31 Chapter 31: A Tough Choice

Shade followed Arias's instructions and quickly took Gregor and left.

Whereas Harley and Roulette followed behind him with the former showing a disappointed look. "Aww, shows over already huh?"

Roulette ignored and turned to face Roulette. "What came up boss? As far as I'm concerned you're free today or did you have something planned planned?" She asked with a brow raised.

"Don't worry about it, just keep the lounge running per usual and keep people out of the private rooms."

Arias only said this before increasing the pace of his strides and walking ahead of the two women.

Roulette gave a small frown as she disliked the secrecy. Since she also wasn't aware that Arias had powers, she could only assume as to what caught his attention.

Harley on the other hand had already reached a possible reason.

"Maybe he got turned on from stomping the mayor and has to rub one out."

Roulette gave Harley an odd glance upon hearing her deduction. "I guess you're speaking from experience with the joker."

"Sorta, Never really seen Mr.J rub one out. He'd just beat me sometimes and leave me tied up then leave, probably to rub one out. He was always happiest when messing with people, wonder what you call that." Harley rubbed her chin as she spoke casually.

Her words however made Roulette only see her as more weird. "Sounds like you being separated was a good thing."

Harley sighed at Roulettes reply and looked rather sad, but she quickly perked and showed a bigger smile. "Yea well he was getting more mad at me for screwing up here and there. I didn't mind the beatings but he still didn't want me the same way he did when we first started out. Oh well, atleast I can get dick now."

…

As the two chatted on, Batgirl was already in the ventilation system.

Inside the narrow and rectangular vents, she held out a small device that had a holographic screen with a digital map being displayed.

'Let's start with the office, there's gotta be some evidence there if any. Okay almost there.'

Batgirl continued to crawl through the tunnels until she finally reached an endpoint, one leading to the private office she was targeting.

She moved closer and looked through the vents and saw that the other side was dark. 'Good, no one's here. Looks like there's no cameras or security inside either, except for a small vault, great.'

After making sure it was safe, Batgirl opened the vent and crawled out into the office.

She then quickly tapped the side of her mask, activating the night vision feature installed into the lenses.

Voosh!~

Suddenly though, a thick vapor began to emerge in the room and the vents closed shut automatically.

!!

Batgirl panicked and quickly tried to call for help but she found her vision getting cloudy and her limbs feeling heavy.

"Wha…what's going on…"

She spoke in a hazy manner before falling to the ground. The last thing she saw was the door opening and the silhouette of a man walking in.

…

Back at the Batcave, Alfred who was keeping track of the suit readings of both Robin and Batgirl noticed the difference and immediately grew worried.

"Master Dick, I think miss Barbara has run into some difficulties at her location. Her vitals her stable but she had briefly entered a state of panic before her heart rate and breathing slowed, indicating loss of consciousness. I'm trying to reach out to her but wherever she is, communications are getting blocked."

Robin who was currently investigating some shipping tanks responded to the call with urgency,

"Dammit, I'll get there as soon as I can."

"You do that, I'll inform master Bruce of the situation."

"Don't Alfred, like you said, it's nothing we can't handle, leave it to me, please?"

"You have one hour master Dick, if the situation isn't resolved then I'll need to inform master Bruce."

"No problem Alfred, thanks."

…

Back at the private office of the iceberg lounge, Batgirl began to regain consciousness and was looking around slowly.

She tried to stand but found that she couldn't, she then looked down at herself and found she was tied up to a chair.

"Crap!"

She yelled out and the door opened, revealing Arias who seemed rather calm about the situation. This caused her to immediately frown.

"I knew there was something sketchy! Whatever you're up to, give up now before you make it any worse on yourself. Batman and Robin should already be on there way!" She warned with a serious face but Arias only smiled.

"What I'm up to? I'm only exercising my right by apprehending the individual who broke into my property. I've even called the police. I'm sure they'll not only be surprised that batgirl is not only a criminal but also a teenager."

He casually revealed before lifting up the mask mask he had tucked away in his pocket.

It was only then that Batgirl realized she was unmasked, causing her eyes to widen.

While she was shocked, Arias received a ding on his phone and quickly took it out.

"Hmm, Barbara Gordon huh? Will this just got far more interesting. The commissioner's daughter is actually a vigilante? Who'd have thought. From how much the commissioner doesn't support Gotham's dark knight, I'm guessing he's not aware of his daughter's pass time."

Arias raised a brow as he spoke, genuinely surprised at the identity of batgirl.

At that time Barbara's mind was in a frenzy, panicking over her current predicament. 'Crap, Crap, this is so bad.'

Arias could see the young girl panicking, and so he chose to capitalize on this.

"This will make quite the headline, the commissioner's daughter, caught for breaking and entering as Batgirl. Let's not even mention all the vigilante charges held against you and your group. Well that's the end of your normal life. Even if you aren't charged, all the various criminals Batman, Robin and you have put away will now target you during your everyday life, if not you then your father, relatives and friends maybe."

Arias shook his head as he looked at Barbara with false pity in his eyes. At that moment she seriously imagined such a scenario and it absolutely terrified her.

"I'm the one who broke in, do what you want with me but leave my father and friends out of this!" She yelled desperately.

Arias gave her an odd glance at this. "I'm simply pointing out possible routes, I have no problems with the commissioner or you. You're the one who chose to break in, I'm simply handing you over to the authorities along with what I know. Can't say I'm wrong in doing so."

Barbara found it hard to argue with Arias's twisted logic, especially given the circumstances.

"By doing that you'd be ruining my life and risking the life of my family and friends! If you're really not a bad guy then just let me go, I didn't come here with bad intentions."

Arias approached Barbara and began stroking his chin as if considering her words.

"True, I wouldn't want to ruin the lives of the innocent just because of one person's mistake. However, I can't trust that your intentions are clear either. So how about we make a deal?"

Barbara frowned but she had little choice, so she was willing to here him out.

"What deal?" She asked with a look of worry.

Arias showed a small smile towards this.

"Simple, you become my eyes and ears within the hero community or whatever it is you call it. If I learn you told anyone else about this or if you decide to lie about it, then I will release this information to the public, along with the video footage being recorded right now."

Arias pointed to the corner of the room where a small camera could be seen.

"So you're asking me to betray my friends?" Barbara frowned but looked helpless.

"Like I said, my intentions aren't necessarily bad. Anyway I'm not going to try and convince you, if you accept, call me by tomorrow noon on XXX-XXX-XXX and if not, don't call me at at. At that time I'll do what I've said. Your friends should be here to rescue you soon so I'll take my leave."

Arias approached Barbara and placed the mask back on her face before walking away, leaving her heart feeling heavy in regards to the situation.