The Unexpected: Baptism of FEAR! Prt 2

Previously in Baptism of FEAR. Clue gets the day off from her brother/boss, The Riddler. She finds Shelby and decides to go do something with her. Enter Blackhawk, a superhero crime fighter, who meets Clue, Mac, Shelby, Grell, and Elektra and strikes up a conversation with the Gotham Outskirts Gang as they call themselves. Blackhawk doesn't realize Grell is actually a sissy male who wears a woman's coat and talks girly and so refers to him as "Mam". Mac and Shelby are nervous, as Blackhawk is looking for escaped prisoners from Blackgate Maximum Security Prison and Arkham Asylum, which Mac and Shelby are escapees from the institutions respectively. Elektra takes offense at Blackhawk's folksy demeanor when he doesn't take the hint to leave, as she considers Mac and Shelby under her personal protection. She starts a fight with Blackhawk, shocking him with her electrical powers. Blackhawk begins to retaliate with his mighty control of Kinetic Energy, but is summoned by Batman during the Battle. Batman tells Blackhawk to leave the round up in Gotham to the rest of The Bat Family and to go back to his office. Blackhawk leaves with his tale between his legs. Clue and Mac take the chance to flee, but Shelby is freaking out from her fear of going back to Arkham. Elektra is furious that Batman would even step into "Her Neighborhood." But The Dark Knight ignores her demands and leaves. Shelby's Cold powers begin to go out of control as her emotions run wild.

Grell breaks off a piece of grass, "Ooh" he exclaims. "Yeah..I’ve been told I’m weird too many times to count." Shelby said as she held herself with her arms. Elektra laughs hysterically, "YOU? WEIRD? I HAVE A TAIL!" Shelby looks up and smiles slightly. "Hmm..." she murmurs as shepoints to a window of a jewelry store. The window suddenly freezes and shatters making the burglar alarm go off, "....Well...I didn’t expect that.." she said in suprise. Elektra blinks at the suprising sight. Grell notes as he holds one of Shelby's arms, "That was.... useful" Elektra blinks again in suprise, "You have much talent." she remarks. "APB, Robbery in Progress!" Blackhawk's radio blares as Blackhawk relinquishes his daydream and grabs ahold of his radio mic. "Indeed" Grell says. Batgirl, Isabella Wayne, hears the call on her cowl radio. She begins to head towards the scene. Shelby smiles widely as she looks at the tempting jewelery on display that no longer was protected by the thick glass that prevented thieves from stealing it. Grell lets go of the girl's arm as he looks down at the shattered thick glass window's remains. Blackhawk sits down as he hears the report that Schumaker's Jewelery's window alarm is be, "Ah man!" That's in Gotham Outskirts!" "Robbing a jewelry store? Hm." Grell speaks as he notes the look in Shelby's eyes. "Just where I was today" Blackhawk says as he finds it's location in the squad car's GPS. Blackhawk decides to use his "Remote Viewing" power, where he can look into anyplace he is familiar with and see what is happening at the location within his mind. There he sees Shelby, who looks considerably different with white hair and grey skin. He also sees Elektra and the androgyneous woman in the red coat he never got the name of. Shelby stands up and walks over to the jewelry store then picks up a diamond necklace and holds it up. Grell admires the necklace and says "Pretty!" Batgirl uses communicator to see who is in the area, "Hello?" ElektraI walks over to the jewelry store, and through the window, switching the alarm off from the inside and walking out nonchalantly. Elektra didn't really consider robbing from Shumacher's Jewelery a crime, as "Fred The Old Man" grew his chain of shops from cutting diamonds taken from heists by the old Falcone mafia. And she had a particular dislike for his son Joseph whom was better known in the streets as "FurCoat Joey", head of the Hellfire Boys. The Hellfire Boys were a group of rich young gays whom prowled the streets for young men looking to "make a little money". Elektra once gave the Hellfire Boys a shocking in their limo once for coming into her neighborhood and propositioning a young teen. She hated that the police did nothing about them, since the Shumachers gave the GothamPD a nice discount on their engagement rings and other jewelery they gave Joey preferential treatment. "At least a little justice would be served up to them today", Elektra mused.

Blackhawk witnessed everything that went there while he used his power. He recalled now that the grey skinned woman was Tundra, a former gun moll of Mr. Freeze's. If she could freeze security thick glass till it shattered, she was every bit as potentially dangerous as Freeze himself. And Victor Freis as he really was called needed a cold gun to freeze things if he remembered right. This Tundra did it with "meta" powers and then that made her even much more dangerous he thought. He came out of his trance and then paused to think, "Should I disobey Batman. Or do my job. But Batman told me to leave the "Little Fish" alone, but these guys are kinda powerful..." He loaded up "Facial recognition software in his crusier's computer that sat next to him on special swinging desk on his passenger seat. ""You want it, Grell?" Shelby asked him she held up the necklace for him to see. Dusk walked towards the location, much was not known of her, but she recognized as a force to be reckoned with. It was not known what her business was or why she was heading to the scene of Tundra's(Shelby's) last crime. "They have any red jewels? Rubies?" Grell asked as he admired the necklace, but felt it just wasn't him."Well waste not, want not." Grell smirks as he grabs the necklace from Shelby's hands. "I didn't steal them.... you're stealing them for me. Of course I'm not a villain." Grell said to her as tucked the necklace into her coat. "Depends.." Shelby said as she went through the window. She comes back out and holds up a ruby necklace in her hands, "Like this?" she asked Grell. "Ooh" Grell said as he smiled with a look of awe at the beauty of the lovely red rubies. Red was definitely Grell's favorite color. Blackhawk was busy creating a portrait on his laptop with J. Tracy's Sketch Artist, a program even Batman in the Batcomputer. It rapidly allowed you to pick through thousands of nose, eyes, mouths, jaw shapes, and etc. to create a portrait of a the woman in the red coat that he didn't know in reality was a man named Grell. He in puts the face into the J. Tracy Website and gets back a repsonse. "Whut tha hell!" Blackhawks says as an over 100 year old rare profile of Jack The Ripper shows up as a response. "Muh com-puter must be overheeting ahgain. That woman didn't look over 30. Let me shut down and see if I can raise anybody." he says as he pulls out his communicator again. Blackhawk turns Bat radio on" Ehnny one on the Aye-Pee-Bee at thu Gotham Outskirts?" he asks.

"You want this one?" Tundra/Shelby asked as she presented the Ruby necklace to Grell. Batgirl spoke into her communicator, "Any superhero in Gotham contact me. I am responding to the APB." "Why certainly" Grell replied to Shelby as he grabbed the rubby necklace. Grell takes the necklace from her and tries it on, "Oooooh!" he says pleasureably. "Be advised I suspect the Perpetrators are metas" Blackhawk replied to Batgirl. "Sebas-chan would so love this!" Grell emoted. "Lighting and Cold powers were witnessed by my eyes, over" Blackhawk added. Elektra walked over to the two people stealing jewelry and laugh, "Lured in by Gothams many charms, Huh?" Grell groused, "I'm not stealing" Batgirl leaves the building roof top she sat on top of and runs outside towards the roadway. Shelby holds up a set of ruby ear rings as she says with a smile, "Matching set?" Grell's eyes sparkle, "Of course!" "You know what a girl likes miss Shelby" he remarks further, Grell loved to refer to himself in female pro-nouns. Grell was male though, even though his small 5'6 frame, frilly red coat, and feminine like face with cheek bones to most women would kill for made man mistake him for a woman at first glance. "Manhunter here. Not in the area over. Need assist? Over" a tough female voice replies. Elektra smirks at the remark Grell made, she was really starting to think he was one of those a "He-Ra"s as she liked to use to refer to men who were homosexual. Shelby didn't mind Grell wearing a ladies necklace so she obliged him some more and held out the earrings to Grell, "Would you like anything else?" "Like a prettty dress maybe to go with those..." Elektra muttered laughingly. "If you can, look for a watch. I need to get Will-san something for his birthday" Grell said smiling, ignorimg Elektra. "Here's who they are and what they look like." Blackhawk said as started his crusier and headed towards the location of "I don't know yet" Batgirl remarked in her communicator as she heard the descriptions Blackhawk gave of the supposed perpatrators.

"Huntress here. Already found other escapees and am in the process of containing them. Over" another woman's voice, more dulcet spoke from the communicator. "Hmm...what gem....ruby?" Shelby said as she looked through the expensive watches case within the jewelry store. "Robin speaking. Who is in the area? over" a young male voice could be heard saying on the communicator. Dusk started to sense what the stranger from within the portal was emitting, she decided to follow him. "Ok where are you over" Batgirl remarked on the communicator. "Something like... Onyx" Grell wished, black was so appropriate for Death as Will as a Shinigami. Elektra smirked slightly, almost abhorred to stealing, but at the same time picking up a small diamond ring off the ground. It was the Shumacher's after all. "Ohhhh..." Shelby said as she dug in the rubble and pulls out an onyx watch, "You mean like this?" Elektra picked up the diamond ring and held it in her thumb a forefinger to admire it closely, "Pretty" she remarked. "I am less than 15 minutes away. Blackhawk. over." The Black Knight replied as he sped in his Dodge Charger Cruiser towards aforementioned location where Elektra, Grell, and Shelby were doing their "shopping spree". "Huntress here. I am 10 minutes away, but I have captured several of the prisoners. over" the communicator replied to him. "Blackhawk I am on my way, Batgirl over" Batgirl spoke into the communicator as she headed towards Blackhawk after locating his crusier on the GPS. "Grell? Like this?", Shelby asked him as she walked over and held the watch with Onyx jewels set into the 12, 3, 6, & 9 o'clock postions up to him. Grell saw the watch and nodded as he smiled, "Perfect!" Elektra laughed as she slid the pretty ring onto her finger momentarily to admire it. She then took it off and putting it back where she found it, looking back up to the other two who were still picking through the rubble of the store.

"Batman here, I am in the area but in combat with Killer Croc" a voice with authority spoke from Blackhawk's communicator. Shelby smiled as she looked at Grell admire the watch. "Blackhawk I am here batgirl over.' a young woman's voice said over the communicator. "Batgirl, pick up Blackhawk, go to scene" Batman ordered. "That's a ten four. Ahm on my way!" Blackhawk said with a smile. "Uh Oh! He's in Duke Boys mode. He going to go jump that bridge!" Nightwing spoke laugning into the communicator. "NOT AGAIN" Oracle interjected. "Batgirl, he'll be at the Old Dartmourn Bridge." Batman replied. "I know. He always jumps that bridge to cross The Gotham River" Batgirl said with very little excitment, he did it all the time. "Now the Dartmourn Birdge was closed ever since The Great Gotham Earthquake. But the city, rather than rebuilding it decided to build another bridge parallel to it, so they could straighten out 78th Street to simplify the street grid of Gotham." Blackhawk said into the communicator doin his best Waylon Jennings impersonation. "NO "DUKES OF HAZARD" NARRATION ON THE BAT COMMUNICATOR." Batman sternly said. "Just let us know when you the bridge" he added. "Will do, Good Buddy" Blackhawk replied. Batman did not want to continue the whole silly conversation, so he just waited for Blackhawk to respond when he jumped to the other side.

Batgirl stood at a light post where 78th street "Teed" into "C" Street. From the Bat Communicator came a "honking horn rendition of "Dixie". "He jumped the bridge." Nightwing replied. Blackhawk was reving the car as it flew over the Gotham River. His Kinetic Control powers kept the half ton Dodge Charger Police Crusier he named "The General" in flight. Newer Citizens of Gotham would poke their heads out of their windows at the sounds of "Dixie" from overhead. There they would watch the black and white crusier as it floated by the New Dartmoutn bridge toward the remenents of the old Dartmourn bridge on the other side. Residents more used to the sights of Gotham had little interest, but wished they could get a car to do that so they could escape the snail slow traffic on the new bridge. Blackhawk then used his powers to absorb the kinetic energy from his police vehicle as it landed on the other side of what was the old bridge. The General only bounced a little as it struck ground and Blackhawk then put on the parking break causing it to skid towards the intersection of 78th and C street. He could see a teen girl in a black Batgirl costume that strangely was all black and had the eyes and mouth patched over. She stood at the light post his that his Charger patrol car now skidded to. Batgirl held up her right leg and placed it on the cruiser just as it skidded to a halt, giving the illusion she stopped it from skidding. "How does she do that?" Blackhawks mused. "Get in Cousin Daisy!" he called to her. "Never call me that again!" she said very loudly. She then leapt over the roof of the car and leapt into the passenger seat through the widow. Blackhawk released the parking break and sped towards the "crime in progress" with his lights flashing.

Back at the jewelery store, a huge being walked up towards Shelby as she was searching through the rubble. It was the same strange being that Catwoman had witnessed walk out of the portal in the alley. He wore a creepy looking mask that reminded her of the Scarecrow's. Shelby's eyes widen as I look up to an extremely tall person, "...Well...I feel short..." she remarked. "This kinda reminds me of when I played Cowboys and Indians when I was young.", Blackhawk said reffering to the rush of excitement he was now feeling as sped his police vehicle through the streets. "So what's the plan, white eyes." Batgirl quipped at Blackhawk, disliking the very idea of comparing crime busting to "Cowboys and Indians". "Only you would play Cowboys and Indians as a kid, but I forgot you're from HogJowls, Texas" she groused. "Ahm from Murray, Texas. HogJowls is over by Mapeache towards Arkansas. Murray is almost to the Rio Grande, thousands of miles away. I muh cousins the Custers are from there, not me." Blackhawk retorted, annoyed she forgot that. He had told her just the other day too, but she always acted like she never wanted to listen to him. Batgirl and Blackhawk never really "got off on the right foot" as Blackhawk would remark in his folksy Texan way. When he first met her as Batgirl, he wondered why anyone who walk around in costume with even the eye holes patched over. He was told by Barbara Gordon that she was a superb martial artist who could use all her other senses to view the world around her. Blackhawk understood this, as his former mentor Slade Wilson was also trained in this type of blind combat. Slade tried teaching Blackhawk this martial art, but Blackhawk was hampered in his training by his fear. He never was really a good pupil of "Deathstroke" as Slade was known in the assassin's market place. When Blackhawk met Batgirl as her true identity as Isabella Wayne, he commented on her true appearance as "Vanessa Hudgens in a Batsuit". Batgirl took these words as a disparaging remark and not a compliment of her exotic beauty as he intended it. Grell snickered at Shelby's comment, this person was indeed tall. "Are you two done shopping? Because we should probably get the hell out of here." Elektra said as she just then noticed the tall newcomer. "I'll drive up there and they'll probably try to make a break for it. They won't realize it's my patrol car and we kin takem by suprise!" Blackhawk tells Batgirl. Phobia, the extremely tall person, looks down at the girl, and tries to speak but only whines come from his mouth. "Oh fine." Grell comments at the strange being as it seems the whole shopping spree they were having was now taking a backseat to whom ever this stranger was. "Ok. But that might take to long to for us to get there. How about we do this instead.", She said looking at Blackhawk as she shot a grappling hook toward a light pole. As the she held onto the hook, Blackhawk saw it pull the black caped Batgirl from the vehicle as she looped up around the light pole. "Well, she's a little bitty thing. I shoot a line to a light pole, ah'd probably make it bend." he remarked as he watched her swing away as she fired another grappling hook towards a skyscraper and on her way to the crime scene.

(To be continued next week...)