BAE Chapter 77

“I’m not here for you, Zsasz,” Stephanie warns.

“Have we met?” he asks.

“Once,” she replies.

“And you’re still alive?” He looks skeptical.

Stephanie primes a flashbang, hidden by her cape. She gestures toward herself with her free hand.

“We won the fight, dummy. Different outfit,” she adds. “You almost got me fired.”

Zsasz narrows his eyes and lifts a hand, which is now holding a knife that Stephanie didn’t see him draw. Sprinkler water glitters on the blade.

“Girl Robin,” he says.

Stephanie holds up one gloved finger.

“Hot girl Robin,” she corrects him and throws the flashbang.

Zsasz’s expression doesn’t change. The knife flashes and the grenade falls to the ground in two pieces before it can detonate. It’s been a while since Stephanie’s had to get the timing so perfect on one of those, and to be fair, how many people is the timing that tight on? She needed it to go off in his face. There are plenty of other people that she could just throw it at their feet. It’s just not her night.

“Oh boy,” she mutters as he advances on her. Stephanie pops and tosses two smoke grenades, leaping out of the way as a knife thunks into the support pillar where her head just was.

But the sprinklers are interfering with the smoke. It won’t be enough to cover her. Stephanie rolls to dodge another knife, taking shelter in the aisle between sparking and crackling servers. She deploys and primes a Batarang filled with C4, but this is one of the things that got her into trouble with Bruce back in the day: lethal ****. It’s her best option, but she has her pride. Scowling behind her mask, Stephanie folds the Batarang away and puts it back on her belt, unhooking her sticks.

Zsasz makes his move but she’s a step ahead, already hopping her way up the server racks to do an aerial flip over his head. She touches down, rolls away from another knife and throws. Zsasz effortlessly dodges the stick and slashes the cord, leaving Stephanie with one stick and a dwindling list of ideas.

She can blow out a window and grapple away, but that’ll rain a ton of glass that could kill someone. If it’s definitely killing Zsasz versus maybe killing strangers, she’d rather use the explosives on him. But Stephanie can only imagine the look on Barbara’s face if she does that. Windows are for breaking inward, not outward. Bruce was always pretty firm about that in his teachings, even if it did fall squarely into do as I say, not as I do territory for him. But he’d never been what anyone would’ve called internally consistent. All the same, Stephanie wishes he was there now.

Zsasz is fast, but he’s not as fast as even the slowest Batgirl. And Stephanie… probably is the slowest. She still darts into the corridor, vaulting over a desk and rolling as another knife thuds into the wall where she just was. She comes to her feet, leaps and catches a light fixture, swinging into a two-boot kick that knocks the locked emergency stairwell door open. She’s through in a flash, hopping the railing to drop to the next level only to freeze.

At least six uniformed security guards are rushing up the steps toward her.

A bang from above tells her that Zsasz is coming. But he isn’t taking the stairs; his boots thud to the landing just behind her and a knife flashes. Stephanie flicks out a Batarang and gets it up just in time to keep him from slashing her throat. Sparks fly from the two blades scraping together. Stephanie grabs Zsasz’s knife wrist, planning to throw him over her shoulder into the oncoming guards, only they’re already here. The one out front tackles her, grabbing her around the middle. He’s twice her size, but Zsasz takes the worst of the hit because he’s behind her. He crashes into the concrete wall. Stephanie kicks the guard in the groin, plants her boot on his chest, and shoves him into his friends, sending several of them spilling down the steps. She leaps up to parry a baton with her gauntlet. The guard swinging it catches her elbow in the face. The one behind him thrusts a revolver at her but doesn’t pull the trigger because Zsasz is back on his feet.

Stephanie cartwheels over the guard, plucking his gun from his fingers and throwing it away. She touches down on the landing below, surrounded by groaning guards. Her stun grenade clatters to the ground as she takes off down the stairs.

She’s more than fast enough to outpace them on the way down, and it’s nothing to flatten the one straggler guard that gets in front of her with a single punch. Getting in via the roof was a lot less work than it is to get out on the ground.

Stephanie finally bursts into the lobby, which has a glass front. Headlights flash outside and a black van jumps the curb, screeching to a halt. Doors open and armed men climb out wearing black masks.

Stephanie runs straight at them. Off to her right an elevator dings and the doors open, revealing Zsasz and the guards.

The lobby guard steps out from behind a marble pillar just in front of her, pointing a pistol at her.

“Freeze!”

Stephanie snatches the gun from him and grabs him by the collar, pulling back to bash him in the face with his own pistol.

“Girl Robin!” Zsasz calls out.

Stephanie looks up to see the guards fanning out and Zsasz standing with a knife poised to throw. The lobby doors burst open and Black Mask’s goons flood through with long guns.

“You still haven’t hit me with one of those,” Stephanie notes, returning Zsasz’s gaze as red laser sights drift over her purple cape.

“You sure I’m aiming at you?” he replies.

Stephanie glances at the hapless guard she’s holding. Zsasz is about to throw.

Should Stephanie push the guard to the ground? Or shield him with her body?