Chapter 8
If there was one rule that Batman held to beyond all others, it was that he did not kill. But another rule, one he broke on a nightly basis but a rule nonetheless which had been instilled in him at an early age by his own father, was that he did not hit women. The rule was ridiculous, of course. Sex did not determine whether one was capable of becoming a villain, or villainess as the case may be, and restraint on his part was never reciprocated. But it did breed into his movements a slight twitch, a faint hesitation when it came to blows if his adversary just happened to have breasts. It was very faint. It was doubtful if anyone but himself even noticed, but it was there.
Luckily, the average thugs he came to blows with tended to be men. Women, while not always adverse to a fight, tended more towards being masterminds behind some new ploy for power or riches or revenge. They had men to fight for them.
This latest fight was no exception. Poison Ivy was more the type to poison and seduce than to beat someone into subservience. So when it became clear she had sprung her latest scheme and that she was raising an army that, by necessity of their hormones was made entirely out of men, Batman sprang into action. Of course, one might argue that if a man is brainwashed, it certainly isn't his fault that he has sided with a villain and so Batman might want to temper his blows. On the other hand, an even newer development told him that Dick was missing. So he did not fight for the kill but neither did he soften his punches. And he found Poison Ivy's latest hide out.
It wasn't difficult. She wasn't trying to hide. It didn't take the world's greatest detective to determine that she had set a trap for him, likely baited by the boy. He toyed, briefly, with the idea that she had unearthed his identity but quickly decided it was merely coincidence. Bruce Wayne was being targeted separately from Batman, likely because Bruce Wayne had given the villainess access to what she needed. That he was known as Batman's friend probably didn't hurt. In fact, he was probably lucky Dick had been kidnapped rather than himself; it wouldn't be the first time someone attempted to use Bruce Wayne to get at Batman, and those always made for tricky situations.
He knew, going in, that his supposed girl friend was a villain. There was no chance of her being brainwashed by her hormones, and he would have seen the signs if she had been brainwashed. In fact, he was confused as to why he had missed the signs sooner, but he saw her for what she was now. He had seen her take down Alfred and kidnap Dick on one of the security feeds.
Which is not to say that he entirely understood the situation. The camera angle was wrong, for instance, to see the way she had kissed Dick. In fact, from behind and at a slight distance, it looked more like her man handling his ward after drugging him into a stupor. So he knew Dick was kidnapped, but he imagined coming upon him either tied up in a cell or placed in some sort of jeopardy that was supposed to make Batman forget common sense and leap to his rescue, thus springing the trap. What he did not expect to find was his girlfriend and his ward apparently sleeping together in a bed, their clothes strewn about the room.
He had about five seconds to reset what he thought he knew with actual fact, five seconds to rewind every conversation, every look, even the assault in the video feed against Alfred's shocked, horrified expression, and then he understood. Never mind hitting a girl, it took every ounce of will power he possessed not to break rule number one.
Author's Note: Yes, I know it's extremely short. Sorry. It was just such a perfect place to leave off. Next chapter should have more action in it.