After an hour or so of a sound sleep, Barbara was awakened by another alarm. Only this one was from her front door. Lifting herself from her bed and into her wheelchair; she went to her computer. Firing it up to see via her security feed she made out a large envelope left on the door step. Barbara sighed in exasperation. She had a good idea who left that. Going downstairs in her personal elevator she wheeled herself to the door and pressed in her security code to open it. Reaching down to pick the tan envelope, she saw a large skull. "Punisher." She thought to herself. Looking around Barbara called out. "Frank, are you there?" Frank Castle was almost as good as Batman is at hiding in the shadows, but Barbara was as good at being able to detect them. However it appeared the former decorated Marine Force Recon operative turned vigilante was long gone.
Heading back into her fire house turned fortress Babs went back to her lab and wheeled to her computer terminal she opened the envelope and studied its contents. "Ugh gross!" Barbara practically regurgitated when she saw the contents of the photos. Young girls, some who appeared not to even be in their teens yet in sexually comprising positions. There was also a partially bloodied ID card, a dvd, and phone number; likely to contact The Punisher. "Some days I really hate my job." Barbara thought with a shudder at the thought of having to possibility of having to watch child rape porn. She proceeded to type in the information on the photo ID 'Jerome Wallace'. Barb began looking over the information that came up on her holographic screen. Not surprisingly, Jerome Wallace was the recent victim of a homicide, an apparent robbery in the pawn shop he owned. According to more information on her display Mr. Wallace was in and out prison for various criminal trafficking offenses where he became a card carrying member of the Aryan Brotherhood. "You were just a lovely person all round weren't you Mr. Wallace?" Babs said out loud to herself. "And apparently we can add peddling porn of underage girls to your list of crimes you piece of shit!" Oracle spat at the now deceased scruffy man staring back at her via mugshot. Barbara then tried to run the pictures of the girls through the FBI's missing person database. Sure enough most of the girls were at risk girls who ran away from troubled homes. However very little information was coming back to Oracle's frustration.
Gazing at the number in her hand Barbara weighed her options. Dealing with Frank Castle was always wrought with extreme moral conundrums. On one hand you couldn't question that Castle's heart was in the right place, but on the other hand, Franks way of handling criminals was terminating them with extreme prejudice.
Truth be told Barbara had the most uneasy alliance with the Punisher. Not that she ever advertised it to anyone especially Bruce; their relationship was strained enough as it is. Obviously he and Punisher don't agree on crime fighting methods, regardless of how much empathy Batman has for Frank in regards to the loss of his wife and children. It started shortly after she took on the role of Oracle. Barbara still wasn't completely sure how Punisher got her frequency but she suspected it was Daredevil whom trained her in escrima. Murdoch and Castle had a few run-ins. However he got it, Frank called Oracle one night. He was looking for a philandering husband who had murdered his pregnant wife to be with his wealthy mistress. Intrigued, Barbara heard him out, she had just started working with the larger vigilante community and didn't know anything on the Punisher. Babs elected to help him track down his targets.
"Boy was that a mistake!" She thought with anger at herself over being so naive. She found the murdering husband through his financial records and relayed it to Castle. Barbara could still hear the murdering couple's blood curtailing screams through her headset as Frank killed them in their bed. Needless to say she didn't approve of his methods. She essentially told Punisher to screw himself and refused to take his calls ever again.
However during Civil War, Punisher saved her best friend Spider-Man when he defected from Iron Man's forces. Oracle assisted him in getting Peter to safety. Punisher eventually joined Batman and the neutral heroes. Bruce begrudgingly accepted Frank into his team on the condition that he doesn't kill anyone. She had to give him credit, he kept his word, even managing to team up with the likes of a reformed Harley Quinn and Catwoman among others!
After the wars end, Punisher and Oracle came to an understanding. She took his communications on a case by case basis. She grew to respect him after seeing him in action during the events of Ultimate Alliance and Civil War. Despite his ruthless ways, Frank was a lot like Bruce whether Batman wanted to admit it or not. While she didn't help him all of the time, she did help him in cases that involved saving the lives of innocent people.
After contemplating her choices, Barbara looked at the photos of the young girls, she felt she had no real choice but to begrudgingly call The Punisher. Looking at the phone number; Babs with great reluctance typed the number and waited. After only one ring there was an answer.
"I see I got your attention Oracle." the grizzly voice of Frank Castle answered.
"Just tell me what you need Frank." Barbara replied tersely wanting to get down to business.
"Honest truth is I didn't even know anything about the tapes, I was just there because I heard of a NYPD radio in his possession, long story short he got greedy when I bought it and told me about the tapes." Castle explained.
"So you just killed him?" Barbara asked frustrated.
"Going soft over a pervert Red?" Castle replied with a smirk that Barbara could sense over the line.
"Not really, I was hoping you got information out of him before you iced him Punisher, because I literally have nothing to go on!" Barbara replied with a hint of anger, not really sure why she gave a flying flip about anything Frank Castle thought about anything.
"He told me a guy came into his shop yesterday some time in the afternoon, I figured he should be on the security disc and you can get him with your facial recognition software." Punisher elaborated.
Barbara breathed a sigh of relief that she was being spared having to watch perverted filth for clues. "I'll call you back, give me some time with the footage." She said as she cut Frank off momentarily. Popping the disc in her system she fast forward through the footage while her face recognition brought up any criminal backgrounds. For the most part nothing but minor drug offenses until. "Bingo!" She quietly muttered when she got a hit on her software of a man delivering a box. She immediately called Castle. "Frank, I got him, name's Tyrone Jameson, he's a made man of one Jimmy Rafino aka 'Rough Cut' of Bludhaven.
"Shit." She could hear Punisher mutter in exasperation at the notion of possibly running members of the Bat-clan. "I don't suppose there's a chance you could distract Wayne's boy enough for me to get in undetected?" Frank asked hopefully, referencing Dick Grayson aka 'Nightwing.'
"Nightwing is away on New-Avengers business but if I were you I'd keep a low profile so as to not to arouse suspicion, someone will be watching Bludhaven and they all know you well." Barbara answered genuinely referencing her fellow Bat-clan members.
"That's it Oracle?" Castle asked half seriously.
"Frank you know I can't go any further than this." She retorted bluntly.
"You sure?" The smugness was slight but it was evident in his reply, there was something he was getting at.
"Sure about what?" She asked trying to sound as businesslike as possible.
"Is that as far as you're willing to go?" Punisher replied directly.
"Frank I only help you periodically out of gratitude for saving Peter and nothing more, but that does not mean I agree with your way dealing with criminals." Barbara replied sternly, hoping to get off with Castle.
"That ain't what I'm talking about Red." Frank shot back bluntly. "I'm talking about being in that chair, and whatever garbage put you there." Punisher added pointedly.
Barbara's heart didn't so much skip a beat as stop entirely ten seconds. "No, please god no, do not be saying what I think you're saying you vicious crazy bastard!" She thought with panic. After a moment of silence that took longer than Barbara wanted to recompose herself she immediately got back to Castle. "Listen to me very carefully Frank, whatever you think happened to me is none of your goddamned business, you got that?" Barbara started with a snarl. "And so help me Castle, if you get out of line or piss me off in anyway, you can consider yourself priority one for the GCPD and The Bat-clan, don't think it won't happen, your won't get away from all of them do you understand me!" Babs added heaving. It wasn't going to intimidate him but Barbara had to let him know she meant business.
"Who was it Oracle; Dent, Cobblepott, Sionis, Falcone, The Clown?" Punisher asked prodding, not so much to get an answer out of Barbara, but to show he wasn't frayed by the threat of arrest by the Bat-clan or the police.
"You find proof of life of the girls, you report to me and we rescue them, that's all this is about." Barbara replied firmly but with her fists balled up when Frank mentioned the Joker. However she didn't believe he knew the Joker was the one responsible for her crippling. He was just naming names to get a rise out of her. He could have easily have said Riddler, or Victor Zsasz. At least that was what Barbara had hoped.
"I'll call you Red." Punisher said as cut the link.
Barbara smacked her face in exasperation. Why had she allowed her gratitude to Castle for saving Spider-Man to cloud her moral judgement about working with him? And of course the cover story of her shooting, a hit and run car accident certainly wasn't going to fool everyone. Sure she felt Daredevil could see through it with his hearing ability and and some extremely talented telepathic's like those of the X-Men that she has had contact with since her injury. But she doubted any of them would have told anyone especially the Punisher about it. No Frank Castle knew it wasn't an accident because he isn't stupid. He was a Marine for god sakes, and he knows all about injuries not to mention Castles skills at deduction rivaled those of most police detectives although she was not sure they rivaled Bruce's skills. Wheeling herself back to her room, Barbara struggled to get back to sleep. Barbara couldn't believe she compromised her principles this far just because he saved her friend. Sure Frank is a Marine, and Marines do kill to achieve their objectives. However the Punisher would often cross the line to gratuitous torture. She often dreaded what the her fellow Bat-Clan members would think, especially. Although to be honest, part of her hoped Bruce found out and had something to say about it. It would be the perfect set up to retort to him about his questionable relationships, especially his affairs with the likes of Talia Al Ghul and Selina Kyle aka 'Catwoman', and if the rumors were true she could add the likes of Elektra Natchios. "My god, you're right Bruce I should of slept with Castle instead!" Barbara imagined how the conversation would go with a chuckle as she finally drifted off to sleep.
Well here's chapter number two, probably going to be a wee-bit controversial having Babs work with someone like the Punisher, but there is no denying over the course of her history especially post Killing Joke that she has at the very least entertained the notion of taking a life. Her first job as Oracle was with the Suicide Squad after all who had Deadshot on the team. I actually never read any of those books so I don't know what transpired during those storylines so. Anyway hope you still like this. Even though it was a pretty short chapter. Please read and review. And yes the inspiration for this is taken from the Daredevil Netflix series.