"Not again, not again..." Batgirl muttered as she and Black Bat ran through the puffs of smoke at the cave a week later.

"Where's the kid?" Black Bat shouted as they both stopped in their tracks and turned around in search of their little loose end.

"How'd she get in, anyways?"

Batgirl shrugged, "beats me."

They both gasped and braced themselves when they saw a crate flying towards them.

Black Bat groaned, "What the heck have we gotten ourselves into...."

_____________________

- 5 Hours Earlier -

"Forget it. It's never going to work." Nightwing shook his head.

"Come on, please, boss? I feel like if we tail Rathaway even more, we'll find Bart!" Blue Beetle pleased.

"What makes you so certain?"

"He was telling us to hand him over for Jason and Cassandra. Maybe whoever he's working for will know about his disappearance!"

"We can take care of our own." Nightwing denied, "besides, what Intel did the rest of the squad pick up on through the mission?"

"Well, Rathaway was the only most suspicious out of the whole list we investigated. Now that we know that he's evil, and that we should go after him."

A voice spoke up from behind him, "kind of complicated to chase after someone who's dead, don't you think?"

The two turned to see Red Hood and Black Bat walk in.

"You two are supposed to be in the infirmary--"

"Whatever." Red Hood rudely cut Nightwing off, "this is important, Dick."

"What is it?"

Red Hood pulled out a newspaper and pointed his finger at the front page, "Hartley Rathaway, the Pied Piper, found dead at Gotham City Local Apartments."

"How?!"

"They just found him." Red Hood tossed the newspaper onto the floor in front of Nightwing, "the two of us just caught that. Thought you'd find it useful... Now if you need me, I'll be patrolling Gotham."

Nightwing, Blue Beetle, and Black Bat just stared as Red Hood headed towards the Zeta Tubes.

"Are you hanging around?"

"Nah... I got family stuff to deal with." Blue Beetle shook his head, "you?"

"Probably not. I also have to go out and meet with Wally." Nightwing shook his head just as Oracle came in, "hey."

"Hey, Babs. We need to pick up our lead on Impulse."

"What happened?"

"We lost it." Nightwing shook his head and sighed, "why can't we get Wally for this?"

"I tried to get a hold of him." Oracle shrugged, "he's not picking up or returning any of my calls."

"He just got married. Let him enjoy it." Nightwing smiled, "I did give him permission to take a load off, lately."

"But you know you can't leave it like that forever. He needs to come back. He's one of the only ones that can help us."

Nightwing nodded, "I'll go see what I can do." He patted Oracle's shoulder as he headed towards the Zeta Tubes, Blue Beetle following close behind him.

"Uh, guys?" Batgirl walked in, "since when did we open the cave to tourists?"

Oracle and Black Bat turned to stare at her, "never?"

Batgirl's eyes popped wide open, "what?!" She ran over next to them and pulled up the cave computer, "then you might want to take a look at this..."

Oracle peered at the screen displaying the security cams, then gasped when she saw an ordinary teenage girl strolling through the halls of the cave, "how the hell did she get in here?!"

"I have no idea!" Batgirl said as Oracle quickly acted.

"Computer, lock down cave!" She commanded, and the cave locked down, "Black Bat, Batgirl, go out and find her."

The two nodded and ran off.

"There she is!" Batgirl shouted a few minutes later.

The teenage girl turned around and gasped loudly, "oh.... Em... Gee!!!! It's Batgirl!!!! Oh my gosh oh my gosh!!!" The girl started jumping up and down as Batgirl froze in her tracks and stared at her as if she were crazy... Because it really seemed like she was.

"Eh.... Wh-who the heck are you?" Batgirl muttered.

"Oh! Batgirl wants to know my name!!! Oh my gosh, yes!!! My name is Charlotte Gage-Radcliffe, but you can call me Charlie!"

Batgirl stared at her, "Charlie... How old are you?"

"Oh me? Only two years younger than you!" Charlie beamed.

"What?! How did you get in here?!"

"Easy! I followed you!"

Batgirl blinked, "you can't just--"

"Can I please have an autograph?!"

Batgirl stared at Charlie as if she had just sprouted five extra heads, "okay, look, I need to take you to the mission briefing room so that we can question you."

"R-really?!"

Batgirl put her hand on Charlie's shoulder, "it's okay. Don't be scared. We're just going to--"

"Scared?! I'm PSYCHED!!!!" Charlie squealed, "this is so exciting!!! Walking with the Batgirl!!"

Batgirl stared at Charlie as she fangirled over her, "okay, let's go, Crazy..." Batgirl grabbed the hood on Charlie's purple hoodie and pulled her towards the mission briefing room.

__________________

"Oh... My... Gosh!!!! The original Batgirl?!?! And Black Bat!! All in the same room!!!!" Charlie shrieked and hopped around.

"Who..." Black Bat was surrounded by question marks as she stared at Charlie.

"Stephanie...." Oracle muttered, "what is going on here?"

"She's--"

"I'm a HUGE fan of you guys!!!" Charlie shrieked as she ran up to each of them and gave them hugs, "all you guys are amazing!! I just want to be like all of you when I'm older!!!"

"For a fifteen year-old, she really acts like five year-old..." Black Bat whispered to Oracle.

"Okay, listen, uh, Charlie... We need you to leave. We're very busy, and--"

"NO!!! I'm going to stay here with you guys!!! You're all so cool!" Charlie protested.

Batgirl sighed, "you really are a misfit, aren't you?"

Charlie shrugged, "That's what they call me."

"Wait a sec..." Black Bat stopped them, "I hear something..."

Everyone was silent as they all listened intently. Finally, Black Bat turned around and threw a punch, but was expertly caught by a woman in black leather.

"Oh, Little Child, how naïve." The woman smirked as her grip on Black Bat's fist tightened, then she threw Black to the side, making her fall onto the floor, "you think you can beat me? Pathetic."

Charlie shifted behind Batgirl, "HOW DID SHE..."

"I don't know... Maybe the same way you got in, too." Oracle said as she pulled out her cell, "I need to get a hold of--"

"Don't even bother. None of you will make it out of here alive." The woman cackled as
she reached for her whip.

"I should've known..." Batgirl peered cautiously at Gotham's number one thief, "Catwoman. We're going to take you down."

Catwoman smirked as Batgirl and Black Bat took their fighting stances.

Charlie gazed upon them in awe, "this is amazing... I can't believe I'm witnessing a fight with Batgirl, Black Bat, and Oracle! This is the best day ev--"

"Get out of here. You'll only get in the way." Batgirl whispered to Charlie.

"Forget it." Catwoman laughed as she cracked the whip, "you're all going down!"

- To be continued! -