Preface – Welcome
(I can resist anything,
except temptation)
Jennifer Gordon stepped out of her cab and pulled her
thin white coat tighter about herself, cutting off only a little of the breeze
from biting into her skin. Looking up at
the towering steel and glass monoliths about her, the young blonde whistled lowly
to herself in awe.
“Aunt Barbra, you sure know how to pick a city to be
Commissioner of.” As the young woman
strolled forward to the main police station she realized just how poor her choice
was to choose fashion instead of practicality.
It was already dark out and even though her new skirt and designer silk
blouse were considered the height of fashion from home,
“Yes?” the officer said as he finally looked up from
his desk. Jennifer finally brought her
arms down from her sides and put her hands in her jacket pockets. Looking at the young man’s name tag she saw
the faded name of ‘Jeff S.’ and cleared her throat.
“Excuse me Jeff, I’m here to talk to Barbra Gordon,”
the young woman said in her normal friendly voice. She saw the officer give no sign of warmth or
friendliness back as he began to respond.
“I’m sorry, but Commissioner Gordon is very busy at
the moment. If I can take a name and message,
I’ll have her give you a call back when she is free.” The young man shuffled through some papers on
his desk to find a relatively blank one and then grabbed on of the three pens
that were laid about on the various papers atop his table.
“Listen, I’m Barbra’s niece, Jennifer Gordon, I’m
supposed to meet her here. You see, I
just moved here becau---“ The young woman quickly found herself interrupted
before she could begin to tell her story.
“Oh yeah, Gordon’s niece… Was told to be expecting you. Just wait over there in one of those chairs,”
said the man as he pointed to the faded red seats that lined the left side of
the hallway she had just walked down.
Near one of the seats sat a table with year old magazines and an ashtray
that was dangerously close to overflowing everywhere with cigarette butts and
gum. “I’ll call Gordon right away,
she’ll be down here as soon as she gets a free chance.”
“Umm…. Ok,
thanks,” Jennifer responded with a reluctant smile as she walked timidly over
to the closest chair and sat down. As
the minutes slipped away into two and a half hours, Jennifer finally let out a
relieved breath as she saw her aunt finally coming to meet her. The young blonde stood up and strolled
excitedly to meet the relative she hadn’t seen in over two years.
“Jenny!” the Commissioner said proudly as she opened
her arms up to hug her niece. “How’s my
little troublemaker been?” Jennifer
hugged her aunt gently and then stepped back, beaming up a genuine smile.
“Good now that you’re here. I was worried for a while that you’d
forgotten I was down here.” Barbra
grinned.
“I’d never forget my only niece was waiting in my lobby. Sorry I was taking so long, there was a last
minute meeting, police stuff,” Barbra said distractedly.
“From what’s on the news back home, I’d think that Batman
person has taken care of all the crime down here,” Jennifer said in a light
laugh. “I’m surprised there’s enough
work left for the police.” The young
woman paused as she saw a dark visage quickly pass over her aunt’s face, then
disappear just a quick.
“Batman is wonderful for
“Ok aunt Bar, I’ll stick to home for a while except
for school,” Jennifer said in her most responsible voice she had. “Don’t worry, you can count on me, besides, I
wouldn’t know where to go even if I wanted to go out.” Barbra relaxed herself and smiled again down
at her niece.
“Come on, let’s get you to your new home,” Barbra
said as the two got into her car.
As the vehicle moved down the streets and
intersections of Gotham Jennifer felt her gaze drawn again and again to the
passing scenery, the neon signs, the different people, the different clothes,
the different streets, some clean, some dirty, some full of pot holes. In a place deep down she could already feel
the pull in her to explore her
Chapter 1 – Idle
(To swing on the spiral of –
Tool Lateralus)
“It’ll be alright Terry, don’t worry,” Max pleaded again
with her friend. She knew that it was
hard for the young man to part with the item that was tightly zipped up in the
back pack. “I promise, it’ll be ok,
everything will be alright.” The pink
haired woman knew that it was an important step for Terry to leave the costume
behind for the weekend so that when he and his girl friend were alone, so there
wasn’t a chance of the Batman curtailing the two’s get away. “If anything goes wrong, Mr. Wayne or the
Commissioner will be able to handle and if not, we’ll call.” Max could see the pained look on the young
man’s face as he slowly backed away and separated himself from the suit that he
had now come to think of as truly a part of who he was now.
“Yeah, you’re right Max, I
shouldn’t worry so much it’s just… I
don’t know, it’s kinda like I’m leaving a family member behind or something,
it’s just kinda hard to explain is all.”
Terry let out a breath as he heard the honk from bellow. “That’ll be Dana, I guess I better
hurry. Now you have my number right?” Terry
asked for the fifth time.
“Yes. And I
have Mr. Wayne’s, and Commissioner Gordon’s, and the local police station, and
half of
“Ok Max, thanks. And remember, first thing tomorrow mornin---“
“I’ll be at Wayne Manor to give Mr. Wayne the suit
when he arrives back from his trip,” Max groaned at having to repeat the
instructions back to her friend.
“Listen, the suit will be fine here for a night. I’m sure Mr. Wayne will understand that this
was a last minute thing that Dana pulled on you, now go, please go,” Max said
in a half groan half laugh.
“Ok, thanks again Max. Did I tell you that you’re the greatest?”
Terry said as he grinned.
“Yeah yeah, just hurry up
before Dana comes up here to yell at ya.
The last thing I wanna do to start my weekend off is a fight between you
two in my home,” Max said as she gently pushed the young man to her door.
“Alright, have a good weekend,”
Terry said as he slid out the front door.
Max laughed as she watched her friend eye the back pack that he had just
dropped off one last time before the door closed.
“That boy has a problem,” Max said lightly to herself
as she walked into the kitchen for a glass of water. As she sipped from her glass, Max walked over
to the backpack lying on the couch and sat down next to it. “I’m sure Terry wouldn’t mind too much if I
checked out what kind of high-tech setup he has for this thing,” Max said to
herself as she opened up the bag and lifted up the cowl. “Always wondered what kind of security Mr.
Wayne would use for something this top of the line.”
Max had the security measures that were programmed
into the costume bypassed in one hour.
Chapter 2 – At the time
(“I embrace my desire to” Tool
- Lateralus)
Jennifer opened the door to the ‘8 Shot’ club and
inched her way in, trying to stay as close to the wall as possible. The young woman could barley make anything
out through all the smoke and moving bodies but what she could make out was
mixed with an auditory assault from speakers that felt like they were
everywhere. She knew she had promised
her aunt that she was going to stay home but she felt a quick little peek
wouldn’t hurt anything. She wouldn’t get
to know anyone or get too friendly, she just wanted to
see what all the excitement was about.
And everything did seem pretty exciting here, everyone was moving about,
moving against one another, smiling, laughing, leaning
into one another, presumably to hear the other person talking over the music
being thrown out at decibel levels clearly not meant to be heard for sustained
periods of time.
“What’s your name there young lady?” came alcohol
laced voice. Jennifer turned around to
see a slightly tipsy gentlemen in his late twenties dressed in all black with
stark white slicked back hair. As the
blonde tried to move back somewhat so as not to be pressed up against this new acquaintance,
Jennifer realized that if this club had a maximum capacity to it, it was
clearly exceeding it.
“Jennifer,” she yelled, hopefully getting some of her
name across to the young man. “I’m new
here, to
“Yes,” came the yell
back. Before she could get any more
questions out, Jennifer’s head quickly spun around as a sharp noise rung out
from close to the entrance a few feet away from her. Suddenly the music died away as the entire
club quickly went from a moving living entity to simply just people in stunned
silent masses.
“This, ladies and gentlemen, will now be the start of
our robbery if you all would be so kind as to co-operate, we will try to make
this as hassle free as possible. You’re
compliance will be greatly appreciated,” came a voice from a masked man
standing on a table near the entrance.
His statement was reinforced by the four other disguised men standing
near him, all armed with guns pointed at the crowd. Jennifer heard a few loud gasps and she
thought she even heard the sound of someone fainting as she tried to take in
everything that was happening.
“Now boss?” one of the gentlemen near the leader
asked. The man on the table looked down,
then jumped off the table.
“Go ahead,” was the leader’s response. At that, the four men spread out among the floor
pilfering items from club goers, issuing commands to have watches and rings an
wallets all placed in bags. One man
spoke up slightly when one of the robbers came around, saying something about
leaving his fiancées ring alone and was quickly followed by the dull sound of a
hand hitting a stomach, knocking the wind out of the young man. Jennifer listened to a ladies voice as she
tried to console her fiancée quietly. It
seemed like forever as the men went from person to person in the club,
demanding belongings while the leader, whom seemed like a tall wiry fellow,
stood glaring over the crowd. Finally
someone came up to Jennifer and she promptly stuffed her purse and watch into
an outstretched bag, her face pained in fear and grief.
“Ok boss, we got everyone’s stuff plus all the money
from the tills and safe from in back,” one of the men said as they walked up to
the leader of the group. The tall man
paused for a moment, then looked back out over the
crowd.
“Thank you all for your hospitality, and now we take
our leave. Please enjoy your night, your
donations have been greatly appreciated,” came the man’s facetious voice. As the tall man turned towards the front door
to exit, the sound of sirens came wailing near, eliciting shocked eyes from the
criminals.
“Boss?” came a questioning
voice from one of the bigger men. The
tall man turned around to face his crew.
“Crap. Wasn’t
expecting the police to arrive this soon,” the leader said, mostly to himself.
“What are we gunna do boss?” came another man’s
voice. The tall man turned and started
marching through the crowd towards the rear of the building.
“We’re just gunna have to leave out the back, leave
the car,” the boss said as his men followed him. Jennifer watched through the crowd of people
and saw the gang of thieves go into the back room of the club towards the exit,
and let out an audible sigh of relief as she saw the door that isolated the
back part of the club from where she and the rest of the people were close. Slowly, whispering and murmuring went
rippling about through the crowd as people started regaining there composure. And then, just as quickly as the room seemed
to have come back to some sort of safe familiarity, it broke again as the group
of men came storming back into the main club room, causing the quiet whispers
in the crowd to die off immediately.
“They got the place surrounded boss,” a short masked
man said.
“Thanks,” the tall man replied in a thick sarcastic
voice. “Glad to know you have a grasp of
the current state of things, I’ll sleep better tonight.” No one talked after that comment as the tall
man began pacing back and forth near the front of the room.
“This is the police, we have the place surrounded,”
came the voice of Commissioner Gordon.
“Aunt Barbra!” Jennifer quietly cheered to herself. The tall man groaned at the statement that
came from outside the club then turned to face everyone.
“Ladies and gentlemen, you have all been elevated
from victims of theft to hostages, please sit down, now,” the leader said
solidly. Everyone just stared at each
other for a moment until a large robber came up and started shoving people to
the ground, then quickly everyone followed suit, hoping to avoid anyone from
manhandling them to the ground.
Chapter 3 – Inconvenient
Plays
(“For a minute, I lost myself”
Radio Head - Kharma Police)
“Look Mr. Wayne, like I said, I can’t get a-hold of
him. If you can’t get in touch with
Terry with all the doodads you got in your mountain-o-technology what makes you
think I can do any thing different?” Max
felt like she was talking to a brick wall as she paced around the living room
watching the TV of the robbery/hostage situation going on. Terry wasn’t answering his phone and Mr.
Wayne was being stubborn in trying to provide anything helpful. Max looked back over at the backpack that was
open and the costume that was slightly sticking out of it.
“Terry,” Max said in a sigh a little away from the
phone. “You so need to be here right
now.” As Max listened to the man on the
other end of the line she felt her eyes grow slightly wider.
“What do you mean nothing? There has to be something we can do!” Max
stated emphatically into the receiver.
How could Mr. Wayne be so callous, not even wanting to help out. There had to be
something, he owned so much stuff, he should be able to do something. Max glanced again at the cowl of the Batsuit
sticking out of the back pack. “You have
all those crazy gadgets, can’t you send in some robot or something?” Max asked
again as she took a step towards the back pack.
“No I don’t know what the trouble with robots are but I’m sure you’re
going to take the time to inform me,” Max said with a grumble as she reached
out with her free hand, running it along the materiel of her friend’s costume. Max’s mind wandered as Mr. Wayne broke into a
lecture of code performance and reaction times of robots and other variables
that made them unreliable and unsafe, concentrating on the Batsuit more and
more. “Fine Mr. Wayne, well just wait it
out, gotta go,” Max said quickly, hanging up the
phone.
“You know, this isn’t a good idea at all,” the pink
haired woman said to no one in particular as lifted Terry’s suit out of the
back pack, placing the cowl over her head.
“But nothing can go wrong, right?” she uttered sarcastically.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jennifer sat quietly on the floor as she watched the
group of men argue every once in a while, followed by long awkward
silences. Occasionally the tall man
would walk over to the bar, pick up a liquor bottle, then smash it at a near by
wall, sometimes send shards of glass into the crowd causing slight stifled
yelps and flinches from men and women.
The police had brought in a negotiator and he had been talking on and
off with the thieves over the club’s phone, but nothing seemed to be changing
except for the fact that the robbers seemed to be getting more and more angry
and impatient as time went by. Jennifer
let out a light sigh as she looked up at the ceiling from her seated position,
feeling helpless to do anything else from her current state, and as she peered
up she saw a ventilation shaft cover start to rattle lightly. The young blonde squinted, staring up harder
at the cover moving around almost directly above her, then suddenly come loose,
landing almost on her, just mere inches away from her, followed quickly by the
falling of a black clad person. Jennifer
let out a gasp at the loud noise and sudden intrusion, then she began to
recognize the figure, at least she thought she did.
“Bat….. Man?”
she said as she leaned over and began helping what looked like a very feminine Batman
to their feet. The costumed figure
turned to her quickly.
“Uhhh, sorry about that
whole almost falling on you thing, I’m kinda new,” came a female’s voice from
inside the costume. Suddenly the
costumed woman turned her head slightly and began talking into the air. “Because I turned them off, I knew you’d try
and stop me. Either start being helpful
or I’ll turn off your feed. Fine!” The costumed
figure turned to Jennifer and tried to start saying something again but the
only thing she got out of her mouth was “Oof,” as one
of the bigger thieves slammed into her, sending him and her sailing across the
room into a bar table, smashing it into the back wall.
“Be careful,” Jennifer said softly as she watched the…
Batgirl take on the robber. For a brief moment the big man seemed to have
the upper hand until finally Batgirl got some distance, just enough, to start
moving, mostly away from the man, sending objects near her sailing at the
attacker. The robber batted most of the
things away until finally a cash register landed him squarely in the face,
knocking him out cold. Jennifer let out
a light squeal as costumed woman hopped over onto the serving side of the bar
and began running at on of the other robbers.
Max felt her body stop as the thief she was trying to
tackle brought his fist out and hit her squarely in the stomach. The pink haired woman rolled slightly with
the much and felt the suit she was wearing absorb a lot of the blow, leaving
her slightly winded but not completely out of breath. Max was getting upset but not so much with
the situation of the robbers but more of her confusion at the Batsuit and also
the endless rattling of Mr. Wayne in her ear.
“Max, look out behind you,” she heard as she felt
something slam into her back, throwing her forward onto the attacker in front
of her. Max and the robber tumbled to
the floor, grappling each other.
“Thanks,” the Max said in a low voice as she wrestled
her hands free and jumped away from the situation, running to find some open
ground. Looking around, she watched as three
of the men started to converge on her from the front slowly and Max took that
as a queue to back up some more until she finally bumped into an empty table
behind her. Turning around, she hurriedly
picked up the large object, the suit she was wearing giving her enough strength
to wield it around fast, and began swinging it wildly at her attackers, making
them keep their distance.
“Max, reach into the belt, third container from the
left of the buckle and throw it at them,”
“Crap,” she said then threw the table she had at the
center man approaching her, knocking him down while she lunged for the still
standing man on the right.
As Jennifer watched the Batgirl fly into the armed
attacker on the right she could see the other man who had been missed by the
flying table pick up a broken table leg and begin heading over to the costumed
heroine. The blonde quickly got to her
feet, lifting one foot up and taking off her shoe, and ran over and began
hitting the man approaching the costumed woman with her shoe.
“Hey, pick on someone your own size,” Jennifer said
loudly as she brought her shoe down another time on the man’s head. The young blonde’s eyes began growing wide as
she watched the looming man turn to face her, leering out a grin as he grabbed
her wrist in a motion almost to fast for her to react to. The young woman let out a noticeable gulp
while the man brought his clenched fist back to start a long swing and closed
her eyes, waited a moment for the blow to come, then another moment, then she
felt the man’s grasp on her wrist slacken.
Opening up her eyes, the young woman saw the man on the floor with her
costumed hero standing over him.
Jennifer let out a soft ‘yay,’ and bounded
over the man’s unconscious body to hug her savior who had her head facing
another direction.
Max quickly turned back around as she felt the blonde
woman’s arms around her.
“What’s she doing?” Max heard
“She’s hugging me, something you probably haven’t had
done to you in the past twenty years,” she said in a low voice. “I just saved her life, she’s probably pretty
happy about that,” Max finished as she wondered if she should hug back or not.
“Forget about that right now, you need to stop the
leader before he gets away,”
“Your going to be ok ma’am, please sit back down,”
Max said in the most reassuring voice she could muster, then turned around to
see the tall man standing near her, bringing his fist clean across her face
sending her sailing sideways. Max landed
with a dull thump, sliding into a nearby wall and shook her head. Looking up she saw the man approach and she
quickly darted up and began swinging her fist, missing the man by a wide
arc. The thief grinned as he used her
off balance position and pushed her back down onto the floor, then slammed his
foot into her side. Max let out a breath
as she felt the impact hit into her belly.
“Teach you to mess with my plans Bat,” the man said
in an almost laughing voice. Max saw the
next kick coming and she rolled slightly out of the way, causing the man to
loose stability, and grabbed his leg he was using for standing, wrenching him to
the floor. Jumping onto him, Max smashed
her knee into his chest, causing him to pause for a moment to catch his breath
and with that free time, she crashed her fist home across his face, knocking
him out.
“Good job,” she heard Mr. Wayne say to her. Max stood up and smiled to herself for a
moment.
“I did do a good job, didn’t I?” she said to her self
almost in awe at the situation. Looking
back over the area, she saw the crowd of hostages all staring at her with wide
eyes, the young blonde lady that hugged her earlier beaming a bright smile at
her.
“You should get out of there. If Gordon sees you, she won’t be too happy,”
“Yeah, got it,” Max replied. Max walked up to the blonde woman that had
helped her in the fight, getting ready to ask for directions on back ways out
of the club, but before she could say anything the woman began talking first.
“I’m Jennifer,” she touted happily. “Thank you for… Well, for pretty much saving my life. Are you like, Batman’s sister?” Jennifer
asked. She watched costumed figure drag
her hand down the features of her coweled face.
“Ummm, not exactly,” Max
said. “Hey, you know any back way’s out
of here, some way the cops aren’t really blocking?” Max watched the young lady point her finger
upward, towards the ventilation shaft that she had used to break into the club
in the first place. Max let out a heavy
sigh at her own forgetfulness. She knew
she wasn’t normally this flustered or out of sorts but then again, she never fought
a mob of thieves in a club before either.
Max took a moment, trying to remember how to activate the suits jets to
help her get up to the ceiling and just when she was ready to take off, she
felt a hand on her arm, causing her to look over at the blonde one last time.
“Hey uhhhh…” Jennifer began
shyly. “Don’t be a stranger.”
“Ummm, sure,” Max said, her
confused face covered by the suit she was wearing. Then she made the jump for the ceiling, the
thrust from the suits boots carrying her up, letting her make her eventual
escape out from the roof of the club.
“Don’t be a stranger?” Jennifer said to herself in a
befuddled low voice. “I shoulda just said, ‘Hi, I’m a dork’.” The young blonde mentally cursed herself for
being so uncouth in front of the costumed heroine. Then, after a moment she smiled to herself
while the
“Knows who?” came a voice with a distinct ring of
anger inside of it. Jennifer quickly
whirled around to see a very sour faced Commissioner Gordon staring into her
eyes, patience all but gone.
“Aunt Barbra I—“ Jennifer
started before being cut off by the grim woman looking at her.
“I told you not to go out at night around here. Didn’t I say it wasn’t safe?” Barbra said, the seriousness in her tone unmistakable. Jennifer gulped loudly.
“Yes Aunt Barbra,” the blonde replied, her head
drooping down.
“You’re just lucky Batman was here to help out,
otherwise, who knows what this could have turned into,” the older woman said,
still scowling.
“Oh, it wasn’t Batman. It was a Batgirl,” Jennifer replied, her tone
becoming unconsciously lighter. She
watched as her Aunt’s face became even more perturbed, which she didn’t think
was possible till just then.
“Batgirl?” she asked bluntly.
“Uhhhh,
yeah. She uh, she came in and
saved us,” Jennifer said nervously, noticing that there was nothing around her
but thin ice now. The blonde watched as
Barbra pulled out her cell phone, pressed a few buttons then held it up to her
ear, waiting.
“We need to talk,” was all aunt
Barbra said into the phone after a moment, then flipped the device closed and
placed it back into her pocket. “Get
into my car, it’s parked out front,” the Commissioner said, to which Jennifer
happily obeyed, eager to get out of her Aunt’s sight until she calmed down
some. Jennifer knew that her aunt was
upset but was puzzled at why the mention of a Batgirl would upset her
more. The blonde thought about it for a
bit while she sat in the car waiting for her aunt to come out and drive them
home, but her mine kept wandering back to the hug she had given the costumed
lady. She giggled lightly to herself for
a moment while still alone in the car.
She hadn’t even meant to hug the other woman, it just kinda happened,
making her smile broaden a little more but then she remembered her lame comment
she had said and her face turned into a frown.
Just
as she was about to utter her comment she had used to finish her meeting with
batgirl off with, to see if it really did sound as bad as she thought it did,
she stopped, watching the drivers side car door opening with her Aunt getting
in.
“So,” aunt Barbra began. “Tell me about this Batgirl, and don’t leave
anything out.” Jennifer spent the rest
of the car ride home pouring over what she remembered, sometimes smiling, her
voice getting excited as she would talk about the young costumed woman taking
on the robbers, knocking them this way and that.