Two weeks.
She’d been back in Gotham less than two weeks and already she was fatigued. Muscles she didn’t even know she had were screaming. Feet throbbed, tendons felt overstretched. Dark circles were forming on the delicate area surrounding her eyes and there was not enough coffee in the entire city to keep her up another twenty-four hours. Yet, somehow, she plowed through. Pushed through the pain, the exhaustion, the discomfort.
Barbara knew going in this wasn’t going to be easy. This had never been an egotistical hero’s journey. It would be a long road paved with thankless effort and precious little sleep. She was well aware. However, as she bounded up flight after flight of never ending stairs, she was beginning to rethink this whole thing. Her heart pounded in her chest, every breath of air from her lungs burning.
This was too much and she was just not enough.
Sucking back tears, she could hear the officers just a few paces behind her and she felt real fear. What if this was already over just as it had begun? All she had wanted to do was help and now she was being chased by half a dozen of Gotham’s finest through an abandoned building.
Why did she ever think in a million years that this would work?
The garbled radio transceiver barked from one of the officers behind her, something about pursuit of the ‘Batgirl’ and Barbara couldn’t help but scoff.Batgirl? The name made her cringe. Who came up with that codename? Although, at the moment nothing exactly better was coming to mind. She figured, though, if she put her mind to it she could have some up with something a lot better than Batgirl.
Taking the steps two at a time, Barbara climbed higher, her destination the rooftop. From there, she wasn’t quite sure. Stupidly she hadn’t planned that far in advance. She should have known better – always have an out. Always, always, have an escape plan. Truthfully, she hadn’t expected to be trailed by the police. That had thrown quite the wrench in her plan. Her mind was going a mile a minute; once on the roof, grapple a few buildings over and climb down and then….then…
Damn.
Her bike was a half a mile in the opposite direction. By the sound of it, there was a helicopter approaching from the south. And quickly.
Damn, damn.
Focusing, the streets of Gotham opened in her mind. Every alley, every side street. She would make this work, she would find herself an exit – or make one. Just as she was calculating the fastest trajectory back to her wheels, from out of nowhere a hand. Her momentum was just too quick and she hurtled into the man with the mysterious red colored helmet.
Breathless she half listened to what he was saying, most of her attention at the approaching pack of armed men on her heels. Without a second thought, she nodded and followed him. It wasn’t until the pair were on the roof she realized who this man was.
He was just a myth, though, right?
“Alright, Mr. Mysterious Hood, where to?” Barbara squeaked out, her voice hoarse and cracking.
The girl was shorter than Jason, but far more lithe; her copper hair tumbled to her shoulders in waves as she sprinted in front of him towards the roof. Even in his haste, he couldn’t help but notice just how good she looked in costume, how fluidly she moved, how damn long her legs were. How light her steps were, even though her armor and cape must have weighed a good forty pounds.
She broke through the open door, cape flapping behind her. He was a half second behind her, already scanning the rooftop when she addressed him. “Alright, Mr. Mysterious Hood, where to?” Her voice wavered slightly as she spoke, the fear and apprehension pushing through false bravado.
“Down.” And like that, Red Hood pushed her off the roof.
Without sparing a second, the Red Hood fired all six shots of his revolver at the door, not waiting to see what the cops would do. The rounds were explosive silicone putty rounds, designed to incapacitate without fatal injury. Jason didn’t know if they would expand enough to block the door; all he wanted was to buy some time.
He vaulted off the roof after Batgirl, locating her some fifteen feet below him. They were headed towards a connected walkway, some eight stories below. With a deft grapple, he altered his descent, swinging below the female vigilante just before she struck the covered bridge. With a second shot, he stopped their fall completely, bringing them both flush against the underside of the metal catwalk. Jason clipped his belt onto the steel grate, fastening Batgirl likewise.
“There. We should be safe until they move on. What the hell were you thinking, going to the roof alone?” He scowled, although she could not see it. “Bats don’t do well in captivity, I’m told.”
and all of this will never be the same again 