Up and down the football field the black and white streak rushed. Any attempt by the players of Gotham University was swiftly cut off by a sucker-punch from the streak.
"You meatheads are as dumb as everyone's always said," the streak said, his voice electrically distorted to mask his identity. "It's no wonder everyone says Keffer is raising your science grades so you can stay on the team." When he paused long enough to be distinguishable, his suit resembled a second skin of black armor with white streaks down its arms and center and what looked to be a racing helmet obscured his face.
"Please… what the hell do you want?" one of the lineman shouted. "What do we have to do with any of you freaks?"
"Freaks? This isn't the first time you've called me that, O'Doyle," he said. "You know, I can run fast, but I'm gonna pay you back. Very, very slowly."
The speedster took a step forward to lunge at the lineman, but was cut off by an eruption of a green, sticky substance on his foot. He paused, jerking it around a few times, trying to get it free before he was punched by a blur of black fast enough to free his leg. As he hit the ground, the football players stood, stunned, as his opponents stepped forward. Stephanie stood beside Cassandra, garbed in a uniform of black with lines of purple running down the side and her blonde hair flowing out of the back of her cowl. Though Angel's katana was still in the Batcave, Batgirl approached their opponent wielding a metal staff.
"… Wow, are you guys really as dumb as he just suggested?" Batgirl asked. "Run! Seriously, we've got him down for a sec, just run for it!"
After another moment of hesitation the team made a break toward the gym, the armored man in the suit getting back to his feet as Angel stepped up to Batgirl's side.
"Well, what do we have here then? Batslut and Catholic school girl, right?"
"Literally all the skin I'm showing is my mouth," Batgirl said. "My boss is the one with the spandex fetish and teamwork calls for matching uniforms."
"You may be digging deeper," Angel said.
"Shut up."
"Whatever. Why don't you go run off and tell your boss Slipsteam has just arrived? I'm not one for hitting girls," he said.
"Well this girl's fist is equal-opportunity!" Batgirl said. With that she rushed toward him, Angel standing back to study him further.
Slipstream was not so easily confronted. His dodge of Batgirl's punches and kicks were casual, comical even as he out maneuvered her and made a motion as he was checking his nails. Even when Batgirl attempted to sweep his legs he countered with a single hop, intent on mocking her efforts. Batgirl wasn't even paying attention to the way she was leading Slipstream toward Angel, achieving that end purely by accident.
The strike to the center of Slipstream's back knocked him off balance and made him shout. As he hit the ground he took a lightning fast dash down the field, stripping some of the field of its grass as he held his back and presumably grit his teeth behind his helmet. Despite the struggle, he managed to dodge a swing from Batgirl's staff.
"Damnit… hey, kid, you hear the one about the blonde and the speedster?"
"Does it end with me kicking your ass?"
Batgirl and Slipstream's battle maneuvered up and down the football field, the Speedster still largely content to just dodge any blow she could throw. Batgirl's breaths were getting faster, sweat was starting to drip from her cowl as she kept trying to strike him with her staff, but got nothing. Stopping for a moment to catch her breath, Slipstream closed the distance and delivered a flurry of lightning-fast punches to her gut and another blow to her face. Angel was quick to Batgirl's side, catching her as she fell backwards.
"Thanks," Batgirl said through a wheeze of pain. "How am I doing?"
"… Not good," Angel said.
"Thanks for not sugar-coating it," Batgirl said. "We ever fought one of these guys before? My head's spinning too much to remember."
Before Angel could respond, Slipstream had again closed the distance. More forceful than she'd wanted to be, Angel pushed Batgirl out of her hold and caught one of her enemy's fist. Though Slipstream had been fast enough it was still vibrating in Angel's hand, the punch had been stopped.
"What—the hell—is this?" Slipstream shouted. "No one's that fast!"
"Superman's faster," the still dazed Batgirl said. "Not by much. Just by enough."
"Shut u—"
One of Angel's fists cut him off, smashing into his helmet and cracking a chunk of his visor as he shouted in pain. "Stand down," Angel said.
"Screw you!" he said.
Angel began to twist his arm until he shouted again. "Repent."
"Boss is gonna have my ass… but enough is enough for one day."
Angel could only keep her grip on his hand for a few seconds after he started rushing forward again, dashing out of sight in another black and white blur toward the sunset. She held her glare in his direction, but went directly to helping Batgirl off the ground.
"Owww… not my best outing, I'll be the first to admit," Batgirl said.
"You did fine," Angel said.
"Isn't 'Thou shalt not lie, even for thine best friend' like, commandment number three or something?"
"Nine. You worry too much."
The rest of the night, between runs across rooftops and double-checking a few of Gotham's seediest bars, the two would stop and listen to any garbled police radio they could, hoping for some comment of a Speedster in downtown Gotham. As the hours wore one and Stephanie kept adjusting the frequency though, no word of one came.
"Guess we should have just punched him harder," Stephanie said with a sigh. "Or I should have just hit him, period."
"You were not trained like me," Cassandra said. "You'd never want it."
"Maybe I'd want a little of it," Stephanie said. "You putting me through training from hell again. The wonders of the days before I faked my death… anything you wanna listen to try and get pumped up? We still have two hours til the end of shift." Stephanie adjusted the radio. "They're playing Metallica… some Florence over here…"
"Wait… go back."
"Back to where?"
"The people talking. Just talking."
With a few more turns of the tuner, the radio began to play from the station just a few blocks away from Cassandra's encounters just a few nights before.
"So what you're saying is is that this is a matter of the state of public schooling in this country?"
"That's exactly right, Gary." The voice, proud and staunch as ever said. "You know good and well how it was back when we were kids. Children aren't showing their parents respect and parents aren't demanding it. It's as if the people of this country have forgotten that it is not simply your right, but your responsibility, to train and prepare a new generation of Christians."
Stephanie's fingers were rubbing against her temple. "Why are we listening to this?"
"… I don't know… I met him, Gram, on the street."
"Was he as big of a stupid jerk then too?" Stephanie asked.
"You want to know how we're to a point some kid is in a speed suit, harassing football players at his college?" Gram asked. Because it's just a slippery slope. When the children of this country are showing, at a shocking rate, to be aligning closer with the ideas of communism, when they're reciting oaths to demons in their basements over a board game and when you let your boys dress up and claim they 'identify as girls,' you're just opening the floodgates for something like this—"
"Aaaaaaand shutting it off," Stephanie said. "You don't need any more of that crap in your life and I don't need any more of it any my ears."
Cassandra sighed. "He sounds so bold… he believes every word he says… I am always wondering…"
"Well wondering is what you're supposed to do," Stephanie said. "There's no one more confident than an idiot who believes his own lies. You beat The Seraphim, you know that better than anyone."
"The Seraphim was sick. Very sick," Angel said. "Gram is not hurting anyone. He is just talking."
"Well, from the looks of things, he's hurting my best friend right now," Stephanie said, offering her a hand up. "Please don't tell me you've listened to him before."
"… Only sometimes."
"Well cut it out. Making the jump from crossdressers to supervillains is the dumbest thing I've heard all day, and that jackass back at school tried to call me 'Batslut' or something."
The journey across the rooftops resumed. But try as she may, Angel could not shake the uneasiness she felt. A new criminal at Gotham University, the anger but conviction of the radio holy man, and the lingering thought of the attacker all in black from the parking garage. She made a sign of the cross during one of the building jumps, a clearer road forward.
[[Apologies on the lateness here. Lots and lots and LOTS of grad school work was eating up my time. Going to try and release more consistently while I've got some more of it now, because I'm excited to be getting deeper into this story.]]
