The night when she can prove her four weeks of training are worth every ounce of energy Bruce and Terry put into her is finally here. Bruce believes she is ready to face her first real opponents: the Royal Flush Gang.
She finds herself standing in the middle of a dimly lit warehouse with the five members surrounding her. Dressed in her custom grey and black suit, with black lips pulled back into a grin, she stares down her opponents, intently studying each one, mentally calculating the moves she will execute on each individual playing card, before starting with Ace.
Running towards Ace, she leaps into the air and draws her claws as she lands on his huge chest. Using her sharp weapons, she slashes his chest open and shoves an electric batarang into the sparking gash. Pushing herself off him, she sends him falling back into a wall as he short circuits from the batarang.
She quickly spins around to find both King and Queen charging at her from either side. Once Queen is close enough, Batgirl jumps up and over landing behind her, and, with a kick to the back, Queen falls onto King accidentally electrocuting him with her baton. He falls back disoriented and half conscious. Angry at the unintentional assault on her husband, Queen once again faces the smiling Batgirl and aims to zap her.
Batgirl jumps out of the way and runs to take cover behind a concrete support beam at one end of the room. Bolts shoot at either side of the beam, and Batgirl flinches as each one hits the wall only a few inches away from her head.
"Sure, piss off the woman in the gang, why don't I?" She mutters to herself.
"Focus, Jasmine," Bruce's voice speaks into her cowl.
"Was I talkin' to you?" She sarcastically asks with a smile returning to her lips. "Besides, I know what I'm doing."
Between shots, Batgirl manages to come out unharmed and flings a batarang at Queen's hand causing her to release the deadly weapon she holds. She quickly closes the distance between them and executes a powerful kick to Queen's face just as a blade comes cutting through the air almost slitting Batgirl's throat. Taking a quick glance to her right, she spots Jack drawing another dagger before she turns her attention back to Queen. She knows she has to put Queen out before she can deal with both Jack and Ten, whom she notices are trying to sneak an attack behind her. A few punches and a final kick to the gut knocks her onto King before Batgirl crouches under another dagger that would have cut right through her arm.
Without hesitation, she quickly flips back a few times as more knives lodge themselves into the wall beside her. Her constant movement is making it hard for Jack to aim and for Ten to attack simultaneously. So instead, Ten calls for her flying card and hops on it waiting for her chance to attack. Meanwhile, Batgirl finally stands her ground at the opposite end of the room facing Jack wondering if her next attack might stop him.
However, out of the blue, a child comes walking into the warehouse from a nearby open door. The child runs into the room stopping between Jack and Batgirl as he plays with a Flash action figure. Batgirl straightens from her fighter's stance and questioningly stares at the kid with a raised brow.
"What the hell? Where did-" she mumbles before a sharp blade cutting through the air interrupts her. "Slag it!" She curses flinching.
The kid is in danger and she has to get him away safely. Running straight towards him, she scoops him up into her arms and rolls into a single forward somersault. Stopping in a crouch, she quickly takes out a bola and throws it at Jack pinning his arms to his sides. The weights on the bola spin around him and eventually hit him directly in the face knocking him unconscious.
She releases the child from her grip and straightens to face her last opponent: Ten. Riding her card, Ten flies directly at Batgirl aiming to knock her down. Batgirl sees the attack just in time, pushes the kid to the floor and ducks as the card passes over them. She then turns, takes out the grapple gun from the holster strapped to her thigh, and fires the hook at the card's tail snagging it. She pulls back with all her might stopping the card in mid-flight. The sudden halt causes Ten to flip off hitting the ground face down. Batgirl heads toward the slowly rising girl and begins her assault with a few punches to the face.
Her third punch, however, is blocked followed by an upper cut punch right into the gut courtesy of Ten. She then spin-kicks, hitting Batgirl in the face. The strength of the kick is powerful enough to force Batgirl back a step. Another punch to the face pushes her another step back. But before she could deliver another blow, Batgirl sidesteps, grabs Ten's extended arm by the wrist and takes another step until Ten's back is facing her. The move securely pins her arm behind her back before Batgirl manages to kick the back of her knees forcing Ten to the ground. She grabs her other wrist and, using cable, binds her arms together.
When Batgirl releases her grip, Ten takes advantage of the freedom and turns over jumping to her feet. But before she could even think of another move, Batgirl returns the earlier blow she received in the gut by kicking her in the chest knocking her to the ground winded and disoriented.
"One more step and he's dead," King's voice booms in the room. Batgirl spins to face him discovering the child in his arms and his sword threatening to slice the child's throat. With eyes still locked on Batgirl, he calls out orders to his slowly waking wife. "Get Jack and Ten free so we can get out of here."
But before anyone could even twitch, Batgirl drops three smoke bombs filling the entire room with a blinding and choking fog. Startled, King releases the child from his grip and starts coughing uncontrollably. Silently, Batgirl goes around the room taking down and restraining whoever is free. With watery eyes, King tries to make out the shadows in the smoke as he waves his sword in every direction. Unfortunately for him, Batgirl silently creeps up from behind and taps him on the shoulder. He quickly spins coming face to face with the masked fighter before her foot makes its way to his jaw sending him sprawled on the ground. To make sure he doesn't pull another stunt like that, she binds his wrists together and kicks away his sword. The smoke finally clears allowing a full view of a victorious Batgirl standing over her defeated foes and the child safely hidden behind her.
"How was that?" She asks the air.
Suddenly, the background behind her dissipates revealing the rocky, uneven walls of the cave and the foot-high platform where Batgirl proudly stands. Bruce is seated behind a control desk with different switches, buttons and keyboards used to control the simulated fight.
Standing next to him is Terry with hands shoved in his pants pockets and a smile on his face. "I like what you did to Ace," he points out nodding to where the short-circuited cynthoid lay. "Bruce?"
"Practice makes perfect."
"Where did the kid come from?" Batgirl asks removing her cowl and using a thumb to point to the child-sized cynthoid.
"I felt like assigning a distraction," Bruce replies, hiding a sly grin.
"Of course. So?" Her brow rises, anticipating Bruce's final decision.
"'So' what?"
"Will I be going on important calls now?"
Giving it a moment's thought, Bruce replies, "Wait here."
Although frowning at the answer, she does as told and watches Bruce disappear into the shadows of the cave. She takes a seat on the platform dangling her legs over the edge and switches her gaze to Terry, who returns the look.
"So, how are you feeling today?"
"Good enough to go out on call."
"What about your wrist?"
"What about it?" He replies with some bitterness mixed into his tone.
Pointing out his weaknesses instead of believing in his strengths is the worst thing anyone can do to Terry; it's something Jazz managed to do when they were practicing together the other night. After that incident, their relationship spiraled downward and the two turned sour towards each other. It isn't odd to hear their voices bouncing off the cave walls in a heated disagreement about anything they could possibly think of from time to time. If the argument became uncontrollable, Bruce will step in and stop the two from strangling each other; otherwise, he usually stays out of their way and rolls his eyes at the two. However, this time the two remain silent under the heavy blanket of tension before Bruce returns holding another suit in his arms. He gestures for Jazz to approach.
She gets up and heads towards him. "Try this on," he says holding out the suit. She obediently takes it and disappears into an alcove, returning moments later dressed in the new suit.
It almost mirrors Terry's; it's black from ear tip to toe except for the red bat on her chest, a red band around her right thigh, and her ruby red lips showing through. The belt hangs on her hips rather than the waist and her white lenses are in the shape of large almonds.
"Well?" Bruce asks eyeing the young woman standing before him.
"It's perfect," she replies with a grin spread across her face.
"It has the same features as Terry's except for the red band on your thigh, which can remotely run main tasks on the cave's computer and holds a mini first aid kit. Think of it as an extra belt."
"Shway," she responds as she opens it discovering the small pouches sewed on the inside.
It holds rolls of gauze, a small spray bottle of antiseptic, and band-aids neatly inserted in the pockets. More towards the outer thigh is a small dial resembling a click-wheel with inscriptions on it.
"Does this mean I'll be going out on missions soon?" She asks looking up.
"I'll be calling you tomorrow. Tonight, I want you to get used to the suit before going out. Terry can help you with the flight feature." He nods to Terry before heading to the staircase and retiring into his manor for the night.
Terry removes his hands from his pockets. "Well, we better get started."
As she begins to walk towards another part of the cave, she calls out, "Oh, by the way, I tried not to rough up your girlfriend too much."
Surprised by the comment, he asks, "how'd you find out about Melanie?"
"I have my ways," she smirks
He scowls at the answer while he follows her to the obstacle course knowing full well in the next few minutes an argument will ensue and might even be heard in the farthest reaches of the cave.
-continued-