A New Path Who: Barbara Gordon (Narrative) NPCs: — Where: Gotham City Police Department, Major Crimes Unit When: October 31st, 2012 What: Barbara gets an idea. Rating: PG
Something was off. Something wasn't right.
Where was Batman?
Barbara sat at her desk, pondering the question over and over again. She thought that now she was in the Major Crimes Unit she'd hear more of the Dark Knight's movements through the city, but nothing had come of it. If anything, it was like he just vanished off the side of the earth. Just as suddenly as he appeared, it was almost like he was gone. If Batman were here, he'd be looking into the death of Bruce Wayne and would have stopped the assault on the gala that was a few weeks earlier. Thankfully none of this made it into the newspapers. The last thing the Gotham City Police Department needed was the Gotham Gazette questioning the whereabouts of the legendary vigilante. Not that his absence wasn't noticed by those other than Barbara.
Crime was starting to pick up. Normally the two-bit criminals and thugs stuck to the Narrows but they were getting cocky. She could see it in the police reports filed and also chatter around the water cooler. The criminals were getting cocky, there weren't any Batman sightings for a few weeks now and she even heard a few people from vice talking about how they thought maybe it was Batman that killed off Bruce. That was impossible, seeing that it wasn't like Batman to go kill a man in cold blood when he was going to visit the death of his parents. None of this made sense though.
Did he go? If he left, where did he go? Barbara frowned at the blank piece of paper before her. She had a pencil in her hand that she had picked up with intentions of using it to jot down a shopping list. Then someone said the word "Batman" and her mind was gone from there.
You didn't grow up hearing all about Batman without it affecting you. You just didn't. Barbara wasn't as fanatical as the bloggers, but he was a great influence on her. If anything, the people who had the greatest impact on who she became were her father, Richard Dragon and Batman. Her father taught her what it meant to be a cop, Dragon taught her to defend herself and Batman...Batman gave her hope that there were people out there willing to do what it took to make sure that people like the Joker didn't get to run around town and make it their own hellish amusement park. Her father was a phone call away. Dragon could easily be reached the same way. She'd try the Bat-signal but nobody was allowed near it except for the commissioner and he didn't seem interested in using it since nothing big, save for Wayne's murder, hit the front page recently.
Barbara glanced down at the blank paper and noted the sketching she'd made of Batman's mask. It looked silly, didn't it? A man dressing up as a bat but dammit, that bat meant something to this city. If he did leave, there was always the chance he might come back. But until then, those thugs were only going to get cockier and cockier. And Gotham was going to get back its reputation for being a hell hole and hot bed for crime. Something had to be done.
She was no great artist, but her pencil scratched against the paper quickly. Barbara glanced up a few times to see if anyone was watching her or nearby, but no one was around. The picture continued to take form. Black suit, a belt with bat-shaped boomerangs...what were those made of? Steel, perhaps? There was always that grappling hook. And the cape...how much of what her father told her was the absolute truth and what was just some exaggeration to entertain her? She focused on the drawing, giving it more of a feminine form.
As she etched on the bat shaped symbol across the chest she stopped and realized what she'd just drawn. It was Batman but it was...her as well. Barbara quickly took the piece of paper and crumbled it up, dropping it into the wastebasket next to her desk quickly. But the poorly drawn image was in her mind now. It was giving her an idea. The sort of idea that you kept a secret, especially when you worked in a place like GCPD.
Was this insane? Yes, it had to be. Dressing up like Batman...ha, right, like that would work. But...would it? Her eyes flicked to the small trash can and then back to her desk. Without looking down, she reached to take the crumpled paper back into her hands and then unfolded it, pressing it flat against the surface of her desk. Taking the pencil into her hand again, she began taking notes in the margin. If she did decide to do this, she could take some of the Kevlar from some of her dad's old police gear he didn't take with him. She could always store this stuff somewhere other than her apartment. The attic of the library, maybe?
Barbara concluded she was insane. She must be, because she was starting to believe this was a good idea. No, she didn't have all the fancy gadgets that Batman, but every hero had to start somewhere. Batman acted outside the law because there was many a time that the law protected the very people it should be shipping off to jail. Could she balance her life as a police officer and masquerading about as the Dark Knight?
Maybe just until he decided to come back. Barbara didn't want to give up on the idea that Batman would return one day. He'd come back and when he did, she'd step down and let him take over. But until then, there was a lot to do.