Part 10

In a dark greenhouse in the slums of Gotham City, Pamela Isley sprayed a green mist from her fingertips to the only live plants within miles of it. She was interrupted by the sound of a slamming door behind her, she turned abruptly to see two (er, three) familiar faces standing in the doorway.

"Edward, Two-Face, how good of you to visit…" Pam said, though completely insincerely.

She was then met with a gun to her head, held by Harvey.

"Riddler and I know exactly what you've been doing Ivy, Black Ivy trees are hard to come by these days." Dent growled and Ivy scowled.

"I don't know what you're talking about Dent…" She lied through her teeth, Harvey cocked his pistol.

"Lets see if the coin thinks you're lying."
Two-Face took out his coin and laid it on his thumb, but Riddler grabbed his wrist and smirked. Two-face sneered and backed off.

"Now now Miss Ivy, I think we can reach some sort of agreement."

Ivy raised an eyebrow, "What sort of agreement, Riddler?"

"Now, don't take us for fools Isley, we know that you've been helping the Red Hood with these new toys of his."

Riddler held the Poisoned Batarang in front of Poison Ivy, whose face grew calm.

"Supposing I have been, what do you want?"

"We want an audience with Mr. Hood, if you could arrange it; we'll do something for you." Riddler smirked and leaned on his gold cane.

"What could you possibly have that interests me?"

Pamela's eyes widened when she heard the sound of a gunshot hit the glass ceiling of the greenhouse. She turned and nearly screamed when she saw Two-Face holding a flamethrower and aiming for the largest tree in the building.

"What the hell are you doing!" She screamed.

Dent's sinister raspy laugh resonated through the building.

"Two choices Ivy, you get us a meeting with Hood, or…"
To Ivy's horror, Dent torched the tree, sparks flying and burning several other plants.

"I come back and burn this entire place to cinders."

Poison Ivy fumed, the sneer on her face could kill a regular person, but Dent simply smirked in the smoke of the burning plants. The Riddler could take this no longer; he turned on the sprinklers on the ceiling and put the fire out. To Ivy's relief and Harvey's disappointment.

Ivy cursed under her breath, then straightened up and said, "Fine, I'll arrange it, just stay out of my garden, Dent."
Two-Face half smiled and Riddler frowned.

"Good, goodbye Ms. Isley."

As Riddler and Two-Face left, Riddler was tempted to strike Dent on the head for being so forward.
"There was no need to be so aggressive, Dent."

"I know, but you were boring me…" Harvey growled smugly, he then began flipping his coin as they walked.

"Boredom is no excuse for cruelty."
"There's something I never thought I'd hear you say."

Riddler put his hand on his face, attempting poorly to shake off his emotions, knowing how hypocritical he was being.
"Meeting with this Red Hood will be our first step toward putting a stop to Joker's reign of stupidity."

"You'd think he'd be less interested in ruling the city... Given his past, he never seemed to care much for power, he just liked making people's lives hell."
"It's a bit off for him isn't it? But saying 'power corrupts' is the same as saying 'water is wet'... It's a given. I theorize that the Clown's power changed him in some way... Though it doesn't matte rmuch, because he'll be a corpse soon anyway."

"Then it will be a mad dash for the next place in power… The strongest alliance will succeed. Ours." Two-Face said confidently.

Bruce and Terry walked down the empty street; it was now void of life other than the two batmen. Bruce's expression hadn't changed at all as Terry told him about all that had happened, the same cold expression he had been wearing since the day they met. Terry wouldn't be worried normally, but Bruce seemed distant as memories of that night filled his head.

Terry paused for a moment, he had finished telling Bruce about how he found Tim and Raven and was about to go find Ace.

"Where are Tim and Raven?" He asked, to which Terry replied, "This way, I'll take you to 'em."

Terry took Bruce to that old diner, to a sight he hoped wasn't real. It was on fire.

"Slag." He said through gritted teeth. He and Bruce took off toward the wreckage.
"That must be it." Said the old man.

Terry and Bruce put the fire out with dust-bombs, and then ventured into the diner, hoping to find some trace of Raven or Tim.

"I leave for ten minutes and they're attacked…"

He turned around and saw Iron Batman lifting a large bit of metal, tossing it aside.

"Terry." Bruce called; Terry ran over and saw that under the giant metal sheet lay an unconscious Raven.

"I take it this is Raven."

"Yeah..."
Iron Batman lifted Raven off the ground.
"There must be something here that we can use to find who did this." Bruce said, looking around. Terry turned on a heat-seeking vision function in his cowl to search for Tim. Nothing.

"Tim's gone, unbelievable."

Bruce took off with the jets on the feet of the Iron Batsuit, leaving Terry in a cloud of dust. Groaning, Batman followed him, he stopped when he saw that Bruce was hovering in the air, stunned. He followed his gaze and saw that Bruce was glaring at Joker's building.

"Wayne… We have to find Tim, if Joker has him…"
"I won't let that happen twice." Bruce said through gritted teeth, and looked at Terry.

"Terry, we need to find everyone you've met here. Can you find them?"

Before Terry could answer. Raven's eyes opened and she said quietly, "I can… Go East."

The Batmen obeyed without questioning her, she seemed tired, but she was their only lead.

"Okay, this isn't good…" Dana whispered to herself as a group of Jokerz advanced on her.
"Well well well, it looks like Batman took the night off and gave us this babe." Said Ghoul, grinning and laughing like crazy.

"Aww, we wanted to play with Batman!" The Dee Dee twins said, grinning.

Dana put her arms up in fists, prepared to fight, knowing she was way in over her head with this.

The Dee Dees jumped on her, and to Dana's surprise, she threw them off with relative ease.

Two bigger Jokerz grabbed her by the arms and tried to hold her down, and on impulse, Dana's legs shot up and kicked them both in the face, knocking them away and back flipping at the same time.

Dana landed and stood amazed at what the Batsuit was helping her do, she never felt so strong and fast in her life!

"This crazy chick ain't no slouch!" Said Ghoul, the grin on his face replaced by a frown and a scowl as he called the other Jokerz and left with them.

Dana grinned smugly, and then remembered why she was there, she rounded a corner and walked up the walk to the home of Amanda Waller, the ex-head of Project Cadmus, a government fund that intended to be a defense against the Justice League, should they ever turn rogue. After most of the Justice League Members were killed, Cadmus was shut down and Ms. Waller retired.

There was a lot of security in front of Waller's home, so Dana knew she had her work cut out getting inside the building. She flew to the roof and swung into an open window, landing quietly inside the place. She turned on the cloaking device in her suit and proceeded to avoid security guards and alarms.

The Batgirl finally made it into the largest room in the house; she was caught by surprise by the lights coming on behind her. She turned around, startled, to see an aging dark-skinned woman behind her.

"I was wondering when I'd get a visit from you… And that suit."

Dana could tell this was who she was sent to find, though she was older than she had expected.

"Now, come with me Miss Tan." Said Waller, leading Dana down the hall into an elevator.

"Excuse me, Ms. Waller? What exactly did Bruce tell you about me?" She asked, though there were many questions flying through the New Batgirl's head.

"Other than you're as green as a lime and in desperate need of training? Not much."

Dana blushed under her cowl, "Is that why he sent me to you?"

"Yes, but don't worry, with that suit, you won't need much training at all."

"What's so special about this suit anyway?"

Ms. Waller and Dana stood in the elevator and went down.

"I assume you know Commissioner Gordon? Well, Bruce, Barbara and I designed it ourselves; it has an internal computer that contains all of the martial arts skill that the Original Batman and Robin knew at their peak. We started it after the recent Joker incident."

"Why? Batman took care of the Joker didn't he?"
"Yes, but what would have happened if he hadn't? If Terry had lost and both he and Bruce were killed in that incident, then what would have happened? For all we know this city could be in ruins and everyone in it slaves to that madman. So Bruce contacted me and we decided to create a suit that could teach anyone to fight like Batman."
"So, this suit can turn anyone into a fighting machine?"

"You could say so, it reads your brainwaves through the cowl, and your assessment of the situation tells the suit how to move your body how to move. So really, it takes your instincts and combines them with Terry's abilities and strength."

"Schway." Said an excited Dana.

"Yes, it is 'Schway', but that doesn't mean you can stay un-trained. We have no idea how long Terry will stay in this other dimension, so you need to take his place until he returns."

"Right…" Dana walked out into the dark room, Ms. Waller turned on the light and Dana gasped at the massive laboratory she had hidden beneath her mansion.

"Now, for starters, we're going to see what you can do, minus the suit."

Said Waller, holding a remote and pressing a black button on it, instantly, Dana felt the Batsuit power down, no radio, no features, just her in a skin-tight black suit.

Amanda walked Batgirl to a hall in which there was a big, leather wall. "Alright Dana, I want you to kick the red spot on that wall as hard as you can, it will gauge what power you have without the suit's help."

Dana did as she was told, and kicked into the leather. At this point she noticed there was a big, whirring, light-blue screen just above the leather spot on the wall.

On this screen was a bunch of numbers that appeared to be changing and calculating Dana's kick.

"Well above average Miss Tan… Impressive, you're nearly as strong as Barbara was when she started out. Excellent." Said Waller with a smile, "Now, throw a punch."

Dana did so, and the same thing happened, though with relatively smaller numbers. Waller's smile faded slightly, "Your upper body strength is going to need some fine-tuning, though I do see a lot of potential in you Dana."

Dana, though thrilled that Ms. Waller approved of her, was a little confused. "Thanks, but Bruce said that I'd only be Batgirl until he brings Terry back. Why do I need to go through all of this if it's only temporary?"

Amanda smirked, "Who said it had to be temporary? Dana, if you ever want to truly be in McGinnis' life fully, you have to be part of both sides. He's a lot like Bruce was when he was younger, a loner by nature. If you want my opinion, he needs a partner other than just that girl behind the computer screen."
"Wait, you mean Max?" Dana raised an eyebrow, "I still have to give Terry a piece of my mind for not telling me when she found out."

"That given, I think that whether Terry wants to admit it or not, he wants you to be there for him, in both his personal life and second life. He is simply afraid of putting you in danger."

Dana ran those thoughts through her mind, and grew a look of fortitude.

"Alright, teach me all you can."

"Wakey, Wakey ladies!" The Joker grinned as he stared into three diamond-glass cells at three women inside them. On the furthest left was Batwoman, under her cowl she was a vengeful Barbara Gordon. On the far right was Selina Kyle, or Catwoman, who was the first to regain consciousness. And in the center was the unconscious Harley Quinn.

"Joker! How did we-?" Selina started, but Joker put a finger up, "Ah, ah, ah! Mustn't lose control of our emotions Miss Kyle! I suppose you're all wondering how I got you here!"
"Duh..." Said the sarcastic Batwoman.

The three girls were strapped into walls by steel cuffs; each of them had several cords binding them to the walls of their cells.

"My my, aren't we sassy tonight? You see ladies…" Joker started, "When I killed good ol' Bats, all of his little boy-blunders went a little kookoo in the head! The first one got all angry and depressed, ahaha! The last one just went quiet… Ooooh I hate that kid!" Joker exclaimed, clenching his fists. Calming down, he turned back to the Cat and Bat women, "Well, his second Robin went Ka-RAZY! Hahaahahaha! He heard Batsy kicked the bucket and rushed back here to see if it was true! Boy was he in for it!"
Barbara and Selina glared at the clown through the glass, they both wanted nothing more than to strangle that psycho.

"So big bad Jason decided that he was gonna turn into the old me! The good old Red Hood!"

Both of the girl's eyes widened, and Joker continued, "He came to me a few days ago looking for a job with the most powerful man in Gotham City, and he got one! Unfortunately, he didn't quite get all of you…"

"So you hired Jason Todd to kidnap us and bring us to you? Is that it Joker?"

"Well of course! But like I said before, Hoody didn't quite get all of you, so I sent him packin' to who knows where!"

Barbara's emotions spurred out of control, she tried as hard as she could to break out of the cuffs keeping her bound.

"Ah, Ah, Ah! No escaping around here Batgirl!"

Joker pushed a button on the wall between the cells and an electric shock attacked Batwoman's body, if she had ever been closer to death, she didn't know it. The pain was excruciating. Joker laughed as she shrieked in pain, while Catwoman could only silently listen to what was happening, praying that somehow, she would figure a way to get out of there as quickly as godly possible.

[Well, that was a pain! Review, if it's confusing, I'll be more than happy to clarify ANYTHING for my readers.]