Post by The Wonderful Wachter on Jul 10, 2013 21:11:46 GMT -5
Note: This takes place during Ultimate 'Haven #5
The case stared back with a judging glare that surpassed even death. Stared as if to say Kate wasn’t good enough, that she had failed the city. Worse, that she had failed her family. Aaron was gone. Missing. Taken by god knows who. And she was nowhere closer to finding out who had him as she had been when she learned he had been kidnapped. What humiliation… To learn about it at the same time as her detective girlfriend.
Just what use was Cluemaster to her?
Kate’s fist cracked the glass of the case as she smashed her hand into it.
Wingman continued to watch with the faceless attention of the dead.
She never should have replaced that damn mask. Should have let the costume go unfinished. The case had no identity to protect in the end. What did it need the mask for?
Why’d she even need it?
God… She hated that blue, black and yellow. Such a horrid coloration. But Wingman never changed it. Not once. When he left the League and nested in Blüdhaven, he designed it himself. He actually liked the high collar and had only updated the make of the uniform in the nearly two decades he had worn it. That’s what happens when you miss the age of disco and moonlight as an assassin. . . That was how she had justified fighting side by side with him.
She took a step down the line, to the next case, the high walls of the Bat-bunker shining far too white between the displays. Jason wasn’t the first Redbird. The honor belonged to Kate in her youth. It had been a brighter age back then. The red and green made her light up like a Christmas tree and then she had to go and add yellow to it. Only had two in the span of four years, she laughed. Jason had gone through three uniforms in just the couple months he’d been her partner. Guess he grew faster than her. Or maybe she always knew she wasn’t a bird.
Next case down the line… A bat. Black. Purple impact padding. Yellow… Always yellow. When had she switched to red? She couldn’t remember. Just faint visions without the lenses built into her masks since then. The cowl had definitely been a mistake. Should have followed her mother’s example quicker.
Her mother.
The first Batwoman.
Yet another case watching with judging eyes…
Nearly ten years now she had stepped into those boots and she might as well still call herself Bat-girl.
Wingman was gone. He’d never be coming back. Kate was the guardian of Blüdhaven now. She had to keep the balance in the Haven. Needed to watch, wait, let the worst of the worst move on up to Gotham. Couldn’t let anyone else sink their claws into the Haven. Training ground. It needed to stay that way. It was for the greater good.
Hood couldn’t understand that. He never would understand it. He’d play his game and get more people killed. She knew that now. It had only taken the death of her uncle, her mentor for her realize it. The Court was here to stay. And had been since the first bloody days of the Haven. They liked the city this way… Just the right level of corruption and crime for them to hide below the surface and further their agenda while Wingman, now Kate, had the harsh task to prevent another purge like what had happened in the eighties from happening ever again.
Nobody got a foothold in the Haven without the Court’s approval.
So how was it that she would do a task that had once required two? How was she to gain the reputation, the hissed whispers in the shadows, to keep the criminal element from expanding too much? Not everyone believed in the rumors of the Court. In fact, most didn’t until a Talon came for their head. Kate had to be the frontman.
The glimmers of a plan formed in her head. That was why she found herself shrouded in the shadows of a private hangar. A killer was coming to her city. One she knew personally. One that had once overseen her training. And Bat-girl would not let her past these doors.
Bat-girl… She probably needed to do something about that. She wasn’t a kid anymore. Not that she had particularly cared for the name when she was. Just wasn’t prepared to take her mother’s mantle. Now, perhaps, she had no choice.
Hangar doors opened. The small private jet slid slickly through. She waited for it to stop, for the doors to close once more. One click on her utility belt and an explosion sounded in the back. The meager lights of the hangar vanished into darkness, letting only the plane’s running lights to illuminate the surroundings.
Flash.
Flash.
She took down the ground crew before the engine had stopped running.
Flash.
Pssssisssssh…
Flare tossed onto the floor. Quite thematic.
“Young Tsubasa,” a dignified voice, heavily accented. “I’d ask how you knew I was arriving but we both know who tipped you off.”
A figure stepped into the orange light of the flare. Kate could just barely make out the signature outline of a dragon and a bird locked in combat snaking up the woman’s sleeveless shirt to her Mandarin collar. Bare arms held no weapons in their hands. Not that they needed to. The figure was perhaps the deadliest woman, if not fighter, in the world.
“Lady Shiva… Go back home.” Kate ordered from the shadows.
“Am I to be an example, Young Tsubasa?”
“Last chance.” From the sounds, Shiva’s pilot had stayed on the plane. This was personal. Good. Very good.
“You are alone now,” Shiva said without the hint of a threat. “A scared little girl hiding in the dark. Your uncle would be disappointed. I am disappointed.”
On the second disappointed, like some disjointed camera flash highlighted by the plane, Shiva launched herself toward Kate. Always closer, always closer. Kate didn’t move. She was frozen in spot as darkness, then a killing blow, flew at her head. It never arrived.
For her part, Shiva did not growl in frustration at failing to kill her target.
“Hardly fair.”
Richard Dragon tightened his grip on Shiva’s wrist. “Fighting is not meant to be fair when one has no choice but to win.”
Kate’s snap kick caught Shiva in the middle, sending her tumbling back when Richard let go.
“I never said I was alone.” Bat-girl readied herself for the fight to continue. “You assumed that on your own.”
“Is this what you will do, Young Tsubasa? Get your betters to fight your battles?”
“When I have to, yes. I know I can’t beat you on my own yet but that’s okay. I know when to ask for help.”
“And we’ll help her when we can,” a third figure approached, his footsteps heavy, “we owe it to Kathy and Bobby.”
Wildcat stood glowing in the flare’s light. It cast distinctly sinister shadows across his masked face as he took vigil between Shiva and her plane.
“It is to be an ambush then.”
“Not to be,” a cackling voice said from the rafters. “Simply is.” The Creeper busted out laughing over his play on words.
“I’ll say it again… Go home.”
Lady Shiva picked herself off the concrete like a victor who had known she lost the fight before it ever began. She could take Dragon, Kate knew. Richard would have been too busy trying to protect her. Might even have been able to fight Wildcat to a standstill. But in the end, Creeper pushed the odds distinctly out of her favor. A loss with only one punch thrown.
“Next time, Batwoman.” Lady Shiva bowed to Kate and turned to head back to her plane.
Over the beating of her heart, Kate didn’t hear the exchange of words between Shiva and Ted. She won. She had gambled and won. Word would get out, Cluemaster would make sure of that, and soon all would know that a dark knight still stood sentinel over ‘Haven.
Comprehension danced across Kate’s clouded features. She understood now why she felt like the dead were judging her. That memory reminded her. It had been her first major outing after Wingman had been murdered by the Red Hood. And now he was back. He’d kidnapped Lincoln March practically right in front of her face. Left his damn calling card.
And what had she been doing instead of following leads?
Spending time with Renee. Expected Arthur to do her job while she had fun.
That was her failure.
Yes.
She knew when to ask for help but one could not solely rely on that help.
The bunker’s communication set at the central mainframe beeped for her attention.
“Go.”
”Arnot. Inspector Arnot.”
Kate ended the call without a thank you. No break. No rest until she found Aaron. Even if it wasn’t your usual kidnapping, captive kids had it hard. And if there was one thing she could trust Red Hood to do, it was to be a showman. March would show up alive soon. And he’d carry her a message.
For now… her eyes glanced down at the flashing time.
Jason was still in school. That was good. It was too early for him to see some of the more advanced interrogation techniques. He’d take to them far too well with his current beliefs. She’d break him of that eventually. After she found Aaron and made his kidnappers pay.