Hi, everybody! Sorry it took me so long to update; please put away any rotten things you were planning to throw at me! :Hides under desk briefly, then resurfaces:
Disclaimer: See chapter 1
A/N: Unfortunately, real life intervened on Tammy, one of my betas, and she can't help me anymore. Everybody please give her a nice round of applause for her good work! Special thanks to my other beta Arlene; without her input, this chapter especially would be nowhere near as good as it is. :Blows kisses: Thanks, Arlene! You're the best!
Ok, go read the chapter, and don't forget to review!
Barbara wandered the streets of New Gotham in a haze of emotion, barely registering where she was going, her arms working on autopilot to keep her moving. She turned down a side street, and stopped abruptly, facing a blank wall at the other end.
"Well, well, what have we here?" a voice said from behind her. Startled, she turned quickly to see three men move to block the mouth of the alley. "Looks like someone lost her way," the one in front continued.
"I just took a wrong turn," Barbara replied quickly, her mind racing. "If you don't mind, I'll just be on my way." She headed for the open street, but the leader – for he was obviously in charge of this group – blocked her.
"I don't think so," he said smoothly, and Barbara clearly heard the sound of knives being drawn by all three men. "I think you should stay awhile."
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Back at the Clocktower, Dinah and Alfred were getting worried. "Barbara should have been home by now," Dinah muttered anxiously, pacing back and forth in front of the main computers. The ringing of the phone shattered the silence, and she dove for it. "Hello? . . . . Oh, hi Wade . . . Barbara? Um, hold on a minute, I'll check." Setting the phone down carefully on the table, she turned to Alfred. "It's Wade," she told him anxiously. "He wants to talk to Barbara. What do I tell him?"
"We cannot tell him that she is missing," Alfred insisted. "He will want to involve the police, and I do not believe that is advisable, given the state of New Gotham's police force at this time. Perhaps a bit of misdirection is in order?"
Dinah bit her lip, staring at the phone. "Ok," she sighed. "I'll give it a shot." Picking up the phone, she hesitated briefly before putting it to her ear. "Wade? Yes, she's here . . . Really? What happened? . . . No, she's not feeling well. I made her go to bed, and she's sleeping. . . . Yeah, no problem. I'll have her call you. . . . Ok, bye."
She hung up the phone and turned to Alfred, taking a deep breath. She wanted nothing more than to scream, to release the feelings that were starting to whirl inside her, but Barbara's voice reached out to her from the time when her mother had died, steadying her. 'Clear your head,' she told herself. 'You can do this.' "Wade was calling to make sure Barbara got home ok," she told Alfred. "Apparently, there was an incident at the bazaar, and she took off right after."
"The bazaar ended hours ago," Alfred noted, worry creasing his own features. "We need to find her. I made her take an emergency transmitter; see if you can locate its signal, and I will contact Miss Helena. Her shift at the bar is almost over, and I am sure she will want to go looking for Miss Barbara."
Dinah nodded, feeling a sense of relief sweep over her as Alfred took charge. She set to work with determination, activating the tracking program and setting it to find Barbara's transmitter. Behind her, she could hear Alfred's voice as he spoke to Helena at the Dark Horse Bar.
"WHAT?!" Helena's shriek was clearly audible to Dinah; Alfred winced and pulled the phone away from his ear for a minute. Putting it back, he listened again, and then handed Dinah the phone.
Dinah took it gingerly at first, handling it as if it were a live snake. A pissed off Helena was not someone she especially wanted to deal with. Then a beep from the working tracking program hardened her resolve, and she wedged the phone between her shoulder and her ear, returning her eyes to the computer screen. "Helena," she said firmly, "calm down."
"Where is she, Dinah?" Helena's voice was cold and hard, and Dinah realized that she was speaking not to her friend, but to Huntress.
"Her transmitter's operating. Location's coming up on the screen now." Dinah told her. A minute later, a blinking dot appeared on the map displayed on the screen. "Damn!" she swore. "Huntress, she's on the other side of the city; an alley near Sixth and Henessey. Hurry; I have a really bad feeling about this."
"I'm on my way." Dinah heard Helena shout something to one of the other bartenders, and then the connection was cut. Handing the phone back to Alfred, she watched Huntress' dot begin moving towards Barbara's dot, fast but maybe not fast enough. She bit her lip, trying to suppress the sudden stab of fear that shot through her.
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In the alley, Barbara reached behind her to the pouch where she kept her emergency supplies, pulling out a set of escrima sticks. "Let me pass," she said slowly. "I don't want to hurt you."
"You? Hurt us? Lady, give me a break," the leader of the trio scoffed. He began to laugh, but quickly sobered when he saw the easy way she handled the sticks, and the determined light in her eyes. In true thug fashion, he stepped back and motioned to one of the men behind him. "Take care of this," he ordered casually.
The man he addressed hesitated briefly, and then moved forward, holding his knife low. Using the instincts she'd honed over years of fighting crime, Barbara waited. He feinted twice, hoping to scare her, and then drove the knife forward towards her chest. The escrima sticks caught him before he was halfway there, slapping the knife smoothly from his nervous grip and sending him to the ground with a howl of pain. "Man, I think she broke my hand!" he cried, scooting back to where his friend waited.
Barbara had a response prepared; verbal sparring had always been one of her favorite crime-fighting tools, and she had learned from the mouth of Dick Grayson, the master of quips and puns. But she never got the chance, as hands grabbed the wheels of her chair from behind and yanked, pulling her over backwards. Barbara cursed herself as she landed hard on her back, air flying from her lungs and the escrima sticks from her hands. Her emotional turmoil had dulled her edge, and she had focused on the immediate threat while forgetting to keep the other two thugs in view. The distraction caused by the backup thug had given the leader time to slip around behind her and pull her chair over.
Coughing, Barbara reached for one of the sticks, just out of reach. A hand came down on her wrist, just hard enough to keep it in place, and she looked up to see the leader staring down at her, smiling. "Play time's over," he said softly. Reaching down, he grabbed her by the throat and lifted her into the air. Barbara grabbed for his hand reflexively before realizing that her airway was not impeded. The smile dropped from the man's face as he held her at eye level in front of him. "You shouldn't have done that, lady," he hissed. "We was just gonna take your money. Now? You just upped the ante."
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lareina walks away, juggling marshmallows
