As much as Ghost Spider didn’t want to admit it, she wasn’t going to be the one to track down the Riddler through some computer wizardry. She had already admitted to herself that the Bat Brigade had the better setup and resources for that. Even if they had the same equipment Barbara was simply better than her. Gwen could follow a tune when it came to hacking and information gathering, Barbara was the one who made the music. Of course Gwen would be the one orchestrating a symphony when it came to mechanical engineering with the redhead playing second seat.
Increasingly tortured metaphors aside, if Ghost Spider was going to add anything new to the investigation it was going to be going to be by searching Gotham street by street.
Not that she was running totally blind. Batgirl had given her a few shaky leads that they normally would have ignored until they had gotten more solid information. Ghost Spider didn’t find anything that would point them towards the Riddler but at least she was ruining the night of quite a few small-time crooks as a bonus.
“Did we miss something at the scenes themselves?” The wall-crawler asked over the comms as she swung through the city to the next spot Batgirl had marked as an area of interest.
“If we did, so did the police, and it probably would have been cleaned up by now. Cleanup crews started moving the debris this morning.” Batgirl informed her. “But that doesn’t fit the Riddler’s MO. He’s the type to hand us every clue we need and gloat we couldn’t put them together. No, we’re just missing something.”
“Don’t suppose there is a convenient map written in invisible ink on those cards, huh?” Ghost Spider snarked.
“Hah, I wish! Closest thing I got to a map was comparing the timing and locations for each robbery and superimposing them over a city map. I got what was starting to look like a vector diagram but it wasn’t a perfect fit. One of the points was too far east to match.”
“Could you just leave that point out?”
“If I had more data, maybe, but we only have five points to look at. Besides throwing away twenty percent of my data because it doesn’t fit right isn’t something a perfectionist like Nigma would do.”
Ghost Spider landed in a crouch on one of Gotham’s many skyscrapers and spotted another mugging in progress.
“Crap, got another one. I’ll call you back.”
“Sure, just remember you have that meeting with Wayne Entertainment tomorrow.”
…she had actually forgotten about that.
Barbara was a really good friend. Gwen decided she would have to forgive the redhead for dragging her through the mall for hours. She might even need to do something nice for the other girl later.
That would have to wait though. Right now she had a criminal to terrify apprehend. Ghost Spider dropped off the wall.
“Stop right there, buddy! That doesn’t belong to you.”
-o-
Barbara sighed and pushed her chair back as dozens of analysis programs chugged along on the many screens of the Batcomputer.
Despite having bleeding edge tech that put most governments to shame she wasn’t really expecting the results to give her anything solid to follow up on. There simply wasn’t enough for anything to really give them a solid clue.
If Bruce was here he probably would have already narrowed down the search area based on some gut feeling that led to an ironclad string of evidence but Barbara wasn’t him. She needed a firm starting point before she could find the obscure details no criminal wanted people to know.
That was why she liked working with computers. It didn’t matter what the topic was, once someone had it entered into a digital space it played by certain rules. Rules Barbara knew inside and out to the point that even not air gapping was a guarantee she couldn’t find a way in. And for those, all she needed to do was find the physical location and use a more personal touch.
“Still nothing on the Riddler case?” Dick asked on his way past her workstation. Between him keeping an eye on Gotham with Bruce gone and her looking for any sign of the Riddler the two of them had been spending so much time together that they could decipher the other’s mood by their breathing.
“Nothing, and we’re running out of time too.” She agreed in a huff.
Dick shrugged. “I’m sure the charity will run just fine even without the stolen exhibits.”
“Not just that. The Riddler won't just wait around forever. Allowing the Spring Isles Emerald Amulet to be stolen is going to really affect Mrs Ahmed’s store’s reputation. She doesn’t deserve it and I don’t want to be the one to let him get away.”
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“Gwen doesn’t have any convenient leads?”
Barbara sat up and glared at him. “Don’t start. And I thought you were going to tone down the rampant paranoia.”
Dick sighed. “Not what I meant. She did some really good groundwork before the Fiasco. I was wondering if she picked up anything off the street.”
“Hmm.” Barbara wasn’t sure she believed him, but let it go. He was trying to be reasonable after all.
“She didn’t have anything the last time we talked and she’s busy with a business meeting today, so it's not likely she’ll have anything new until tonight at least. And she’s been mostly checking out areas I’ve picked out, so unless I guessed right or she gets lucky, she shouldn’t have anything new.”
Barbara was briefly distracted as she spotted Tim enter the cave followed by Alfred. A quick glance at the clock reassured her she hadn’t skipped a meal so they were probably just checking in.
Relieved she wasn’t about to be on the receiving end of one of Alfred’s speeches about self-care she blurred the monitors and decided a short break was in order.
“Hey Dick, Babs. How’s things going?” Tim greeted while Alfred offered a cup of coffee to them both, one Barbara gratefully accepted.
“Hey yourself, shortstuff.” Dick replied, grinding a fist into the top of Tim’s head, despite the younger boy’s protests, before accepting his own cup from the dutiful butler. “And all quiet, for now. Though we might have some Triad gangs looking to muscle in on some of the Falcone’s old turf. We’ll have to keep an eye on that.”
“Is that why you’re looking at a Five Elements diagram?” Tim asked, annoyedly fixing his hair once he escaped from Dick’s grasp.
“A what?”
“Five Elements, you know the Chinese thing? Earth, water, fire, wood, metal, and all that?” Tim pointed at the blurred screen Barbara had been working on. With the screen inactive, it did look a bit like a circle made of five colored blobs. “Is that not what that is?”
“No, it was just the images of what the Riddler stole…” But now that it was pointed out, Barbara was going to look into the possibility. It was a new perspective at the very least.
-o-
Gwen scowled all the way home from her meeting with Wayne Entertainment.
The whole thing had nearly gone wrong from the start when Gwen called in to confirm the appointment with a secretary only to find out the meeting had been moved last minute to an entirely separate building. Apparently they had sent her an email to inform her of the change but nothing appeared in her inbox until five minutes before the meeting time.
The tight expression on the exec’s face when Gwen not only showed up on time, but at the correct location all but confirmed the timing was intentional.
She had no idea why the person she was meeting with seemed determined to dismiss her pitch every chance she could despite the marketing people in the meeting seeming pretty excited about her new idea. Only half-remembered lessons from her dad about keeping cool under pressure and some additional memories from the event that gave her the symbiote let her get through that entire mess without losing her temper.
She still needed to go over the contract before signing, but unless there was something non-negotiable she was pretty sure she could sign within the month.
And while the promise of more future money she could safely spend as a civilian was encouraging, it did nothing to calm the frustration of having to sit through some moron in a pantsuit complain that her ideas wouldn’t work in the large scale Wayne Enterprises worked at and was derivative of things already out on the market…
…as long as you ignored the fact that all the games she brought up were released AFTER her first game and that the second shared some minor art assets AT BEST.
It was almost a relief when the blonde’s cell phone went off, distracting her from her building emotional outburst.
Gwen quickly answered it after a quick glance at the caller ID.
“Hey Barbara, I’m guessing you found something if you're calling me?”
“Hi Gwen, and yeah, maybe. You think you can meet me by the docks tonight? Wear something formal, this could be important.”
In other words, show up in costume because she would be showing up as Batgirl.
“I can do that. We in a rush or anything?”
“No, it can wait till later. Just wanted to catch you before you made any other plans. I’ll message you with the details in a bit.” Meaning she would send it to the secure communicator.
“Cool, I’ll see you later then.” Gwen hung up, feeling slightly better.
Maybe she would be able to take out these feelings on something deserving.
-o-
Later that night Ghost Spider found out she was the last one to the meeting spot. Not only that but it wasn’t just Batgirl. Nightwing and Robin had shown up as well.
The spider-themed heroine made sure to land somewhat far away, no need to make anyone jumpy, but quickly approached the group with a wave.
“Hey guys, everyone here for this one lead?”
Nightwing not so subtly looked her over before shaking his head. “No. We got word of a Triad drug operation setting up nearby. Robin and I are going to check that out while you two follow up on the Riddler lead.”
Ghost Spider wasn’t super thrilled her friend was still holding her at arm's length but at least he was talking to her, so progress?
“What, scared we’ll give you cooties or something?”
Robin laughed. “He just doesn’t want to admit we’ll be hanging around in case Riddler tries to run off and taking down some drug smugglers as a bonus.”
Nightwing gave the younger boy a light smack to the back of his head, much to his expressed displeasure, and started walking off. At least he was nice enough to remind them both to be careful as he left.
“Still not talking to me I see?” Ghost Spider asked rhetorically.
“He’s getting better.” Batgirl offered.
Both of them looked at each other and shrugged. Now wasn’t the time to get into personal drama.
“Okay what do we got?” Ghost Spider asked.
“A couple warehouses I managed to track down all owned by N-Igmatic Industries. If that isn’t where the Riddler is holed up I’ll eat my cowl.”
“No need to go that far, but how’d you figure it out? Last we talked you were convinced it had to be somewhere in the west side of the city.”
Batgirl grimaced. “A bit of luck, timing, and Chinese Element Diagrams.”
“Huh?”
“I’ll tell you later. Right now we’ve got a thief to catch.”
One of Ghost Spider’s eyes widened in a parody of a raised eyebrow. “If you say so…”
The two heroines stealthily made their way towards the buildings Batgirl had pointed out.
Unlike most of the ones surrounding them, these buildings had been obviously modified so that there were no windows or skylights to infiltrate from unexpected angles. Recently too based on some of the weld marks on the walls. Batgirl was obviously right that someone didn’t want people poking around here.
That did leave them both in a quandary of how to actually investigate.
Unfortunately, the only thing they could reasonably do was pick the lock and go through the front door. They barely had gotten started and already the Riddler was leading them into his game.
“Careful.” Ghost Spider whispered as Batgirl cracked the lock in under fifteen seconds. Despite the ease of getting through the door, there was always the possibility of a boobytrap just behind it.
“I know,” Batgirl whispered back and snaked a camera into the small gap in the door. “I don’t see anything connected but the rest is pitch black. We’ll have to be careful.”
With that warning, the two carefully moved into the warehouse.
They barely made it two feet inside before Ghost Spider’s Spider Sense blared a warning. Acting on instinct, the black and white clad heroine threw herself onto her friend and pushed them further into the warehouse as something big and heavy crashed into the ground right behind them.
In addition to the loud sound, several lights snapped on at the same time, revealing the two had been forced into a large pyramidal structure made of some clear material and that the crashing sound had been the back ‘wall’ sliding into place.
Moments later a TV outside the structure turned on. “Well, well, well. I was wondering what was taking Batman so long, but it seems he’s been delegating to the junior leagues.” The Riddler in his iconic green question-mark covered suit smirked from the display.
“But don’t worry, while the Bat will have plenty of time to regret his unwise decision, you two will only be bothered for a few minutes.”
A timer appeared in the bottom corner of the display and at the same time a metal plate at the top of the structure pulled back. Ghost Spider and Batgirl weren’t stuck in a pyramid. They were stuck in a giant hourglass.
And the sand pouring in from above wasn’t trickling in slowly…