“Come on, come on, pick up!”
”Hey, you reached Gwen Stacy. I can’t come to the phone right now, please leave a message.”
“Damnit!” Barbara cursed for maybe the millionth time that morning and threw her phone away in disgust.
How did everything fall apart so quickly?
They had been so confident. With the information they got from Ghost Spider, the Batfamily had been able to track most of the Falcone’s movements. With a bit of Kara’s help they had tracked nearly every single weapon cache and gathering point. A tip to her father and the entire GCPD could swarm them once he gave the order to the few leaders who weren’t bought and the rest would fall in line to keep their jobs.
What they didn’t plan on was Falcone targeting those same officers the night before. Break-ins, assaults, car crashes. The list went on, but a majority of the people Barbara knew her father could count on were now indisposed for a variety of reasons.
She knew that normally this amount of assault on the police force would call for a major crackdown on the party responsible that no criminal organisation would willingly consider, but the Falcone were already planning to go to war. They knew that they would end up attracting the attention of every cop in the city anyway so they struck first.
While that was a disaster and a half that had kept all of them up for most of the night, it wasn’t the cause of her stress at the moment.
No, that was reserved for the news her father had told her the night before.
Barbara had just gotten an alert that several officers were attacked and received a video clip from Tim showing Ghost Spider hauling off Detective Renee Montoya at the same time. Before anyone could suit up and track down the spider themed meta and find out what the hell she was doing, her dad had knocked on the door and told her that Gwen’s apartment had been broken into as well and Gwen was now missing.
The only reason he told her was because some news vulture had been lurking nearby for a followup article about her father’s murder. The journalist had found the door to Gwen’s place broken and the insides trashed before calling the department. Her dad didn’t know for sure if Gwen had been kidnapped but he didn’t want the first Barbara to hear of her friend’s possible fate to be the morning news.
So while Dick and Tim took over the search for Ghost Spider, even going so far as to let some of their more questionable contacts in the city know they were looking for her, Barbara and Kara had done their best to find out what happened to Gwen but had turned up nothing.
So now Barbara was torn between preparing for a major underworld incident and worrying about her friend.
“Y’know, I was thinking…” a voice broke her out of her reminiscing.
“That’s dangerous.” she replied immediately, more out of habit than malice. Barbara looked over to Kara, who was floating like she was on a couch rather than just hanging midair. The kryptonian was in her superhero uniform, the same as Barbara, although since they were currently in the middle of the Batcave Barbara had left her cowl down, allowing her to look her other friend in the eyes.
“Ha ha. Funny.” Kara rolled her eyes and floated over to one of the computer screens that were automatically troweling the internet looking for any mention of Ghost Spider. So far it was mostly reactions to the news story that played this morning. “Anyways, I was thinking, this kidnapping thing? It doesn’t fit Spidey-girl’s MO.”
Barbara snorted at Kara’s nickname for the new meta. She only wished the new girl didn’t wear a full facemask so they could see her reaction to that the first time she heard it. “Yeah, I know what you mean. Even if we ignored everything she said, so far she’s been spotted at either warehouses or near a bunch of cash. I’d understand if she was hired by the Falcone but if she was then I don’t think she’d have given us all that information.”
“Double agent?” Kara asked, more to help Barbra organize her thoughts than out of real belief.
“Not likely.” Barbara shook her head. “If she was, then they would’ve started prepping to move their gear when we turned down her help.”
“Probably.” her friend agreed.
“I can think of three reasons why Detective Montoya was kidnapped. First, she knew/was involved in something going to happen tonight, so Ghost Spider took her out before then. Not likely, Montoya is one of the people my dad trusts most in the department. Second, Ghost Spider is working with the Falcone… I could kinda see it? If she didn’t believe that we could stop them from starting a gang war she might be looking to get on their good side.”
“And they’d just ignore her dumping the whole plan to you and Dick?” Kara raised an eyebrow.
“Well I doubt she’d tell them if they didn’t know she did that.” Barbara scoffed.
“And third?”
“Third… I think GS had more info than she gave us.” the redhead said slowly. “I know she gave us a lot with that binder, but she knew about the Falcone planning something when no one else had a clue. And what she gave us was mostly just what she had confirmed herself. Who knows what kind of stuff she was looking into but didn’t include? I bet she figured something after our meeting and that tipped her off about the attack on the officers.”
Kara tapped a finger on her chin in thought. “I could see that. But why not let anyone else know? Even if she was mad at us, she could’ve reached out if people were in danger.”
Barbara winced. “After the way Dick brushed her off? I don’t know about that.”
Kara gave her a look and then nodded. “Yeah, I see your point. It’s bad enough when Batman and Kal do that to us. Coming from someone our age? I’d be pissed too.”
Barbara nodded back. Dick had been trying to emulate Bruce more lately to mixed results. It usually worked out but other times it really came back to bite them. Especially with the younger heroes.
“Think she might know what happened to your friend?”
“I think she would be the best person to ask.” Barbara mused. “From what we can tell she was at Montoya’s before anyone else was attacked so she could’ve gotten a message to Gwen also and ran out of time.” she shook her head again. “But we shouldn’t assume that. Let’s just…” she trailed off.
“What?” Kara floated back over to Barbara’s chair and tried reading the alert that had distracted her.
“We just got an alert from one of our friends in the city.” Barbara said as she pulled her cowl over her head and adjusted it. “Apparently Catwoman found GS.”
“Really! Where?”
“The Roderick Appraisal building. She’s robbing one of the vaults there.”
Kara paused for a second. “And how does Catwoman know that?”
“Cause she’s probably robbing the same vault.”
“...right. Why haven’t you guys gone after her yet?”
“Batman has a deal with her. She sticks to only robbing criminals, not that that really cuts down her options, and helps us out by keeping an ear out for anything we’d be interested in. In return we don’t really pay attention to her until she crosses a line.”
Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
“Uh, huh. And it’s not because they’re…” Kara curled her fists and made a bumping motion.
Barbara went scarlet.
“NO! Now hurry up, I don’t want to miss them.”
“Psh, relax. I can get us anywhere in the city in no time.” Supergirl scoffed, but did grow a bit more serious. “How do you want to confront her? She’s apparently robbing places in broad daylight now.”
“Dunno, guess we’ll figure it out as we go. Start good cop, bad cop? If she has a good reason then we can ease up.”
“On one condition.”
Batgirl knew she was going to regret this.
“What?”
“I get to be the bad cop.”
“...we’ll flip for it.”
-o-
The two heroines made excellent time to where they were told to meet up with their thief contact. With Supergirl’s abilities it was incredibly easy for her to just take the end of Batgirl’s grapple gun and tow the other girl through the air behind her.
“They should be here pretty soon. What’s your plan?” Batgirl asked once they set down on one of the taller buildings. Easier to see the others coming that way. Normally she was the one to come up with the plan, but Supergirl had won the flip...
“I’m thinking you get her attention and I come in from behind with the whole ‘disapproving parent’ act.” Supergirl shrugged. “Maybe snatch whatever was so important so Spidey-girl doesn’t just run off.”
A little more aggressive than needed in Batgirl’s opinion, but not necessarily a bad plan.
She would’ve liked a bit more detail but two figures running over the rooftops meant they didn’t have much time. Instead she just nodded and readied to jump down to the lower rooftop where Catwoman and Ghost Spider had stopped.
As she landed she heard Catwoman pointing her out to the younger girl and when she looked up she saw Ghost Spider already tensed up and practically ready to run right then and there.
“Hold on! We just want to talk!” Batgirl exclaimed and took a few steps forward, her arm raised to show she wasn’t about to attack.
Despite this Ghost Spider tensed further and looked like she was going to bolt anyway, so Supergirl made her entrance.
“Although if you’re planning to run, think again.”
However Ghost Spider’s mask worked, it made her eyes ridiculously expressive as they widened at Supergirl’s arrival and narrowed immediately after.
“Look, we’re not here to fight. So can we just relax a bit and talk things out?” Batgirl asked, trying to keep things calm.
“Oh, so now you want to work together.” Ghost Spider snapped. “Cause that’s been really working out for me so far.”
Batgirl winced because, fair, but pressed ahead anyway. “I know, I know. We haven’t really given you a fair shake, but we need to know what’s going on and you seem like the only person who has any info on what the Falcone are planning. That’s why you were able to help with Detective Montoya and saved her, right? You said you wanted to be a hero, so work with us here.”
“They’re working together.” Supergirl confirmed. “I can kinda hear the detective on the earpiece she’s wearing.”
“You don’t do ‘privacy’ do you, you flying cheerleader wannabe.” Ghost Spider bristled.
“Ch-cheerleader!?” Supergirl stuttered. “Says the Halloween reject!”
‘Oh no.’ Batgirl thought. Kara’s temper might be better than it used to be, but she still had a hair trigger for some things.
“Right~. Seems like you girls have some things to chat about. So I’m just gonna go. I’ll call if anything else turns up.” Catwoman said off to the side before slipping off the side of the building.
“I offered to work with you already, gave you a ton of information on top of it, and you told me to get lost.” Ghost Spider ranted, ignoring Catwoman’s departure. “And now all of a sudden you change your mind and I should just be happy and jump on the bandwagon, huh? Screw that! I’m outta here...”
The spider-themed girl started to walk off but was forced to stop when Supergirl moved to hover in front of her.
“You want to leave? Fine. We don’t have time to deal with your attitude. But whatever you stole from the Roderick building stays behind.”
“Screw yo-” Before Ghost Spider could finish, Supergirl appeared behind her and reached out to grab the web-covered bundle. Batgirl watched with surprise as Ghost Spider not only reacted fast enough to keep up with the kryptonian, but also was strong enough to stop Supergirl from casually ripping the package out of her hands.
Definitely some super-strength there, not that Supergirl was putting any real effort into it from what Batgirl could tell. Probably being cautious about breaking whatever was inside.
“What the hell are you doing, Superskank! You have no idea what this is!” Ghost Spider hissed.
“It’s stolen, which means it's staying with us if you're going to run off because your feelings are hurt, Spiderslut.” Supergirl shot back.
“It’s dangerous, you idiot! Let go before-”
“Dangerous to you, maybe. Now are you going to stay and work with us or go cry because Nightwing was mean to you?”
“Girls, come on! We’re on the same side!” Batgirl tried to defuse the situation even as the other two spiraled into trading insults like a pair of teenagers. “We don’t need to fi--”
Batgirl was interrupted when Supergirl grew tired of the stalemate on the bundle and gave it a sharp tug. The bundle was ripped out of Ghost Spider’s hand but she must’ve been using her powers to stick to the webs covering it. The covering ripped free with a loud tearing sound and a near perfect outline of Ghost Spider’s hand could be seen on the main bundle, revealing the glowing green crystal underneath.
Supergirl flinched and dropped to the ground as her powers weakened and cut out. Ghost Spider cursed and immediately moved to get closer. Batgirl, in a move she would later regret, saw her friend getting hurt against all odds and a mostly unknown bearing down on her and reacted on instinct. A trio of batarangs pierced the ground in front of Ghost Spider and an LED started blinking rapidly. Half a second later they exploded sending Ghost Spider tumbling backwards. Supergirl just groaned as the kryptonite was sent skittering past her.
Batgirl wanted to start cursing this whole situation and how things were starting to spiral out of control. She didn’t mean to attack Ghost Spider but she didn’t want her getting closer to her friend when she was vulnerable either. She would apologise after she took care of the kryptonite.
She ran to where the dangerous chunk of space rock had been blown off to and prepared to throw her cape over it, the lining in the fabric should at least stop the radiation from doing more damage-
*thwip!*
-only to have a line of silk snag it off the ground and into Ghost Spider’s waiting hand, where she covered it in webbing once more.
“I-” Ghost Spider said darkly and started walking towards Batgirl. “-am sick and tired of you deciding you’re in charge and getting the blame for your screw ups. So here’s the deal. You-” Ghost Spider jabbed a hand forward and webbed Batgirl’s feet to the roof and her hands together. “-are going to just stand there and not do anything else stupid and I-” This time it was Ghost Spider who was interrupted when a still partially dazed Supergirl punched her in the jaw.
The blonde turned to Batgirl and swayed on her feet, that she was actually staying on the ground was enough to worry Batgirl, and smiled. “Good job distracting her.”
Batgirl facepalmed.
-o-
Ghost Spider groaned and absently ran a hand over her aching jaw.
Again she ran into the heroes and the only thing it got her was more trouble. It pissed her off even more because she knew they weren’t always like this. But whatever reason they had for constantly picking a fight with her, she was done. She wasn’t going to keep turning the other cheek trying to get them to listen to her.
She decided enough was enough, she was leaving.
She snagged the bundled kryptonite and prepared to jump off the building when her spider sense blared.
“Where do you think you’re going!”
“Wait Supergirl, don’t!”
Ghost Spider ducked under a grab, spun, and cracked Supergirl in the nose. The heroine cried out in surprise and pain as her fist connected, but despite being relatively unused to pain Supergirl recovered quickly and punched back.
Ghost Spider wove underneath the fist and connected with a body blow this time, that forced some of the air out of Supergirl’s lungs. Supergirl managed to snag her wrist before it could be pulled back and threw Ghost Spider into a nearby wall of a taller building.
The spider themed girl brushed off a few shards of brick that had fallen on her and snarled at the kryptonian.
“What’s the matter? Can’t handle a fair fight?” Supergirl taunted. With the kryptonite covered she was slowly regaining her strength and speed.
“I’ll show you a ‘fair fight’.” Ghost Spider growled and shot two weblines at the blonde hero. Supergirl instinctively raised her arms to protect against the incoming attack and was surprised when neither one of them hit her.
“Wha-oof!”
Instead of using the silk webbing as a direct attack, Ghost Spider had used them as a giant slingshot to slam herself feet first into Supergirl’s stomach. Both girls slammed into the building on the other side of the roof and Ghost Spider quickly attempted to web Supergirl in place, but the kryptonian managed to bring a leg up and kick the metahuman away.
That set the tone for the rest of the fight. Ghost Spider would use her webs to pin/blind/or otherwise slow Supergirl down, occasionally using them to speed herself up to put more force behind an attack, and Supergirl would tank the hits and try to counterattack when she could. Most of Supergirls attacks ended up missing since Ghost Spider was either agile enough to dodge and use a counterattack of her own or her spider sense warned her ahead of time and she was able to avoid it entirely.
Normally, that wouldn’t be an issue for Supergirl. She could take the hits and win as long as she managed a few of her own, but despite her powers no longer being affected by the kryptonite, she was still much less durable than normal and it was starting to show.
Supergirl was actually bleeding in several places from the stronger hits and was gasping for air. Ghost Spider wasn’t untouched either, holding her side where a lucky hit might've cracked a rib. Still, neither one was willing to give up.
“That all you got, Barbie?” Ghost Spider panted.
Supergirl wiped away some of the blood dripping from her nose. “Just getting started, Shelob.”
In fact, they were getting ready for round two.
Before the two could go back to pummeling each other, a pair of bolas suddenly started wrapping themselves around the two fighters. Supergirl was caught around the chest with her arms pinned to her sides while Ghost Spider tried dodging but was still caught around her wrists.
“WOULD YOU TWO CALM DOWN!!” Batgirl shouted, having freed herself and finally found an opening to intervene.
“In case you both forgot,” she continued when she was sure neither Ghost Spider or Supergirl was going to keep fighting. “There is a gang war about to kick off tonight that could have the whole city go up in flames and you two are fighting each other!”
“Are you serious?!” Supergirl exclaimed, eyes wide and after breaking out of the bolas with a bit of effort, jabbed a finger at Ghost Spider. “She’s stealing kryptonite! You know what that can be used for!”
“Yeah, stealing it from the mob boss trying to take over the city! Great job living up to the dumb blonde stereotype!” Ghost Spider spat back, slipping free of her own restraints.
“Oh my god, will you two just-” Batgirl paused as she felt an alert ping on her communicator. Given that it was set to not alert her for anything less than priority one messages, it caught her full attention. Thankfully the other two picked up on the sudden stop and waited while Batgirl pulled the device from her belt and cursed.
“We have a problem. Catwoman just let me know there’s a helicopter on the way. Falcone’s men and they’re loaded with some serious firepower.” Batgirl said gravely.
“That was fast, but just the one? We could take them.” Supergirl responded confidently.
“News flash, cheerleader, you could take them if you were at full strength. Can you even fly right now?” A quick check later revealed that besides hovering a few inches, no Supergirl couldn’t. “How much you wanna bet you aren’t bulletproof at the moment either?”
Supergirl snarled and was about to respond when Batgirl cut in again.
“Look, I know you’re pissed at us, but we need your help. If we don’t get out of here now that helicopter is going to give us all something to worry about. We can lose it in the city but Supergirl can’t fly and I can’t carry her long enough so if you never want anything to do with us fine...but at least help us get out of here.”
Ghost Spider felt a lot of her anger drain away when Batgirl admitted they needed her help. How much of that was because it was a genuine request and how much was because she knew it was Barbara under the mask was up in the air. But she was right. Making sure the Falcone didn’t have a chance to recover the kryptonite was more important than a fight with Supergirl.
“Fine… I’ll follow you.” she agreed. “Get over here, Barbie. Let’s get this over with.”
“We’re finishing this fight after everything this is over, Spider-bitch.” Supergirl swore. “And next time you won’t get a handicap.”
“Hey! Save the city first. Fight later. What part of that didn’t you two understand?” Batgirl called out. “We need to get to a safe spot. Maybe then we can have an actual talk…”
“”She started it!”” Both blondes yelled at the same time only to realise what the other said and glare at each other.
“Well this is going to go great.” Batgirl muttered, firing her grapple gun at another building and letting it pull her into the air.