Shattered (Black Cat Chronicles, Book Two)

10. A New Plan

Batgirl was a new annoyance that we had to deal with, but the villains dealt with her anyways. There were apparently plenty of times she tried passing on the whole 'Batwoman' title, but it really didn't work for her. Everything I heard from the Underground told me that Batgirl and Robin really weren't working well together. "Batgirl is really fucking annoying," I said at lunch, scrolling through my phone only to see all kinds of news about her. Gotham was just eating this up, always loving when a new hero or villain popped up. Well, heroes more than villains. "Her suit isn't shit, but I think she's annoying."

"I don't know, I think Batgirl's pretty cool," Dick said. Aw hell the fuck no. First he's into Selina and now he's on Batgirl's side. I just shot him a look through narrowed eyes, not saying what I was thinking.

"If you think Batgirl is so cool, why don't you just fuck Batman then?" Gabe asked, immediately taking my side, even if he didn't know why I was so against it. Dick immediately started pouting, and I placed a hand on my shoulder to give him a faux-comforting look.

"If we're shaming him for liking Batgirl, why aren't we shaming Poison Ivy lovers here? She's a plant. A fucking plant," Alex said, shaking his head.

"She's a metahuman, so shut the fuck up," Gabe shot back.

"Yeah, but if people like King Shark you'd still say that they were shark fuckers," Alex tried arguing. I gave an annoyed sigh, knowing his point was stupid. Alex just glared at me.

"Ivy looks human, she doesn't look like a fucking tree, now does she?" Gabe replied.

"However, if she did look like a tree, then we'd definitely be calling Ivy lovers tree fuckers," I added. Gabe nodded, and Alex's exaggerated sigh let us know that he gave up. The rest of lunch passed with little talk of Batgirl, the topic moving instead to how much our classes this year made us work. It was insane compared to the previous years, but we didn't really have the choice not to do it.

Before long, school was out and I found myself back at Sirens HQ. We didn't have anything planned, but it wasn't like I had anywhere else to go. Sure, we went to Alex's house again, but everyone left after a couple hours. I was sat in the corner of the computer room at what I had deemed my workshop. Bits of tech and random computer chips were scattered across my desk, not unlike my desk at home. I was finalizing a bit of tech in a device I was going to use to modify appearance, which used light refraction to change the way other people saw me. I figured that, once I worked out all the kinks, I'd be able to sell some of the tech on the black market for a pretty penny. But that was still a tentative plan, there were some people I definitely wouldn't want to get their hands on my tech.

As I was working, I heard a crash and some yelling. I looked up at the skylight, seeing that night had fallen (and it must've been dark for a while now), so something must've happened on a job. I got up, glasses still perched on the end of my nose, and walked down the stairs to where the others were. Harley was yelling, and, based on the broken vase beside her, I assumed she was also the source of the crash. I hopped over the railing on the staircase and landed next to her, keeping a fair distance so as to not get hurt. "Hey, Harls, what's wrong?" I asked, trying to keep my voice steady to calm her.

"He ruined my life! I can't even go out cuz he's out there!" Harley yelled, ignoring me. I looked over to Selina for some clarification and she motioned me over. Harley continued yelling and breaking things while Ivy tried to calm her down.

"They went out tonight and ran into some new guy. He kept mocking Harley, saying she's nothing more than Joker's lapdog," Selina explained in a low voice, trying to keep Harley from hearing. My blood immediately boiled; no one talked to Harley like that. "Ivy said she had to rip Harley off of the guy before she killed him."