Chapter 6: Shadow of the Bat

Disclaimer: All things Supergirl/Superman and Batman belong to DC. No infringement is intended.

It was the biggest news story since... well, since the last heroic feat performed by Superwoman, probably, which had been but a few days earlier. The world's favorite superhero had lifted an entire ocean liner out of the water and brought it safely to Metropolis harbor and had then proceeded to disable the armed pirates who had boarded it. The pirates had planned to rob everyone on board and then sink the ship, but now they were all in police custody.

Superhuman feats performed by an alien woman aside, though, the biggest news story was the return of Gotham City's favorite son, Bruce Wayne. The sole heir to the Wayne Foundation had lost his parents at a very young age, a story that had been in every newspaper back then. Upon turning 18 he had completely fallen off the face of the Earth, disappearing from the public eye for seven long years. Now he was back, though, and ready to take control of one of the largest private fortunes in the world. The business world was abuzz and Gotham City's social scene was positively ablaze.

On a completely unrelated note, a rumor started making the rounds in Gotham about a shadowy, inhuman figure that preyed on criminals. Scared Crooks had started calling it the Bat!

Kara was not pleased. As a matter of fact she was in a very bad mood. She had planned to stay in Gotham for an afternoon only, no more. Just long enough to meet with a potential investor and talk about K-Solutions, an investor that wanted to meet the woman behind the business face to face. She didn't like face to face meetings, at least not when it came to her role as a business owner, and had only grudgingly accepted. Only for the investor to cancel their meeting at the last minute and reschedule for tomorrow.

Sure, she could easily have flown back home for the night, but a hotel room had already been arranged for her to compensate for the rude cancellation, so it would have looked somewhat suspicious if she never turned up there. So against her better judgement, Karen Kent was spending the night in Gotham.

She really didn't like Gotham. There was just something about this city, apart from the stink, that unnerved her. It was too dark, too dreary. The gothic architecture was not her thing at all, either. She did not like gargoyles, which seemed to line every roof top here, and the city seemed to be filled with far more than its share of misogynist bastards, too. Just walking through the hotel lobby and up to her room had seen her being propositioned three times, five if you counted the sleazes who just winked at her while waving bundles of cash around.

She had spent half an hour on the phone talking to Clark and another half hour chatting with Diana (having finally convinced the Amazon to carry a phone), but now she was bored. So she finally took out her super suit, put the "do not disturb" sign on her door, quick-changed, and flew out the window too fast to be seen.

Gotham looked even drearier from above, she had to say. Just flying around for a few minutes had her spotting no less than three crime scenes, too. Deciding to be somewhat discreet, she fell back on her skills from before her public outing. None of the criminals involved ever saw more than a blur, but their guns vanished, some were left knocked out, and all victims got away scot-free. She almost smiled. Being Superwoman was awesome, but she kind of missed the whole mysterious savior bit on occasion.

As she passed over yet another gothic-looking building, she suddenly spotted something that piqued her interest. There was a man dressed like a bat running across the rooftop, obviously in pursuit of a shady-looking guy in something resembling a ninja costume. Now wasn't that interesting?

The Batman was not pleased. He had hoped to have more time to establish his presence in Gotham before things came to a head. He had hoped that he'd able to weed out at least some of the corruption in City Hall and the police department, so that he would not have to fight on two fronts. Sadly it seemed time was not on his side. The figure fleeing from him was clearly a member of the League of Shadows. It could hardly be a coincidence that they showed up here only a few weeks after his own return to the city.

Chasing after a trained assassin was harder than chasing down common crooks, but in the end he was more skilled, more familiar with the terrain, and had the better tools. A short time later he had the man tied up in rope and a quick grip into his mouth had removed the suicide capsule every League operative usually had. The odds of getting anything out of the assassin weren't good, but it was worth a try.

"What are you doing here?" he growled at the tied-up man. "What is your mission?"

"Our mission is the same as always," the other simply growled back. "You will not stop us!"

"You are a fool then! R'as is dead!"

"R'as al Ghul can never die," the assassin screamed at him. "The Demon lives forever!"

Getting fed up, Batman quickly hoisted the man up and positioned him near the edge of the roof. The assassin might have been prepared to take his own life via a painless poison in his tooth, but the thought of a twenty story drop towards a messy meeting with the pavement might loosen his tongue regardless.

"Last chance," he growled. "Tell me why you are here!"

The assassin just glared at him, keeping quiet. Shrugging, Batman shoved him off the roof. His hand quickly went to his grappling hook, as he fully intended to catch the man before he splattered on the ground, but as it turned out someone else was faster.

"Now that is taking things a bit too far, mister!"

The angry-sounding voice belonged to a woman. A woman who was floating before him in mid-air, seemingly unconcerned with gravity, and with the tied-up assassin dangling from one of her hands as if he were a light handbag. She was dressed in a form-fitting blue and red suit he had seen many times on the news and her red cape and long blonde locks were moving in the wind. She was certainly cutting a very impressive figure, no doubt about that.

"The famous Superwoman," he said, managing to sound unconcerned despite being very, very concerned. He had read up extensively on the famous superheroine who had been all over the place, saving the world, for the last few years now. He actually admired her a bit, seeing as how her powers would have made it easy for her to set herself up as ruler of the world or worse, but she was instead using them to protect innocents. The problem was, though, that he doubted she would consider masked vigilantism a good thing.

"Is this a regular thing for you?" she asked, indicating the man still dangling from her hand. "Throwing people from rooftops?"

"Only dangerous assassins," he answered, sounding nonchalant even as he subtly scanned the roof for the quickest possible getaway route. He did not have time for this, not with the League of Shadows in town, probably ready to resume their plans for the city. "And I would have caught him before he hit the ground."

Her eyes narrowed as she looked at him and he could practically feel the X-Rays as she attempted to look through his cowl and see the face underneath. And here Alfred had called him paranoid when he had included a thin layer of lead in the newest design.

"I'm sure you would have tried," she said, dropping the assassin back onto the roof and touching down herself. Standing in front of him, he noticed that she was pretty tall for a woman, though still shorter than him. Quite beautiful, too, but that was neither here nor there. She held herself with an extremely confident pose, hardly surprising, and the way she stood showed that she had had at least some rudimentary combat training. That was a bit surprising. He would have figured someone with abilities like hers would not see the need for combat skills.

"Are we going to have a problem here?" Batman asked, his mind still trying to come up with some kind of plan to outmaneuver someone with what amounted to god-like powers. She smiled at him, but Batman recognized it as the exact same kind of smile that he himself smiled when faced with criminals that really had no idea how outmatched they were. He didn't like being on the receiving end of it.

"Well, I am currently thinking of taking you and your friend here to the nearest police station and let them sort things out. So you tell me whether or not we have a problem!"

Batman took half a step back, at the same time dropping the flashbang he had taken out of the belt pouch on his back. He figured someone with enhanced senses like her might actually be more susceptible to sensory overload than a mere human. Turning away from the exploding flash and shielding his ears, he didn't wait to see whether it had worked, he started running towards the roof edge and leapt out into the open.

He soared through empty air, his arm snapping back to throw a line towards a nearby roof and swing to safety. Hopefully he could lose her among the buildings. He never got the chance, though, because suddenly something resembling a steel vise closed around his left ankle and simply yanked him upwards. Superwoman floated leisurely behind him, looking none the worse for wear, and still smiling as she held him up.

"Not bad," she said, nodding appreciatively. "Didn't even notice the flash bang until you dropped it. Got anything else you want to try?"

Batman's mind quickly flipped through the tools he had with him, dismissing them all within the span of a second. He had some explosives in his belt, but those were far more likely to hurt him than her. Well, maybe there was one thing that might work on her, given her reputation. Honesty.

"If you take me to the cops, I'll be dead before dawn," he told her, managing to sound somewhat calm despite hanging upside down in mid-air, held by an alien flying woman. "The entire Gotham City police apparatus is corrupt to the core, the same goes for City Hall. You take me in, you're condemning an innocent man to death."

He couldn't be sure, of course, but given how enhanced her senses had to be, there was a good chance she'd be able to tell if he was lying. The frown on her face seemed to say that she was at least thinking about his words.

"You should have lead with that one," she finally said. A moment later they were back on the roof and she let him drop. He'd had softer landings, but at least it wasn't twenty stories down to the pavement or into a police cell.

"So tell me... oh, just a second." She walked over to the assassin, who was about two thirds of the way out of his restraints. A single flick of her finger sent him down to the ground, very much unconscious.

"Okay, so you bought yourself some time, Mr... what do you call yourself anyway?"

"I'm Batman!" he said, causing her to laugh out loud.

"Really? Batman?"

"What about it, Superwoman?"

She laughed again, but waved her hand in a placating gesture. "Okay, point taken, sorry. So, Bat... sorry, I can do this: So, … Batman! The police in this town is corrupt, I understand. So you are, what, trying to fix that by working outside the law?"

"Yes," he replied. His mind was still spinning in a dozen different directions at once, trying to figure out how to get out of this situation. There was still a very good chance he'd end up taken to the police – if not in Gotham, then elsewhere – and there was little he could do to stop her if she decided to do so.

"And him?" she gestured toward the unconscious assassin. "I heard something about a League of Shadows, a demon, and a mission? What's that all about?"

He considered how much to tell her. Someone with her powers could certainly be a tremendous asset, but the League of Shadows was all about working under the radar. Superwoman appeared about as subtle as a sledgehammer. He didn't see how to get out of this without sharing at least some information, though.

"They're a secret society of assassins. They were led by a supposedly immortal maniac called R'as al Ghul, who considered himself responsible for keeping the world in balance."

"Supposedly immortal?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"He died about a year ago. I was hoping the League would fall apart without him, but it seems they have reconstituted."

"And their mission?"

"I only know that R'as was planning to destroy Gotham City, which he considered a breeding ground for corruption and suffering. I fear they might try and go ahead with it even without him there to lead them."

Superwoman nodded, apparently believing him. This was a new thing, he mused. He had prepared himself for fighting his war using fear as his primary weapon. Apparently honesty could also be a powerful tool, at least when it came to people who were impervious to all other weapons.

"Okay then," she said. "I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. What's the next step then?"

Kara had to admit, she was impressed by this Batman guy. Unlike most other men she confronted, he hadn't attempted to beat her, but only to get away as fast as he could. It spoke of a logical mind that was well aware of its limits. When it became apparent that fleeing was not an option, he had immediately switched strategies and appealed to her sense of justice. Successfully, she mused.

Monitoring his heartbeat and breathing rate, she was pretty sure he was telling the truth. Her powers weren't a fool-proof lie detector, but not many could lie to her. Besides, if he was right and someone was indeed trying to destroy an entire city, this sounded like a job for Superwoman. Plus her Bat-sidekick, she snickered internally.

She watched as Batman quickly searched the assassin for any clue and she could feel his pulse quicken as he found something in one of his pockets. It was a small vial, filled with liquid. He opened it and took a careful sniff.

"What's this?" she asked. She could smell the distinct odor from here, but couldn't place it.

"The League of Shadows uses an extract made from Blue Poppies as a testing tool for their adepts. It overstimulates the amygdala and causes an intense fear reaction. This seems to be a highly refined version of it."

"Weaponized fear? That's something new. Okay, so you want to destroy a city and you have a liquid causing extreme fear. How do you distribute it among the populace? Drinking water?"

He looked up at her, apparently taken aback a bit. Yeah, Batman, she mused. The big blue-eyed blonde is more than just a pretty face.

"The city's water supply would be a logical place," he answered. "The main line goes from the treatment plant near the coast through Arkham Island and is distributed near Wayne Tower."

"You have the city's water pipe network memorized?" she asked.

"Among other things," he said, getting up. "How fast can you go carrying a passenger?"

She smiled. "Just watch me!"

Batman had to admit, he was impressed by Superwoman. She was clearly quite intelligent, very adept at using her truly amazing powers, and seemed to have a strong sense of right and wrong, too. Which was good, for he hated to think how dangerous someone as powerful as her would be without it. Being picked up as if he weighed nothing and flying through the air took some getting used to, but it certainly beat all other methods of transportation currently available to him. He really needed to invest in a jet.

The conclusion of their joint mission was anti-climactic, though. Following along the water line, they quickly found a group of League assassins who had broken into Arkham Asylum. Several barrels of the fear toxin had already been placed in the asylum's cellar and the main water line had been dug up. It would have been just a matter of hours.

Batman was rather certain he could have managed to take down the League assassins himself, but it would have been hard and taken quite some time. Having a Superwoman on one's side, though, tended to shorten most battles quite a bit.

There had been a single moment of tension when one of the assassins had thrown a capsule of the fear toxin at Superwoman when she had been busy knocking out half a dozen of his fellows. The liquid had splattered onto her face and for a moment Batman had panicked, his imagination showing a fear-crazed Superwoman rampaging through Gotham.

"Oh, please," she simply said, wiping the liquid off with a look of disgust. "I can drink vodka by the galleon and not feel a thing. You think a little poison is going to affect me?"

And that had been that. Half an hour later they were back on the rooftop where they had first met. The assassins had been tied up expertly and left to be found by the police, a letter addressed to Lieutenant James Gordon along with them. There were at least a few honest cops in Gotham, after all.

"I guess I won't take you in today then," Superwoman finally said. "Please try to make sure that I won't have a reason to do it in the future, either."

"There won't be," he said. "I... thank you for your help. This could have gone much worse without your assistance."

She nodded, giving him another of her brilliant smiles. As he turned to leave, though, she called him back.

"Yes?" he asked.

"Just one thing. You said this al Ghul guy was dead, right? How certain are you that he is?"

"He fell through the floor of a burning building right in front of me," Batman replied. "No one could have survived that. Why are you asking?"

"Well, you remember those assassins telling us that we hadn't won anything and that R'as al Ghul would return to kill us all?"

"Yes, so?"

She shrugged. "Well, it's not really an exact science, but... they were not lying, Batman. They fully believed they were telling the truth. They believe he lives."

Now it was her turn to leave. "Besides," she added, "you know at least one person who could have survived that. Just something to keep in mind."

She vanished into the night sky, leaving Batman with some rather uncomfortable thoughts.

Having finished her rather surprising team-up adventure with the self-proclaimed Batman, Kara finally had the opportunity to take care of her actual business in Gotham City the following morning. She was meeting her potential investor in his office and then she would finally be able to fly home.

She was dressed in a sharp-looking business suit, her hair in a tight bun, glasses that slightly shifted her eye color on her nose, and wearing make-up that subtly changed the look of her cheekbones. She also wore five-inch heels to appear taller (and thank Rao for invulnerable feet). The result was a smart-looking young businesswoman that maybe bore some resemblance to the famed flying superhero, but not really all that much.

"Go right in, Ms. Kent," the secretary said, motioning for her to enter.

Karen Kent walked into the office of Bruce Wayne, who was looking for up and coming new businesses to invest his very large fortune in. She had barely entered, though, when her enhanced senses recognized the heartbeat and scent of the person on the other side of the desk. Stopping in her tracks, she wanted to be really sure and raised her hand in front of her eyes to simulate him wearing a mask covering the top half of his face. Yeah, she definitely remembered that chin.

"Huh," she just said.

Bruce Wayne, still tired from a long night with very little sleep, frowned at the strange behavior of the woman entering his office. Then he froze, studying her face. Could it be…? He imagined her with open hair, no glasses, different make-up, and wearing flats.

"Oh," he just said.

The two of them remained standing, looking at each other from across the office.

"So…," Kara finally began. "Should we... I don't know… pretend that this didn't just happen?"

Bruce opened his mouth, then stopped, really not sure what to say. "I… well…"

"You know, you sound far more eloquent when you wear the mask!"

"Do you want my money or not?" he growled.

End Chapter 6

Author's Note: I considered making Bruce Wayne the same age as Clark, but eventually decided against it, as I wanted to Trinity of Wonder Woman, Batman, and Super(wo)man intact for my story. So this Batman here is roughly the same age as Karen and still green behind his bat ears, too, having only just started out. Food for thought: Ben Affleck is 11 years older than Henry Cavill and Michael Keaton was 38 for the first Batman movie, while Christopher Reeve was only 26 in the first Superman movie. So the age difference I'm putting between Bruce and Clark can actually be considered canon. Batman is mostly based on the DC Animated series Batman, but with some elements from the Batman Begins movie thrown in.

As for Bruce and Karen meeting so early and figuring out each other's identities so soon, well, I really wanted to avoid that whole Batman vs. Super(wo)man thing. Despite their different personalities, they make much better friends and allies than enemies. Oh, and there will definitely NOT be any sort of fight between them in this AU that requires the super-powered alien who could kill people with a stern glance to be super stupid.