"Why me?" The Dark Damsel groaned from her perch over Gotham City. With her black half cape wrapped around her sensual form she seemed as much a part of the architecture as the carved gargoyle she was posted beside. Her skin tight latex costume framed her perfectly lithe frame for no other purpose than display. The half cape ended just above her perfectly heart shaped rump and did more to draw attention to that attribute than to conceal it. "Why am I here?"
"Robin is away with the Titans." Her mentor, Batman, replied. Unlike his ward who merely almost blended with their stone companions the Batman blended completely with his surroundings. The pounding rain that was nearly drowning Barbara Gordon didn't seem to even concern Bruce Wayne. "You've also shown a level of understanding Poison Ivy that exceeds my own in many ways."
For a moment the two were completely silent, the only movement the flickering of their eyes from one spot to the next waiting for any sign of their supposed target. It was Batgirl who broke the silence yet again. "Why don't we just go in? I hate stake outs. I hate them even more when it's raining." Barbara fought the urge to visually shiver. The costume was designed for ease of movement and to deflect bullets but it didn't do a great deal to keep the wearer warm. "It's just Ivy. You could handle this alone if you wanted to."
"There is no guarantee that Ivy is alone in this. There's even a chance that it's not Ivy who is behind this plot." The Batman replied almost without moving his lips. Years of training as a magician and ventriloquist made it second nature to speak without moving his face. It was a useful skill on a stake out when you were imitating a gargoyle.
A bolt of lighting fired from the heavens divided Gotham's defenders for a split second and neither of them so much as flinched. "There is something to be said for Shock and Awe." Batgirl let the sarcasm roll from her lips. She knew her mentor wasn't even going to glorify her with a response so it wasn't a surprise when none came it wasn't a shock or even insulting.
The last two weeks of her life had been dedicated to this case and finding out who was behind it. It had begun with a series of break ins across the city taking expensive and often untested fertilizers. The second stage had been of several power plants, two of which were Wayne Tech. the only things stolen were the blue prints. A little research revealed a similar pattern in both Bludhaven, where former Robin, Nightwing, resided and Metropolis where the legendary Superman did his rounds. Star Labs and Lexcorp were both victims in equal numbers as Wayne Tech which ruled out any sort of industrial espionage.
The timing made Poison Ivy the most likely culprit as well. With Earth Day only a scant week away the eco-terrorists was almost predictable. It wasn't so much a matter of if she was up to something as it was what she was up to.
The two crime fighters disagreed on what was the best way to react. Barbara would have tracked down Poison Ivy and brought her in on anything she could think of. The botanist bitch was probably breaking half dozen laws as well as twice that many parole violations. It would be easy to haul her now and avoid the nearly inevitable collateral damage of her actual plan. Choosing the location of a battle would help a lot. The best way to go about this was to hunt down the most likely culprit and take them out of play.
The Batman however has two things working in his favor. The first was experience. He knew how these fiends worked in part because he was partially responsible for them. Most of them would have existed with or without him but instead of being fairly mild and completely successful they were completely extreme and mildly successful. The second thing was his nearly psychic ability to find the best way to handle a situation. So the younger Batgirl accepted his judgment and waited in the driving rain.
There was more than sufficient reason to wait a little while longer as well. Most of Poison Ivy's plots weren't particularly deep. She was usually a simple case of some one who was destroying the ecosystem and she would avenge the environment. The current string of crimes didn't fit precisely with her MO. "We wait. Make sure it's her."
"I'm cold and wet." Batgirl moaned. The Batman didn't so much as respond with even a slight grunt. "Fine."
It was almost two hours later and the rain had been replaced with sleet pounding down on the two crime fighters when she made her move. Poison Ivy emerged from the building clutching a box close to her impressive chest. She quickly darted across the street and a moment later she was speeding down the streets of Gotham unaware of the two following her.
"Where's she heading?" Batgirl asked after a few blocks.
"Only thing of any importance out that way is Gotham Nuclear." Batman responded stopping his pursuit. A few pushed buttons on his utility belt summoned the nearly Batwing. Even under normal conditions the stealth jet ran quietly enough and invisibly against Gotham's dark skies to make stealthy tailing possible, in the storm it was completely undetectable and startled Barbara when it seemed to materialize behind her.
