章 67: Fighting with Batgirl
While you knew that Mitsuru had summoned Barbara earlier, you didn't expect her to head back, grab her gear and show up to the fight! She must have asked Mitsuru to return her to her own world so that she could get ready. While you're internally freaking out and getting to see Batgirl in the flesh, you're also starting to worry about what the Toxidroid is capable of. You have a rebreather in your suit, but the Deviluke sisters and Batgirl don't. If Faust demands it sprays dangerous chemicals everywhere, it could get into their lungs and eyes very easily.
But most irritating of all is that you've started to remember his name.
Barbara isn't deterred by the sight of the robot. With a deft sleight-of-hand, she reaches down to her belt and draws a trio of golden batarangs, throwing them in a fan-like pattern that makes dodging them almost impossible. The android tries its best to avoid taking damage, but it is a feeble effort in the face of her speedy throw. One of them embeds into its arm, before jolting the android with a burst of electricity from an internal mechanism.
With that, all hell breaks loose. There's no time to admire just how beautiful she is, because Faust is already descending upon you with the intent of burying his laser sword deep into your chest for real this time! His effort is warded away by a sudden barrage of red beams being fired from behind you, which glance off of his metallic armour and force him back through the air.
"I'll show you what happens when you kill these adorable plants and animals!" Momo roars, blasting away at him using the tip of her tail.
Nana eggs her on with venom in her voice, "That's right, show him who's boss!"
Their war nut of a father has taught them a thing or two about defending themselves, as Momo, Nana and Lala keep him at bay with their ranged attacks. You also know that they're pretty strong too! Not that Faust is going to get a chance to get close to them. You head over to where Barbara is fighting with the android, but you're intercepted as several goons leap out from the bushes and try to stop you.
One of the lower level robots is immediately taken out as a bola flies in from an unseen angle and almost rips its head off just from the force. It is forced down to the ground as the ball-covered rope wraps around its neck and drags it down. You draw your gun and start shooting, ripping open one of their chest panels and ripping apart the internal mechanisms in a violent spurt of robo-gore. Oil and sparks fly everywhere!
Barbara isn't fazed by the toughness of the alien alloy that the android is built from – she deals with supernatural threats and madmen on a near daily basis. She deflects a punch and grapples with the android's working arm, the joints inside groan in protest as she slowly begins to ratchet up the tension and break it. It gives way all at once, bending backwards with a loud screech of metal on metal.
From her position behind the robot, Barbara slaps a magnetic bomb to the back panel and delivers a roundhouse kick, tossing the android into the middle of a group of mooks. It explodes in a flash of orange light, destroying several of them all at once. Barbara leans back and avoids another attack from an unsighted opponent. She aims her left arm at the culprit and fires a grapple tether through its head – before shooting it upwards and around a nearby lamppost. The mechanism inside reels the robot up into the air, where it struggles and tries to escape.
But her explosive didn't destroy the more advanced Toxidroid. You're going to need some more firepower to break that thing into pieces. You crack another head with a stunning kick and move to join her.
"Nice of you to show up, Batgirl."
She chuckles, "Hey – you can't throw a party like this without inviting me. I headed back home and brought a few toys so we could play. These guys are some tough nuts to crack."
"Right. That alloy they use isn't from Earth. It's super tough, you're gonna' need something bigger to break through that."
"Like that gun you're holding?"
"Exactly."
"Then allow me."
She draws another batarang and throws it at the Toxidroid. You watch as it gracefully curves through the air before landing directly on the target. A second later, the robot begins to twitch and jolt as a surge of electricity is sent through its internal systems. You take aim and prepare to finish the fiend off for good, but Faust leaps over and pulls it out of the way – forcing your bullets to harmlessly disappear a few feet behind where it was standing. One of the advantages of it being an energy weapon is that the output can be tuned to avoid collateral damage. The rangefinder in your helmet updates the power draw on the fly during a fight.
"I'm not letting you ingrates spoil my plans again!"
Faust is red in the face as fury starts to take a hold of his decision making. He charged at you using his blade – trying to cut you and Barbara down where you stand. You duck out of the way while she responds with an expertly practised disarming manoeuvre. Faust cries out in pain as Barbara grabs his wrist and applies enough pressure to make him drop his weapon. That fancy armour he's wearing is going to help when Batgirl squeezes him into a pretzel and breaks every bone in his body.
Not that she'd do something that mean, anyway.
Faust manages to throw her over his shoulder and reclaim his weapon of choice, but that leaves him vulnerable to you coming in from behind and using some of the training that Chun-Li has provided you. Another kick to the left side of his neck sends the weedy villain spiralling away and into the dirt. Several more androids appear to try and protect him from further attack.
Barbara leaps back into action, punching, kicking, cracking and grappling with a finesse that almost leaves you speechless. She doesn't stop for even a second, years of instinct drilled into her. She's more of a machine than the robots she's currently beating the snot out of. Faust is clearly not happy about being beaten back by a 'mere human.'
The rest of his force isn't doing too hot either. The Deviluke sisters have made short work of them using their laser-firing tails. With the numbers game going against him and his precious Toxidroid nursing a broken arm, Faust has no choice but to retreat. He snaps his fingers and summons a tear in time and space, which he leaps through with the robot in hot pursuit. Barbara tries to catch him before he gets away, but it's just too fast for you to interrupt.
"Agh! He got away," she frowned.
"Yeah, he does that."
Barbara faces you as things quieten down. You take a moment to appreciate the costume, which is in no way influenced by the way that it shows off her curvy body. It makes your nerdy little heart jump for joy seeing such an iconic look replicated in your real world, or rather, the original look that she is using in her own world.
It's fine because she's doing the exact same thing to you. Mitsuru had been searching for people who are already familiar with your work. Barbara must have seen this armour while she was reading or watching your show. You press the button on your bracelet and send it back to the warp space that Lala uses to store these things. Barbara is much more interested in inspecting your face rather than the helmet. She isn't shy about getting an eyeful. The standoff is ended by a bright flash coming from behind you. Momo is holding a phone in her hands and snapping a picture of Barbara for some reason.
"What are you doing?" you ask.
"It's for the chart!"
The harem chart. You didn't know that Momo was taking such an active part in putting that together. You don't see the practical need for it, considering that most of your summons fall in love with you on sight, but there's no need to stop them from having fun. Barbara isn't initiated on what all of that is about, so she just ignores it and decides to formally introduce herself.
"It's nice to see you face to face, I'm Batgirl – but I assume you already know my real identity."
"I wouldn't want to spill it without your permission. Let's head back before the police show up."
You walk away from the site of the battle and start the trip back to the base. One of the good things about Batgirl is that everyone will just think that she's a very dedicated cosplayer, because she doesn't have the ability to teleport her outfit away like you do. Barbara retrieves a large sports bag from behind a nearby tree, and makes a quick stop in a public toilet to change back into her regular clothes.
"Sorry, that outfit starts to chafe if I leave it on for too long."
"Don't discomfort yourself for my sake. I'd say that this isn't such a bad look either." Barbara giggles and punches your arm. Delivering corny lines is yet another skill to add to your expanding repertoire.
"Can you stop flirting for one darn second and tell me what that guy was trying to do?" Nana demands.
"He made it pretty clear when he explained his entire plan to us in that dramatic monologue," Momo says.
"What was up with that? Can't he keep his stupid mouth shut?"
"Evidently not..."
"Whatever. What he's planning to do is totally unforgivable. The next time I see him, I'm gonna' wring his neck for killing all of those plants and animals!"
You turn back and smile, "Does that mean I can count on your help in the future?"
She stops in place and pouts, "Fine! But don't expect me to start eating out of the palm of your hand, pervert!"
Momo rolls her eyes, but Lala leaps onto her back and glomps her, "Oh! Thank you so much, Nana. I promise you won't regret it."
"I'll make you regret it if you don't get off of me!"
"They're a… energetic bunch," Barbara observes.
"Things can get a little chaotic around here," you concur, "But that's why it's so exciting. I've gotten to meet a lot of amazing people lately, and there are even more on the horizon. I've just got to keep focused on stopping them from causing too much damage."
"I feel that. Sometimes it can feel like you're not even making a dent in the problem, but every life you save is valuable. When you give people a reason to be optimistic they start changing their own behaviour too."
That was true to some extent. Your armour-clad form (which still hasn't been given a popular name yet,) has become something of a media icon recently. That is partly thanks to Mitsuru and Venelana ruthlessly exploiting the news coverage of your fights and having merchandising prepared to sell to a captive audience of consumers. You just hope they keep the other copyright holders in mind, they might not like your own 'franchise' being promoted with help from their characters. For every five people who watch those videos or buy something, you hope that at least one of them takes a lesson to heart and tries to do some good in their own lives too.
Within their means, of course. You're not foolish enough to expect them to pick up a gun and fight like you do. Some people simply can't do something like that, and you're not even sure it would be effective against their alien materials; but that's a problem for another day. For now, you need to head back and work on finding where Faust keeps running to. This cat and mouse game is already testing your patience.
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