Through New Eyes Who: Batgirl and Doug Ramsey What: Batgirl races to see how the ageswap has changed her boyfriend. Distractions keep happening. Where: Park Row, Gotham City, NJ When: Saturday, Sept. 8th Rating: TBD, but violence starting out.
As soon as dusk fell, Cassandra Wayne was suited up as Batgirl and on her motorcycle headed into Gotham City. The city was already a mess thanks to a large number of its citizenry suddenly finding themselves in a different age group than they had been when they'd gone to bed. All hell was breaking loose thanks to some people insisting on going to work despite appearing to be too young to drive, freaking out thanks to altered hormones, or simply rioting and looting because, hey, the Frost Giant event was still fresh in people's memories. The giants had frozen the world for the better part of a month, and there was no way of knowing how long this was going to last. They were also panicked at the thought that any one of them could be plucked into another of Mojo's TV freakish shows at any moment.
With all that in mind, perhaps Batgirl should have been out on patrol earlier in the day, nocturnal theme or not. But she and her family had been affected by the age tampering, and it had thrown their game off to varying degrees. Cass spent the entire day training until she knew she had once again found her center and understood what this older body was capable of. While the body was in its mid-to-late thirties, every indication was that it had spent the decades in the same phenomenal shape she'd always maintained. So she could do a lot. Her body was in no danger of declining with age.
Her Batsuit needed some adjustments (everyone's wardrobe did), so while she was training, Alfred was making the necessary alterations.
The first order of business for Batgirl was to find her allies. Doug, Spider-Man and Spoi -- Robin were adults now; it was only a question of to what extent. She hoped they'd have adjusted enough to the change to be useful in this situation. If they weren't, she would train them. This city had to be brought back under control.
By the time she had reached the Park Row Clinic, Batgirl had almost been run over three times and stopped six lootings. She scouted the Clinic for any sign that Doug was home. He might have been still inside, helping Leslie deal with the banicked people they sheltered. But it was equally likely that he was already out and about as Cypher, just as determined as she to contain the madness.
She heard gunshots down the block, three of them. Typical. Kicking her cycle into gear, she sped toward the scene of the disturbance ... and she was surprised by what she found.
Three grown adults were lying on the pavement, bleeding from gunshot wounds at the feet of a toddler. A little blond girl, maybe five years old, holding up a ragged teddy bear. A closer look revealed that she had one arm shoved inside the stuffed animal like a hand puppet, with the barrel of a pistol emerging from its missing eye. But even more disturbing was the look in the child's eyes. She was livid with rage, battling the frustration of living with something for far more years than she seemed to have lived. Her eyes looked old and haunted.
Cassandra had spent the day getting used to seeing people whose eyes revealed they'd been either much older or much younger only yesterday, but this was different somehow. For this girl, every day was the kind of hell people were only being introduced to today.
"I'm a baby!" the girl insisted, holding the bear and pistol in her shaky grip. She had clearly gone around the bend and was well into a rampage. "I'm not gwown up, you meanies! Not a gwownie, not a teenie, I'm five yeaws old and you can't make me gwow up!"