Life as the BatGirl Issue # 1
Gotham Alleyway - Dead of Night
Harvey Bullock surveyed his surroundings with disinterest. The typical dingy gray buildings in a seedy part of town where no sane person would walk at night. It was the dreadfully normal setting the crass detective found himself nine times out of ten, partially because such settings were somewhat of his specialty and partially because most of the department liked to put him in such places just so they wouldn't have to work with him. Harvey peeled away the wrapper off of a candy bar he had kept in his coat pocket so he would at least have something enjoyable to munch on during the night shift.
"So Montoya, have poor scum bag do we have in the alley tonight? Druggie? Maybe a dealer from a deal gone south? I would give you my emergency rations if it was the corpse of one of those psychos from Arkham." Harvey smirked at the thought as crumbs sprayed from his candy bar as he bit down like a starving man.
Montoya glared at the older man's atrocious manners near a crime scene but she didn't bother reprimanding him, he would just ignore her anyway and he was technically her superior. Why she had gotten stuck with his lout she would never understand, maybe she had just been the unlucky sacrifice in the department so they wouldn't have to deal with Bullock. He certainly was a pain in the Bollocks.
She had already been observing the scene for a while now before her 'partner' had finally decided to show up. It was one of the more disturbing crime scenes she had seen in a while.
"The thing is Bullock, frankly I have no idea who this guy is aside from the fact his attire says mobster."
"The hell? How can you have no idea who they are? It's a freaking mobster they're always easy to identify from their mug alone!"
"Well, that's the thing...you'd better have a look for yourself." Montaya walked Bullock over to the covered corpse and lifted part of it off so Bullock could get a better look.
Bullock nearly choked on his butterfinger.
"Christ! What sick demented freak did that to him!?" Bullock gaped at the bloodied corpse, a strange animal mask, a sheep perhaps, had been grafted onto the man's face, making it impossible to identify him with just a look. From the amount of disfigurement done to his face they were going to need a finger print or even dental records just to know his name.
"You know what's even sicker? The mask graft is older than the time of death. This ex-mobster had been alive with that face for who knows how long? He only recently died to what appears to be a knife wound to the chest."
"Cover it up Montoya, God that's just sick." Bullock swallowed some bile in his throat, he had seen plenty of disgusting things during his time on the force but this was certainly up there among the top things he'd want to forget seeing. "Got any idea who the perp is, for either the death or...that."
"Well, as there is blood from another individual on the scene we are fairly certain he was in a fight right before death, as for the face graft, all I can tell you is the perp knew what they were doing."
"Bleh, let's hurry up and wrap up this crime scene, dead guys don't tell us the killers on their own."
Gotham Alleyway - Above the crime scene
Barbara Gordon had her ear to a listening device as she looked down at the cops below. She was currently hidden on an old fire escape, making sure her cape was positioned just right to help her blend in with the shadows. Her police scanner had alerted her to the location and to make sure she could hear as well as observe, she had dropped a listening device near the alley dumpster. The sound wasn't the best quality but she could make it out well enough thanks to Bullocks loud voice.
She knew she shouldn't be so biased but whenever she found herself listening to Bullock on patrol or at her internship, she kind of hoped she'd find some incriminating evidence showing he was a bad cop, she just couldn't like the old, grizzled detective.
Waiting in the cold, hunkered down to chilling stone and frigid metal while she tried to glean whatever tid bit of information she could was not really her idea of a good time. Her suit certainly helped but sometimes she wondered if she needed to put a little bit more underneath the suit to make sure she didn't freeze to death. Maybe some long underwear or some thermal pads would be a good addition to have.
"I'll try to remember to add some extra warm padding next time." Barbara complained her herself as she watched the two wrap up their investigation. As much as she wanted to explore the crime scene herself, she would have to wait for another time, she didn't dare show herself to try and get more info as Bullock especially had a distrust of bats of all kinds.
Barbara carefully slinked away under the cover of darkness, she would come back later for her bug and to further inspect the crime scene. While she hoped further investigation would reveal who the killer was, frankly she was more interested in finding out why the victim's face had been turned into a horror show. Someone out there had one sick hobby, but that would stop if Batgirl had a say in the matter.
Barbara sneezed as she rushed off into the night to make it back to the Gotham University dorm before dawn. Being Batgirl part time was the best she could do for now, college courses waited for no man or woman after all. Bad guys were a lot less complicated than negotiating the social hierarchy of Gotham University, that was for sure.
For now she just hoped she hadn't caught a cold.
Lord Wraith