Second Chances: Batwoman

Chapter 16

When Batwoman arrived at Arkham, she found that riot was pretty accurate, if not an understatement for the situation inside, since she could hear alarms going crazy inside and she was honestly amazed that the asylum was not on fire right now.

"Luke, what's Huntress's ETA?" Batwoman asked, literally right as the batmobile parked and Helena Wayne, dressed as the Huntress, got out.

"Man, I have not had to change clothes in the backseat of a car since my high school prom." Huntress said.

"Very funny. Luke catch you up?" Batwoman asked.

"Yep, sounds like the usual Gotham madness. What's the plan?" Huntress asked.

"You go in there and help the guards, make your way to the security center, try to figure out what caused the riot. I'm gonna head for the secret level and make sure it's still secured. This riot is bad enough without having to worry about any of Batman's worst roaming the streets." Batwoman said and Huntress nodded.

"Agreed. I don't think that dealing with all of dear old dad's worst thugs is the best way to start out your reign as Gotham's new protector." Huntress agreed.

"Luke, what's the status of the riot?" Batwoman asked.

"Escalating fast. As far as I can tell the secret level is still secure, but we can't be sure about that. You need to make sure it's secure before the Crows find it. There's a reason Bruce never told them about it." Luke said.

"Agreed. Last thing we need is dad knowing about the hidden wing with all of Gotham's worst. What's the ETA on the Crows?" Batwoman asked.

"About 15 minutes out and GCPD is not far behind them." Luke said.

"Okay, let's do this." Batwoman said as they headed inside.

The Arkham guards were clearly overwhelmed as nearly every inmate in the place was going crazy. They were all certain that they weren't going to survive tonight or even until their reinforcements arrived.

"Where's the Bat when you need him?" one of the guards asked his partners as they held their guns up at the numerous maniacs that were making their way towards them.

"One chance. Return to your cells now or we will shoot?" the same guard said menacingly, but none of the inmates seemed to care about the loaded weapons aimed at them.

"You really think we're scared of you? It's time for the inmates to run the asylum." Roger Hayden, aka, Psycho Pirate, said, leading the group.

Much to the guards' relief though, the inmates were surprised when a batarang lodged itself in the wall right next to Hayden.

"Oh thank god." one of the guards said as they all turned to the direction they saw the batarang come from, expecting to see Batman, but instead they saw a woman in his place.

"Who the hell are you supposed to be?" Hayden asked.

"Call me Batwoman. Now I believe the nice guards asked you to return to your cells. I'd do what they asked. For your own sakes." Batwoman said as she jumped down from her perch between the inmates and the guards.

"And what's a woman going to do? It's not like you're Batman? You're just a pathetic bitch playing dress up." Hayden said, causing his fellow inmates to chuckle, until Batwoman proceeded to knock him on his ass.

"You see, I really don't like that word. Now I have another excuse to beat the crap out of all of you." Batwoman said as she then proceeded to take them all out.

"Get to the control room, make sure this facility is on lockdown. Huntress is on site too, we'll help get all the inmates back in their cells." Batwoman said and the guards nodded as they left.

"Big words from a newbie." said a new voice that was so familiar it caused Batwoman to feel a sense of dread wash over her as she turned to see Alice walk up to her, in full wonderland garb.

"Who the hell are you supposed to be?" Batwoman asked, pretending that she didn't know.

"You can call me Alice. Not that it will matter for long, since you're gonna be dead soon. Though I will admit, you do pull off that suit better than Batman ever did." Alice said.

"Dream on." Batwoman said, since there was a small part of her that had been hoping that her sister had not gone down this road again in this reality, but she'd still been expecting it.

"I have to admit, you're not the bat I was expecting to find here tonight and while normally I would love to see what you've got, I'm afraid I'm on a bit of a clock." Alice said.

"Yeah and that clock is ticking down to how much freedom you have left. One chance to go back to what hole you crawled out of before I knock your ass into one of these cells." Batwoman said, meaning every word of what she was saying, only to have to throw a batarang in time to counter one of her sister's butterfly knives.

"I guess I can make time to kill you before I finish what I came here for." Alice shrugged as she charged towards her sister, who quickly countered as they began their old familiar dance yet again from Batwoman's point of view as they fought each other.

"Impressive." Alice said as Batwoman punched her in the gut.

"I learned fast that when your enemy doesn't fight fair, neither do you." Batwoman said, but before she and Alice could continue, Luke came on over her comms.

"Sorry to break up the family reunion, but you need to get out of there. The Crows just pulled up." Luke said.

"Damn it." Batwoman said as they heard the sirens.

"I guess we'll have to finish this later. Ciao for now." Alice said as she dropped a smoke bomb to cover her escape while Batwoman left to find Huntress so they could do the same.