I do not own any of the DC characters named within, and are only using them for a tale crafted for entertainment purposes only.

Batman: Inverse Theory

By LJ58

III

"What happened to you," Diana exclaimed, staring at the slender woman in the Batman costume beside J'onn.

"Superman didn't tell you," Mara demanded.

"He was….in a hurry. Something about a creature called Lobo?"

"Him," Mara grumbled. "Don't worry. He can handle him."

"What happened," Diana asked again.

"I shall leave you to this," J'onn told him. "I will return when I have more news. By now, Barry should have the samples I sent him, and maybe we can…..find a solution. Meanwhile, I suspect Diana will be your best….aid in what remains."

The Bat pulled off his cowl, revealing a very pretty, very somber face, and Diana only gaped all the more as the Martian simply left without preamble after leaving her to her confusion.

"Bruce?"

"Call me Mara. We obviously need to talk," he sighed.

"I see you still have a way with understating things," Diana remarked dryly. "So…. Are you really….?"

"I've apparently….regenerated into a completely female form," Mara said dryly. "And I have to tell you, the past week was bad enough, but of late, I'm feeling…..worse."

"Worse," Diana asked.

"Yes. I don't have the….same sensations as when I began to regenerate, but I'm….aching again, in a more localized region," he said with a faint blush. "And I can't seem to shake a very bad headache. One not helped by the fact that half the thugs out there took one look at me, and dismissed….."

"Welcome to my world," Diana sighed as she cut him off. "But now you had better come with me."

"Come with you? Where?"

"Headaches? Aching? Tell me, Bru…. Ah, Mara, do you also feel….bloated? Cramped?"

Mara stared hard at the colorfully clad Amazon and frowned.

"Wait. Wait, are you saying….?"

"It is a natural part of the female biology, Mara," she told him. "If your hormones are as potent, and hyperactive as you said, then it stands to reason that….."

"Damn," the young woman grumbled, and shook his head.

"I have a few….items you may need," she said. "But you might want to decide…."

Mara's jaw tightened.

"Which you prefer. Pads, or…."

"Damn it, Diana," he growled.

"Don't curse me, Mara," she shot back, and eyed him up and down. "From what you said, and from what I see, you might as well learn up front what to expect, and how to prepare for it. You need a few other lessons, too, I think."

"What do you mean," he sputtered.

She smirked now.

"Let me guess. You're still thinking of yourself in the male gender, aren't you."

"I am a man," he growled.

Diana smiled only slightly now as she looked him up and down again.

"Really? Not from where I'm standing. You complained about not being taken seriously? I know all female heroes have that same issue. But you, you're also still trying to walk, and carry yourself like a male. You can't, though. Obviously, your skeletal structure, muscles, and more have also changed. Didn't they?"

"Yes," he muttered honestly.

"Then you need to learn a bit more about the female form. And shift your combat style accordingly. I can help you."

"You?"

"I am, first and foremost, an Amazon warrior," she growled.

"I know, but…. I'm hoping that the others can decipher a means of restoring me before I have to consider…..longer term issues."

"I think you had better start considering those issues now," Diana shot. "Superman might not have said anything, but if J'onn's distraction and mood back on the Watchtower are any indication, I'm guessing they don't have a clue just yet."

Mara's expression turned all the grimmer.

"Fine," he said in a hissing and reluctant surrender. "But I am not letting this beat me."

"Well, there is one advantage to this….mishap," Diana told him as Mara followed him to the facilities in the back of the huge cave when she mentioned them again.

"What is that," he demanded.

"Well, mother can hardly complain about our relationship now."

Mara froze with one hand on the enclosed clinic's door, and stared back at her.

"Think about it, Mara," Diana grinned, and winked playfully. "Remember, we are an island of women warriors."

For one of the few times in his life, Mara, once Bruce Wayne, found himself nonplussed, and blushing like a real innocent.

Diana only chortled, and led him into the clinic, and back toward the facilities for a little anatomy lesson.

She wondered when she should bring up birth control, since in their world, it could be a problem, too, considering the character and ethics of some of their enemies. She took one look at Mara's face as she pulled out the spare tampon she carried, and decided that one had best wait for another time.

In his current mood, bringing up combat adjustments might just be safer, she decided with a secret grin.

~B~

Mara Wayne stifled a yawn as she sat listening to the blowhard droning on and on about the environment.

It had been six months since J'onn had delivered the bad news. Without the actual chemical soup that transformed him, he couldn't isolate the proper matrix to create a viable cure. Or any other kind of reversal agent. Not one that couldn't potentially make things worse.

It didn't help that Arkham had several new residents after just minor exposure to contaminated water had driven a few citizens completely insane. Rupert Thorne, as usual, got off with a simple fine after proving he personally knew nothing of the illegal dumping, and letting a few of his puppet CEOs take the fall for him.

The CDC was still cleaning up spills, i.e. dump sites, all around the Gotham area. Fortunately, none had reached the greater public, and thanks to his early, if inadvertent discovery of the problem, those sites were actually few, and limited.

It had been just one month ago that Mara had used J'onn to stage a disappearance for Bruce Wayne who was lost in an avalanche in the Alps while on a skiing trip. Search parties were still looking due to his celebrity status, but by now, few people were holding out hope.

Mara had still not written off Bruce completely, though. Still, 'his' will had left her controlling interest in Wayne-Tech, and with his, or rather her new managing CEO, Luscious Fox took a lot of pressure off her shoulders. She still had to show up for certain events, and fund raisers, though.

She would much rather be on patrol.

The Bat was becoming just as feared as Batman had been by now thanks to some new techniques incorporated into his regimen courtesy of Diana's training. Batman was less often seen, though, and just last week, 'he,' courtesy of a disguised Superman, declared he was going undercover on an extended operation for the Justice League. No one would be missing him anytime soon, though. Not with the new 'Bat' watching over the city.

He, or rather she had been very quick to change the minds of those that tried to dub her 'Batgirl,' or worse when she began to become a new player in the streets of Gotham.

On the plus side, Diana was right. Hippolyta didn't bat an eye at hearing of her change, and had even welcomed her to the island to train with her daughter any time she wished to visit.

Yawning again, she didn't even blush when one of the men near her table grinned, and winked at her.

Yet another issue Mara had to learn to cope with, too.

She was admittedly attractive, and where Bruce had been quite the playboy, Mara was drawing quite a few of the sorts he used to feign being. It was not in him to play the slut, though. Mara Wayne had quickly developed the reputation of being a cold fish, though a generous one who was immersed in all the local charities and philanthropic endeavors that Bruce had once supported.

With the Justice League helping him backup his new persona, no one questioned the authenticity of the young Wayne heiress. Now, if only she could find a way to escape this moron who knew as much about the environment as a common city dweller who had never left the concrete jungle.

Even as she resisted another yawn as the man droned on, she glanced to a nearby window when a sudden shaft of bright light flashed on outside, and saw the leading edge of what had become known as the Bat-Signal.

Resisting the urge to shout in glee, she reached for her purse, then leaned toward her date for the night. "Sorry, Richard," she told the handsome young Grayson who had recently returned from college. "I need to…..step out."

Dick, having seen the signal, too, merely nodded.

"Call me if you need me," the young man murmured, and Mara had little doubt the novice hero calling himself Nightwing of late envied his escape.

"I'll let you know," she said, and headed for the exit without looking too eager. Still, just then, a life and death struggle with anyone seemed like a better evening than listening to more of that pompous blowhard babbling about an ecosystem that existed only in his empty head.

Then she forgot the man, and walked not to the restroom, but to a supply closet to which only she had a key. Five minutes later, she was speeding uptown in her new costume atop a sleek, black motorcycle, ready for whatever was to come.

To Be Concluded…