After some arguments and exchanges, Bruce reluctantly gave Stephanie and Tim the news he was reassigning Cassandra to his patrol for the evening. As he drove through Gotham with Cassandra in the Batmobile's front seat, he tapped on the steering wheel almost involuntarily.
"I don't know what's come over you since the injury," he said. "But I'm not going to cover for you every night."
"Need space," Cassandra said. "Give me time."
"I still can't have you doing anything extreme," Bruce said. "You still need to work your way up to that. If I get any word of the Zsasz case, I'll need you to sit it out—"
"Zsasz can't fight," Cassandra said. "Not well."
"He's erratic, too erratic for you to predict attacks against," Bruce said. "And beyond that he gets in your head. He could keep talking after you've broken every tooth in his head. And you don't need that right now."
Cassandra was about to object when Bruce scowled, brought a hand to the side of his cowl and looked off intently. Cassandra frowned and looked toward him.
"We've got work to do." Bruce accelerated and made a sharp left turn. "A kidnapping in progress, from the sounds of it."
"Where?"
"The witnesses said the van was headed down 21st. Some group started grabbing women and children as they were walking out of the mosque on Avery."
For a moment, Cassandra just nodded as she tried place what one of his words meant. It clicked slowly, but then came to her. "Mosque?"
"Islamic place of worship."
Cassandra didn't say anything, but the memory of one of Cameron Gram's many sermons reverberated through her head. Though she couldn't remember exactly what they were, Cassandra remembered they had been harsh. But she had already bickered with Bruce to change her assignment for the night, she didn't like her odds of asking again.
As Bruce accelerated down 21st street, another vehicle rushed through the opposite lanes. It was a white van, like something an electrician would drive, and its speed and reckless weaving made the other drivers on its side of the street blast their horns.
Batman glared. "That's no service vehicle."
Angel clung to the handle next to her seat in preparation. Batman smashed into the breaks, jerked the steering wheel in the opposite direction and floored the gas pedal. The honks grew louder as the white van slipped into the wrong lane and two cars crashed into one another in an attempt to dodge it.
The situation already made Angel's blood chill. "White van. Ones in armor drove one."
"I know," Batman said. "Gordon had that van impounded though. And what would those kids be doing in a kidnapping plot."
Fists tight to the side of the car, Angel's glare tightened as Batman began to close in. "Working with Lipov."
"Fine, what is Lipov doing in a kidnapping plot?"
As if to answer his challenge, one of the back doors of the van swung open. Neither Batman nor Angel could see Melody clearly as she slipped to the door and adjusted her gloves, and by the time they saw her at all it was too late. The villainess delivered a sonic-reinforced punch to the pavement that cracked and tore open the road for a block backwards. Batman hit the brakes again as the Batmobile hit a nasty fissure and spun out. Batman and Angel were both thrown to and fro as the vehicle came to a complete stop in the middle of the street as more cars honked and skidded. The roads were damaged, but the two would not be deterred as Batman's foot smashed into the gas and they sped after the utility van.
"Prep the slash turrets," Batman said without looking toward Angel. "I don't know how many of them are in there, but if we can take that van, we can book some of them while we save the hostages."
Angel complied as she prepped the on-board computer and enabled the Batmobile's weapon system, but paused at the request for the tire-slashers as Harmony punched the ground again and Batman had to dodge. "Blast shells, knock her out."
"No," Batman said. "Let me worry about dodging. Don't aim into the van, you could hit one of the hostages, and they aren't covered in armor."
Angel said nothing, but her set up for the tire-slasher was slow. The white van made another tight turn and, as the Batmobile struck some of the freshest of Harmony's destroyed ground, Batman and Angel were airborne for a second and hit the ground again with a thunderous thud. Both of their heads crashed into the ceiling, and though Batman was largely protected by his cowl, Angel grabbed at her head as a surge of pain and ache took over her.
"Are you all right?"
"Fine. Fine." Angel turned back toward the weapon system, confirmed her selection on the tire-slashers and took aim.
The Batmobile's text to speech dutifully stated, "Slashers activated."
Harmony would not let up. Each punch in the pavement ripped open new cracks and potholes for Batman to drive round and eventually even a few signs and street lamps came tumbling down. The Batmobile could handle the damage, but the destruction on the road and Batman's dodges made it impossible for Angel to properly target the tires of the van. A few slashers made it close enough to scratch the car's bumper, but none slowed its high speed. Angel's glare turned into a scowl. There would be no catching the van as long as Harmony was punching the road.
Angel punched a few commands into the computer.
"Rubber blast shells activated."
Batman did not take his eyes off the ever-damaged road, but his voice lowered to a snarl to compensate. "What do you think you're doing?"
Angel took aim at Melody. "Fixing problem."
"I gave you an order," Batman said. "You don't want to hit anyone else in the van by accident."
"I won't miss," Angel said.
"I'm not asking!"
Within moments, five pivotal actions took place. Batman took his eyes off the road to command Angel not the take the shot. At the same time, Angel pulled the trigger. As Harmony punched the street again, a rubber bullet flew into her face and knocked her backwards with a broken tooth and a ring through her head. But with his momentary distraction Batman ran the Batmobile into one of the newest and largest fissures in the street. The Batmobile flew off the ground again, spun out, threw the two heroes to and throw within until it careened into a traffic light and knocked it over. Angel flew forward and smashed her head into the car inches from the glass. For a moment, all of the sound around her from Batman's shouting to the creak of the Batmobile were silenced behind a dull roar in the front of her throbbing, bloody face.
When her hearing recovered enough, Batman shook her and demanded, "Are you still awake? Answer me!"
Angel held her cracked head as the dizziness faded. "Yes."
"How many fingers am I holding up?"
Angel said nothing for a moment, as if she didn't understand.
"I said how many fingers?"
"… Four."
Batman pulled open his door of the Batmobile, followed by hers and pulled her out. She was already recovering, but she could already feel the whiplash setting in.
As Bruce leaned her against a nearby building, a drug store that had closed for the night, Angel squinted. The white van had come to a stop two blocks in front of them and out from one of its doors two bodies, one tall, one small, emerged. The two ran toward her as fast as they could as Harmony stepped out of the van with her fists clenched.
"Stop them," Angel said. "Still moving—"
"Not in your condition," Batman said. "I can't just leave you here."
Four more bodies of various sizes emerged from the van and attempted to run past Harmony when a blast of neon pink followed them out and formed a barricade. Angel could just make out the outline of Miranda as they four were quickly corralled back into the van. Harmony looked back and forth between the two who had escaped before she too retreated into the van and it sped off again.
Angel clenched her fist. "Need to stop them."
"I'm going after them," Batman said. "I'll call Red Robin and Batgirl to get you."
"No!" Angel punched the ground. "I am fine! I can fight!"
"I told you not to take that shot." Batman's voice rose in anger. "You ignored me."
Angel was about to protest further when the two escapees, a middle-aged woman and a young girl, both dressed in red hijab, approached them. The little girl ran and clung to Batman's leg as he sobbed.
"Praise Allah," the woman said between gasps as she approached. "You have saved us—" As if she could not control emotions, her eyes suddenly went wet. "My husband! Sir, they still have my husband!"
Batman looked between the woman and the still-bloody Angel for a moment. "It's going to be all right—"
"No!" The little girl at his leg shouted. "No, not all right!"
"Then men and women in that van, I don't know what they want, but we were herded like animals," the woman said. "Please, you can't let them do this."
"I'm not going to," Batman said. "But my partner just sustained an injury—"
"Go," Angel said. "Police will come soon. I will be fine."
Batman scowled at her and slowly peeled the small child from his leg.
"We can keep guard," the woman said. "Please, you saved our lives, it is the least we can do. Just bring my husband back to me."
Batman and Angel both looked down the street. The white van had vanished, but could not have made it far. Batman looked to her and said, "We'll talk about this later," before he threw aside his cape and climbed back into the Batmobile.
As he sped off, the little girl fell into Angel's body and cried. As her mother objected, the heroine, by nothing but instinct, raised and ran a hand over the little bit of her hair that had come loose from the hijab. Her mother, resigned to her helplessness, leaned against the side of the building and held her face to fight back more tears.
For at least one of the several reasons that came across her still-pounding head, Angel regretted taking the shot.
