Readers- recommended listening (once you get to the climax- you'll know it when you read it): Ready or Not by Mischa Book Chillak, feat Esthero.
"Not hungry?" Dad asked, snapping me out of the daze I'd been in. I looked down at my cereal growing soggy and unappetizing. I smiled quickly up at Dad as I loaded my spoon full of mushy shredded wheat.
"Sorry. Just… distracted," I said. It wasn't a lie. I was lost in my thoughts, trying to find a pattern in the 47 apartments that we'd identified as possible hideouts of Scarecrow's. They were all rented by aliases of Johnathan Crane, or at least what we thought were aliases. There were some other legitimate Cranes in Gotham, but most of them had other paper-trails attached to their identities; rental histories, dental records, SAT scores, college transcripts. The 47 we'd singled out lacked those paper-trails and were thus more likely to be false identities.
We'd already spent one night going from location to location, searching for Scarecrow. We visited twenty of the locations but never encountered him, though we were able to confiscate a large amount of ayahuasca, chemistry equipment, and the tricyclic antidepressant he'd been using. We also left at each location a small, discreet motion sensor; if Scarecrow returned to any of these addresses, we'd get a notification and be en route before he could close the door behind him.
It had been a stressful night. I wouldn't let Scarecrow get the drop on me again. I'd been on edge constantly, always wary of who might be lurking in a shadow with a fistful of hallucinogenic drugs. It meant that I snuck back into the apartment through my bedroom window at 4am dead tired, and woke only three hours later to pretend to be the Barbara Gordon that dad knew: typical 9-to-5er, who spends too much time in the gym and parties with Colleen on the weekends.
Dad looked suspiciously at me over his nearly empty bowl of cereal. "You okay, Barb?" he asked, using my slightly more serious nickname. I smiled at him, genuinely comforted by the nickname.
"I'm good. Tired," I answered, taking another bite. He nodded, looking at me through the tops of his eyes. I could tell he knew I was keeping something from him, but he didn't press.
"You shouldn't work out so much," he recommended. "Too much stress on your body." I nodded back, wiping milk from my lips.
"You're right," I answered. He smiled to himself and stood, grabbing the coffee pot and refilling my cup with the last of the pot. I smiled thankfully up at him.
"You need it more than I do, looks like," he said with raised eyebrows.
"I just have a boring day. Not like I'm out on the streets catching bad guys," I smiled into my cereal. At least not during daylight hours…
"I shouldn't be doing too much of that today myself," Dad said as he collected his dirty dishes from the table and took them to the sink. "Mayor is dealing with some blowback from the press about all this Joker bullshit in Old Gotham. He's hired some PR firm to come in to help, and they've got us running around trying to make him look good instead of fixing the damn problem."
"Ah, geez," I said between sips of coffee. "What's he got you doing?"
"I'm giving a tour," he said in a mock-courteous voice. "Half the staff of the Gotham Herald is spending the night at Arkham Asylum, asking questions they don't need the answers to, riling up the crazies in their holding cells, getting in the way of the doctors doing their jobs." I cringed, knowing dad was not the best pick to cast as tour guide to a bunch of reporters.
"Why at Arkham Asylum? Aren't there doctors that can do that?" I asked.
"I'll be providing the law enforcement perspective. The warden will be there too to talk about all the innovative, cutting edge, blah blah bullshit," dad said as he leaned back against the counter, taking another sip.
"That sucks," I acknowledged as he grabbed up his coat.
"Yeah, well… wish me luck. I'm heading in bit early to try to get some real work done before the English majors ruin my afternoon," he said, downing the rest of his coffee. He put the mug on the table and leaned forward, planting a kiss on my forehead.
"Good luck," I said with a smile as he pulled back.
"Yeah. And hey, get some rest tonight? Don't go to the gym. You're moving in a couple weeks and there's no way my back is able to do all the heavy lifting," he reminded me. I laughed to myself and nodded.
"You got it, dad," I answered. He left the apartment, both of us shouting our "love you's" as he walked out the door.
I spent the day at my desk in Wayne Tech trying to discern a pattern between the remaining locations rented by Crane aliases. What I really wanted to know was which location he'd visit next. But unless my paranoid, anxious, tired brain was missing something, it didn't seem like there were any true, predictive patterns.
When evening began to fall, I collected my things and got in my car, heading for Wayne Manor. A call from Dick came through my phone and I answered, keeping one hand on the wheel as I held the phone to my ear.
"Hey, you," I said into the phone. Since he'd had his moment of weakness when he questioned if we should date, we'd bounced back to normal pretty quickly. I could tell he still struggled to see me put myself in the line of danger. I was able to stay confident and strong during daylight hours, but my incessant nightmares didn't help. Since Scarecrow attacked me, I'd had nightmares every night recalling flashes of the hallucinations. I would wake with my heart racing, sweat soaking through my hair and back, panic surging through me. The two nights I had spent with Dick, he woke with me, concern twisting his brow. He would hold me until I fell back asleep, but I could tell the nightmares disturbed him perhaps even more than they disturbed me. So I told him I needed just a little more space for now, until the nightmares stopped.
Hopefully, that would happen as soon as Scarecrow was behind bars.
"Hey," Dick answered. "I think we need to change plans tonight."
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"Just heard about a body found on Sprang Bridge. Several lacerations, death caused by a slit throat," he explained.
"Sounds gory, but not totally out of the ordinary for Sprang Bridge," I said, acknowledging that it wasn't exactly the safest place to walk. "Probably just a mugging gone wrong."
"Probably," Dick answered in a low mumble, "but I don't know, something doesn't feel right about it. The other lacerations… they apparently aren't stab wounds. I hear it's pretty gnarly." I felt my face twist into a grimace.
"Ew," I said. "Wait, how'd you even hear about this? Sprang isn't near Bludhaven," I scolded him as Batman might.
"Come on, like I don't keep eyes on what's going on across the harbor?" he chided me playfully. I smiled into the phone, thankful he was on our team even if he was in Bludhaven most of the time. "Something feels off about this one. I want to check it out tonight."
"I'll talk to Bruce. Maybe we can start there before we…"
"Bruce isn't interested," Dick interrupted me. "Just got off the phone with him. Thinks Scarecrow is more important." I shrugged.
"Well, I can't say I disagree with him…"
"Me either," Dick acknowledged, perhaps mostly out of service to me. "But something feels off about this body. I don't want it to wait. I'm gonna check it out tonight- undercover." I nodded as I understood he didn't mean he'd be showing up to the scene in his Bludhaven Police Department uniform.
"Okay. Just reach out if you need anything. We've got 27 locations left tonight, I want to hit them all," I reminded him.
"You sure you don't want to delay? Just one night? I can help," he said. I smiled, knowing he was hoping I'd wait until he could be there with me. Part of me felt insulted; I didn't need a babysitter. But I knew he meant well and just wanted to keep me safe.
"Bruce and I will manage it. If you finish up early, you're free to join up," I offered. He was quiet a moment on the other end of the line, and in that silence we shared another conversation.
You're sure?
I'm sure. I don't need your help.
I'm not trying to be controlling.
I know. But I need to keep going, with or without you.
"Okay," Dick said aloud, breaking the quiet. "Keep me in the loop."
"Same goes to you," I said. "Talk soon."
"See ya, Barb," he said, and I smiled as I hung up the phone. Without his voice on the other end of the line, I felt a small flare of anxiety about the evening ahead. I wished he would be there; it felt reassuring to have him there. If something went wrong, I could be certain I'd be taken care of.
But that was true of Bruce, too. I trusted him to help me if I needed it. And I trusted myself enough to know Scarecrow would have to pull off something remarkable to catch me off guard a second time.
This time, I wasn't going to be the one that needed help.
I practically counted the seconds until sunset. When the skies began to darken, Batman and I suited up and prepared to leave. Alfred sat at the Batcomputer with a cup of tea, a sugar cube dissolving in the bottom, while Jason grunted loudly from his exercise in the Augmented Reality chamber.
"I have the locations pulled up and organized for maximum efficiency," Alfred informed us as we attached our gadgetry to our suits. "If there are no incidents, you should be able to visit and clear all 27 locations before 5am."
My eyes winced as I thought about yet another sleepless night ahead. I should have had more coffee.
"Hopefully, we have incidents," Batman said, turning back to me. "All it takes is one. If we find the one address he's staying at, we finish this." I nodded affirmingly.
"Let's get going," I said, ready to find him. We both got in the Batmobile and stuck together as we started our search. At the first location, a mostly abandoned tenement in Old Gotham, we found more ayahuasca and chemical equipment, as well as two bodies.
"Looks like Crane is using his own men as his test subjects," Batman observed as he walked to a pile of what I was sure to be drugs and running a quick chemical analysis to discover what kind. But I stooped low and observed the bodies.
"That one, maybe… but this one was shot. I'm not seeing any signs that he was drugged before death," I said, lifting up his eyelids and carefully examining the corpse.
"This stash is Sample Y, the same compound you were drugged with," Batman observed. I looked across the room, saw the bullet holes in the wall, and pieced it together.
"One of his cronies wanted to try to drug, didn't realize what he was getting himself into," I said, my eyes searching the ground for the gun. "He tried the drug, started hallucinating, panicked, and shot his partner… kept shooting…" my eyes tracked the bullet holes in the wall, they finally fell to the ground to find the gun. "And when his clip was empty, he threw the gun at whatever he hallucinated. Looks like he went into cardiac arrest. He was scared to death." I went to reach for the gun on the floor, but Batman stopped me.
"Leave it," he advised me calmly. "Two bodies, a complete sample of the drug, and Crane's alias on the lease… this is the evidence we need to put Crane away once we find him." I nodded and clicked on my communicator.
"Alfred," I called into the microphone, "put in an anonymous tip to GCPD at our current location. Two bodies, drugs, and an alias for Johnathan Crane."
"Of course," Alfred responded, and I clicked off the mic again.
"Do you think Crane's been here recently?" I asked. Batman knelt by the door and placed a motion sensor.
"No," he answered, "if he had, he would have taken Sample Y with him." I nodded in agreement, and we left through the window before we could hear the approaching sirens.
We continued this way through a few more apartments, finding some ayahuasca to confiscate but never anything so interesting as at the first location. As we were wrapping up the examination of our seventh apartment, Nightwing pinged on our comm units.
"Nightwing," Batman answered. I listened in as I placed a motion sensor.
"Batman," Nightwing responded. "I've just gotten a sneak peek at the body found on Sprang Bridge."
"I told you to leave that alone," Batman scolded him, clearly annoyed that Dick was working on Gotham turf without his approval.
"See I thought you told me not to leave it alone," Nightwing said sarcastically through the comm unit.
"The police will handle…"
"That's the thing, Batman," Nightwing interrupted him. "The police have filed their official report as a mugging gone sideways, but there's no way that's all this was. The man was a John Doe, no ID, probably homeless. So why he'd be mugged is already a mystery, but the real problem is with his wounds."
"A petty homicide between two vagrants is likely to get ugly…"
"Batman," Nightwing interrupted him again with a stern, serious voice. "The man's throat was slit, but he was carved."
"What do you mean?" I finally chimed in.
"The other lacerations… it's like the killer confused the knife with a crayon. I wouldn't be surprised if the killer had been trying to flay him. And the autopsy report notes that those lacerations were made after death," Nightwing explained.
"The killer slit his throat, then mutilated him?" I confirmed.
"Any evidence as to who the killer is?" Batman asked, now a bit more wary of the potential that a serial killer was entering our midst.
"Not yet," Nightwing responded. "But I'm heading towards Sprang now to see if I can find any other evidence."
"Be careful," Batman advised. "They'll likely have police guarding the scene."
"Of course," Nightwing answered, and he clicked his comm off. We exited the apartment and started heading to the next stop.
"You don't think the homicide is related to Scarecrow, do you?" I asked, wondering if I should be connecting those dots myself.
"I'm unsure. Could be a bad reaction to the hallucinogen," Batman considered. I gave a small nod in return, but that didn't feel right to me. Nothing about that hallucinogen gave me the urge to seek out violence, but I also wasn't a psychopath. Maybe some loonies really liked Scarecrow's latest product.
Four apartments and an hour later, we still had no sign of Scarecrow but plenty of evidence to bring him in on. As I reached down to place our motion sensor, Alfred pinged over our communicator unit.
"Sir," Alfred called to Batman, "I've just heard an APB put out on Joker and Harley Quinn. It seems they've stolen a truck… by the looks of the drivers, it is one of Penguin's trucks. Perhaps the latest in their attempts to undermine each other." Batman eagerly snapped to attention.
"Any idea what's in the truck?" he asked as he hurried to the window. I finished placing the sensor and hurried to his side. Perhaps Scarecrow would need to wait one more night.
"Unclear. It doesn't appear to be weapons, but I've no clue," Alfred advised. "The truck was last seen on Founder's Island, heading east."
Without hesitation, Batman leapt out the window and grappled to the next rooftop. I followed dutifully, not even bothering to ask about Scarecrow. Joker took priority.
We weren't far from the Batmobile, only a few blocks away, when a pinging sound came from my gauntlet. This time, it wasn't Alfred or Dick; it was Crane.
The motion sensor had been triggered at one of the apartments in Old Gotham, near the one where we had found the bodies and Sample Y. It was Crane, likely realizing his other apartment had cops crawling all over it, confiscating his Sample Y, writing up charges against him for the manufacture and distribution of drugs that wound up costing two of his cronies and countless addicts in the Gotham/Bludhaven area their lives. It was Crane, and every second we delayed getting to that apartment was a second more he had to escape.
I screeched to a halt on the rooftop as Batman did the same, and we shared a decisive look.
Both perps were too dangerous to let go. We needed to go after both, now.
"Get Joker," I ordered him. "I got Crane."
"Batgirl," Batman bit at me with his words. Was that anger that I had commanded him? Worry that I would behave recklessly?
"We don't have time. Go!" I commanded again, and I sprinted back towards the edge of the rooftop, heading back into Old Gotham. At a hard sprint and using all my gadgetry, I could be there in five minutes or less.
"Batgirl, I…" Alfred called over the comms.
"I see it!" I shouted back as I ran. "Batman's going after Joker, I'm on Crane."
"Where?" Nightwing's voice broke in over the comms. "You can't go by yourself!"
"Watch me!" I shouted as I shot my grapnel hook and ascended to a higher rooftop, rolling onto the rooftop and landing on my feet, continuing the sprint. "You wanna help, I'm happy for the assist- but I'm not waiting." I clicked off my comm unit and sprinted hard over the rooftops.
As I reached the building he'd triggered, I flicked on my Detective Mode. The apartment looked empty from afar. He must have found the motion sensor and bolted. I scanned the streets below, searching for him, but a slam overhead alerted me: he was on the roof. I grappled up to the rooftop, sparsely littered with air conditioning units, a water tank, and a crippled entrance to the stair well. I quietly got to my feet, my detective mode still on.
My cowl located him, hiding low behind an air conditioning unit. He knew I was here with him. It was just the two of us. And he thought he was getting the drop on me again.
Not this time.
"Give it up Crane," I called to the air conditioning unit he cowered behind. "Your toxin didn't work. You're done." I'd expected for him to snipe back at me, maybe to take a literal shot at me, or even for him to monologue back at me to try to buy himself time. What I didn't expect was the low, maniacal laughter.
It wasn't Joker. But the giggles reminded me of Joker. The sound of Scarecrow's voice merging with the hysterical laughter of Joker made me feel triggered, fearful as memories of my hallucinations resurfaced. My throat tightened and I swallowed hard as I kept my eyes on the outline of Scarecrow's figure.
"You think you have won. You're only a flicker of light gliding through an ocean of darkness. You've risked the lives of everyone on this block by confronting me," he said, and I could hear him grin as he said it. I looked down at my feet, the detective mode scanning the building as quickly as I could for threats. I couldn't see anything, so returned my gaze to Crane. That's when I saw the outline of the detonator in his hand. There was a bomb somewhere close. The blast alone could kill hundreds.
"We've created an antidote, Crane," I called to him confidently in hopes it could stall him. "Your drugs are useless." I took quiet steps closer to the unit.
"You'll release me, and I will teach this city the meaning of fear," he threatened me. I couldn't risk coming closer. I had one shot, and I was close enough to take it. I pulled the explosive gel gun off my belt and sprayed it quietly onto a batarang.
"You don't scare me, Crane," I answered definitively as I threw the batarang at the AC unit. It stabbed into the top of the unit opposite Scarecrow. His figure jolted back a moment as he heard the batarang make contact, then flew backwards as the gel exploded. His body was thrown to the edge of the roof, his legs dangling off. He'd dropped the detonator just a few feet from where his hands clung to the rooftop, trying to lug himself back up. I approached quickly and stepped on the detonator, smashing it.
Scarecrow glared up at me, the woven threads of his mask almost looking like teeth bared. I walked up and stepped on the syringes attached to his fingers, smashing the glass to pieces over his fingers to ensure he couldn't use them against me.
"No!" he growled in pain and anger.
"You're coming with me," I growled. Scarecrow was safely on the ground and zip-tied up in a matter of minutes, at which point I opened my comms unit.
"Scarecrow's been detained," I said. "Though we could use a bomb squad at my location to deal with a gift from Scarecrow."
"Of course," Alfred's voice answered quickly.
"How's Joker coming?" I asked.
"Joker's been detained as well," Batman answered firmly. "Need a ride to the Asylum?"
"I don't love the idea of Scarecrow and Joker sharing the backseat," I answered.
"Joker won't be much of a conversationalist. He's unconscious," Batman said, and I could almost hear him smile.
"Great idea," I responded, and I slammed my fist down against Scarecrow's temple, knocking him out. I switched off comms as I waited for Batman, but another ping promptly came from my comm. I clicked it open: a private link between Nightwing and myself.
"Batgirl?" Nightwing asked, sounding breathless.
"Scarecrow's been taken care of," I said, as if he hadn't heard it on our open channel just a moment ago. Had he been running to get to Old Gotham from Sprang Bridge?
"He's... are you..."
"I'm fine," I answered softly, grateful Scarecrow was unconscious for this part. I didn't want anyone but Dick to see or hear me being vulnerable.
"He didn't try..."
"Oh, he did. He had a bomb. But we should be fine. Batman will be here any minute," I said.
"Okay. Come to my place tonight?" Nightwing asked quietly.
"Alright," I smiled. "I gotta go."
"Good work, Batgirl," Nightwing said as I clicked off the communicator. I looked down at Scarecrow's limp body and smiled at his frail, sinewy form.
You don't scare me.
Batman's car arrived only a few minutes later. We loaded Scarecrow's body into the back beside Joker, who I couldn't help but notice was soaked through.
"Why's he wet?" I asked Batman as I hopped into passenger seat of the car.
"He drove Penguin's truck into the harbor," Batman answered as we sped off towards the asylum.
"And Quinn?" I asked.
"Got away. Sort of. Joker pushed her out of the truck while they were driving, thought I'd stop to save or detain her," he said. "By the time I came back for her, she was gone."
"Guess they're on the fritz, then," I observed. The car turned and we sped over the long, dark bridge towards Arkham Asylum. Seeing the sign refreshed my memory. "Gordon's here," I remembered, turning to Batman. "He's doing some tour with the Gotham Herald, something for the Mayor's office."
Batman kept his eyes on the road, but I could feel his urge to roll his eyes. "No doubt the Mayor will be thrilled to have media coverage of both Joker and Scarecrow being detained at once." He keyed a number in on his gauntlet, calling my dad.
"Batman?" my dad's gruff voice answered, sounding confused.
"Gordon. I'm bringing Johnathon Crane and Joker in to Arkham Asylum. Have some medics ready to receive them. Both are unconscious, for now."
"You're… what?"
But Batman clicked off the communicator. His eyes turned to meet mine as we drove; he must have sensed the anxiety I had been trying to mask.
"Keep your eyes low and let me do the talking. He won't recognize you." I nodded, trying to feel reassured.
We pulled into the gates of Arkham Asylum and parked directly in front of Intensive Treatment. I couldn't help but look up into the guard towers, remembering that last time we were here was when Joker was escaping custody with Harley's help.
"Bringing down Harley will need to be our next priority," I reminded him.
"She's not getting him out again," Batman stated. The hatch of the car lifted and we jumped out. Five medics came out of the building toting gurneys with straps and cages for the patients' heads. As we opened the back hatch and the limp bodies of Scarecrow and Joker were presented, my dad, Warden Sharp, and a flock of reporters emerged from the building. Cameras blinked bright lights, and Batman and I kept our gazes low as we put the bodies on the gurneys. I kept my face especially low, avoiding my father's gaze.
"Batman," Gordon shouted as he approached us, waving at the Gotham Herald reporters to stay back. "Joker and Scarecrow in one night? Were they working together?"
"Not specifically," Batman stepped forward to answer him as I stayed back, helping the medics strap Joker to the gurney. One of them looked up at me nervously. I gave him a tight smile and a nod.
"They won't be out much longer," I told the medic quietly. "Prepare sedatives to keep them out while you process them." The medic nodded and called that information up to another assisting medic, likely the head charge nurse in processing. As he did so, I looked down into Joker's unconscious face. A flash of my hallucinations returned to me: Joker pressing me up against the brick pillar outside Wayne Manor, his face leaning in towards mine.
I blinked away the memory and swallowed hard as I glared down at his face. He was nothing but a bad dream. That was all. The corners of my mouth lifted as I realized the nightmares would stop tonight.
"Thanks for the tip on Bane, by the way," my dad said, and I turned suddenly intrigued.
"Bane?" Batman asked for me.
"We got the tip Sunday night that Bane had been hiding in the sewers- we got him. Wasn't an easy arrest, but we wouldn't have found him without your help," my dad answered. I looked suspiciously at the back of Batman's head, but his stoic nature told me that he had no idea what my dad was talking about. "Now we've just gotta find a cell strong enough to hold him."
"Keep him sedated. It's too dangerous for your men to be around Bane at full strength," Batman advised him.
"It's not my first rodeo, Batman," my dad reminded him, and his eyes flicked up to me. "Not yours either, I see." I cast my gaze over at him, keeping my chin pointed away to prevent him from seeing me too well. "We haven't met. I'm Commissioner Gordon." I didn't answer, and kept my jaw fixed and hard. "We had a lot of admiration for Robin, when he was around. I'm sure the same will be true for you."
"Take care of them, Jim," Batman commanded Gordon as the medics wheeled Joker and Scarecrow into the building for processing.
"Of course," my dad responded as Batman clicked a button on his gauntlet to close the back hatch of the car.
"Wait, Batman!" the reporters began to lunge forward with their phones recording their voices and fingers on their cameras.
"Back off, back off!" my dad tried to command them, but they thrust themselves towards us like hungry hyenas.
"Were Scarecrow and Joker working together?"
"How long have you and Batgirl been working together?"
"Can we get any more information on Joker's assault on Oswald Cobblepot?"
"Batgirl, did you replace Robin? Where is he?"
"Smile, Batgirl!" A camera flashed in my eyes and I flinched from the light. We jumped back in the car and Bruce sped away, leaving the reporters in the dust behind us.
"You did well," Batman said after a long pause. I smiled back at him.
"You too," I answered. I couldn't resist asking, because I knew Batman and I were thinking the same thing. "So Bane…"
"It wasn't you?" Batman asked, though I knew he already knew the answer.
"No," I said. "I did what we'd agreed. I raised the gates, he was free to go." Batman shook his head lightly, almost undetectably.
"Jason has been watching you," Batman observed. "He's learned faster than I realized."