Living with the Bat (Batman+Catwoman)

Chapter Thirteen

Gotham City

December 24, 17:23 EDT

Elizabeth couldn't believe Alfred had been shot. She felt a little numb at the thought that so many people had died. The funeral had been that day. There was still no news about her parents. Her friends had come to comfort her. Dick held her close to him throughout the process. He spent the whole day with Elizabeth and the two rarely parted from each other. They wrapped presents together in preparation for Christmas the next morning. "Will you stay here tonight?" Elizabeth asked not wanting to be alone.

Dick replied, "If Mr. Wayne will let me stay I should be able to."

"It's fine, you can stay in the extra room." Bruce said looking at the two. He had been shaken up a little at the death of the last person that he had lived with as a child. Now Bruce was the only one that knew about his childhood from that perspective.

Megan, Artemis, and Wally hung out with Elizabeth until it was time for them to go. Megan had lingered a little longer as if she sensed Elizabeth's distraught feeling. Together the couple watched Christmas specials staying up late. Elizabeth was fighting sleep when Dick said, "We should get some sleep."

"Fine," Elizabeth sighed giving in, "I'll see you tomorrow." They both went to where they were staying only to have both of them sneak out at separate times. Dick left earlier to go on rounds with Bruce. Elizabeth got a little shut eye but had snuck down to the Batcave to work on her new project. She learned how to hack the Bat's computer and was using it to research for her project. Elizabeth felt she was close to achieving her goal to change the world.

The research papers she found had helped her progress from her basic understanding of bioengineering to a more complex understanding. Well, Elizabeth still had a lot to learn but it was enough for her to make a prototype. It wouldn't be able to do all the things that she wanted but she was still learning. Elizabeth looked at the plain black shirt and tights she bought not that long ago. She knew that if her nanobots worked that she would be able to control the clothing to make it change colors. That wasn't all she was planning. Sure it would be cool to have clothes that changed colors whenever you wanted them to, but the final plan was to have them keep in heat or let out heat and to cover heat signatures.

She programmed the tiny machines before putting them onto the clothes where their programming would make them stay on. Elizabeth slipped into the clothes and thought up a different color for the shirt. It slowly changed colors transitioning from black to light blue. She staggered at the energy it was taking from her body. It didn't stop her though, so Elizabeth thought of a different color for the pants. They turned gray just like the shirt had turned blue. There was a little trace of black left. Elizabeth groaned, making that many nanobots in that time period had been a pain. They worked though, but using her brain waves for the energy and the controller was not a good idea.

Elizabeth wondered if they could stay onto skin without any extra programming. She slowly moved the nanobots off of the clothing and onto herself still maintaining their coloring. It worked for the most part with only a few falling off. Elizabeth called them back using the clothing to attract them to her. She scooped them into a petri dish where she connected them up to the computer. It was late but Elizabeth knew she had a little bit of time left. So she set off programming and thinking about her next step.