Batman: Corporate Rivalry: #2

Four days later, Batgirl was in Chicago with her Strike Force.

They did not have a base, as such; they met on top of the tallest tower in the city. Batgirl was usually the one that called them together, though each of the others could theoretically do so in the event of an emergency.

Chicago was still an older town; one that had never left it's Mafia roots behind. But those crime families found themselves constantly at war with super villain organizations that threatened them; Intergang, the HIVE, Kobra. Batgirl's strike force hit on all sides equally, trying to drive everyone underground.

One particular super villain group, the Wildebeest Society, took offense to the Strike Force and tried to take them out.

It was a mistake.

Batgirl had a special subway rocket that enabled her to have high speed transport between Chicago and Gotham. It spent most of it's time underground, but could use surface rails when required. An onboard computer shunted it out of the way of any other railway traffic. Another of Wayne Enterprises' little gifts. Not that she would tell the Checkmate agent that, though her agency probably knew that already. She didn't ask.

As the rocket ripped along towards Gotham, Batgirl turned and stared at the Knight. "Now."

The Checkmate Knight took off her helmet, revealing a face almost as young as Batgirl's own. She grinned, showing too many teeth. Her eyes sparkled. "Satisfied?"

"Yes," Batgirl agreed, finally softening. "Necessary precautions, you understand."

"I do," the Knight agreed. "We'll have that hacker for you soon as we can. Someone who won't ask questions. But they probably won't always be available."

"I understand. Can I drop you somewhere?"

"First convenient stop is fine. I can call my superiors from most anywhere. Do give Wayne my regards."

Batgirl nodded. "Figured that. Do your superiors know--"

"Who you and Batman are? No; but we haven't tried very hard to find out, either. We'll let you know if it becomes pressing."

Batgirl wasn't sure how to take that. "Don't push Batman too hard."

'Not as hard as you've pushed me tonight," the Knight said lightly enough, though there was a gleam of threat in her eyes. She put her helmet back on.

"Point taken." Batgirl shunted the rocket off into a transit tunnel near Pittsburgh. "Everybody out."

The Harlequin danced around in the abandoned sewers below Tricorner. Abandoned, but not fully dried out; the occasional drip of water here and there. The new sewers were not far away; Tricorner was one of the last places that had been renovated to complete the city's transformation, some five years ago now.

"Jester, my pet," she crooned to her number one lieutenant, "Will you see that our boys and girls are in position?"

"Yes, Mistress," her green-clad, purple-haired consort intoned. He hunched his shoulders and walked away. He was loyal, but always sad when he had to part from her. She shook her head in amusement and cartwheeled over to the other side of the tunnel.

"Lex's goons should be here any minute," she muttered to herself. "Bruce's boys too, come to that. Wonder if the Bat will show up?"

"Asked and answered," Batman said from the shadows behind her.

She whirled and gave her trademark grin. "Why Batso! How nice of you to join the party!"

Batman actually did smile thinly. "This isn't your fight, Harley. Pack up your circus and go home."

"No chance pointy-ears, you know I live for this stuff." She looked around. "Where's your little girlfriend? Is she off with her action figures in Chi-town again?"

"Setting a trap for the corporate battle squads, not that it's any of your business. Last chance, Harley."

Rather than answering, Harlequin threw a red ball at Batman's feet. It exploded in a scarlet flash. Batman had already flipped his cloak in front of his face, anticipating the attack. He was also unsurprised as her blades slashed along the outside of the cape, testing the limits of his armorweave.

He kicked in response, and she stumbled back. Tonight he was wielding a sickle in one hand and a short-handled scythe in the other; he shifted weapons on missions as much as possible. Harlequin stuck with her traditional pair of long knives, coated as always with lethal poison.

They slashed and parried and circled around each other. Batman was totally focused on her, but was well aware the noise might bring some of her "children" down on his head. Batgirl was laying trip mines for the corporate battle squads; he couldn't rely on her to save him. Not that this way anything new for him; he had operated without her, both as Batman and for years before that. But he could use her backup right about now.

His mind focused on Harlequin's style. As a duelist she was mostly a traditional fencer, or as traditional as one could be with two poisoned blades. Aside from the usual repertoire of parries and thrusts, she only added the occasional looping kick. But her psychosis often led her into lateral thinking; she might add something new to her style at any moment.

So she did; but not in the way he was expecting. Instead of a new combat move; she stepped back and whispered some sort of command. A jet of acid spurted from one of the tassels on her cowl. His armor absorbed it easily, of course; but the fumes threatened to choke him.

Stepping back in turn, he desperately stabbed at the emergency signal on his belt.

They watched and waited.

The LexCorp troopers came slowly but surely clanking their way up the tunnel. They were hoping to ambush the Wayne Enterprises patrols that sometimes came through this area. In fact Bruce had told Batman that one was on the way; but it would not get here for some time yet. But if they had to take some of Bruce's troops out to make it look good, they would do so.

After all, they had done it before. One of the things Bruce paid them so well for was to make it look convincing.

They had not finished arming the fourth trip mine. With luck, the explosions of the other three would set it off. If not, they would make do.

They braced themselves in the shadows of the tunnel and waited, just outside of blast radius.

Batman saw Batgirl fidgeting. No one else would notice, but he was trained to see details. The occasional shift of her head, the rate of her breathing, how she occasionally adjusted her weapons.

He was irritated, but knew she had it under control. He had been no different at that age. And he had still been training back then, not out in the field and leading a secondary team in his own right.

But then, he didn't have a teacher in the way that she did; no one had been there to guide him. All the same he was proud of her. But he was careful not to let it show. Overconfidence bred weakness, this he also knew. Their confrontation with Harlequin earlier showed that. Not that he blamed her for their failure; it was as much his fault as hers, for falling vulnerable to the enemy in the first place.

He cut off his line of thought as the LexCorp squads got close to the trip mines. But abruptly they stopped; apparently their scanners had detected the mines. They were getting smarter.

But Batman wasn't worried as they sent forward a demolitions expert to disable the mines; they had planned for this contingency, too.

He pressed the remote control.

The explosion was very loud. One...two...three. The fourth bomb did not go off, but it did provide some fragmentation damage, he judged. At least that was what it sounded like; he couldn't very well look directly at the blast.

The tunnel shook and a few bricks fell; but the charges had been carefully weighed; even if all four had gone off, it still would not have been enough to cause a cave in. Nothing left to chance that could be helped; that was one of his rules.

He snapped into action, lunging forward into the corridor, sensing rather than seeing Batgirl do the same.

Seven LexCorp troopers remained on their feet, stunned and weakened but still fully armed and armored. One of them got a spray of shots off. Armor piercing rounds. Which meant, of course, that Batman's combat suit was only tested, not beaten. All the same he felt the impacts.

The space age metal of his and Batgirl's weapons cut through the powered armor, with some difficulty. He took out two relatively quickly, and Batgirl cut down a third.

Each was turning to confront one of the remaining five when the highest ranking survivor amongst the foe let fly with what had to be a new weapon. A roar of discharge and a bolt of red power ripped right between the vigilantes, tearing at both of their cloaks, ripping and melting them. Both vigilantes stumbled in the heat.

"Plasma shotgun," Batgirl murmured. Batman nodded. It was similar to the wrist cannons the Checkmate Knights used; he had seen the schematics for the weapon, but not known Luthor had put it into production. No matter.

There were several weapons in his own utility belt to counter this, but best to use the foes own resources. Cutting down another of the enemy, he picked up a machine pistol from the fallen foe and fired off a half-dozen armor piercing rounds at the plasma shotgun-wielder. His aim, as ever, was true; the bullets punched through the enemy's helmet, and that was that.

They took down the remaining troopers without trouble.

Batgirl lifted the plasma shotgun thoughtfully. "I'm sure our employer wants a look at this; maybe his techs, too. But when he's done with it, I'd like to give it to the Cyborg. I know he'd love to integrate it into his body."

"More likely we'll have to steal you another prototype. Hit one of Luthor's weapons factories, maybe. I'm sure our paymaster will appreciate the sentiment."

Batgirl laughed, and the two of them vanished into the shadows before Wayne's own forces could arrive.