Brave New World: Batwoman

Chapter 26

Jacob and Kate were on their way to Mary and Ryan's when Jacob's phone rang.

"Everything okay dad?" Kate asked as she saw Jacob look at his phone.

"It's Helena." Jacob said.

"Then answer it." Kate said.

"What?" Jacob asked.

"Helena knows that you're taking a personal day, so if she's calling you, then it must be important." Kate said and Jacob smiled at her gratefully before he answered his phone.

"Helena, what is it?" Jacob asked.

"Sir, Sophie's missing?" Helena asked.

"What?" Jacob asked.

"No one's seen her in the past few hours and she's not in your office and before you say anything, it looks like there was a struggle. Not to mention, the camera feeds in the office were down for a few minutes." Helena said.

"Do you have any idea on who's responsible?" Jacob asked.

"None. We're still trying to figure out what's going on, since there's no way a stranger could've gotten in here without us knowing. I know it's your day off, but." Helena said.

"One second." Jacob said as he looked at Kate.

"I heard everything. Go, find her." Kate said and Jacob nodded at her, swearing to himself that while he couldn't help Ryan, he would not let anything happen to Sophie.

"I'll be right there." Jacob said.

"Some father daughter day this ended up being." Kate said.

"We'll reschedule." Jacob promised and Kate nodded as she watched him walk back towards his car as she pulled out her phone.

"I was wondering when you'd call." Helena said after she picked up.

"Had to ditch dad first. So tell me, who kidnapped Sophie and where the hell are they? I need to punch someone." Kate asked.

"Now former Crows Agent Russell Tavaroff. We're lucky he doesn't know that you've hacked into the Crow's system." Helena said.

"Do you know where he is?" Kate asked.

"Luke's searching the city's surveillance cameras for any trace of him or Sophie, but no luck yet. I suggest you head to the Batcave. I'll run interference here." Helena said.

"Got it." Kate said as she headed towards her bike.

"Tell me you've got something." Kate said when she entered the Batcave.

"Yep. Tavaroff was not exactly subtle, since while he was smart enough not to keep Sophie in the Crows HQ, he did leave a trail to someone who knows what to look for." Luke said.

"Okay, what kind of trail are we talking about?" Kate asked.

"I've tapped into the surveillance records of every surveillance camera in Gotham and imagine my surprise when after Sophie was abducted, certain cameras cut out for a seconds, all through Gotham. To anyone else, they wouldn't think anything of it." Luke said.

"But let me guess. All of those cameras end up leading to a certain area?" Kate asked.

"Yep. His guys may have been able to fool the Crows and the GCPD, but not someone who's used far less to track things down for Batman." Luke said.

"Off topic, how did Bruce afford this operation, since something tells me that this stuff wasn't free? The batmobile alone had to put a dent in his bank account." Kate said, since she'd always wondered that.

"Our budget is technically Bruce embezzling money from his own company to fund it." Luke answered.

"Yeah, like that isn't going to cause a problem if some competitor decides to go poking around in our finances." Kate said.

"Okay, I can see how that would be problematic for all of us. Got any ideas on how to cover it?" Luke asked.

"Yeah, misdirection. People won't think anything of those funds if they think it's for legitimate use. Like say, a topic secret contract with Argus or the DEO, especially since I have friends in both organizations that I'm sure would be happy to help." Kate said.

"We'll talk about that more after you've kicked Tavaroff's ass straight to Blackgate." Luke said.

"After he kidnapped Sophie, he'll be lucky if there's enough of him left to send to Blackgate." Kate snarled as she went to suit up.

"I'm sending the location to the Batmobile's GPS now. Once you're en route, I'll tip off Helena to alert the Crows." Luke said.

"Copy. And we need to find an easier way for me to change in and out of this thing." Kate said as she finished suiting up.

"I'll work on that once I'm done building a new arm for Ryan." Luke said.

"Good, that takes priority for you, second only to keeping me alive over the comms." Kate said as she headed to where the batmobile was parked. Kate really loved that she'd found the Batmobile, since there was no better way to travel in style. Especially since she'd given it a paint job with her red to break up Bruce's dreary black.

Sophie woke up with a killer headache as it all came back to her.

"Tavaroff, you son of a bitch. You really think you're gonna get away with this?" Sophie asked as said bastard walked into the room she was tied to a chair in.

"I'm sure that once Kane's daughter has found some other bitch to screw, she'll convince her father to forget all about you and besides, I covered my tracks, so they'll never be able to trace this back to me. Especially when you'll never be able to tell them." Tavaroff said.

"Are you crazy? Shooting the acting commander of the Crows? You'll be lucky to ever see the outside of a prison cell." Sophie said.

"You really think that the courts in Gotham will give a damn about another black woman being shot. If anything, all I have to do is make it look like self defense and I'll be hailed as a hero." Tavaroff said with a grin as he aimed his gun at Sophie, only for the lights to go out.

"What the hell?" Tavaroff asked as suddenly Batwoman swung through the window of the office.

"If there's any heroes in this room, it sure as hell isn't you, you sexist, racist pig." Batwoman said as she knocked the gun out of Tavaroff's hand and then proceeded to punch him out before rushing to Sophie.

"Batwoman, what are you doing here?" Sophie asked.

"Saving your ass. Again." Batwoman said as she untied her.

"Well thanks. But how did you know?" Sophie asked.

"I have my ways." Batwoman said.

"Any chance you could give me a lift back to Crows HQ with this douchebag?" Sophie asked and Batwoman grinned.

"Congratulations, I think you might be the first crow to ever ride in the batmobile." Batwoman said and Sophie smiled as she briefly looked into Batwoman's eyes, but that was enough to cause everything else to fall into place and she knew who Batwoman really was.

Batwoman was the love of her life and now she just loved her even more.