long. She activated his com channel. No response. She tapped in the emergency code. Still no response. Could he really have ditched his com link? Damn him!
"Batman, come in." Okay, she'd do this the hard way. She left the com channel open and started talking. Sooner or later, if he were listening, he had to answer, if only to shut her up.
"Batman, we've got an emergency. The Batcave went off line and Alfred isn't responding. Nightwing and Batgirl are en route. Nightwing should be almost there. If it's a trap, they may need back up. Batman, please respond."
A proximity alarm went off. It was the balcony. She pulled up the appropriate VidCam image and saw a familiar silhouette. She hurriedly turned off the balcony alarm and released the locks on the balcony door.
"Batman… Damn it, this would go a lot faster if you had kept your com link." Still, she was glad to see him. She had faith in Nightwing and wasn't REALLY worried, but still… with Batman backing him up, she knew nothing would happen to him.
She spun her wheelchair around and rolled into the darkened living room.
"Batman, thank goodness you're here…"
She stopped suddenly. Something was wrong.
She reached for the light switch with her right hand as her left reached under her chair for one of her escrima sticks. In that moment a flash of lightning illuminated the room and she looked up into the leering face of Hugo Strange.
The Batcave
2:50 AM
Nightwing came in thru a little used entrance on the grounds well away from the Manor. The Batcave was pitch black except for one spotlight on the chair in front of the computers, the one he and Tim laughingly called "the throne". It had been pushed back from the computers and was easily visible from most of the Cave. A figure sat motionless in the chair and Nightwing could see the cape and cowl.
Somehow, he didn't think it was Batman sitting there. It could be Hugo Strange – Dick vividly recalled his tendency to dress up as Batman – but mostly likely it was a dummy intended to lure them into a trap. He was worried about Alfred, but he knew better than to rush into things. He could still remember Batman's words, so often repeated to him when he was younger: "Assess the situation, make your preparations, then act. Haste puts you and civilians at risk." Bruce wasn't the only one hearing voices, he thought ruefully.
Nightwing turned his head away from the bright light and dialed up the light amplification on his lenses. The Cave sprang into view around him. He leaped up to one of the reinforcing beams that crisscrossed the Cave – protection against another earthquake – and pulled himself on top of it. From there he quickly and quietly worked his way to a spot above and behind the computers. He was careful to keep his eyes turned away from the spotlight. At the present amplification, the bright light would blind him. Similarly, he kept his mind away from the memories of the confrontation here just hours ago, which could blind him in a different way.
Once he was in position, he dialed down the amplification on his lenses and looked again at the figure, this time from the front. The cape was draped around the figure, completely encircling it, with only the tips of highly polished black shoes showing beneath it. The head drooped forward, suggesting the figure was sleeping or unconscious, and probably tied into the chair. It also made it hard to see the face, but the pencil thin mustache and high cheekbones were unmistakable. It was Alfred.
The Clock Tower
2:50 AM
Barbara brought up her escrima stick, but too late to completely redirect the powerful side kick aimed at her chest. It connected with her shoulder instead, and her right arm went numb. She had not had time to set the brakes and the blow pushed her chair back and spun it around sideways.
She twisted her torso and brought her arm around to try to block the spin kick she knew was coming. The angle was awkward and she couldn't get much force behind it. It was enough to cause the kick to miss her body, hitting the chair back instead. The force of the blow toppled the wheelchair, dumping her headfirst into the wall.
She saw stars, but immediately pushed the wheelchair away from her and into her opponent's path. She heard him stumble over the chair, but he didn't fall. Her right arm useless, she had to drop the escrima stick in her left hand in order to push herself up into a sitting position with her back to the wall. She reached for the dropped stick in the dark. Her fingers found it as lightning flashed again, outlining the dark form in front of her. She grabbed the escrima stick and tried to bring it up, too late to stop the boot that smashed into her solar plexus. She toppled, gasping for breath as the next kick slammed into her stomach.
She didn't quite lose consciousness, but she couldn't seem to make her body work. Hugo Strange rolled her onto her stomach and duct taped her arms together. She gave a half-strangled gasp and finally got some air into her lungs as he rolled her onto her back.
"Tyndale," she wheezed.
"Ah, ah, ah," he crooned as the duct tape went over her mouth. "I'm sure you have all sorts of defenses, including voice-activated ones, in an attempt to disguise your fear of attack, most of all from yourself. They didn't do you much good, did they?"
He grabbed her hair and dragged her into the computer room. Barbara blinked the tears out of her eyes and saw him looking around the room.
"The lair of the famous Oracle. How easily it is taken. I knew it would be. Your childhood infatuation with the Batman and your need to believe him omniscient and omnipotent made it inevitable that, in a crisis, you would respond emotionally to the sight of his costume."
Barbara felt herself flush. She had had a crush on the Batman, once, many years ago. She didn't think it still affected her judgement, but she remembered her reaction when she believed the Batman had arrived. She remembered how often she or Dick had said, "He's the Batman, he knows everything / can do anything."
If she were Nightwing or Black Canary, she would have a knife hidden on her that she could use to cut her bindings. But she wasn't a field agent any more. She had some throwing stars hidden under her wheelchair, but that was out in the living room. She had a jagged spot on the nail she had been chewing earlier. Maybe she could saw thru the duct tape with that. It didn't sound promising, but she didn't have a better idea.
Hugo Strange was looking at the monitor board now.
"This is clear enough. The map shows the location of the various operatives. I see that the boy is back at his boarding school. Nightwing and Batgirl are approaching the Batcave. Good, good."
"No marker for the Batman, of course. He would never allow a flunky to track his movements. But, what is this? Another marker. Who is this for? Black Canary. What has she to do with the Batman?" He turned and glared at Barbara for this trespass. He turned back to the board.
"She appears to be headed in this direction. Well, no matter. My business should be completed before she arrives and, if not, I will simply use your security system against her."
He smiled and stepped to a – Barbara realized with a sinking feeling – too well labeled panel and turned on the downstairs defenses. Then he crouched down next to her and leered. His breath stank. Barbara glared back at him.
"Do you know," he said conversationally, "you remind me of Vesper. She was brave too, at first."
He reached out his hands – they were big hands, Barbara noted, strangler's hands – and lightly encircled her neck. Barbara refused to flinch or look away.
"It didn't last, of course." He tightened his grip. Barbara held herself deathly still. This was too close to her worst nightmare, but she wouldn't give him the satisfaction of seeing her afraid.
He smiled his ghoul's grin and his hands slipped down to the top button on her blouse. He began to unbutton it.
Barbara flinched. She couldn't help herself.
Hugo Strange laughed and stood up. "Terror is an exhausting emotion. If unrelieved it eventually degenerates into an apathetic despair." He looked at her legs and his smile deepened. "But, you know that, don't you? To be maintained, the terror must be tempered by a modicum of hope. You hope that I will talk too much and your friend will arrive in time to save you.
"Vesper's hope was that Wayne would return and rescue her. Can you believe it? Even without knowing the truth, she saw him as her savior. I encouraged it, of course, to conserve her energy for her final performance.
"When I let her escape and reach the telephone, she really thought she would live after all. Until I showed her the gun. Then she knew she was going to die. Her terror was all I could have wished.
"The difficult part was to choose the most artistic moment to kill her. Too soon and I would fail to draw the greatest possible pathos from the moment. Wait too long and her pleas and sobs would become repetitious and boring.
"Did you listen to her call for help? An emergency call from Wayne Manor, of course you did. Your computers would be certain to flag the call. Tell me, when you heard the shots, did it feel as if the bullets were striking your flesh instead of Vesper's?"
Barbara tried not to react, but something of her feelings must have shown, for he laughed. Barbara's anger ignited at this. This sicko got off on terrorizing people. Well, he would get no more cheap thrills from her.
"You use anger to keep your fear at bay. Good, good. But," he turned to the monitor board, "it is time for the next scene in my little drama. I see both Nightwing and Batgirl are inside the Batcave now."
He pulled an object resembling a small cell phone from his utility belt. He extended its antenna and pressed a button.
"That seals the Batcave. Your friends cannot get out now." He pressed a second button.
"That starts the holographic projector." He pressed a third button.
"That initiates the self-destruct sequence. In six minutes your friends and the Batcave will cease to exist." Hugo Strange smiled gleefully.
The Batcave
2:55 AM
A movement caught Nightwing's eye. He shifted his gaze and saw Batgirl silently approaching. In a swift exchange of sign language Batgirl indicated she had just arrived and Nightwing brought her up to date on the situation. He was just beginning to outline his plan, when he heard a loud clang! as a heavy steel door dropped across the top of the stairs to the Manor. A deeper crash! told him the tunnel leading out to the road was sealed. The Batcave was in full emergency lockdown mode. He knew that every entrance to the Cave was now blocked by barriers impervious even to a bazooka.
Suddenly, a ghost-like image of Hugo Strange, dressed in a Batman costume with the cowl thrown back, appeared in mid-air over the center of the cave.
"Greetings." The phantom Hugo Strange smiled. "I thought you would like to know that I have just activated the self-destruct sequence for the Batcave. In six minutes, all of this," with a sweep of his arm, he indicated the Cave, "will be just a memory." His smile broadened. "Have a nice day." The image blinked out.
Nightwing shouted to Batgirl, "The manual shut-off!" as he jumped down to the Cave floor. He hit the ground and rolled, coming up next to Alfred. He ripped the cape and cowl off of him and started slicing thru the duct tape holding him in the chair. He scooped Alfred up in his arms as Batgirl came out of the alcove holding the manual shut-off for the self-destruct system.
"Broken!" she shouted. Dick was not surprised. Hugo would hardly overlook something so obvious. He grinned at Cassandra.
"To the spare batmobile, Batgirl!"
All characters in this story are copyright DC Comics and I have used them without permission. I am making no money from this story.
The Clock Tower
2:40 AM
"Don't worry about it, Tim. I'm sure Nightwing and Batgirl can handle it. The last thing you need is to be caught sneaking out after curfew. In any case, everything will probably be long over by the time you could get here. And, just in case, I'll call Batman."
Tim snorted. "Good luck."
"This is Alfred," Barbara replied brightly. "Of course, he'll come."
"He probably tossed his com link."
That possibility had occurred to her. "I'll get ahold of him. I'm Oracle, remember? I can do anything."
"Well, let me know how it goes," Tim asked. He sounded worried, dejected and tired.
"Will do. Oracle out."
Barbara chewed on a fingernail and wondered. Would he come? Surely, things had not reached that point, yet. Damn! That was another ruined nail.
"Hey, girlfriend! How's it going?"
"I'm very busy right now, Dinah. We've got an emergency."
"What can I do?" asked Black Canary in a no-nonsense tone.
"I have Nightwing and Batgirl on it," Barbara backpedaled. "That should be enough." Although why I'm bothering to protect Bruce's ID at this point, I don't know, she thought bitterly.
"Where's Batman? I thought he'd be back in action by now."
Very tactful, Barbara thought. Since Bruce Wayne is out of jail, Batman should be back in action. Not that we ever said he was out of action, but of course she noticed.
"I was just about to call him," Barbara told her firmly.
"And this is one of those Batclan only affairs, so I can't help out."
I'm tired of dissembling, Barbara thought. She deserves better.
"Someone seems to be going after friends of the Batman," she told Dinah.
"Short list," Dinah sniggered. Barbara laughed at that. It felt good to laugh.
"Who's covering you?"
"Dinah, I am NOT helpless. Besides, I have better security than the JLA Watchtower."
"Considering how often they have to rebuild, that's not saying much."
"Dinah," warned Barbara, getting irritated.
"This is something I can do without compromising Batman's oh-so-secret ID. I'm heading over right now."
"Dinah," but the line was dead. Black Canary was not going to be overruled on this. Barbara decided to be amused rather than angry. It looked to be a long night and it would go faster with company.
She had put off calling Batman too long. She activated his com channel. No response. She tapped in the emergency code. Still no response. Could he really have ditched his com link? Damn him!
"Batman, come in." Okay, she'd do this the hard way. She left the com channel open and started talking. Sooner or later, if he were listening, he had to answer, if only to shut her up.
"Batman, we've got an emergency. The Batcave went off line and Alfred isn't responding. Nightwing and Batgirl are en route. Nightwing should be almost there. If it's a trap, they may need back up. Batman, please respond."
A proximity alarm went off. It was the balcony. She pulled up the appropriate VidCam image and saw a familiar silhouette. She hurriedly turned off the balcony alarm and released the locks on the balcony door.
"Batman… Damn it, this would go a lot faster if you had kept your com link." Still, she was glad to see him. She had faith in Nightwing and wasn't REALLY worried, but still… with Batman backing him up, she knew nothing would happen to him.
She spun her wheelchair around and rolled into the darkened living room.
"Batman, thank goodness you're here…"
She stopped suddenly. Something was wrong.
She reached for the light switch with her right hand as her left reached under her chair for one of her escrima sticks. In that moment a flash of lightning illuminated the room and she looked up into the leering face of Hugo Strange.
The Batcave
2:50 AM
Nightwing came in thru a little used entrance on the grounds well away from the Manor. The Batcave was pitch black except for one spotlight on the chair in front of the computers, the one he and Tim laughingly called "the throne". It had been pushed back from the computers and was easily visible from most of the Cave. A figure sat motionless in the chair and Nightwing could see the cape and cowl.
Somehow, he didn't think it was Batman sitting there. It could be Hugo Strange – Dick vividly recalled his tendency to dress up as Batman – but mostly likely it was a dummy intended to lure them into a trap. He was worried about Alfred, but he knew better than to rush into things. He could still remember Batman's words, so often repeated to him when he was younger: "Assess the situation, make your preparations, then act. Haste puts you and civilians at risk." Bruce wasn't the only one hearing voices, he thought ruefully.
Nightwing turned his head away from the bright light and dialed up the light amplification on his lenses. The Cave sprang into view around him. He leaped up to one of the reinforcing beams that crisscrossed the Cave – protection against another earthquake – and pulled himself on top of it. From there he quickly and quietly worked his way to a spot above and behind the computers. He was careful to keep his eyes turned away from the spotlight. At the present amplification, the bright light would blind him. Similarly, he kept his mind away from the memories of the confrontation here just hours ago, which could blind him in a different way.
Once he was in position, he dialed down the amplification on his lenses and looked again at the figure, this time from the front. The cape was draped around the figure, completely encircling it, with only the tips of highly polished black shoes showing beneath it. The head drooped forward, suggesting the figure was sleeping or unconscious, and probably tied into the chair. It also made it hard to see the face, but the pencil thin mustache and high cheekbones were unmistakable. It was Alfred.
The Clock Tower
2:50 AM
Barbara brought up her escrima stick, but too late to completely redirect the powerful side kick aimed at her chest. It connected with her shoulder instead, and her right arm went numb. She had not had time to set the brakes and the blow pushed her chair back and spun it around sideways.
She twisted her torso and brought her arm around to try to block the spin kick she knew was coming. The angle was awkward and she couldn't get much force behind it. It was enough to cause the kick to miss her body, hitting the chair back instead. The force of the blow toppled the wheelchair, dumping her headfirst into the wall.
She saw stars, but immediately pushed the wheelchair away from her and into her opponent's path. She heard him stumble over the chair, but he didn't fall. Her right arm useless, she had to drop the escrima stick in her left hand in order to push herself up into a sitting position with her back to the wall. She reached for the dropped stick in the dark. Her fingers found it as lightning flashed again, outlining the dark form in front of her. She grabbed the escrima stick and tried to bring it up, too late to stop the boot that smashed into her solar plexus. She toppled, gasping for breath as the next kick slammed into her stomach.
She didn't quite lose consciousness, but she couldn't seem to make her body work. Hugo Strange rolled her onto her stomach and duct taped her arms together. She gave a half-strangled gasp and finally got some air into her lungs as he rolled her onto her back.
"Tyndale," she wheezed.
"Ah, ah, ah," he crooned as the duct tape went over her mouth. "I'm sure you have all sorts of defenses, including voice-activated ones, in an attempt to disguise your fear of attack, most of all from yourself. They didn't do you much good, did they?"
He grabbed her hair and dragged her into the computer room. Barbara blinked the tears out of her eyes and saw him looking around the room.
"The lair of the famous Oracle. How easily it is taken. I knew it would be. Your childhood infatuation with the Batman and your need to believe him omniscient and omnipotent made it inevitable that, in a crisis, you would respond emotionally to the sight of his costume."
Barbara felt herself flush. She had had a crush on the Batman, once, many years ago. She didn't think it still affected her judgement, but she remembered her reaction when she believed the Batman had arrived. She remembered how often she or Dick had said, "He's the Batman, he knows everything / can do anything."
If she were Nightwing or Black Canary, she would have a knife hidden on her that she could use to cut her bindings. But she wasn't a field agent any more. She had some throwing stars hidden under her wheelchair, but that was out in the living room. She had a jagged spot on the nail she had been chewing earlier. Maybe she could saw thru the duct tape with that. It didn't sound promising, but she didn't have a better idea.
Hugo Strange was looking at the monitor board now.
"This is clear enough. The map shows the location of the various operatives. I see that the boy is back at his boarding school. Nightwing and Batgirl are approaching the Batcave. Good, good."
"No marker for the Batman, of course. He would never allow a flunky to track his movements. But, what is this? Another marker. Who is this for? Black Canary. What has she to do with the Batman?" He turned and glared at Barbara for this trespass. He turned back to the board.
"She appears to be headed in this direction. Well, no matter. My business should be completed before she arrives and, if not, I will simply use your security system against her."
He smiled and stepped to a – Barbara realized with a sinking feeling – too well labeled panel and turned on the downstairs defenses. Then he crouched down next to her and leered. His breath stank. Barbara glared back at him.
"Do you know," he said conversationally, "you remind me of Vesper. She was brave too, at first."
He reached out his hands – they were big hands, Barbara noted, strangler's hands – and lightly encircled her neck. Barbara refused to flinch or look away.
"It didn't last, of course." He tightened his grip. Barbara held herself deathly still. This was too close to her worst nightmare, but she wouldn't give him the satisfaction of seeing her afraid.
He smiled his ghoul's grin and his hands slipped down to the top button on her blouse. He began to unbutton it.
Barbara flinched. She couldn't help herself.
Hugo Strange laughed and stood up. "Terror is an exhausting emotion. If unrelieved it eventually degenerates into an apathetic despair." He looked at her legs and his smile deepened. "But, you know that, don't you? To be maintained, the terror must be tempered by a modicum of hope. You hope that I will talk too much and your friend will arrive in time to save you.
"Vesper's hope was that Wayne would return and rescue her. Can you believe it? Even without knowing the truth, she saw him as her savior. I encouraged it, of course, to conserve her energy for her final performance.
"When I let her escape and reach the telephone, she really thought she would live after all. Until I showed her the gun. Then she knew she was going to die. Her terror was all I could have wished.
"The difficult part was to choose the most artistic moment to kill her. Too soon and I would fail to draw the greatest possible pathos from the moment. Wait too long and her pleas and sobs would become repetitious and boring.
"Did you listen to her call for help? An emergency call from Wayne Manor, of course you did. Your computers would be certain to flag the call. Tell me, when you heard the shots, did it feel as if the bullets were striking your flesh instead of Vesper's?"
Barbara tried not to react, but something of her feelings must have shown, for he laughed. Barbara's anger ignited at this. This sicko got off on terrorizing people. Well, he would get no more cheap thrills from her.
"You use anger to keep your fear at bay. Good, good. But," he turned to the monitor board, "it is time for the next scene in my little drama. I see both Nightwing and Batgirl are inside the Batcave now."
He pulled an object resembling a small cell phone from his utility belt. He extended its antenna and pressed a button.
"That seals the Batcave. Your friends cannot get out now." He pressed a second button.
"That starts the holographic projector." He pressed a third button.
"That initiates the self-destruct sequence. In six minutes your friends and the Batcave will cease to exist." Hugo Strange smiled gleefully.
The Batcave
2:55 AM
A movement caught Nightwing's eye. He shifted his gaze and saw Batgirl silently approaching. In a swift exchange of sign language Batgirl indicated she had just arrived and Nightwing brought her up to date on the situation. He was just beginning to outline his plan, when he heard a loud clang! as a heavy steel door dropped across the top of the stairs to the Manor. A deeper crash! told him the tunnel leading out to the road was sealed. The Batcave was in full emergency lockdown mode. He knew that every entrance to the Cave was now blocked by barriers impervious even to a bazooka.
Suddenly, a ghost-like image of Hugo Strange, dressed in a Batman costume with the cowl thrown back, appeared in mid-air over the center of the cave.
"Greetings." The phantom Hugo Strange smiled. "I thought you would like to know that I have just activated the self-destruct sequence for the Batcave. In six minutes, all of this," with a sweep of his arm, he indicated the Cave, "will be just a memory." His smile broadened. "Have a nice day." The image blinked out.
Nightwing shouted to Batgirl, "The manual shut-off!" as he jumped down to the Cave floor. He hit the ground and rolled, coming up next to Alfred. He ripped the cape and cowl off of him and started slicing thru the duct tape holding him in the chair. He scooped Alfred up in his arms as Batgirl came out of the alcove holding the manual shut-off for the self-destruct system.
"Broken!" she shouted. Dick was not surprised. Hugo would hardly overlook something so obvious. He grinned at Cassandra.
"To the spare batmobile, Batgirl!"