To Play the Fool

Chapter Fourteen

It took a lot of effort for Batman to not break into Jackie's apartment and demand to know how exactly she became a Gotham phenomenon. Fortunately, she did want to meet with him. He called her, but didn't get a chance to get a word in. "I need to see you as soon as possible," she said right off the bat. "There's a parking garage on 9th and Colonial that's pretty empty. I'll be there whenever you can show up."

True to her word, there she was. Jackie was waiting on the top level dressed in her armor, but with her helmet off, her hair was braided over her left shoulder, and she was leaning on the concrete wall that overlooked the street below. The level was nearly empty except for a couple of beat up cars and one rental.

Batman sneaked onto the level and stood in the shadows twenty feet away from her. "Tex," he growled, making her jump.

She spun around. "Batman, I'm so glad you came. Today has just been … You look slightly more pissed off than usual."

"You've been sloppy. I don't have time to babysit an amateur. The stunts you pulled were dangerous and could have gotten someone killed. You never fire a weapon at anyone, even with the safety on! And what did breaking a vial with a potentially fatal disease inside accomplish?"

"The gun wasn't even loaded correctly, and I knew the vial was just saline. I would never put anyone in danger by doing anything stupid like that."

"You shouldn't even be taking a chance!"

Jackie was trying her best to retain her composure. "Batman, look at me. You're about eight feet tall and I'm about five and a quarter. You just have to stand there, and people will look at you and tremble in fear. You growl, and they go running. People look at me and say, 'Who's the freak in the superhero costume?' I do not have the strength you have. I have to be intimidating through other means. Tex is someone who takes those risks. I just kind of got lost in the character the other night."

"Do not even think of wearing that suit if you can't control Tex," he snarled.

"Is that what happened to you?" a new voice echoed through the garage. Jenny approached them from the other end of the garage, looking smug in jeans, a t-shirt, and sneakers. "Three years ago, four cops and a DA died, and you, Batman, mysteriously disappeared for six months or so. Did your character get out of hand?" She stopped at a midpoint 15 feet away from Batman and Jackie, forming a triangle.

"Jenny wanted to talk to you specifically," said Jackie, "so I brought her along."

Batman turned his full attention on her. He was still a little miffed about the incident a couple nights ago. "What about?"

"I work for a company called Wayne Enterprises, which I'm sure you already knew after doing a complete background check on me. Today, we were attacked by a hacker that managed to get a hard-line connection after the Penguin's bomb weakened the security system. He called himself The Riddler, and admitted to leaking the footage of Tex. He threatened to wipe all our hard drives if I didn't answer five riddles correctly."

"Is he the same Riddler that posted –"

"The videos of Jackie? He said so himself."

"Then that means he's the one who orchestrated the burglaries two nights ago. Was it just you that he spoke to?"

"So far as I know, yes. I think it's because I work directly under Mr. Wayne, and he was unavailable. When I solved the riddles, he wanted me to get him security codes or passwords he hadn't been able to crack. That's when Jackie cut the power to the building and I lost contact with him. He hasn't tried to contact me since."

"How did you cut the power?" he asked Jackie.

"With some bolt cutters. And maybe a blow torch," she sheepishly admitted.

"Why didn't you just flip the master switch?" Jenny asked.

"I panicked."

Jenny sighed and continued. "I made some calls, and at least two other companies suffered a similar attack later in the day. I don't think any of them were able to solve the riddles, and they've been trying to keep quiet about whatever happened to them. I don't know what the Riddler has done to hurt them, but it has to be something significant because they've all shut down as they're trying to fix the damage. I know Wayne Enterprises has been trying to cover it up with a power outage story or something as we try to fix what was broken. Right now, we're trying to patch holes, but I think the Riddler could have done worse."

"That could be how he broke in to the other places. He hacked the security systems of those three companies and the others just walked in. Are you sure that he got nothing from Wayne Enterprises?"

"Well … no. Here's the thing, though. He gave me a chance to solve riddles and save the company. Why didn't he just wipe everything when he had the chance? Or just go digging and find the passwords himself? He definitely could have devastated us, but he gave me the opportunity to thwart him."

"Maybe he couldn't, or he was stalling for time. It could be his calling card."

"I think it's more than that. He wasn't just playing with us. It was like he had to, like it was some sort of compulsion."

"The Riddler," said Jackie. "Exactly what it says on the tin."

"Jackie, favor?" Jenny asked. "Could you … go downstairs for about five minutes?"

Jackie's eyebrows shot up three inches and her gaze darted between her sister and Batman. "The last time you two were alone, well, that didn't end well." She looked to Batman for his opinion, and he nodded once. "Okay. I'm not burying any bodies. Behave." Then she jumped over the ledge and landed on the level below, and repeated as necessary to get to the ground level.

Jenny and Batman eyed each other for several moments, sizing each other up. Finally Jenny broke the silence. "I don't like you."

"So I gathered."

"But Jackie does. She used to cut articles and pictures out of the newspaper about you and keep them in a scrapbook. You were her hero. Then she disappeared, the Joker attacked Gotham, and you killed a few people. When she came back, I thought she was going to be heartbroken when she found out what you did, but she surprised me. She refused to read the newspapers, said everyone was lying, and suddenly left the country to go be you. Jackie has done some good work abroad under the name of Tex.

"The problem I have is that you are her role model. I cannot feel comfortable with the fact that my sister is trying to emulate a murderer. Jackie follows two simple rules that she says she got from you. One, do not kill. Two, do not allow others to be hurt or killed. If she knows someone needs help, she has to step in or else she feels she becomes just as guilty as the offending party. Very simple, very stressful. You, on the other hand, pretend to play by those rules, but when they become inconvenient, you ignore them. I don't care what your reasons were for killing those cops or Harvey Dent. You have no excuse, no right to play judge, jury, and executioner. It's bad enough that you play your own version of the police force."

"Those cops were dirty. There was no other course of action," he lied.

"You do not have the right to decide that! We give that job to judges, police men, congressmen – to the law you pretend to uphold. And I'm not just talking about those cops. You remember the Scarecrow attacks? That train you destroyed had someone on it, burned beyond recognition. Funny that you jumped off without a scratch and he did not. I don't know exactly what happened on that train, but I will say this: if someone is killed because you deliberately failed to act, that is murder. It is not neglect, and it is inexcusable."

"I understand that, Ms. Harkness."

"And furthermore, you may think that you're helping the police by doing their job for them, but you're coddling them. We are never going to have a competent police force if you keep taking the law into your own hands! You are forcing your own, twisted moral code onto the city instead of letting society figure out what that should be."

"I am not the law. I pick up what the law can't handle. I am vengeance. I am the night."

Jenny threw her hands up. "I get it. You're the Batman. I will let this little arrangement stand for now. Despite all appearances to the contrary, Jackie can be brilliant, and I trust her judgment. If she thinks that she should be working with you, I won't get in her way. I won't even look too closely at what the two of you are doing. But I swear, if she gets hurt, I will figure out who you are under that cowl, and I will ruin you." With that, Jenny turned on her toe and walked away.

At this point, Batman wasn't sure which Harkness he should be more worried about. The one everyone knew, or the one who knew everyone. He jumped off the ledge and glided down.

On the ground level, Jackie found the Tumbler II. She stood a couple feet away from it, just staring at its hull. "Tex?" Batman said.

He briefly shook her out of her trance. "Huh? Oh, how did it go?"

"Fine. Just tell her to use a bat next time."

"Okay." After a long pause, Jackie said, "I never actually thought I'd see one of these in person, especially not after the last one got destroyed."

"I've had the Tumbler II for about two years. I just don't use it as much as I do the Batpod."

"Batman …"

He knew exactly where this conversation was heading. "No."

"What if I promise not to touch anything?"

"No."

"Five minutes at most?"

"Still no."

"Okay. Can I just hug it then?"

"What?"

"Can't stop me!" She suddenly wrapped her arms – or tried to – around the armored plates of the Tumbler II. "Oh, it's just beautiful! I bet you could drop an atom bomb on her and this baby wouldn't even notice!"

"The last one did." This was starting to get more than awkward. "Alright, that's enough."

"I wish I could afford one of these," she said as she pulled away. "I'd probably only drive it twice, though. How fast can she go?"

"Forget it, Tex. You're not driving it."

"But I only want a ride! It's not like I'll break it or anything. Well, not permanently. I can't say I have the best luck with heavy machinery, but I can fix anything."

"That's not the point. The Tumbler isn't a toy." He pressed a button on the key fob, and the top of the Tumbler II opened up for the Batman to climb in.

Jackie peeked inside and gasped. "It's even more beautiful than I imagined on the inside! Like a TARDIS!"

"The Commissioner wants to meet you. One hour, roof of the police station. Don't be late." With that, he closed the cockpit and sped away, barely missing a fiercely jealous Jackie.

Commissioner Jim Gordon stood on the roof of the police department taking a well-deserved, and well-timed, coffee break. It was a good place to think over cases, especially when certain Bats tended to drop by. He heard the flutter of a cape before he heard the footsteps of Batman's heavy combat boots. "You're not usually so prompt," said Gordon.

"The city's unusually quiet tonight." Batman appeared from the shadows to stand behind Gordon. Most of the security cameras on the roof had been 'accidentally broken' or gone on the fritz at one point or another, and the police department just hadn't found the funding to fix them, so Batman was confident he would have several minutes before he would have to run.

"Could it be the new girl is doing more than her share?" he said a little sarcastically.

Batman leaped down to Gordon's level. "Tex is still a novelty. They'll start testing her patience soon enough."

"Where do you think she got a name like that? It's not remotely intimidating."

"That's something you'll have to ask her."

"Speaking of which, where is she?"

"Right here." A hand appeared over the roof's ledge, waved at them, and then was followed by the rest of Tex as she pulled herself up. "Evening Commissioner."

"Subtle," said Gordon.

"He won't lend me a grappling gun," she said, indicating Batman, "and then he tells me to meet him on the roof. Lucky for you, I know how to climb walls." Tex drew herself up to her full height to stand up to him, but he was still a good six inches taller than her. "What would you like to know?"

Gordon sized her up, but was still unimpressed. "You beat up eleven men at once?"

"Yeah. So?" Tex crossed her arms defensively.

"Nothing, I just thought you'd be … taller."

"The camera adds ten pounds. And the boots sometimes add three inches."

"So you can climb up buildings six stories tall, beat grown men to a bloody pulp, and crush guns with your bare hands. What else can you do?"

"I'm really good at fixing computers for some reason. I can also dance, play the piano, and knit."

"Why did you choose your particular costume?"

"I didn't choose it. I sort of came by it, and it's kept me alive for three years. My helmet can track heat signatures, see through stuff like an x-ray machine, catch and broadcast most radio transmissions, target moving objects, enhance my sight, and scramble my voice. Overall, my armor is more bulletproof than Kevlar and helps me avoid detection by radar."

"Really. What's it made out of?"

"I have no idea. Somebody else built it and gave it to me because they thought I was accident prone. Turns out they were right."

"How old are you?"

"Twenty-five."

Batman raised an eyebrow at this, but said nothing. Jenny was twenty-three, and Jackie was supposed to be twenty-one, but she was most likely lying to the Commissioner. Without any facial cues and with most of the verbal ones scrambled, he couldn't be sure. On top of that, the Commissioner had never been as probing with him, and he hadn't been nearly as open as Tex.

"How long have you been a vigilante?" Gordon continued.

Tex paused a moment to consider her answer. "I don't really think of myself as a vigilante. I'm just someone who's trying to do the right thing and keep people from being hurt or killed. Sometimes that means I have to get violent, but I try to find alternate solutions first."

"How do you feel about capital punishment?"

"I don't like it. I don't think it's up to us to decide who lives and who dies."

"Would you ever kill someone in self defense?"

"Absolutely not. I'm really good at taking bullets meant for me or other people. Batman's seen me take one to the back of my head." She knocked on her helmet for emphasis.

"Alright, those are some good answers. One last one; would you let a murderer walk the streets freely?"

Tex shook her head. "Of course not. I'd try to bring him to you."

"Then why haven't you tried to stop the Batman?"

The question surprised Tex more than it did anyone else. "Commissioner, Batman's never killed anyone. You were there. Harvey Dent killed those cops and threatened to kill your son."

"How do you know that?" Gordon's demeanor went from mildly amused to calm, but furious. The change wasn't drastic, but it was noticeable.

Tex put up both her hands. "Easy. I have some good sources that I can't divulge. I looked into the Joker attacks very, very carefully and decided that there was no way he could have killed anyone. He was in the wrong place too many times, but Harvey Dent was in the right ones."

"What sources?" he demanded.

She shook her head. "No can do, Commissioner. But judging from your reaction, I'd say they're pretty spot-on. So, am –" She suddenly stopped and looked towards the door into the station. "Someone's coming!"

Tex and Batman immediately hid – she by hanging off the edge of the roof by her fingers, and he by ducking behind an air duct. An officer burst out the door a moment later. "Commissioner, we've got a problem! You're needed in your office!"

"What is it?" he said impatiently.

"Some guy calling himself the Riddler hacked our computers and he wants to talk to you."

Once the detective and the Commissioner had gone back inside, Batman jumped out from his hiding place and helped Tex pull herself back up. There was a high pitched screech in his ear coming from the police scanner, and he hurried to shut it off. "The Riddler's already shutting off their communications. How good are you at riddles?"

"I think now is a good time to tell you all the brains in the family went to Jenny and skimped out on me. What about you?"

"Only child." He tied the end of a grappling line around her waist. "I need you to be my eyes and mouth."

"I don't think I like where this is heading."

"Just read me the riddle, I'll give you the answer, and you tell Gordon." He pulled her over to a different part of the roof and pushed her off.

"Wait, hey!" The line slowed her descent until she was hanging upside-down in front of the Commissioner's office. "I hate you so much right now." Her helmet hit the window as she was trying to straighten herself up, alerting the men inside. Gordon was at his computer with his back to her so she could see the screen. A couple other detectives had been standing behind him, reading the text, before they heard Tex. They cracked open the window. "Hi. What's up?"

They gave her a strange look. "Are you Tex?"

"Yep." She read the first riddle, then motioned for Batman to pull her up. "What is put onto a table cut, but never eaten?"

"A pack of cards."

He lowered her down to the window again. "Want a hint?"

"Is that Batman up there?" the other detective asked her.

"No. That is my friend … Flying Mouse Man. The answer's-"

"A pack of cards," said Gordon. "I got it. This one has me stumped, though. What falls, but never breaks, and what breaks, but never falls?"

Once again, Batman pulled Tex up to give her the answer, and then lowered her back down to give it to Gordon. "Nightfall, daybreak."

"Thanks. Alright, next riddle. I am six letters long. Take away one, and I am twelve."

Batman started to pull her up, but she caught the edge of the window and pulled herself back down. "Nope. I'm done with this game." She climbed into the office with a little bit of help from the detectives, and untied herself from the wire.

"Ah, Tex," said the computer. "It's good to see you again! Did you like the little music video I made of you?"

"Haven't seen it." She motioned for Gordon to vacate his chair so she could take it. Then she picked up the computer tower and set it on the desk. "I need a USB cord and a knife."

"What kind?" Gordon pulled a few out of a desk drawer and held up a couple choices of USB cords: one for a camera, and one for an mp3 player. Tex snatched the one for the camera.

"Tex? What are you doing?" the Riddler asked patronizingly. "You have no idea how to even use one of these things."

"Okay, where's the camera? This guy's getting annoying."

"I got it," said one of the detectives. He took one of the chairs and stood on that so he was tall enough to unplug the camera. "That should do it."

"Well now you're not playing fair," the Riddler whined.

A detective handed Tex his 3 inch long bladed pocketknife. "Gentlemen, what you are about to see will freak you out a little bit. I haven't even told … Flying Mouse Man." Then she rolled up her sleeve and proceeded to slit her left wrist open. This would have been horrifying, except there wasn't any blood. Upon taking a closer look, Gordon saw that she had carefully separated two sections of skin on her wrist. On one side of the knife was her real skin, and on the other was something that looked more like plastic. At a first glance, it looked like she had a very strange tan line, but it was actually two different pieces of flesh connecting almost seamlessly. Tex used the knife to gently pull her skin away from her wrist like she was pulling off a glove. "Questions?"

"That is disgusting," said the other detective.

"Questions, not criticisms." She plugged one end of the USB cord into that wrist, and the other into the computer. "And no, I am not a Terminator."

"Are both your hands robotic?" Gordon confirmed.

Tex nodded. "They only go down just past my wrist, so the only super-strength I have is whatever I can crush in my fist."

"So then why are you plugging your hand in?"

"There's a sort of AI program that helps run my hands. It should be able to override the Riddler's program, or at least push him out." She got to work on the keyboard. Whatever the Riddler had put on the screen disappeared and was replaced by a black screen quickly filling up with characters. "Okay. Now, with the magic of my uber l33t haxxor skilz, I will build you guys a new firewall."

"How long will that take?"

"Normally a few days or a couple weeks. In this case, though, I'll just copy and paste the one I already have stored. I love my hand. It's so handy. Oh look. He didn't think I could trace the signal back to him. Aaaand … got it." Tex wrote down an address, ripped the cord out of her wrist, and raced out the window.

Batman was already hanging by the window. He grabbed Tex as she leaped out and carried her down to the ground. "Where's the Riddler?"

"I'll take you there. Follow me."

Tex drove her bike to an apartment building that sat right next to Gotham City College's School of Computer Engineering building on the edge of campus. Batman was right behind her, carefully avoiding the street lights and pedestrians. They hid their respective bikes behind some overgrown bushes and approached the building. "Which one is he in?"

"You said your helmet could see through walls."

"Yeah, it can pretty much do anything." She swept her eyes over the building. "Huh. That's odd."

"They're empty."

"Yeah. I could have sworn he was right here, and we got here faster than he could have run. There isn't even any leftover heat or sign that the electricity's been used."

"He's using the college's equipment and internet connection. That's student housing, but it's closed for renovations this semester. He could have used that building as his spoofed location, but would need the equipment from the college. Let's start there."

"What if he didn't stick around?"

"If having people solve riddles is a compulsion for him as your sister said, then he has to make us finish his puzzles. Even if he's not here, he'll be coming for us."

"How does he know we left?"

"He was watching the police station. Chances are he's also been following the traffic cameras."

Tex shivered, and Batman noticed. "I feel like I'm back in London. I know cameras are supposed to keep us safe, but … I don't like being watched all the time."

"It's only going to get worse. Come on. The Riddler must be this way."

The two of them entered the building through the main entrance and found themselves in a cafeteria/lobby sort of place. Tex tried scanning the building, but to no avail. "Too much interference. Let's try for a computer lab. I think there's one this way."

They headed towards the stairs, but stopped in their tracks when a familiar voice echoed across the lobby. "Tex, you made it! And so did Batman. I thought we could finish our little riddle game here." Batman took several batarangs from his belt and got ready to throw them while Tex scanned the room furiously searching for the source.

Smoke exploded in the room, and when it cleared, a man in a green suit stood on one of the tables. He carried a cane with a heavy jeweled end, wore a green bowler hat, and had a V for Vendetta Guy Fawkes mask tied over his face. Tex took a step forward, but Batman put out an arm to stop her. "In a minute. What do you want, Riddler?"

"I just told you." He stepped off of the table. "I want to play a game, but not in the Saw sort of way. I think we were at, 'I am six letters long. Take one away, and I am twelve. What am I?' Do you have an answer yet, Tex?"

Tex turned to Batman. "I got nothing. What do you have?"

"Dozens," he growled.

"Dozens of what? Oh. Can we hit him now?"

"I wanted Tex to answer!" the Riddler screamed. "Were you just born without brains or something, Tex?"

"Actually—" Tex stopped when Batman put up his arm again. "Why did you hack into the police's computer systems? What could you possibly hope to gain from that?"

"Ah, now there's a good riddle." He knelt down on the table. "Why in the world do I do what I do? Apart from, you know, weakening my enemies in a place that they don't know is vulnerable. People don't know how much a cyber-terrorist can hurt them. Did you know that one worm nearly caused a nuclear catastrophe in Iran simply by infecting the systems that monitored the centrifuge? See, all it takes is for someone to rely too much on a computer to do its job right. The computer says everything's okay, but what's really going on is the centrifuge is not stirring the materials consistently, and that's dangerous."

"You were trying to ruin Gotham's police force from the inside. You shut down their cyber infrastructure, a few inmates get loose, and then no one trusts the police to do their jobs right."

"Yes! Exactly, Batman! Why did I peg Tex as the one with smarts?"

She shrugged. "No one else does. Thing is, no one trusts the police anyway. That's why they grudgingly let the two of us run loose. Plus, the GCPD usually do things old-school. You wouldn't have done much. Just like every other cyber-terrorist in the history of man. We don't rely on our computers enough for cyber-terrorists to, well, terrorize us. There wasn't a disaster in Iran because the virus was caught in time, and that mostly served as a warning to the rest of the nuclear power plant operators to upgrade their security systems or not buy pirated parts. Apart from that, what can you do to scare us?" She noticed that the Riddler and Batman were both staring at her, at least as far as she could tell. "What? I was reading about it when it was happening in 2010. Also, the Stuxnet worm only infected one type of German hardware that had been smuggled into Iran."

"Either way," Batman interrupted. "What you did was illegal. I'm taking you in."

"You wouldn't hit a nerd, would you?"

Batman unleashed his batarangs, but the Riddler dodged each one of them in turn, knocking a few away with his cane. While Batman did that, Tex sprinted to his table, jumped off a chair, and aimed a solid kick at his neck, but he was still just as fast. He back-flipped off the table and managed to hit Tex in the jaw with his cane. The Batman rushed him, swinging several weighted punches directly at his head, but the man was just too fast.

The Riddler chuckled as he eluded Batman's attacks. "I should probably mention that nerds like me love ninja movies almost as much as we like Linux. Hiya!" He swung his cane at Batman's stomach, and nearly got the Dark Knight to double over in pain. Tex attempted to tackle him, but he jumped out of the way just in time for her to hit Batman right in the solar plexus.

As the two of them attempted to untangle themselves, the Riddler shot a grappling cable to the ceiling that pulled him up. A scrap of paper fell from the sky as he pulled himself out through the skylight. Tex caught the paper. "Why do they need a skylight in the first place?" she asked as she looked at it.

But Batman was having none of it. While Tex pondered the riddle on the paper, Batman grabbed her arm with one hand and shot his grappling cable after the Riddler with the other. Three seconds later, he threw her through the skylight so she could chase the man in the green suit across the roof. This he did not seem to expect as Tex was able to tackle him by his knees and bring him down.

Batman caught up a second later when the Riddler had managed to wriggle out of Tex's grasp. He hit Tex in the head with his cane, but she barely noticed. She returned her own punch, but he was just out of reach. Batman caught the Riddler's cane in a fist, and when the Riddler tried to yank it back, he opened himself up for a fist to his face. The Guy Fawkes mask went flying off the edge of the roof.

The Riddler screamed and hid his face with his hands. "No! My face! Not my beautiful face!" He was nearly on the verge of tears, as well as the verge of the roof. Tex paused, taken off guard by this. Batman wasn't nearly so fooled. He had one fist raised, ready to pummel him. Then, the Riddler turned the waterworks off, and started to laugh. "Oh, wait. Here it is." He pulled his hands away and gave the two of them a sick smile showing off every last one of his white teeth. He had dark brown hair, a white face, sharp cheekbones, and crazed green eyes. The Riddler took two steps back. "A man is getting closer and closer to a field. However, if he touches it, he is dead. Why is that?"

"Tex, catch him!" Batman ordered.

The two of them lunged for him, but the Riddler simply took another step back and fell off the roof, laughing all the way. Tex grabbed at air only to see that his grappling cable was slowing his descent. "We can still get him!" Batman tossed her his grappling gun and then jumped off after him. His fall was slowed by his cape that stretched out like giant bat wings behind him.

The Riddler had an accomplice waiting with a car. He unhooked himself from his cable as soon as he hit the ground and made for his getaway vehicle. Batman was right on his tail, and the Riddler couldn't run fast enough to avoid a swift take-down. The two of them tangled on the ground, each of them trying to punch out the other. The Batman seemed to be winning this one until the accomplice stepped out of the car with a machine gun in hand and fired at Batman.

That was when Tex hit the ground and ran directly at the machine gun fire. She took a few bullets meant for Batman, and managed to pull the gun out of his hands and hit him across the face. The Riddler used this moment to kick Batman off and get in a couple blows to his jaw with his cane. Batman had to back off to avoid any risk of a second concussion, and the Riddler scrambled to his feet.

Suddenly, four more cars showed up. They were all cheap, old, run-down cars, but they served their purpose: to transport several people with guns. The Riddler stepped back behind his new protection. "Hold your fire, boys," he said. "I want them to solve a puzzle first."

"Why can't we just shoot them?" one of the gunmen asked. "We've got the Batman surrounded."

"Because then that wouldn't be any fun."

"Hey, Batman? Are you bulletproof, or just bullet-resistant?"

Batman crouched, ready to make a move. "The second one."

"Right. Whatever happens, let me take most of the bullets. I can take it."

"I have a better idea." He dropped a smoke grenade, grabbed Tex, and got the two of them out of there via a grappling cable. As soon as the smoke cleared and they were nowhere to be found, three police cars entered the scene, surrounding the Riddler's minions.

Batman pulled Tex up to the roof of the Engineering Building, but she pulled away from him. "We have to go back! There are too many of them! The police need help!"

"SWAT's on its way. They'll be fine."

"That's three police cars against four cars full of guns!" Tex raced back to the circle of cars, jumped off the roof, and landed on the first of the Riddler's men that she could reach. She grabbed his gun, crushed it in her hands, and moved on to the next man, repeating the process.

Even at Tex's rate, there was no way she could keep the police safe. Batman took three tear gas grenades off his utility belt and threw them in to the group of gunmen. Confusion ensued, giving the SWAT team time to get there. As for Tex, she was unhindered by the gas and took the opportunity to crush the rest of the guns and run away to her bike. Batman jumped off the roof and glided over to his own Batpod.

"Next time I should just see what tricks you've got in your utility belt," she said as she pulled out her motorcycle.

"I assumed your helmet could filter out the tear gas."

She shrugged. "Pretty much." Tex noticed the skin on her left wrist was out of place, and she pushed it back in. "It occurs to me that I haven't told you anything about my hands."

"You have been avoiding the conversation, yes."

"I wouldn't have told Gordon anything if I didn't have to use them right then. I figure that since he knows, that I should probably explain it to you." A couple shots were fired in the crowd several yards behind them. "But, under the circumstances …"

"Later," he agreed. The two of them went their separate ways, allowing the police to handle the Riddler. Batman was surprised that Tex was willing to open up, although he shouldn't have been. She didn't mind that he learned who she was under her helmet, and she didn't hamper his efforts to investigate her background further. Considering how open she was, what she chose to keep private would be very important to her.

Batman couldn't tell if this was a good thing or not. On the one hand, he didn't have to pry, which meant she was willing to trust him. On the other hand, she had confided in Gordon first, which meant that she didn't trust Batman as much as she said she did. But she knew about the night Harvey Dent died. She had more than enough reason to trust the Batman, and he had more than enough to be suspicious of her.