"Dad, for the last time, I have no freaking idea who the darn Batman is! Now excuse me, I've got to go"

Citrus said as she ran as fast as she could, and she wasn't running away from something this time.

She was late. She was supposed to meet up with everybody, the Gotham Sirens, Babs, Harvey, and last but not least, Bruce Wayne. They were going to see a new CGI movie based on The Grey Ghost, a famous television series. Citrus attempted to ignore the fluttering of her skirt and the cursing of people watching TV in their apartments.

Ok, outfit check. Citrus wasn't a fan of fashion, but she had to have the right clothes. They needed to enable her to appear nice while staying functional. She had thought about wearing a Grey Ghost costume, but people were nervous about anybody dressing up in costumes lately. Why? Batman of course. He managed to drop crime by nearly ten percent in the past week. People, especially the police which included her dad, were ever wary of him. It was like they expected him to do something horrible.

What's worse, since the Batman was friendly with her at the dance, she couldn't get a moment of peace. Fangirls would call her, the police interrogated her multiple times, and she met the paparazzi for the first time. Why did Batman want to dance with her at all?! It made no sense! Damn, she had to sneak past an armada of reporters just to get out of the house to spend time with , she hated wearing skirts and it was the worst thing to wear in Gotham. They made a girl look helpless and caused inconveniences. Sadly, her newfound friends wanted her to become more feminine.

Citrus already went through a lot last week with trying to survive her first week of high school and didn't feel like going through that sort of thing again. Fear gas, assault, Scarecrow, life-threatening situations, not fun. She felt more comfortable in jeans that were durable and permitted her to move. Boots and a leather jacket kept her warm from the cold. Her face still stung from the chill as she dashed.

Oh crud, wasn't Wayne's parents killed by a mugger after seeing a movie? Citrus face palmed as she ran. She was supposed to be nice to him, not hurt him more! Moron, moron, moron! What would he be thinking right now? That she was insensitive or a jerk? She wasn't sure about being friends with him, but that didn't mean she wanted to make things worse between them. He wouldn't even look her in the eye.

She seriously didn't have a grudge against Wayne, she just hated a rich kid who looked a lot like him. Paul Sloan had bullied her for years and almost raped her once. For a while, he haunted her every nightmare and made her life a living hell. Odd, after the incident with Jonathan Crane aka the Scarecrow, she felt like she could face anything. Well, almost anything. Her life in Gotham seemed to get weirder every day and she wasn't she what to expect when something happened. This city made anything seem possible, no matter how unbelievable.

Citrus rounded a corner when she noticed something, a shadow was following her. The shadow looked like a bat. Why would Batman be after her? Then again, he did fight with her while was an idiot ninja and he did try to contact her at the dance. Maybe he needed help, or a punch to the face. She looked up and almost screamed, it was a bat alright, but not the one she was expecting. It was a giant, furry bat with giant, razor sharp teeth. It was larger than most men, and it was after her.

Why did this kind of thing happen to her in this stupid city?! She dodged a swipe, barely. It caught her coat and she let the thing take it. She ran even faster and for once, thanked Coach Crocker for his crazy obstacle courses. It really taught somebody how to run away from monsters while running through the street, avoiding trash cans and various debris.

She ran into the street when bright lights flashed. Oh no, she was in the middle of the street, she wouldn't be able to make it. Citrus braced herself for impact when the vehicle screeched to a stop. She was still seeing spots from the lights, but was able to make out the giant bat flying away.

"Limes?! What the heck are you doing here?! We're supposed to go to the movies!" a familiar high pitched voice called. It was Harley Quinn, a member of the Gotham Sirens.

Footsteps ran toward Citrus as she tried to keep the glare out of her eyes.

"Hey, you okay? What happened to your arm?" the teen heartthrob of Gotham asked her. It was hard to see, but Bruce Wayne had trimmed his hair and smelled strongly of deodorant.

"I can't see very well right now so you'll have to tell me what you see," she said.

Wayne chuckled, "Well, at least you aren't' hiding from me. Seriously though, you okay? It looked like you were running from something and...Hhmm..."

He was feeling her sleeve and she realized that his fingers were poking through it. Her vision finally cleared and she saw what he was talking about. Her sleeve had three long tears in it. That thing had claws that struck through leather. Really not good. When she thought anything could be possible in this place, giant bats with razor sharp claws weren't what she meant. There was no way anybody would believe her about this, how could they? Sure, this town had its fill of psychos, but still.

If she didn't act, maybe it would hurt somebody else. She had to do something, but who to go to? The police wouldn't be able to take it or handle it. She also didn't want her dad in that thing's path. Batman maybe? After all, he seemed to want to protect everyone, and at the dance he seemed to be especially protective of her. What was she doing? She didn't have a way to contact him or some sort of Bat-signal.

Hold on, focus on the now. Citrus was going to the movies and she couldn't let them worry. Besides, Harley was, no offence, an even bigger blabbermouth than Citrus was. Blabbermouths always either got into trouble, or caused trouble. This sort of news would cause mass panic. And if it were a giant bat, people would blame a certain vigilante. Sure, she wasn't exactly happy with him and a bit of a jerk, but she wasn't that messed up.

"Citrus everything okay?" Selina asked.

Citrus put on her biggest smile, " Yep, I just had a bit of a fright. I thought I was going to get hit. Note to self, look both ways before crossing. Sorry I'm late by the way. Oh, um, aren't we heading to the movies?"

Her speech was very quick, like all the other times she'd attempted to lie, but the group seemed content with that kind of answer except for Wayne. He was still looking at her sleeve.

"Where'd you get these?" he asked.

Please let him be a stupid rich boy, "I think I cut it on something. Maybe a rake or something?"

"Hey guys, it's cold out! Get into the limo already! It's warm in here!" Harvey called.

They all headed to the car, but Citrus could almost swear that Wayne had pulled something from her sleeve. In the limo, she looked and saw a few brown hairs poking out from the sleeve. Evidence, maybe she could use it. Citrus grabbed a few hairs and stuffed it into her pocket. She'll look at it later with her mom's old kit. Why did Wayne grab some?

Wait, who was driving? She looked at the rear view mirror and saw that elderly butler. Darn rich kids. She better be polite. Besides, he looked like a nice fellow. Hopefully he wasn't snooty or anything.

"Um, I'm Citrus O'Brien. What's your name?" she asked the elderly man.

He looked surprised and smiled before answering her, "I am Alfred Pennyworth. Pleasure to meet you Miss O'Brien."

She frowned, she hated formalities. "Please call me Citrus. Lemons, Limes and Grapefruit are also good options since everyone likes to call me different kinds of citrus fruits. Can I call you Alfred? Or do you have another name you want me to use?"

He smiled even wider, "Please call me Alfred...Lemons."

She laughed a little before nodding. She looked up through the limo's skylight. She wasn't religious, but if anybody was up there, please, just this once, let everything go smoothly. Please no life in peril or danger situations happen. No problems, and just a regular good time. She'd figure out how to handle all of the dangerous crap later, but just please let nothing go amiss. Pleeeeeaaaaase?!

...

The trip to the movies wasn't too bad. Some spilled soda and after the movie, a small popcorn fight. Wayne seemed to really like it and apparently he loved the Grey Ghost. He had even brought a costume to dress up in. Bruce Wayne, the Grey Ghost, who'd have thought? Though she thought he looked awful with a cape. They actually had a good time. Hurray!

Now she had to investigate the giant bat. She changed and placed her shirt on a clean table. Citrus got her mom's old CSI kit which had almost everything a good detective needed, including files on different kinds of hair. Hair is class evidence unless it had blood or skin follicles on it. Sadly, it's hard to pull hair out by the root and these hairs fell off. No DNA to identify it by, then again, the kit didn't have a PCR to help her. That didn't mean she wouldn't be able to identify what kind of hairs they were. Her guess before looking was that they were fake hairs from a costume, and the hairs would be synthetic.

She put a few hairs up to the light. Odd, they weren't clear like synthetic hairs would be, so they were real. Maybe a costume with animal fur? That would be a pain to manage. She looked at the hair underneath a microscope, it wasn't smooth like synthetics either. It had keratin and scales. The hair was either golden or brown. She wasn't good with shades of color. Selina or Babs could probably tell the difference.

Odd, the hair had a mixture of coronal patterns and flattened scales. Coronal patterns belonged to creature like rodents and flat scales suggested human, although some animals did have flat scales. Ugh, this was going to be even harder than she thought.

The hair's color didn't constantly change like an animal's, so human hair? No, the cortex was thick like an animal's. Things were always one species, not both, but these hairs mystified her. They were like a mixture. A disturbing though occurred to her, coronal hairs were also found in bats. A bat-man hybrid? No, that name would confuse her with the vigilante. A...Man-bat hybrid? How was that even possible? Then again, this was Gotham. Apparently anything could happen here.

Citrus took notes in her diary, the safest place to keep secrets. Not even her dad knew about it. Yeah yeah, that's were all girls would keep their secrets, but who'd suspect that she'd have a diary? A few, maybe, but no one would find it. Except for when she wrote in it, it was in a secret place. One that not many people would expect it to be in.

While it was irritating to think about, Man-bats weren't her area of expertise. Maybe if she were better prepared...No, she was training to become a cop, not an animal tamer! Besides, she hadn't even a clue how to find a giant bat. What was she supposed to do?

Dare she search for the Batman? Did she want to? As far as she knew, he might only be a fighter, not a detective. And how would she find him anyway? The only way she knew how to was if she looked for where'd he be, which was wherever there was trouble. She was going to do the stupid thing again, wasn't she? Yes, yes she was. Citrus face palmed herself. She was such a moron.

…

Okay, there was a major rumor going around that he would investigate. Rupert Thorne and Sal Maroni were going head to head for control of Gotham's drug trade. Citrus didn't know where it was going to be, but she knew where Rupert Thorne was. He was meeting with Carlton Duquesne about purchasing weapons for "protection" and "security guards" of his business. Business her butt.

Duquesne's place was a tower of solitude. A castle of sorts, meant to protect a king. It stood over twenty stories and made Citrus cringe at the height. She wasn't really scared of heights, but when she thought of what would happen to a person if they fell from that distance...ugh. She'd seen enough autopsy photos to figure out the possibilities.

Citrus spotted Thorne's limo easily and planted a GPS underneath. Rich boys always got the cool and obvious cars. It made it really easy when the creeps had their own personal insignias on them. Rupert Thorne walked out with his men and into his limo. Citrus looked at the GPS coordinates and realized her was heading towards Infantino's Costumes store. Citrus quickly rode there on her bike. How come rich people got all the cool stuff? It seemed like being rich was a kind of superpower.

She snuck into the back of the store. Back there, she realized that these people were real bad guys. They could hurt anybody she cared about. Moron, moron, moron! Good thing it was a costume store. She saw a costume meant to resemble singer Cyndi "Cherie" Almouzni with a mask set. Her acting wasn't the best, but now she could blend in and if was caught, hopefully no one would recognize her. Or kill her...Ugh, costumes were irritating, no way she was ever dressing up like this again. On the bright side, she wasn't wearing tights, latex, or fishnet leggings.

From the corner of the shop, she saw Sal and Thorne sit down at a table, underneath a single light. It was like an old cop movie, but without the cop. A dim lamplight was all that was shared between the two as they sat down at the miniature wooden table. She couldn't hear them, but Citrus saw their faces twitch and their expressions change. Crud, a fight was going to break out. Where was Batman?

As soon as the thought occurred to her, a shadow struck the mobsters. The lights went out and there was screaming. Good news was, it was the bad guys screaming. It would've seemed like a horror movie if she hadn't known what was happening. She heard the familiar sound of what was now known as a Batarang in the air and punching. A moment later, it was over. Or so she warm brushed against her cheek and she jumped.

A voice whispered, " What are you doing here?"

She recognized the voice and smiled. It was the idiot ninja errr...Batman. She whispered back, "This is going to sound really bad, but I need your help, and this was the only way I knew how to contact you."

Sirens and flashing lights blared outside the shop.

Batman backed off and she continued, "Look, can we talk somewhere else? Somewhere the cops won't be?"

He nodded and they ran out they back. Batman then put his arm around her waist and she flushed.

"What are you doing?" she growled. Citrus did not like being manhandled.

"Taking us somewhere a little more private."

He took out something similar to a gun and fired at a roof nearby. A rope streamed out and... was that a grappling hook? She held on tight as they flew into the air. He let go when they were on solid ground.

"Your father is a cop and you can't talk to him about whatever this is?" he questioned as he placed the tool back into his belt.

She froze, "How'd you know my dad was a cop?"

"I'm the Batman, I know everything and can handle anything. So tell me what's going on Ms. O'Brien," he gestured.

Creepy, "Okay, tonight I was chased by something..., " Citrus told as many dteails of what happened earlier as she could figure out. Including what she found out about the hairs from her jacket. "If you're really a detective, then maybe you can do a better job than I did analyzing these hairs I nabbed," she tossed a container of it at him. "Who knows? Maybe you'll even find out what's going on."

He caught the container easily and raised an eyebrow at her, "Why trust me? For all you know, I could have hurt you."

Citrus smiled. She had thought of that, but, "The idiot ninja I met, kept a guy from stabbing me in the back and right now he could have left me to the gangsters or the police, but he didn't."

She liked the look of surprise on his face, "How'd you know it was me?"

She smiled even wider, "You're the detective, you'll probably figure it out."

Batman walked over to her and looked into her eyes. He was obviously wearing contacts as they were pure white, but something was familiar about them. It was like he was staring into her soul. It should creep her out, but it made her appreciate him more. It showed he was confident and that he was seeing whether to trust her or not. She stared right back.

"Fine, I'll help you," he grunted.

She sighed, finally relaxing, "Thank you."

He handed her something that looked like a cell phone, but a little batty. Seriously, it was shaped like a bat. A Bat-phone? Now things were getting just plain ridiculous. "Use this to contact me from now on, and don't even bother tracing it."

She raised an eyebrow, "Why would I? You're the one protecting the city, you know what you're doing. I'm starting to wonder what's considered right or wrong."

"Sometimes, even I wonder what's right and wrong in this city. I try to protect it, but people hate me for it. I rescued a holy man a few days ago and he cursed me because I looked like a demon. He said I would never enter Heaven," he murmured.

Citrus looked up at him, surprised, "I'm no holy person, and let's face it, I'm not smart. I know something though, you're a Dark Knight. Somebody that Gotham may not want, but you're something it needs. I'm not religious or anything, but if there's a Heaven, I know there's a place for you in it when the time comes."

He stared at her before clearing his throat and taking out a writing pad. Why was that bat-shaped?! Maybe he had an unusual fetish, "Can you describe what attacked you?"

She wanted to scream that it was a big f***ing bat, but she was patient and described it down to every detail she could recall.

Batman looked down at the pad and she did as well. He did take notes, but he tried to draw it as well. While it was a better drawing than anything she'd make, it was still ridiculous.

"It looks like a bad version of a vampire," she commented.

"At least it doesn't sparkle," he replied. "Are you joking with me by any chance?"

She growled, "I nearly got myself killed trying to ask for your help, and you think I'd joke about this?"

"Calm down, I'll help," he paused, "Don't panic but..."

Citrus stiffened and whispered, "It's right behind me, isn't it?"

He slowly nodded, "Run, I'll fight it."

She glared at him, "Can you?"

"You have a better option?"

She grunted, "I hate this city."

Citrus heard a terrible screech and began to run. Batman's footsteps echoed and she silently wondered, would he be okay? She heard Batman grunt and claws grabbed her shoulders. Great, would she be okay?! She was lifted off of the ground and screamed.

Oh no, they were flying above the city. The Man-bat flew her near Duquesne's tower and she saw through the window that they were at the eighteenth story. Good thing she wasn't scared of heights. Something hit the Man-bat and it dropped her. Okay, she was scared of falling! What was with this city?!

Aren't cliffhangers fun?

The song for this chapter should be obvious for any Nickelback fan, but the song is Savin' Me.