In the Shadow of the Bat
Chapter 44
Dick Grayson aka Nightwing mostly based himself out of Bludhaven, the nearby sister city to Gotham. It was, in some ways, better off than Gotham in that it had less costumed crazies and related problems. It was worse, in that the police were horribly corrupt and all the organized crime...
"Dick!" Stephanie Brown waved as they met nearby his apartment. She had taken the train, deciding it was simplest, and was dressed in slacks, t-shirt and a baggy jacket. She was carrying a backpack with her Spoiler gear in it.
"Steph, good to see you," Dick agreed, hugging her quickly. The black haired man was casually dressed too, pants and a t-shirt.
"So, Babs tells me you're helping with my training?" Steph asked as they walked.
"Yup. I'll try to make it as fun as possible," Dick noted.
Steph sighed, "Just as long as you don't beat me as bad as Cass did."
"There will be some ass kicking," Dick conceded, "we kind of have too."
"I figured," Steph agreed. "Where we going?" she checked.
"Local gym I have a membership in," Dick told her, "I want to spar a bit, figure out where you are starting from."
"Got it," Steph agreed.
An hour or so later of sparring with Dick and several other fighters, Steph groaned loudly as she muttered, "I can't lift my arms."
"You're better at blocking, now," Dick noted, amused. "You've done self defence courses, I think?" he asked.
"Yeah, and some introductory Judo and Karate stuff," Steph groaned, stretching as they left the gym. "It's hard to follow up on training when stuff like our lives happen."
"Ooh, yeah," Dick agreed. They walked back to hia apartment as he added, "You okay with patrolling with me tonight?"
"I'll manage," Steph agreed.
Not much later, and Nightwing and Spoiler were running across the city rooftops.
Spoiler bounced gracefully over a vent as the mostly purple clad woman asked, "Anything we need to worry about? It's your town, after all."
"Just the usual gangbangers. It's been quiet lately," Nightwing noted.
"Just saying that has probably jinxed us, you realize?" Spoiler asked him as an alarm went off in the distance.
"Oops. Let's check it out," Nightwing said.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"Hmm," Mary Scott slowly came awake, realizing that she was in Cathy's bed, laying snug in her muscled arms.
"Morning," Cathy Hendrix smiled a bit shyly at her.
"I totally want to kiss you, but I'm sure I have morning breath," Mary admitted.
Cathy chuckled warmly, "Me too, don't care."
Both women kissed lingeringly, right up until Cathy's alarm went off. Mary looked at it and blinked, "Eight AM?"
"Oh shit," Cathy blinked, "I'm on shift in half an hour."
Mary watched with some amusement as Cathy bounced out of bed, then hesitated. "Shower, then dress," she suggested.
"Ack. Right," Cathy headed for the small suite's bathroom.
Smiling to herself wryly Mary began to collect her own clothes and got dressed. Last night had been REALLY nice too. They did dinner, danced at a local club, came back here and made love.
Well, not so much 'made love' as manage HOURS of really good sex.
"I'm so sorry," Cathy apologized as she dried her hair, "I meant to take you to breakfast and..."
"I did keep you up late," Mary said, and Cathy blushed. "It's ok. Really."
As Cathy hurried to dress in her Gotham police uniform she said to Mary, "I'd really like for us to go out again."
"Me too," Mary agreed as they both headed to the door.
Cathy lead her out, then locked the door as she said, "Would tonight be too soon?"
Mary had to fight down the urge to agree instantly. "I actually have telemarketing work," she admitted, "but I should be able to clear tomorrow."
"Okay, I'll call you to set things up," Cathy agreed as they walked to the street together. "Can I run you home?" she offered.
Mary REALLY didn't want her to see the dump she lived in. "You're going to be late," she reminded her.
"Thanks," Cathy kissed her again then hurried off.
Mary then caught a bus back to the east end, then checking her watch realized she was supposed to be at the community center soon.
"Morning," Mary smiled as she entered.
"Morning," Holly smiled back, then paused. "Oooh, last night's clothes. Did someone get lucky?"
Mary felt herself blushing.
"No teasing," Selina chided her friend.
"Sorry," Holly said. She added, "I'm happy for you."
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Dani Grayton felt a warm buzz of satisfaction as the reporter watched a drug lab be raided. A drug lab SHE had spotted and reported, after following a source back to the building.
"Officer Bullock, hello again," Dani trotted up to the commander and smiled. "Can you tell me what they were producing?"
"Huh, you," Harvey sounded less that pleased.
"You do know I called this in," Dani offered sweetly.
Harvey sighed, but nodded reluctantly. "Looks like bootleg Miralco and one of the Velocity formulas," he told her.
Both were, interestingly, super power granting drugs. Miralco gave you super strength for about an hour, while Velocity gave you super speed. Both were temporary, and both had side effects.
"Any idea why they picked Gotham for the lab?" Dani asked.
"We're still investigating," Harvey said.
"Do you think it's part of Intergang's recent expansion?" Dani pressed.
"No comment," Harvey moved off, "have a nice day, ma'am."
Dani pouted, but let him go. The cops had used knock out gas and trank guns, in the raid. Probably concerned someone could use one or both of the drugs and either attack the police or try to escape capture.
Dani used her phone to type up a summary of the story, then sent that and a series of photos in to the news desk. She kept taking shots, even as she watched the cops going into the warehouse.
'Huh, nurses but no ambulance?' Dani noted. Made sense, they were probably making sure there were no ODs...
Dani's phone rang, "Yeah?"
Her editor replied, "Good work, but apparently there's been an incident in Little Russia. Can you get over there?"
"Yeah, yeah," Dani sighed. A reporter's work was never done.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"You want me to be an official super hero?" Teresa Ludlow-Dalt asked her agent in disbelief.
"Yup," Catherine Weiss beamed cheerfully.
"Are you out of your MIND?" Teresa demanded.
She and Catherine were meeting at a Gotham cafe, the morning after the big fight in Little Russia. The paper was covering that, the drug bust, and a small gang war that was simmering between Riddler's gang and troops formerly belonging to Penguin.
"Your book is selling like hotcakes, and there's HUGE interest in you," Catherine said eagerly. "We can build on that this way."
"I'm a HISTORIAN. Not a super hero," Teresa complained.
"How many times have you put that Spider costume on when people were in trouble?" Catherine asked.
Teresa looked annoyed. "A couple of times," she admitted.
"More than that," Catherine said. "Plus, think of the spin! We can pitch it to the public as you 'redeeming' the Spider name."
"God no," Teresa made a face.
"Hub City is PAYING superheroes to come there," Catherine tried.
"Hub City is a hell hole!" Teresa yelped. "Besides, I like Gotham."
Catherine pouted, "You won't consider it?"
Teresa shook her head, "Oh hell no."
To be continued...
Notes: I've had Mary and Cathy dating, but hadn't shown them sleeping together. So, there... Miralco and Velocity are actually DC comics canon drugs. The 'Little Russia' thing is the earlier Suicide Squad chapter I did.