She was so close, but he was getting away again. Batgirl caught a fleeting glimpse of a fleeing figure before the bombs went off and the fire began.
She was getting mighty tired of this.
He kept setting his traps in the same area, as far as possible from the closest fire station. He had to know that the flames would be put out, he just wanted them to burn as long as they could. Renee wondered if he even realized that being out this far meant he had an easier escape. Any nearer to help, and Renee might have risked allowing the firemen to take care of the citizens. But there was just enough time before they would arrive that she had to stop and help, and let him run away again.
Tonight though, Batgirl wasn’t alone. By the time she had evacuated the top floor of this building – a storefront on bottom and apartments above – a small crowd had gathered wide-eyed to watch a different rescue attempt. Framed dramatically in an open third-story window were a frightened young man and a bold young woman – Renee recognized Roxie Rocket in an instant. She had him draped across her side, her arm around his waist and both his curled around her neck, and she had already thrown her rope to a neighboring building. Roxie was beaming; Renee’s jaw dropped.
“Roxie, what are you doing?” Batgirl hissed between her teeth, and started to climb up the closest fire escape. Below, the crowd gasped and cheered, while above, Roxie only smiled. Renee watched her closely, and prepared her own next move.
“Hold on tight, now!” Roxie instructed the man, loud enough for the crowd to hear, and turned his head to kiss him with gusto. “For luck,” she winked, and then jumped.
The cheers from the onlookers quickly turned to shouts and screams – as Roxie glided through the air on her line, the man started to slip from her grasp. His panicked hands grabbed at the air, and it wasn’t until his hand was uncomfortably close to her chest that Roxie even seemed to notice he was falling. She shouted, too, and a hush went over the crowd when the man dropped, still two stories up from the ground.
Batgirl swung at just the right moment ,and caught him ten feet from the ground, to thunderous applause. She kept her arc steady, let him fall again when the distance was safe, and landed next to a vaguely shell-shocked Roxie on the next building over. “We need to talk.”
“Okay,” Roxie said, looking down at the excited people as the firetrucks pulled up.
“Not here.” Batgirl grabbed Roxie’s wrist roughly and took her away from the action and excitement to a secluded alley several blocks away. “What the hell did you think you were doing?”
“Rescuing that guy.”
“Well nice job!” Batgirl snapped, then breathed slowly to calm herself. “You can’t just do these things without training. I could tell a mile off that wasn’t a secure grip. You could have hurt him worse than the fire would have.”
“Well look, I didn’t, it’s fine.” Roxie didn't look at Batgirl. Instead, her eyes darted all over the walls and ground.
They hadn’t worked together since the night that Roxie had failed to protect her charge. The girl had gotten away with little more than a night in the hospital, but since then, Roxie hadn’t sought out Batgirl’s help. Instead, she worked alone, and Batgirl had kept close track of her actions.
“I can’t let you keep going out alone. You just can’t do this. What about that jumper the other night? What about those kids in the park? Roxie, you need someone to watch your back, to teach you.”
“I’m doing fine.” Roxie glared at the other hero. “I don’t need a lecture. I know what I’m doing. I’ve been doing this for years!”
“You did stunts, with a net and a harness!” Batgirl said. “You can’t just expect the real world to work the same way.”
“You’re just jealous 'cause they love me out there.” Roxie opened her arm toward the crowd they had left. “You heard them! Listen to that! They loved me!”
“That’s not what this job is about. It can’t be.”
“Maybe not for you.” Roxie pushed her aside and started to walk back into the night. “I’ll give you a call when I’ve caught the arsonist. That’ll be more important, right? That’ll show you.”
Renee bit her lip. She had been doing her own research into the criminal, and between her glimpses and observations she had narrowed the field down. She knew where he probably lived, and where his supplies were coming from. Another day or two, and she would have him. She could tell Roxie and take her along, or she could be a real example, and let her learn the hard way which method worked better.
“You have one more chance,” Batgirl yelled after her. “If you do anything this dangerous again, I will stop you. I promise.”
Roxie looked back only for a second, then turned her head in a huff and stalked off.
*****
The flames licked the innards of the building and he watched. He crouched on a rooftop to see his work, unable now to look away. He had to watch, just a little while. It was the only thing left in his life that could be that bright, that beautiful.
He had once been Garfield Lynns. Now even his own private thoughts started to call him Firefly. He still prayed to see the name come up in the papers. It might even make it worth getting caught.
He would be caught. He knew that. The only way not to be caught would be to be careful and not to stay. And if he didn’t stay, what would be the point?
Ever since Roxie had left him, nothing had been right except the fire. First she had lost her insurance, then her job, and suddenly they never saw each other anymore. She moved to Gotham with barely a good-bye, and Lynns had felt his world fall apart. His work was still there, for a time, but he, too, faced trouble with directors and engineers for the size and scope of his pyrotechnics. They were getting larger and more out of control, and finally they sent him away as well, just as they had her. That was when he knew he had to follow Roxie – it had all gone so wrong without her, she was the one who could put it all back together again.
Until then, he had the flames. Live and livid and vibrant, they were always the same. Always well, always inspiring, always needed. He needed the fire. He needed to watch as much as he needed her.
He knew that tonight, he had just barely escaped. Was it Roxie pursuing him now? Or one of Gotham’s vigilantes? He had seen her among their number.
Maybe she could catch him.
Or maybe he could catch her.
Firefly hugged his legs and sat on the ledge of a building a block away. One way or another he’d find her again, and soon. Before the flames took over everything.
*****
If she even really believed it had been a threat from Batgirl, Roxie didn’t take it seriously. She wouldn’t really have to fight off a Bat, and Batgirl didn’t really want her to stop adventuring at all. She was just trying to scare Roxie into behaving more like her, and as for that, no thank you. She had found her style, her niche in a city full of super-heroics. She was making a name for herself again. No one was going to take that away.
Now if she could just make any headway, any progress at all in catching the criminal. Roxie sat with her legs swinging off a window ledge and tried to think of what to do. She hated to admit it, but Batgirl seemed right on one thing – waiting for the fire wasn’t working. Both had tried that again and again, and the criminal was still at large. But she didn’t even know where to begin looking otherwise. Gotham was too big to wander randomly, and she didn’t want to run into too many other crimes…she hadn’t been doing well with them. The girl with a bullet in her foot. The jumper who hadn’t died, but been left in the river too long and developed hypothermia. The siblings who had been abducted in the park while Roxie trained herself just a few yards away.
But she could still stop the arsons. That much she could do, and that would make up for it all. When she found him. Somehow.
Roxie sighed, threw a line and jumped off into the air. More than anything, this was the part of the job she loved. All your worries fell away in the air. Suddenly, nothing mattered but her skill, her expertise and beauty as she stretched her whole body out to catch the breeze. She found herself headed to her own apartment, not all too far from the arson sites, and familiar if still a new place. Roxie landed on the roof with little more than a thump, and stood straight fast when she saw she wasn’t alone.
The figure was taller than Roxie, dressed all in black with an empty bandolier. He had been staring off at the city until Roxie arrived; now he stared at her, and slowly started to step closer. “It was you…I knew it was you I saw.”
“The hell do you think you are, punk?” Roxie shifted her weight into a fighting stance and put up her fists. “I’m warning you, I’m a superhero!”
“Don’t you remember me, Roxie?” The man’s face was hidden completely by his mask, but his voice stirred something familiar. “It hasn’t been so long…I haven’t forgotten.”
Roxie put her guard down a bit and let him come to her. “Guess I have. Remind me.”
Firefly lifted the mask, and waited for the gasp that would tell him she recognized him. It didn’t come, and he pulled the whole fabric away. When the fabric came away from his eyes, he just saw her looking blankly back at him. “Roxie…it’s me. It’s Garfield.”
“Gar – Garfield?” she choked on the name, and now she knew him. “What are you doing here? What are you wearing?” Roxie gave him a longer look, and her eyes widened; whether in fear or in joy, Firefly couldn’t tell. “Oh my god. No.”
“I, I came here to find you again.” Firefly stepped closer, and now Roxie started to back away. “I found you. You left so quickly last time. But it’ll be better now. We can be together again. A new life for both of us.”
“It’s you,” Roxie breathed, leaning against the wall to the stairwell to steady her balance. “You’re the one who’s setting all those fires. Gar, babe, what the hell happened to movie booms?”
“They fired me,” he said, and wouldn’t stop stepping up closer. “They fired us. Both of us. They took away what we loved. Roxie, I know why you came here, I know. We’re the same. We can’t live without our spectacle. Our fireworks…we can have them again. It’s all going to be alright now,” he finished with such a relieved sigh.
Roxie shook her head slowly, backed up against the wall. “No…no, it’s not. We’re over. We’ve been over. Was it not a big enough clue for me to skip town?”
Firefly kept staring, and he was close enough now for her to smell the smoke on his costume. “But I found you again. But we’re together again now. Roxie, I need you…it’s you or the fire and the fire wants so much more of me.” His eyes were wide, and his voice was even, and Roxie shivered in his shadow.
“Look, I don’t know what you’re talking about. But I’m out here to catch the arsonist. I’ve got to take you in, babe.” She pulled a rope out of her belt, but couldn’t shift her weight the same way with her back against the wall. “I’ve got to.”
“You can just leave it at ‘take me’,” Firefly chuckled to himself, and then yelped when Roxie’s fist came down onto his shoulder. He jumped back, and she scurried out of her trap. “Roxie, no! You’re going to come home with me. I got it all prepared. It’s ready for you, for us.”
“When did you get crazy?” Roxie shouted and threw her rope like a whip to lash across his chest.
“I’ll be better when you’re mine again,” Firefly promised.
Neither of them were quite prepared for the fight, or the sight of the other. They circled each other and threw mediocre blows, never getting too close, and barely wore each other down. Roxie tried her hardest, but couldn’t manage to fight, not one-on-one, not in a space this open; she would run forward to strike at Firefly, only to find herself skidding on the rooftop once she was done, and as far away on the opposite side as she had been before. For his part, Firefly was slowly coming to realize that she was serious. There was fear in her eyes, and some enjoyment, but not for him.
“You’re going to be mine!” Firefly shouted, and finally reached into his arsenal. “I won’t hurt you, I don’t want to hurt you. But if I have to use this.” His belt was mostly empty, having used nearly all of the materials for the night’s fire, but there was a small round pellet in his fingers now, and he threw it hard against the floor.
A thick cloud of smoke erupted, along with a bright, blinding flash. Roxie crumpled as she tried to hide her eyes too late, and coughed on the smoke, and Firefly had what he needed. He rushed forward, used to the brightness and clouds after all the work he’d done, and grabbed her into his arms.
“We’re going to be together, it’s going to be wonderful, it’s going to be alright again,” he swore, and carried her off across Gotham.
*****
“Ugh, there’s more of it today. Harley, what did you do to get so much junk mail?” Ivy tossed her the latest letter without opening it. “This place doesn’t even technically have an address.”
“Yeah, I don’t know.” Harley caught the envelope and tucked it into her belt at the small of her back with a small gulp. The letters had started coming every day, and no matter how much she promised herself that she would tear it up at the first chance she had, Harley knew she would wind up reading it before she did. Ivy didn’t’ ever have to know they were anything other than junk, and she never looked too close to realize they were all hand-scrawled.
Ivy glanced at her friend before sitting herself down, draped against her armchair with her legs leaning off of one armrest. “Must be with the scouts,” she guessed.
“Yeah, must be,” Harley agreed with a brightly-painted grin. “You’re sure you don’t want to come on our camping trip? Whole night just out in the woods lookin’ for ferns!”
Ivy chuckled and shook her head. “A, I don’t think those kids’ parents would be too happy. B, I’ve spent plenty of time in those woods for a while. And C, I’d make it way too easy to find ferns.”
“I guess so. You know, you can be no fun sometimes,” Harley teased.
“Yup. That’s why I let you live with me for so long.” Ivy’s eyes closed, and both women relaxed in their living room. Just before the point where she would have fallen asleep, Ivy heard a soft, inquisitive murmur from across the room. “What was that?”
Harley hesitated, and then spoke up louder. “You ever have trouble with guys? I mean, maybe not like, now, but before?”
“All the time. What kind?”
“Like…following you trouble?” Harley sat up straighter. “Not like anything creepy really, I mean I don’t know if it is. But you remember that Jack guy?* I think I saw him a few days ago on the street…and then a couple days at a restaurant. And then yesterday outside the window at work.”
*Author’s Note – see Gotham Girls #18 for the full story! Ivy frowned. “Sounds like trouble. That’s the creepy one who you robbed right?”
“I mean I didn’t think he was so creepy,” Harley murmured, and nodded. “Not like he’s said anything or anything. I thought at first I probably just saw him wrong but…I mean you remember a guy like that.”
“Listen. Anyone ever gives you any trouble, you bring them here. Anyone starts following you, lead ‘em here. If the poison doesn’t get them, I promise you, I will.” Ivy smiled and left her eyes closed. She didn’t see Harley’s fingers playing on the edge of the envelope, and didn’t see her place it inside a book to take back to her room later.
Harley let a few minutes go by twiddling her thumbs, and then spoke up again. “So…how’s Ferak?”
Ivy let out a short, tired laugh. “Learning. Adjusting. It’s going to take her some time. But I think she’s starting to get the hang of it.” She still had a small cut on her arm from Ferak’s fingernail the other day, when she had lost a little more control than normal. “It’s hard for her being somewhere new. But they tell me they wouldn’t be able to do what they’re doing without me. Granted, then they make me sit by myself at lunch,” she joked.
Most of Ivy’s work at the lab was simply being around Ferak and trying to keep her calm, and it seemed to be helping. Ivy had been there for a few hours at a time, most days of the week since Ferak had arrived, making sure that she was given enough time outside in the sunlight and enough room. She had told the scientists working with Ferak the basics of what they had found in Darkwood’s office, but not why she cared so much. Even so, Ferak had begun to call Ivy “Sister”, and Ivy hadn’t done anything to discourage her.
“The only weird thing though…” Ivy started, then continued with Harley’s encouraging nod, “I keep wondering who she is.”
“Who who is?”
“Batgirl.” Ivy sat herself back up and opened her eyes. “She said she worked there. But I haven’t seen anyone who’s enough like her. I would know.”
“So…what, she lied about it?” Harley asked.
“I don’t know. That, or she’s better at hiding than I thought.”
Harley nodded. “It’s a start, though? You think maybe she wants you to find her? Like you’d be questing for her name and, and when you give it to her then she’s all yours!” her voice sped as she got more excited.
With her bottom lip tucked between her teeth, Ivy slowly started to smile. “You know…that’s not a bad idea.”
*****
This was it. This was the night – Batgirl had him in her sights, and this time he hadn’t been able to get his explosives off before she found him. This time, he was running away with no danger left in his wake, and he wouldn’t escape.
Batgirl picked herself up into the air, over the running fugitive, and dropped down right in his path. The man in black started and almost fell. She was a little taller than him, and certainly quite a bit stronger. “Finally. You get one chance to explain to me why all your fire-setting is somehow some noble cause before I beat you up and take you in.”
“I…my name’s Firefly,” he sputtered, staring up at Batgirl in what looked like awe, and what she hoped was fear. He started to laugh, a slow sputter of nerves, only stopping when her fist came down onto his chest. “That was my one chance?”
“Yup.” Batgirl struck a punch again, and this time Firefly jumped back. “I’m gonna take a wild guess and say you won’t come quietly.”
“I can’t,” he said, soft and desperate. “I’m too close, I…” Firefly cut himself off and turned to try to run away.
Batgirl growled, and followed. He wasn’t slow, but he wasn’t trained. He wasn’t powered. As things went, he was barely a threat to her. He didn’t even seem to be armed; at least, he hadn’t pulled anything on her yet. In her head, she was already getting out her handcuffs.
“I can’t go!” Firefly shouted, as Batgirl descended on him again, bowling him over on the roof he had jumped to. “I can’t not yet, I just got her!”
“'Her' who?” Batgirl demanded, and bent Firefly’s arm behind his back. “What have you done?”
Firefly started that laugh again, as Batgirl stripped him of his materials. “Roxie…my Roxie…she’s home…with the fireworks.”
Behind her mask, Renee’s face tightened as she felt the icy realization sink into her skin. “What did you do with Roxie Rocket?”
“She didn’t want me to come home,” Firefly said into the cement, and Batgirl flipped him roughly onto his back to talk to her directly. “I had to make her want to…like I wanted her all this time. The fireworks…they’ll go off, if I don’t come home…I’ll come home and save her and she’ll love me again.”
“Where?!” Batgirl demanded, her hands closing tight around his collar. He choked out an address, just barely too far away for comfort. “Ten…ten o’clock…I have to get home by ten…”
Her teeth grit, and Batgirl threw him down harder than necessary. Firefly’s chemicals and lighters were tucked into her belt; he shouldn’t be an immediate threat, to anyone but Roxie. She took one hand up to her cowl to tap her communicator. “Oracle, what time is it?”
The voice came back a few precious seconds later. “Uh, ‘bout nine forty-five? Why?”
“Send the cops and the bomb squad, and fast.” Batgirl passed the address to Oracle, and paused for the shortest time she could to bind his wrists and leave her marker on the rope. His hands were cuffed, and the cuffs were themselves tied to a wide pipe on the roof. “I’ll be back for you,” she promised, and started to run.
*****
Roxie watched the clock. It was all she could do – when she had woken up, Lynns had already fastened her securely in her chair. The apartment was tiny and drab, sparsely-decorated and cold. She was glad for the bomber jacket as she sat there, feeling her rear getting progressively more numb, unable to shift and move. Her legs were each tied down to one of the chair’s, the knots decorative but still strong. Her arms were likewise tied, and one rope had been fastened lovingly around her waist. There was a handkerchief around her face, but more for show than any true gag. She had seen the pain in his eyes as he finished tying her down, as she started to struggle when she woke up.
“Stay here, love…stay, and I’ll be home soon,” he had told her, and then run off. Roxie had tried to get herself out, but there was little point in trying. Her muscles were still weak. There must have been something in that smoke bomb, something more than the flash that had blinded her for the moment. Her head was still woozy. She was nervous. And there was something ticking unpleasantly in the other room that she couldn’t see.
It was about five minutes until ten. She couldn’t have been here for more than a couple of hours. She couldn’t tell whether the ticking grew louder, or whether it was just the only sound in the silence. And then there was a crash, and a splintering of wood, and she still couldn’t quite turn her head to see what was going on. “Hey!” she shouted, the kerchief fluttering over her lips and getting caught in them. “In here!”
“I know.” Batgirl came into her view, and Roxie swallowed. She leaned her head forward, expecting to be let free, but Batgirl sailed right past her after a quick look around the room.
“Well, thanks for coming,” Roxie muttered.
Batgirl moved quickly. There wasn’t time for subtlety and care. She had to stop herself and hold her breath to start to hear the ticks, and follow them with sweat soaking her brow. The explosives were hidden well, and she only had a few minutes left. She didn’t stop to consider the thought that Firefly might have been lying. She had heard it in his voice, and knew that he was unhinged enough to be telling the truth.
Finally, she found the closet. Her heart started to sink when she opened the door, and saw them – real fireworks, stacked high, and attached to the ticking, makeshift alarm. He had used an old-fashioned alarm clock, and Renee didn’t want to think about how long he had kept it, waiting to use it this way. She only bent down to try to find the right wires to cut, much too aware of the massive amount of power looming just above her neck.
“What’s going on?” Roxie called from the other room, trying to jump the chair to see better. “What did he do?” She could hear sirens approaching outside, a frustrated bark from a big dog.
Renee stole a glance at the clock as she took out her wire-cutters and thanked Batman for his insistence that she be ready for anything. Detective Montoya had never had to learn to defuse. Nine fifty-eight. Maybe enough time for the bomb squad to get up the stairs, and into the room, and get everything sorted out. But maybe not. Her hands shook. One of the fireworks started to sputter too early, and she reached up to snip off its fuse. Then its brother, then another – Renee worked as fast as she could, removing the bonds between the fireworks and their signal to go off. The floor was littered with bits of string and twine, and Firefly’s obsessive arrangement kept each of the rockets safely fastened inside the closet, supporting each other so none of them fell back down. She turned her back and covered her body with her cloak as she ran out back into the main room.
The alarm clock rang cheerfully, and there was a boom and a bang and a flash of light. Roxie screamed in the chair; the door fell open, admitting the police and their sniffing dogs. There was less need for them now – the bedroom where the fireworks were hidden had started to fill with smoke. The rockets hadn’t gone off, and the explosion hadn’t gone past Lynns’ apartment into his neighbors the way Batgirl had feared. But the fire had begun.
Batgirl left the fire to the professionals, this time, and grabbed Roxie’s chair on the way out of the building. There was the tiniest of smiles on her face as she carried Roxie outside, bent backward and still bound and gagged.
When they were a roof away, Batgirl untied her, and gave her just a second to rub her wrists and ankles before starting off again. “Come on.”
“What? What now, what the hell else is happening to me tonight?”
“Just come,” Batgirl told her, and led the way.
By the time they reached him, Firefly knew that he was done. He had slumped against the pipe and listened, and watched in the direction of his house. He saw no fireworks. There was nothing left, and he barely looked back up when Batgirl and Roxie stepped back up to him.
“Wow…isn’t that pathetic?” Roxie said bluntly as she looked down at her would-be captor. “I don’t even want to know what happened to you, babe.”
“You know him?” Batgirl asked.
Roxie nodded. “While ago. I guess…this whole thing was my fault. Well, his. But mine. He was looking for me.” Roxie waited for Firefly to nod, and confirm it.
“Then you’re going to be the one taking him in, and explaining this whole thing to the cops,” Batgirl told her, folding her arms. “With my supervision.”
Roxie gave a hollow laugh. “Yeah. You send me off alone with this nutcase and I’ll send the cops back after you.” Something changed in her face; the arrogant laughter had gone out of her eyes, and she looked a little older than she had the last time Batgirl saw her. She slumped forward as she untied Firefly from the pipe, although she laughed more genuinely when she held the rope. “I like having him on a leash, though.”
That, Batgirl had to laugh at. Firefly gazed balefully up at Roxie, and whimpered his whispers. “I wouldn’t have hurt you, Roxie, I love you, I was coming home to stop it, to save you.”
Roxie tugged on the rope, and made him stumble. “Yeah, I’m not so much on the being saved. If you can’t tell. You’re sick, babe. You might be a genius, but you’re a crazy one.”
They took him in together, Batgirl leading the way to the closest precinct, and Roxie explained what she could of the crimes and their lead-up. When Lynns was safe in custody, and Roxie had identified him as much as the police needed, Batgirl took her back up onto the rooftops. She held out her hand, and Roxie sheepishly took her tools and tricks out of her jacket, and handed them over, one by one.
“Call me crazy, but this whole hero thing isn’t seeming as great as it did the other day,” Roxie admitted.
Batgirl smiled at her, and unfolded a thin cloth bag to put her things in. “It gets easier. It does, when you get used to the pressure, and learn the ropes. You can still be taught. If you still want to do this.”
Roxie shook her head slowly. She kept her helmet and her jacket, and one length of rope, and that was all. “If I can go the rest of my life and never be cooped up like that again, it’ll be too soon.”
“It’ll be worse if you get yourself landed in the hospital,” Batgirl reminded her.
“Yeah…hell, maybe I’ll go back to LA,” Roxie shrugged. “Maybe there’s still work for me. On-camera, training…who knows.”
“Just do me a favor?” Roxie nodded, and Batgirl let her folded arms fall down. “Don’t do this again, if you get bored?”
“You got it.” Roxie shook her hand, and their eyes met, through Batgirl’s mask and Roxie’s goggles. Before the talking-to could go on any longer, Roxie made a running start toward the other end of the rooftop, and threw her rope. One last time, she flew out over the city, but Renee could see the new caution in her movements. She could never be sure, not in this town. But it looked like things were going to wind up with lessons learned, and troubles over.
