Batgirl Begins

Chapter 18

Chapter 18


"A bruised rib and a few tender spots, but you should heal up just fine," Alfred smiles at me.

I try to smile back, "Thanks, Alfred."

"What's wrong? You don't seem like your usual self."

"It's just... I don't know, I feel like I finally understand Bruce, and why he is the way he is. He's hurt and lonely... and he doesn't want anyone to end up like him."

Alfred smiles at me, "This is why I told him he should adopt a girl, or at least find a woman to marry."

I laugh, "Bruce doesn't seem like the marrying type."

"None of us are what we seem, Barbara, and I think you're coming to that realization."

"Where can I find him?"

"He is most likely in his father's study."

"Thanks, Alfred."

I take the medicine he has for me and go up the elevator up the main floor. I make my way up the stairs and weave through the halls, looking for where this study would be. I stop when I notice Dick sitting on the floor outside a room. I go over and sit beside him.

"Hey."

"Hey, Babs."

"You okay?"

"Yeah, just wanted to talk to Bruce, but the door's closed so... that means don't bug me."

"Did you try knocking?"

"No, but I need the time to think."

"About what?"

"About your addition to the team. It's not like I don't think you're ready, I just think he needs to ease up on you a bit."

"Dick, I completely understand where you're coming from, but I feel like I know why he's so hard on me... on everyone."

"Why?"

"He doesn't want us to end up like he is. He's hurting Dick, I don't know why, but we need to help him."

"What makes you so sure that's why he's being such a jerk?"

"Call it a woman's intuition."

He smirks, "Maybe you should be the one to knock."

I smile at him and get up to knock on the closed door.

"Bruce?" I ask, "It's me, Barbara."

There is a short pause before I faintly hear, "Come in."

"Good luck," Dick whispers as I close the door behind myself.

I take a deep breath as I see Bruce hunched over his desk. "Bruce... I just wanted to apologize for what I said earlier... about you being a controlling, pompous..."

"Yes, I remember."

"It wasn't true-"

"It was..." He sighs as he looks out the window.

"But you're only trying to protect us."

"Exactly, either way, I'm still all of those things. Even if I could change, I'm not sure where to start."

"What if we don't need as much protection? It seems to be aggravating Dick, and-"

"He's said this to you?"

"Not exactly, but I can feel the tension between you two sometimes, like just now in the ring."

"Then why doesn't it upset you?"

"Because I've seen that look that was on your face a million times on my own face. Despair, disappointment, sorrow, whatever. The point is that you're not alone, Bruce. We're all here for you, hero or not." I glance at the clock, realizing I should probably go home. "I've got to head home, but if you need someone to talk to... any of us will listen."

As I grab the doorknob, I hear him turn around. "Barbara," He says.

I freeze and turn to face him, "Yes?"

"Thank you."

I smile, "You're welcome."


*********** The Next Day ***********


I grunt as I help one of put some books back on a shelf. Bored out of my mind, I volunteered to help one of the other librarians out... I probably should have factored in how sore I was before offering to help.

"Need a hand there?" I hear a familiar voice say.

I smile at my dad, who will forever wear a trenchcoat. "Hey, dad."

"Hi, honey. Look uh, I was worried when you didn't come by yesterday after my call, and I erm... just wanted to say..."

"I get it, daddy. Sorry's not in your vocabulary."

"It was wrong of me to accuse you like that..."

"Dad, it's fine. I just wish you had a little faith in me is all."

"I do, Barb, and I can see you're going to do great things here. Tom was telling me how you have already helped them tremendously."

"It was nothing, really..."

"It's a lot to guys like me who don't speak fluent computer."

My phone buzzes in my pocket. I check it to see "Need you. Now."

"Maybe we could grab dinner and catch up."

"Thanks, dad, but uh... maybe tomorrow?"

"Alright. You be careful, now."

I laugh, "Yeah, I'll watch out for paper cuts."

As soon as he leaves the building, I tell Tom I'm heading out early. I leave out the back door to see the black sedan. I take a deep breath and slide into the back seat. As soon as I sit down, Alfred speeds off.

"Who is it?"

"I haven't the faintest idea, but you will find out shortly."

We start to slow down, and I look out the window to see Wayne Tower. He turns into the parking lot and makes his way to the very top, which is completely empty. He parks, and leads me over to an elevator with caution signs all around it.

"Alfred, it's broken-"

"Remember what I said about appearances?"

He places his hand on one of the do not enter signs and the doors open slightly. He pushes one of the doors open, and we step inside. The door shuts behind us, and the lights dim as Alfred chuckles.

"What?"

"You might want to hold on to something..."

"What are you-"

The floor sinks and my legs fall to the ground. The elevator shoots down at an insane speed and stops just as fast as it started. The elevator makes a soft ping sound as the doors open. I grumble as I take Alfred's hand. Such an innocent ding for a devilish elevator...

"In time, you will get used to it," Alfred laughs.

"Yeah, yeah... let's get out of here before this elevator has another mood swing."

He chuckles again as we step out of the elevator and into a mini Batcave... and by mini, I mean like a fourth of the size of the main one... which is still huge. Dick is there already in costume, minus the mask which he has in his hand.

"Hey, suit up." He says as he motions to the back of the room. I look to see a black bundle on another hospital bed in the far corner of the room. I pull the curtain in front of me and quickly change into my suit, which is a lot easier to put on than before.

"I hope you don't mind, Barbara, but I was able to make some adjustments on your suit..."

Dick snickers, "What he means is we got you a new one."

"You'll find it is easier to move around and your old gadgets are in the new belt. The voice scrambler and communication piece is build into the hood."

I ask the only question that is on my mind, "Is it fireproof?"

"Yes."

I pull the curtain back, leaving my hood/mask to put on later. They are both staring at a normal sized computer screen, unlike the one in the Batcave which is massive.

"Where to?"

"Bale Bank in the heart of the financial district," Dick says, his eyes still glued to the screen, "There's a hostage situation."

"How many?"

"Police are reporting just one guy."

"Piece of cake, right?"

"Not necessarily, they don't have anything on this guy. They don't know if he's armed either."

"Alright," I nod as a familiar bike catches my eye across the room. I walk over and lean against it as I check the different pockets on my belt, trying to memorize what is where.

"Let's go," I hear the chair slide away and him coming towards me. His footsteps stop a few feet away.

I look up to see him staring at me. I smirk, deciding to tease him, "What's the matter, Wonder Boy?"

He clears his throat, "Uhh, nothing. And will you quit it with the boy stuff? I'm technically an adult."

"Nope, it suits you."

He scowls at me as I laugh. He grumpily puts his mask on, "Come on, we have work to do."

I quickly snap my mind back to the task at hand and slip my mask over my head. He takes his red helmet and hands me a black one. I take a deep breath as I sit behind him, taking a moment before wrapping my arms around his waist.

"You ready?" I hear his voice ring through my helmet.

"More than ever."

I look over to Alfred, who is now seated at the computer. His voice echoes through the helmet. "Good luck to you both." He smiles at me, and I give him a nod.

He presses something on the desk, and part of the wall in front of us slides to reveal a long, concrete tunnel.

"Hold on tight," Robin laughs as he speeds down the tunnel. It is very dim, but as we continue to race through it slowly gets brighter and brighter. Suddenly, we shoot out of the tunnel and land onto a street that must be along Gotham Harbor, which is the southern most part of Gotham besides Blackgate Isle. As we continue to weave through traffic, I can start to see the buildings of the financial district. He goes around to the back of Bale Bank, which is completely swarmed by police. They move out of the way as he parks by the back entrance.

"Hey look at that," I hear one of the cops snicker, "The bird boy got a girl. I bet it's the tights."

I smirk as I feel Robin's body constrict. "I'll handle this," I whisper in his ear.

I slowly slide off the bike and whip my hair so it all falls on one shoulder. I can see the officers with their jaws dropped, and I can see which cop had spoken. Jameson... of course. The guy has always been a sleezebag, hitting on any woman he can. This'll be fun...

"Officer Jameson," I smirk, my voice being masked through the scrambler.

He smiles and casually walks forward, "That's me, babe."

"Whenever I see one man put down another over a woman, it's usually because he can't get one for himself."

Immediately the other officers gasp and laugh at Jameson, who is trying hard to lash out at me; another part of his personality that keeps the girls away. I turn away, and he grabs my wrist. I slowly turn back around to face him. He is bright red in the face, and the laughter has stopped.

"You better watch your tongue."

I look down at my wrist and then back up at him, "You should learn some manners, Mr. Jameson. If my... boss finds out... things might not be too pretty for you."

"He doesn't kill."

"Oh, no... but there's so much more he could do. Have you noticed there's one less bat here?" He looks around frantically as his grip falters. I slip my wrist out and pat him on the chest, "He's watching, Officer."

I turn around and walk back towards Robin with a big smile.

"What'd you say to him?"

"What he needed to hear. Come on, let's go."

Robin opens the door, "After you."

"What a gentleman..."

We quietly make our way through the back hallway of the bank. I listen closely for any sign of the intruder.

"Come on! Put the money in the bags... the last thing I want is for Bat-brain to ketchup to me... BAHA! Get it?! KETCHUP?"

Oh great... this guy. The Condiment King. This guy is not much of a villain, but he is a big annoyance. I race down the hall, hearing Robin's whispers of anger in my ear. I weave through the hallway and finally am in the main room of the bank. The Condiment King has his back turned to me, but I can easily recognize the two tanks of ketchup and mustard on his back. I smirk as I run up to him and kick out his knees. As he starts to fall, ketchup and mustard shoot out of the squirt guns in his hands. I quickly knock him out and toss the guns aside.

The bank patrons start to clap as they realize the threat is gone. I look over my shoulder to see Robin turning the corner. He takes a deep breath and leans on the wall, not looking too happy. I smile and wave at him. He fakes a big smile and waves back. He turns to walk away, and I quickly run after him.

"Hey!" I call, trying to get him to stop, "Hey! What is your deal? We got him."

"Yeah, but you just rushed on in there without even thinking."

"Robin... it was the Condiment King. What's he going to do? Stain my suit?"

He pushes the door open to where he had parked his bike, "That's not funny."

"I thought it was... maybe we should see if he can come up with a horseradish pun? Huh? You know, branch out any and all condiments? He is supposed to be the King of em right?"

He grumpily puts on his helmet, not saying a word as I grab the other.

"Okay... I'll stop talking..."

I put on the helmet and sits behind him as he takes off. As we drive along Gotham Harbor, I still feel really awkward. Why is he so upset? Is it because I didn't include him? No... Dick isn't like that. He makes a sharp turn into what would normally be a rocky cliff, but somehow it opens up for him leading to another tunnel. The light disappears behind us as whatever doors were there before close us in. He starts to slow down as we approach another light, which must be the mini-cave we were in before.

The bike slows to a stop as we enter the mini cave. Alfred is no longer there, but Dick turns off the engine and walks over to the computer. I take off my helmet and decide to try talking to him.

"Hey, Dick?"

"What?" He snaps. Something is really bugging him. "Sorry... what's up?"

I take a deep breath as I walk towards him. "Are you okay? You were pretty upset back there with the whole Condiment King thing..."

"I am."

"Why? It's not like he's dangerous or anything-"

"Why do you think that? If someone heard the name Joker the first time, people would think he's just funny. These people are still dangerous, Barbara."

"He was shooting ketchup and mustard at people, Dick! It's not like he used radioactive tomatoes to make it!"

"You don't know that!"

"So?"

"So! You can't just throw yourself into a fight with potentially radioactive ketchup!"

"Oh really? And how am I supposed to know it's radioactive? What does this suit have a built in Geiger counter-"

I am cut off by his lips lightly on my own. I am caught off guard like before, and every cell in my body is craving for more. I give into the impulse and close my eyes, wrapping my arms around his neck when suddenly, he breaks away. I hear his footsteps echo towards the elevator. I back up and lean against the wall. What is it with him? I push my hood off my head, as I hear the elevator ding. I slowly slide down to the floor, wondering what on earth is going on in that Wonder Boy's head.