Chapter 3: Hide and Seek
The last rays of the sun were falling behind the horizon as Miss Martian piloted the bio-ship through the Egyptian skies near the coastline. Batgirl watched Robin yawn. It looked like he was fighting a losing battle against sleep. His eyes were staying more closed than open, and his chin was resting on his fist. Barbara met M'gann's eyes and felt a private psychic link begin to form between them.
A night of patrolling followed by a mission across half a dozen time zones can wear out anyone, commented the Martian. I'm really glad he convinced Nightwing to come, though. Wally's death is hurting him as much as Artemis.
Maybe him showing up this morning is a sign that he's done pulling away from everyone, Barbra replied.
Batgirl checked their coordinates with the ones that Aqualad had provided about the most recent sightings of the Bialyan agents. They were quickly closing in on the areas that would be searched today if the group followed the same pattern. She surveyed the urban residential area below. Overall, there were lots of places to search if someone needed to hide. Several apartment buildings had fire escapes, and alleys between buildings were narrow, making it all the easier for a person to climb without being noticed.
"Whoa, did you see that?!" Beast Boy interjected. Robin's eyes snapped open.
"See what?" Wonder Girl asked.
"That guy! The one in the dark cloak and hood," said Beasty Boy. His tail twitched left and right. "He walked into that alley three seconds ago, and now he's running across the rooftops. I don't think I could even climb that fast."
"Are you sure? It's getting awfully dark. Maybe it wasn't the same guy," said Wonder Girl.
"Trust me. I'm sure," the green-skinned teen replied. "How many people are going to be running around in cloaks like that?"
"What are the odds that we would run into somebody running across rooftops when we're looking for Bialyan goons while they're looking for somebody? I think it's worth investigating," said Miss Martian with a shrug.
"Agreed. Beast Boy, you're the one that saw him. Do you think you could track him?" asked Batgirl.
"Beast Boy is up to the challenge!" he exclaimed. Suddenly Batgirl was staring at a green bloodhound beside her.
"Okay, you're with me. We're going to have a chat with the guy leaping tall buildings in a single bound." She stood over the lower hatch of the ship. "Whoever it is is obviously scared of something, so we don't want to spook him even more with everyone appearing at once. M'gann; you, Robin, and Wonder Girl bring up the rear. Be on the lookout for anyone trying to tail us," commanded Batgirl. She turned towards Beast Boy. "Let's go, Lassie."
A caped woman and a green monkey dropped down from the nearly invisible bio-ship to land on a rooftop.
"This way!" Beast Boy called.
Both heroes took off running in the direction they last saw the man running. When they came to the first gap between buildings, Beast Boy leapt and morphed into an owl, using the momentum from the leap to gain altitude. Not to be outdone, Batgirl performed a perfect aerial across the narrow gap.
After around half a mile of running, they paused. They were getting into some of the older parts of the city. Fewer streetlamps in the area would make it easier for their target to hide. Beast Boy returned to his canine form. They followed the scent trail down to the shadowy alley below.
"The guy is definitely nearby. Where could he have gone?" he asked.
Suddenly, the shadows at the innermost part of the alley coalesced into a mysterious cloaked figure poised ready to defend himself.
"Who are you?! Why are you chasing me?!" demanded the figure in a frightened voice. The voice was in a much higher pitch than Batgirl expected.
"Whoa! Mystery guy is actually mystery girl, haha!" exclaimed Beast Boy. "Hi, I'm Beast Boy! What's your name?"
Batgirl finally got a good look at the mystery woman. She was younger than she expected. Probably no more than twelve or thirteen years old. Her dark hair provided contrast to her pale skin and bright violet eyes. She wore a dark grey tunic beneath her cloak. It looked as if she hadn't had a safe place to sleep in days. Beast Boy's enthusiasm was provoking the girl to run again.
"What my friend means is that we know you are running from some bad people. We don't want to hurt you. In fact, we would like to help you if you'll let us," Batgirl explained, trying to put the girl at ease.
"Yeah, we're the good guys come to save the day," Beast Boy proclaimed, puffing out his chest.
Batgirl, you've got company! Look out! shouted Miss Martian over a psychic link.
A huge chunk of the alley wall just behind Batgirl's right shoulder collapsed into a pile of fine silvery dust. Batgirl recognized the handiwork. Shimmer rushed out of the hole followed by Psimon and Devastation.
"What are the brats doing here?" shouted Psimon in a rage. "Quickly, take the girl, and let's go."
Devastation moved menacingly toward the young girl. Batgirl jumped into her path, batarang at the ready. Even if she couldn't take the thug down on her own, she had to at least buy some time for the others to come to the rescue.
"You think you're big enough to stop me little bat?" mocked the gargantuan woman. "I'd like to see you try!" she laughed.
"Me first!" shouted Wonder Girl as she drove both heels into Devastation's chest. The force from the kick drove the woman back several feet into Shimmer, preventing her from immediately attacking the group. Wonder Girl didn't allow any time for her opponent to recover. She flew parallel to the ground, grabbing Devastation's ankle. After swinging the woman once around her body, Wonder Girl sent her flying across the street.
Meanwhile, Shimmer was preparing to rush the others. Batgirl didn't like their chances in fighting those three without room to maneuver. M'gann, we need to move this fight now! she urged across the psychic link. I'm taking the girl through the building. Be ready for Psimon!
Out of the corner of her eye, Batgirl saw a red and black shape move on the rooftop. There was a sharp crack and smoke poured into the alley from a pellet in Robin's utility belt. Batgirl didn't stay around to watch the show. The distraction allowed her to take her boot to a flimsy side door. She dragged her mystery woman along with Beast Boy into the building and kept running.
It turned out that the first floor of the building was a grocery store, closed for the night. The group sped through the shelves trying to get to the front entrance. Once Batgirl let go of him, Beast Boy morphed to his gorilla form and carried the runaway girl under one arm. With a quick reach to her belt, Batgirl hurled a disk at the front window of the store. She hoped the resulting explosion would be enough to cover their exit. When the disc made contact, there was a loud crash of shattered glass, and a wave of heat scoured Batgirl's face. Fortunately, they were still far enough away to not need to slow down. As she leapt out of the blasted window, Batgirl saw their luck run out. Psimon was ready for them with one hand on his temple and one hand extended toward them. An ugly sneer appeared on his face.
So predictable, he taunted.
Batgirl felt a searing torrent of pain all over her body. Psimon's psychic assault was enough to bring her to her knees among the shards of broken glass from the window. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Beast Boy shaking beside her, clearly in pain. It was all that Batgirl could do to keep from passing out, much less fight back. She watched as Beast Boy slumped over in unconsciousness. The mystery woman was wiggling, unsuccessfully trying to remove herself from the ape's grip.
"Batgirl!" Robin screamed. He was in a deadly dance with Shimmer. The villain had already struck the center of his bō staff, splitting it in two. It was taking all of Robin's attention and agility to stay out of her reach. Wonder Girl wasn't in any position to help either. Devastation was taking every attack she threw at her and coming back for more.
You're not going to win, Psimon. Give up before this gets any worse, said Batgirl to her mind's invader.
I'm impressed that you can keep a coherent thought, Psimon sneered. The venom was dripping off his words. Don't worry. I'll fix that soon enough. I've had plenty of time to practice lately. Queen Bee even brought me a tutor. Do you know what it's like to be a prisoner in your own mind for weeks? Your friend did that to me. Now I'm going to give each and every one of you the chance to experience it for yourselves. That Martian bitch isn't here to save you now! he ended in a mental roar.
Actually Psimon, I'm right here, Miss Martian replied as she phased herself up through the street. Let's see how much you've improved.
Batgirl felt like a physical weight was lifted off her temples when Psimon took his focus off her and placed it onto Miss Martian. Beast Boy started to regain consciousness as well.
"Beast Boy, get the girl somewhere safe," Batgirl ordered. "We'll catch up as soon as we can. Meet at the rendezvous point."
Whatever Psimon had done while he was under the effects of Artemis's poison dart, he was certainly giving Miss Martian a real fight. Both psychics were tense and sweating. Now was her chance, Batgirl realized. Psimon couldn't fight Miss Martian mentally and defend himself physically at the same time. She knew that breaking his concentration would give M'gann the opening that she needed to end the fight quickly. Then they could concentrate on helping the others. She stumbled forward, still trying to recover herself. In her half-aware state, Batgirl didn't see the attack coming. Wonder Girl slammed into Batgirl's side as Devastation finished swinging the heroine from her own golden lasso. Both women flew several yards down the abandoned street.
"Heh heh heh, what's the matter little girl?" taunted Devastation. "You're not on your A-game tonight. Why don't you go home and cry to Wonder Woman?"
Robin skidded to a halt in front of Batgirl and Wonder Girl, holding a defensive stance. Batgirl noticed a large chunk of his cape missing, courtesy of Shimmer no doubt. Their moment of peace couldn't last for long. Devastation and Shimmer were slowly closing in on the three heroes and cutting off any way for them to help Miss Martian.
"We need to do something quick," said Robin glancing in Batgirl's direction.
"Agreed. Miss Martian-" shouted Batgirl.
"Little busy here," the redhead replied in a strained tone.
"Tactical retreat!" Batgirl continued. She threw several smoke pellets in front of the approaching villains. At the same time, Miss Martian turned intangible and escaped through the building behind her. The smoke slowly cleared, leaving no clues to where the heroes went.
~break~
Batgirl took the lead down a series of back alleys with Robin and Wonder Girl running behind her. Miss Martian was covering the group from above and keeping a lookout for pursuers. Batgirl felt her connect everyone in a psychic link once they had put enough distance between themselves and Psimon.
Okay everybody, we need to move to the rendezvous point to meet up with Beast Boy. We took a bunch of detours to make sure the three stooges couldn't follow, but I'd rather not leave him on his own for any longer than we have to, said Batgirl over Miss Martian's psychic link.
How far is it to the rendezvous point again? asked Wonder Girl.
The bio-ship is hovering over a small parking garage about a mile from here, supplied Miss Martian. It shouldn't take us long to get there.
Good. I'm not looking forward to another round with Devastation. She's gotten faster since last time, complained Wonder Girl.
Shimmer has improved also. I couldn't land an effective attack from close range, Robin supplied.
It's hard to believe those are the same people we fought in February. They didn't even fight this hard when Zatanna broke the Reach's control of Blue Beetle in June, said Wonder Girl. What do you think made the big difference?
That's a question for another day, Beta squad, said Batgirl. Right now we should focus on getting our mystery girl away from them for good. We can figure out who's giving Snap, Crackle and Pop pointers tomorrow.
The group kept on the move for another ten minutes of flitting through alleys and shadows. Soon the parking garage was visible at the bottom of a small dip in the terrain. The old garage was typical, if small. There were three levels of parking supported by thick pillars. At this point in the night, there was only a smattering of cars left in the lot. The group paused, and Robin peered through night-vision binoculars from his utility belt.
"I see Beast Boy and the girl," reported Robin. "They're hiding between two cars on the bottom level. The rest of you make for the bio-ship. I'll go get them."
"You heard the man, ladies. Let's get into the air. Once their target is gone, the Psimon and the rest won't have a reason to stay here," said Batgirl.
Batgirl watched Robin flit down to retrieve their teammate while Wonder Girl gripped her forearms to carry her. The three women had risen to around half the altitude of the bio-ship when Robin reached the couple hiding in the lowest floor of the parking garage. A slimy voice entered Batgirl's mind.
Tsk tsk, we narrowed the search for the girl from all of Egypt to a single city in two days. What makes you think that we can't follow her trail after she's been gone for a few minutes? questioned Psimon. If we can't take her with us, she's not leaving at all. Psimon says, this parking lot is too tall.
Shimmer emerged from behind one of the large pillars supporting the upper levels of the garage. Batgirl watched in horror as a touch from both of her hands caused the pillar to collapse in a pile of silvery dust. At the same time, Devastation launched a heavy truck through all the pillars on the opposite side. The structure groaned.
Miss Martian shrieked, "It's too heavy! I can't hold it!" Within seconds, the entire structure buckled and collapsed, leaving no chance for anyone to escape.
"TIM! NO!" screamed Wonder Girl. She rushed to the pile of rubble that once was a parking garage.