Detective Barbara Gordon 10

Ratatatatata!!!

Elise and Barbara dodged and took cover just at the right time when gangsters from the Franzese outfit ambushed them and started firing.

They managed to hide behind something solid. It was the control panel.

The gangsters shot at it and it turned on the carousel ride.

Lights from the ride turned on along with children songs.

"Shit! We're heavily outnumbered!" Elise shouted.

"How did they know you were going to be here?" Barbara asked.

"I don't know. We were the only ones that knew we were coming here. Unless one of us called them here or-"

"We were being followed."

"Fu- do you have a gun on you?"

"I do... but-"

"Give it to me. I know you still haven't gotten over your fear."

"But-"

"Don't worry about the bullets! If we somehow survive this, our group will clean this up and remove any evidence that you were here!" Elise said as she held out her hand gesturing to give the gun to her.

Barbara hesitantly took her gun from it's holster and gave it to Elise.

Elise nodded after receiving the gun and immediately returned fire.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

"Urgh!"

"Ugh!"

"Gah!"

Three men fell down.

"Shit. How many bullets do you have on you?"

Bang! Bang!

Ratatatatatata!!

Barbara was shaking, knowing that she's basically letting another person kill for her. The sound and smell of gunpowder intermixing with the screams in the air made her lightheaded and nauseous.

"Barbara! This isn't the time to lose it!"

"It's-" Barbara covered her mouth and stopped herself from puking. She peeked her head and saw the men that Elise just killed. All of them had the face of the man she killed.

The robber that she shot in the head before he could pull his gun out. She executed the shot perfectly because she trained more than anyone else in the academy. But what the academy didn't teach is how you deal with the fact that you took someone's life afterwards...

The images of that man she killed and the men on the ground overlapped with each other and stunned her.

The flashes of light coming from the rifles in front of her made her close her eyes. It was aimed at her.

Tatatatatang!! The bullets that were aimed at her hit the railings behind her instead.

"Barbara!" Elise pulled her back to cover just in time. "Pull yourself together! Remember your training! Help me!!" She shook Barbara and slapped her so many times, but Barbara still had her eyes closed. "Goddammit!" Elise wiped her sweat off and checked the bullets that were left in the magazine. There were only three left. She heaved out a sigh and looked at Barbara that was completely useless right now.

'Remember your training!' Elise's voice echoed inside her head.

Her mind went back to one of the first times she met Batman.

He came out of the shadows like he was part of it. Like a portion of the shadows suddenly came alive and birthed out a being. That was how he travelled. It was also the first thing she asked to learn from him rather than dodging bullets.

She opened her eyes and saw Elise almost giving up.

"Hey..."

"Barbara! You finally came to!"

"Elise .... how do we travel?"

Elise eyes flickered. She got what Barbara was saying. "Through the shadows...."

Barbara nodded.

Elise pulled her body back and saw two lamp posts that were illuminating the area. She aimed at it and pulled at the trigger.

Bang! Bang!

And then she aimed at the power outage connected to the carousel.

Bang!

The lights turned off and the music stopped.

"That's not gonna do anything, Elise!" The man with a cigar in his mouth shouted.

Ratatata!

He shot at the dark.

"If we can't see, you can't see too-"

"Gurgh!"

"Gagh!"

"Gahk!

"Hey!" The man panicked as his men kept grunting one by one. He kept turning to his left and his right, whichever direction the noises were coming from.

Slowly, the cries in the dark dwindled until it was totally silent.

"You b-bitches! Where the fuck are you?!" By this time, the cigar he was nonchalantly smoking has already fell out of his mouth as his lips lost the strength to contain it.

"We're right here." An ever so soft whisper rang out just behind his ear.

All he could do was gasp before he got put in a chokehold.

Tak tak tak

The rifle fell on the ground from the man's arms.

----

Inside an office. Barbara and Elise were sitting across from each other in front of a desk silently waiting for someone to arrive.

The doors to the office opened and a man wearing a white suit entered it and walked straight towards the desk as he glanced at Elise.

He heaved out a sigh after sitting down on the office chair at the desk. "We've taken care of everything. We cleaned up the mess at the zoo."

"Thank you." Elise said.

"No... You shouldn't be the one saying that, Elise. You're basically family." He said before looking at Barbara. "The one I need to hear that from is the lovely lady sitting in front of you."

Barbara furrowed her brows. "Thank you, Callaghan."

"I hope you know that what I did wasn't for free."

"Sir, I was the one being targeted, she just got dragged to our problems. I wouldn't have survived if we didn't work together. I owe her-"

Callaghan lifted up his hand to stop Elise from speaking. He took out a smart tablet and fiddled with it before turning the screen towards them. "You and her were being targeted. This was sent to me just minutes before you two got attacked." The screen projected a picture of them talking by the bench where they were baited by the killer. "The sender said that I now have two former league of assassins members in my hands and was preparing to declare war on them."

Barbara and Elise frowned at the picture.

"Now tell me, do we still have to owe her, Elise? If anything, it's because of her that an all out war might ensue."

"Please, sir-"

"But... because Elise found it in her heart to not make it a debt in need of repaying, the least the detective can offer is turn a blind eye if ever she finds something related to us. In turn for us keeping your presence there at the scene a secret and the fact that your registered bullets were lodged in to multiple corpses there."

Barbara clenched her fists.

"Do you understand?" Callaghan looked directly at Barbara who couldn't look back in shame. "This is nothing personal. It's just the nature of the business we're in."

Elise couldn't do anything anymore in the situation but helplessly watch Barbara and wait for a response.

"...Yeah." Barbara finally replied.

"Good..." Callaghan said with a satisfied smile. "You both are really something though. Do you know how many men you both took down on your own? Short of a hundred! Franzese didn't underestimate you two." He chuckled.

"What did you do to them?" Barbara finally faced Callaghan directly.

"We killed them, of course." Callaghan said nonchalantly in front of the police officer.

Barbara couldn't help but furrow her brows at him.

"What do you expect? We don't take prisoners. What would we even do with them? Franzese would still kill them after he finds out that they got captured. Plus, even if we gave them to you to arrest them, what story would you tell, huh? That you were hanging out with a boss of a gang and they attacked you?" He scoffed.

Even though he was right, Barbara couldn't accept it easily. She's aiding and abetting what is basically murder on a large scale.

"What were you two doing here anyway?" Callaghan tapped on the picture in the tablet.

"We were..."

Elise was the one who volunteered to explain....

"Let me get this straight..." Callaghan leaned on the desk to look at both of them closely. "... you both are after a serial killer that's now somehow managed to get Franzese to target you, and our organization and start an all out war. And this all leads to the night that Elise's target got away."

"That sums it up." Elise replied.

"We don't know how he got to turn the Franzeses against us or what his connection might be with them." Barbara said.

"..." Callaghan tapped on his desk as he pondered. "... does Elise really not know how?"

Elise tilted her head at him before widening her eyes.

"Have you figured it out now?" Callaghan looked at her with a smirk.

"What is it?" Barbara asked.

"Your serial killer got his connection to the Franzeses because of her target that got away that night because she was attacked."

"Who was your target, Elise?" Barbara asked.

"A police officer working for the Franzeses. It was detective..."

Barbara widened her eyes as soon as she heard the name of Elise's target.

"So, what do you do now, detective?" Callaghan asked her.

She closed her eyes to find her determination to question and possibly arrest a colleague. "I'll be the one that approaches him. I'll convince him to give up the killer and call off the attacks on your organization."

Callaghan locked eyes with her to study her and smiled in satisfaction. "Good." He stood up. "It's getting late. I'll have my men take you home."

"No need. I can handle myself."

He smiled wryly. "Clearly. Well," He put out his hand to Barbara. "Nice to meet you, detective. I hope we don't see each other again soon."

Barbara scoffed before accepting his hand and shaking it. "I agree. I don't want to see you again..." She got up and got her things. "Just know that if I come across you, even if we made some kind of deal today, I'll take you down even if I go to prison with you for it. I'll walk away now, but you better go clean or steer clear of me."

She glanced at Elise who was still sitting down and just nodded at her before leaving the room.

"That detective is stubborn, isn't she? ... just like someone I know..." Callaghan glanced at Elise.

Elise chuckled through her nose. "Yeah..."

"Elise..." Callaghan called her attention. "I'd like you to do something."

"What is it, sir?"

"I didn't tell everything to the detective."

Elise furrowed her brows at him.

"I think I know who the serial killer is too..."

-----

Barbara went back to work and acted casual while glancing at the man working for Franzese.

Her plan was to follow him after work.

As soon as she saw him walk out the door, she immediately gathered her things and tailed him.

She wore a hood and followed him leaving the station, walking two blocks.

Barbara mixed herself in the crowd everytime he looked behind him.

At a crosswalk, while he was waiting for the green light, he took out his phone and answered a call.

Afterwards, the light turned green but he didn't cross the road. Instead, he turned the corner.

Barbara quickened the pace of her steps as she sensed that something was wrong.

Right after she turned the corner, she found the man running.

"Shit!" She cussed and started chasing after him.

Her co-worker didn't even bother anymore waiting for the light to turn green while crossing the road.

Beep Beeeep

Eeeeek

"Asshole!" A cab driver shouted.

Barbara took out her badge to flash it when she crossed the road too.

The man soon ran into an abandoned building.

Barbara wasn't foolish enough to chase him into the building right away.

She looked around the building and found the fire exit.

She entered there instead.

Stealthily walking into the building, she found the man waiting for her near the door where he came in.

Slowly moving in on him, she took out her gun from the holster. Barbara soon found herself behind the man and pointed her gun at him.

"Drop the gun!" She shouted.

The man dropped his gun and slowly turned around.