"How many, Robin?" Barbara asked in a hushed tone, crouched.
Dick rose his hand to his mask. The world became a dark blue. Skeletons of red, white, and blue walked around the building.
"Fifteen. 5 unarmed," he replied.
Barbara sighed. She looked up at the sky. Rain droplets hit her soft face, and thunder quaked Gotham City. Clouds billowed in the distance, bearing the flash of lightning.
"What's wrong?" Dick asked,
looking at Barbara.
"Nothing," she replied.
"Tell me."
"I was just thinking about us. I don't want to do this my whole life, Dick," Barbara explained.
"Neither do I," Dick said, "but we have to. For everyone."
"I know that. I just... I don't want you to get hurt," she said.
"Don't worry about me," Dick said, placing his hand on hers. He leaned, his lips meeting hers.
She smiled, touching his face.
Robin lowered his hand onto his escrima sticks, and, with a swift motion, he slid each from their sheaths, creating an arc of brilliant blue electricity between them.
"I'm going in," he said leaping down from the billboard.
"Just be careful," Barbara added.
"Come on, Barbara," he said with slick smile, "it's me."
Barbara took her hand off of the cold glass. Within it was a black suit, complete with a yellow cape, boots, gloves, two ears the extended several inches from the cowl, and bat symbol on the upper chest. Around it were articles titled "Batgirl," "A New Bat In Gotham?" and others plastered on the wall. She sighed, wiping the water from her cheeks.
A man, dressed in a tuxedo, dark complected, and sporting a goatee entered the room. Barbara quickly brushed away her tears, gave a smiled, and rolled toward him.
"You requested me, Ms. Gordon?" he asked.
"I need that new suit, Lucius," she answered.
"Oh. That one. Right away, Ms. Gordon," he said, turning away.
"I'm happy you got out of the tower, Lucius," Barbara said.
"As am I, Ms. Gordon. As am I." Lucius pressed against the head of a statue, pushing it back. Beneath lay a red button, and, with a push, the room contorted and shifted into something of a stage. The clocktower became dark, it's only window being blocked out by blast shields.
The stage in the center of the room shifted, and, rising out of the ground, was the suit.
It was somewhat bulkier than her previous suit, especially in the legs, but retained the previous suit's flexibility, yellow cape, boots, gloves, and form-fitting mesh. The open space for the mouth was now covered.
"I'm quite proud of the design, myself, Ms. Gordon," Lucius said, standing back to admire the work. "The Neural Responders will operate the legs for you."
"It's perfect, Lucius," she said, her eyes watering.
"Then I trust you'll but it to good use... Batgirl."
Barbara leapt from building to building, keeping up with Batman with relative ease, if not for the lack of use as of late.
"Scarecrow's not going to be easy to find," she said, her voice slightly modified.
Batman made another leap. "He wants to be found. The only thing that matters is when."
"This is it," Batman said, overlooking the courtyard below. It's trees were unkept, overgrown, and withering due to a lack of nutrition. The concrete Scarecrow's thugs were standing on was cracked and faded.
Barbara took a deep breath, "Let's go."
Batman thrusted him into the air, landing on one of the thugs, cracking the concrete with his face. Batgirl followed with less grace, but she twisted her body in a way she hadn't in years. She wrapped her mechanized legs around a thug's neck, slamming him into the brick wall.
"Get them," Scarecrow's said over Gotham's speaker system.
The thugs charged at the two, but before Barbara could counter, Batman had already sent three flying, followed by the sound of their bones snapping into several pieces.
After the screams and grunts stopped, Batman popped his knuckles and neck, his hands once again pouring with others' blood.
Barbara stared in awe at him, though, behind the mask, it was impossible to tell.
"Batman," Scarecrow called out. Barbara turned, facing the massive monitor bearing his face. "How does it feel to be rid of terror? No more obstruction - your true self unleashed. Your allies see it, your enemies feel it, and I have induced it, for without terror we are nothing. I'm going to show you what true fear is, Batman. It will start where your career as the nightmare-inducing Batman began, where you first felt that fear that fuels you even now, and the world will see that poor, lonely child the hides beneath the cowl."
The two sat in silence. Gotham sat in silence.
"What are you going to do?" Barbara asked.
Kill him. End him for what he's done. All the people he's hurt. Squeeze the life out of-
"...I'm going to Crime Alley," Batman responded, finally.
