conflict and compromise / barbara gordon

no deal

She barely felt the pain of her fist hitting metal, nor did she feel the next two jabs as they met the hard armour of this person who had dared to threaten her and her father, who had put Leslie in danger. Her attacks were a flurry of trained, precise hits that the woman either blocked, redirected, or just took to the body.

A left jab met with the hardened, bracer-like extension on the woman's wrists, the right jab hitting the side of their shoulder. She backed away, raising her fists guardedly, breathing evenly through her mouth.

"Calm down, I came to talk," The fox woman said, Batgirl could see she was exhausted from that quick exchange, chest rising and falling like someone who had just finished a sprint. She needed to go in to finish it, she waited silently, unmoving, until she saw their chest rise again, now. 

With a movement drilled into her by Batman years ago, she launched at the woman, spinning to deliver a kick to the abdomen that pushed out all the air that they had just inhaled. At the sound of robotic wheezing, Barbara went in for the finish, a roundhouse kick that would end in her boot meeting that metallic temple. 

thud

Her eyes widened as her leg was met with an elbow, hitting her calf and leaving it with a numbing sensation. From there she tried to move backwards for space, but it was too late, the figure fell onto her, elbows and knees connected with unrelenting ferocity. It was definitely not the style of a trained fighter, but more akin to dealing with a feral animal. 

rrrrip

She looked down, feeling the cold air brush against her side, then warm blood pooling. These weren't the light scratches she was used to seeing on Batman, they were deep, perhaps not deep enough to be fatal but something she would need seriously checked. A glint attracted her attention, and in a second motion, the figure scratched again at the opening revealed by the first attack, this time though, the claws glowed.

zzzz

God this girl had electrocuted her with metal claws, Barbara thought, as her body spasmed, sinking into temporary paralysis as she fell to her knees. The stars seemed to grow larger in her vision as the sky blurred into a mess of white, black and greys, she felt her ears begin to ring a light airy sound, a contrast to the dark figure walking behind her. 

Considering all she had gone through, Barbara thought, this would be a sad way to go out, on a dark rooftop to someone she didn't even have the name of. She felt the woman crouch down behind her, and then the harsh feeling of a hand wrapping around her chin, forcing her to stare straight ahead. A cold metal claw traced her cheek. 

"So, I'm guessing there's not going to be a real negotiation, really unfortunate," the voice had lowered into a calm melodic tone, calming Barbara. This person wasn't going to kill her, if they wanted to go for the kill they would have done it fast, with the same desperation in which they fought. 

"Now I would love, to let you go but then that wouldn't signal much, would it?" They hummed, and Barbara felt the cold metal of the helmet rest on the back of her head, " few small cuts, not even in places people would see, no, I think there needs to be a warning, perhaps something permanent?" 

At this Barbara shuddered, the claw on her cheek slowly cut open a thin diagonal line, and a thin veil of blood began to trail downwards . 

"But... I'm feeling nice tonight, would be a shame to cut our game off this early, there's so many more parts to play!" the woman laughed, a low controlled sound, "So we can continue this another time, I'm expecting gifts next time as an apology."

And with that the presence behind her was gone, and Barbara's body collapsed, floor rising to meet her face. 

♡♡♡

There was a light in her room, Barbara thought, as she woke up, rubbing the crust out of her eyes as she tried to reach for the window. She yawned, where is the window? Where is the damn windo- oh. 

She opened her eyes, seeing the building edge and the multi-storey drop that awaited her if she rolled over again. Shaking her head she stood up and tapped the side of her mask to no avail, there was still some sort of interference in the area. Today was the day she was supposed to go on that date with Wenlock, she remembered, and she was stuck on the other side of Gotham wounded and with the Batfamily doctor out of commission. 

Wincing, she looked down at her abdomen, seeing bandages and a scrawled message in dark grey marker. She frowned, reading the message upside down, owe me two favours now :) -  signed off with a little icon reminiscent of the woman's helmet. 

Ignoring her confusion, she launched her grappling hook at the nearest building, she needed to get back to the Batcave as soon as possible to file a report. Then she'd check her mask camera for any recordings of the woman and run a reference with Tim and the Justice League systems. Barbara frowned, considering how was she going to pass off barely being able to move to Wenlock, not even accounting for that cut on her face. Sighing, she resigned herself to the long day ahead