Strange Behavior – Chapter Four
Author's notes: Hugo's speech at the start of this chapter is paraphrased from Gotham Knights # 8 & 11. You don't think I came up with anything that strange on my own, did you? The Batman trained the first Batgirl in Legends of the DC Universe #10 & 11. Unfortunately, he didn't say any of the things I have attributed to him, but I'm sure that's just an oversight by the writer!
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
2:57 AM
Barbara struggled against her bonds. All she accomplished was to flop around like a stranded fish. Hugo Strange was too full of his triumph to even notice.
"I'm doing the Batman a favor, really. These hangers-on are parasites, siphoning off his power. He won't see it that way, of course. He will be so enraged by their deaths that it will be easy to lure him into a trap. Then I will BE the Batman. The full potency of the archetypal power will be MINE, and MINE ALONE."
He is insane, Barbara thought. Unfortunately, that didn't make the people he killed any less dead. She abandoned her struggle against her bonds and went back to sawing on them with her fingernail. It was, she hoped, slightly less futile.
"Just a little over five minutes, now, and their markers will disappear off your monitor forever."
Dinah, she thought despairingly, where are you?
"I have been preparing for this, you know: building up my body, studying kickboxing and karate. But most of all, practicing swinging on a jump line." He paced around the room, Barbara forgotten for the moment. "The terror of anticipation followed by the exhilaration of flying thru he air!" He stopped and looked at her. "How you must miss it."
She did, of course, but she thought instead of flying with Dick on the trapeze. It had almost been the same.
"Or does your boyfriend carry you?"
Involuntarily, she remembered how Dick had to carry her up to the trapeze platform. Stop it, she thought. Don't let him slime your memories. She looked up at him and saw the triumphant gleam in Hugo Strange's eyes. He's playing me, she knew, and when he's thru having his fun, he's going to kill me.
"Failure is not an option." She heard his voice so clearly in her head, she almost looked around for the Batman. That was the first thing he had taught her. The second thing...
"The only person who can truly defeat you is you." She had laughed and called him Yoda, she remembered. He had ignored the taunt and continued.
"Most of our opponents will defeat themselves. They will tell us how to take them down, if we pay attention." Barbara smiled. Thank you, Bruce.
The Batcave
2:58 AM
Nightwing shook his head to clear it. The sudden pain convinced him that wasn't such a good idea. The safety harness had protected him from an impact that would have been fatal in any ordinary car, but he would be black and blue for days. No matter. He looked around. Of the many batmobiles Bruce had built, this had always been his favorite, even if it did maneuver like a tank. That was because it was built like one, with a heavy-duty chassis, thick armor plating and a bat-tering ram on the front. How annoyed Bruce had been when he made that pun! It had been a great disappointment that he had never gotten a chance to use the battering ram. Until now.
The solid steel barrier sealing the exit tunnel was much the worse for the collision, he saw. It had been dished outwards by almost a foot in the middle, leaving a gap of several inches at the bottom. One or two more such impacts and it would give way entirely. Dick grinned excitedly. He put the gearshift into reverse and pressed down on the gas pedal.
The batmobile didn't move. Instead, there was a horrible grinding sound, then the engine died. Dick's grin died as well.
"Uh oh."
The Clock Tower
2:59 AM
She had been letting Hugo dictate the terms, Barbara thought. That stopped now. From now on they were playing by her rules. Hugo didn't know that yet, but he would.
Physically he had all the advantages and mentally they were well matched. But he had shown her his weakness. He was putting too much effort into tearing down her self-esteem when he had more important things to focus on. Why? Because he had to. Because he could only hide his own weaknesses, his own fears, by exposing the fears and weaknesses of others. He was good at finding other people's weaknesses because they were his weaknesses as well. I can't believe I let you get to me, Hugo, but that stops now.
Dick would escape this trap as he had so many others. She had to believe that, so she did. As for Bruce, she refused to believe that he would allow someone like Hugo Strange to destroy him. You taught me all I need to defeat him, Bruce. Now remember for yourself. As for her, all he could do was kill her. She had faced death too many times to fear it now. She had a far more potent weapon.
"You are wondering, I know, how I was able to penetrate the Batman's secrets so completely. I admit I could not have done so without my accomplice. Of course, Pennyworth did not realize he was helping his master's greatest enemy. Drugs and hypnotism can accomplish much, but it is always easiest to work with your patient's desires and he so desired someone to confide in. All I had to do was convince him I was that confidant and he happily told me all of his master's secrets.
"You will understand, my dear, how it piqued my curiosity when he called me 'Miss Barbara'."
Hugo turned towards her and a tiny frown briefly troubled his brow. Did you think that would upset me, Barbara asked silently? You are too contemptible to upset me. Try again.
Hugo shook his head slightly, then continued.
"Who was this woman entrusted with the Batman's secrets? I had not, I confess, previously suspected your existence. Once I learned more about you, I immediately saw your value to him.
"I gathered all the information I needed. Then it was time to proceed to the next step. The manservant worried that he was abetting his master's 'asocial behavior'. It was easy to feed that fear, so that when I had your father shot…"
"That startled you, didn't it?" He looked at her and stopped. In some corner of her mind, Barbara raged. But she had found her center and even rage could not disturb it. She stared back at him contemptuously. You are nothing, Hugo, a vacuum the universe cannot be bothered to fill. See your insignificance reflected in my eyes.
A sheen of sweat appeared on Hugo's forehead. He continued. "You are thinking that Jordan Rich shot your father because of an old grudge. Didn't you ever wonder why he waited fifteen years?" He looked to see what effect that had. He willed her, needed her, to react.
You lie, Hugo, she thought. Rich's past was too well hidden for you to discover. You resort to lies and that tells me the truth. The truth is you must inflate your importance with lies. And that tells me just how little you believe in yourself, how great your insecurity is.
You cannot see it, Hugo, but I am smiling under this tape. It doesn't matter that you can't see my smile because you know, don't you Hugo? If you have any insight, any ability to 'read' people, you know that I am smiling. You know that I am smiling because you have lost.
The Batcave
3:00 AM
Careful, careful, thought Dick as he slipped the jack into the gap under the dished out section of the steel barrier. It had to be centered just right.
"Okay," he told Batgirl and she started pumping the arm of the jack. The jack was designed to lift the heavily armored batmobile, which lay broken just feet away. It could lift the multi-ton barrier. It would just take awhile. Unfortunately, they didn't have much time.
A metallic groan told them that, instead of lifting of the barrier, the jack was bending the dished out section even further. That changed the angle of the jack to the barrier but maybe... Another groan from the metal and the jack slipped out from under the barrier. Nightwing groaned himself and, as Batgirl lowered the jack a couple of notches, he worked to reposition it. They just needed a few more inches. But time was running out.
The Clock Tower
3:02 AM
Hugo Strange paced around the room, avoiding Barbara's eye.
"You think you're so smart, don't you? You think you're so much better than me," he ranted. "Well, who is tied up and helpless, eh? Tell me that! Which one of us is bound, gagged and helpless? Not me! It's you, you!"
She had won, Barbara thought, and now Hugo Strange would kill her. There was nothing else he could do. His mind games had backfired, his confidence was shaken, he knew he had been beaten. If he could not break a crippled 'flunky' who was bound, gagged and helpless, how could he hope to break the Batman himself? He would not dare face the Batman now. The only course left to him was to kill her and flee into the night.
Unless Dinah arrived in time. She couldn't see the monitor board from where she lay, but she didn't need to. The ultrasound generators would go off as soon as Dinah entered the downstairs hallway. Downstairs it would feel like someone had driven a spike into your brain. Even up here she would feel the vibrations thru the floor. And she didn't. So Dinah hadn't arrived yet. It would take even Black Canary a couple of minutes to fight her way up the stairs and Barbara didn't think she had a couple of minutes.
She regretted that, more for Bruce and Dick than for herself. She knew they would take her death hard but she hoped they would not let it wreck their lives. That would give Hugo a victory he hadn't earned. For herself, she took a vicious pleasure in beating Hugo at his own game. That would have to be enough.
"I'm going to kill you now." Hugo finally looked at her and she could see his defeat in his eyes. "Your friend will find your dead and bloody body, a razor-sharp batarang buried in your throat. What do you think of that?"
A familiar voice answered. "I think you always did talk too much, Strange."
Author's notes: Hugo's speech at the start of this chapter is paraphrased from Gotham Knights # 8 & 11. You don't think I came up with anything that strange on my own, did you? The Batman trained the first Batgirl in Legends of the DC Universe #10 & 11. Unfortunately, he didn't say any of the things I have attributed to him, but I'm sure that's just an oversight by the writer!
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
2:57 AM
Barbara struggled against her bonds. All she accomplished was to flop around like a stranded fish. Hugo Strange was too full of his triumph to even notice.
"I'm doing the Batman a favor, really. These hangers-on are parasites, siphoning off his power. He won't see it that way, of course. He will be so enraged by their deaths that it will be easy to lure him into a trap. Then I will BE the Batman. The full potency of the archetypal power will be MINE, and MINE ALONE."
He is insane, Barbara thought. Unfortunately, that didn't make the people he killed any less dead. She abandoned her struggle against her bonds and went back to sawing on them with her fingernail. It was, she hoped, slightly less futile.
"Just a little over five minutes, now, and their markers will disappear off your monitor forever."
Dinah, she thought despairingly, where are you?
"I have been preparing for this, you know: building up my body, studying kickboxing and karate. But most of all, practicing swinging on a jump line." He paced around the room, Barbara forgotten for the moment. "The terror of anticipation followed by the exhilaration of flying thru he air!" He stopped and looked at her. "How you must miss it."
She did, of course, but she thought instead of flying with Dick on the trapeze. It had almost been the same.
"Or does your boyfriend carry you?"
Involuntarily, she remembered how Dick had to carry her up to the trapeze platform. Stop it, she thought. Don't let him slime your memories. She looked up at him and saw the triumphant gleam in Hugo Strange's eyes. He's playing me, she knew, and when he's thru having his fun, he's going to kill me.
"Failure is not an option." She heard his voice so clearly in her head, she almost looked around for the Batman. That was the first thing he had taught her. The second thing...
"The only person who can truly defeat you is you." She had laughed and called him Yoda, she remembered. He had ignored the taunt and continued.
"Most of our opponents will defeat themselves. They will tell us how to take them down, if we pay attention." Barbara smiled. Thank you, Bruce.
The Batcave
2:58 AM
Nightwing shook his head to clear it. The sudden pain convinced him that wasn't such a good idea. The safety harness had protected him from an impact that would have been fatal in any ordinary car, but he would be black and blue for days. No matter. He looked around. Of the many batmobiles Bruce had built, this had always been his favorite, even if it did maneuver like a tank. That was because it was built like one, with a heavy-duty chassis, thick armor plating and a bat-tering ram on the front. How annoyed Bruce had been when he made that pun! It had been a great disappointment that he had never gotten a chance to use the battering ram. Until now.
The solid steel barrier sealing the exit tunnel was much the worse for the collision, he saw. It had been dished outwards by almost a foot in the middle, leaving a gap of several inches at the bottom. One or two more such impacts and it would give way entirely. Dick grinned excitedly. He put the gearshift into reverse and pressed down on the gas pedal.
The batmobile didn't move. Instead, there was a horrible grinding sound, then the engine died. Dick's grin died as well.
"Uh oh."
The Clock Tower
2:59 AM
She had been letting Hugo dictate the terms, Barbara thought. That stopped now. From now on they were playing by her rules. Hugo didn't know that yet, but he would.
Physically he had all the advantages and mentally they were well matched. But he had shown her his weakness. He was putting too much effort into tearing down her self-esteem when he had more important things to focus on. Why? Because he had to. Because he could only hide his own weaknesses, his own fears, by exposing the fears and weaknesses of others. He was good at finding other people's weaknesses because they were his weaknesses as well. I can't believe I let you get to me, Hugo, but that stops now.
Dick would escape this trap as he had so many others. She had to believe that, so she did. As for Bruce, she refused to believe that he would allow someone like Hugo Strange to destroy him. You taught me all I need to defeat him, Bruce. Now remember for yourself. As for her, all he could do was kill her. She had faced death too many times to fear it now. She had a far more potent weapon.
"You are wondering, I know, how I was able to penetrate the Batman's secrets so completely. I admit I could not have done so without my accomplice. Of course, Pennyworth did not realize he was helping his master's greatest enemy. Drugs and hypnotism can accomplish much, but it is always easiest to work with your patient's desires and he so desired someone to confide in. All I had to do was convince him I was that confidant and he happily told me all of his master's secrets.
"You will understand, my dear, how it piqued my curiosity when he called me 'Miss Barbara'."
Hugo turned towards her and a tiny frown briefly troubled his brow. Did you think that would upset me, Barbara asked silently? You are too contemptible to upset me. Try again.
Hugo shook his head slightly, then continued.
"Who was this woman entrusted with the Batman's secrets? I had not, I confess, previously suspected your existence. Once I learned more about you, I immediately saw your value to him.
"I gathered all the information I needed. Then it was time to proceed to the next step. The manservant worried that he was abetting his master's 'asocial behavior'. It was easy to feed that fear, so that when I had your father shot…"
"That startled you, didn't it?" He looked at her and stopped. In some corner of her mind, Barbara raged. But she had found her center and even rage could not disturb it. She stared back at him contemptuously. You are nothing, Hugo, a vacuum the universe cannot be bothered to fill. See your insignificance reflected in my eyes.
A sheen of sweat appeared on Hugo's forehead. He continued. "You are thinking that Jordan Rich shot your father because of an old grudge. Didn't you ever wonder why he waited fifteen years?" He looked to see what effect that had. He willed her, needed her, to react.
You lie, Hugo, she thought. Rich's past was too well hidden for you to discover. You resort to lies and that tells me the truth. The truth is you must inflate your importance with lies. And that tells me just how little you believe in yourself, how great your insecurity is.
You cannot see it, Hugo, but I am smiling under this tape. It doesn't matter that you can't see my smile because you know, don't you Hugo? If you have any insight, any ability to 'read' people, you know that I am smiling. You know that I am smiling because you have lost.
The Batcave
3:00 AM
Careful, careful, thought Dick as he slipped the jack into the gap under the dished out section of the steel barrier. It had to be centered just right.
"Okay," he told Batgirl and she started pumping the arm of the jack. The jack was designed to lift the heavily armored batmobile, which lay broken just feet away. It could lift the multi-ton barrier. It would just take awhile. Unfortunately, they didn't have much time.
A metallic groan told them that, instead of lifting of the barrier, the jack was bending the dished out section even further. That changed the angle of the jack to the barrier but maybe... Another groan from the metal and the jack slipped out from under the barrier. Nightwing groaned himself and, as Batgirl lowered the jack a couple of notches, he worked to reposition it. They just needed a few more inches. But time was running out.
The Clock Tower
3:02 AM
Hugo Strange paced around the room, avoiding Barbara's eye.
"You think you're so smart, don't you? You think you're so much better than me," he ranted. "Well, who is tied up and helpless, eh? Tell me that! Which one of us is bound, gagged and helpless? Not me! It's you, you!"
She had won, Barbara thought, and now Hugo Strange would kill her. There was nothing else he could do. His mind games had backfired, his confidence was shaken, he knew he had been beaten. If he could not break a crippled 'flunky' who was bound, gagged and helpless, how could he hope to break the Batman himself? He would not dare face the Batman now. The only course left to him was to kill her and flee into the night.
Unless Dinah arrived in time. She couldn't see the monitor board from where she lay, but she didn't need to. The ultrasound generators would go off as soon as Dinah entered the downstairs hallway. Downstairs it would feel like someone had driven a spike into your brain. Even up here she would feel the vibrations thru the floor. And she didn't. So Dinah hadn't arrived yet. It would take even Black Canary a couple of minutes to fight her way up the stairs and Barbara didn't think she had a couple of minutes.
She regretted that, more for Bruce and Dick than for herself. She knew they would take her death hard but she hoped they would not let it wreck their lives. That would give Hugo a victory he hadn't earned. For herself, she took a vicious pleasure in beating Hugo at his own game. That would have to be enough.
"I'm going to kill you now." Hugo finally looked at her and she could see his defeat in his eyes. "Your friend will find your dead and bloody body, a razor-sharp batarang buried in your throat. What do you think of that?"
A familiar voice answered. "I think you always did talk too much, Strange."