She crouched in the cold night. The gentle snow gave way to freezing rain and she refused to let
the cold get to her. The rabid wind tore at her cape, sending it flapping. Her name was Cassandra Cain,
and she had a job to do. She patiently waited for Oracle to fill her in on some more details.
She had been very vague, almost rushed. Cas was aware of some attack on the tower earlier.
Oracle had ended her transmission with a weird statement. “Trust nothing that you see.” What the
heck did that mean?
Clad all in black, Batgirl sat atop a ten story apartment complex in downtown Gotham, ponder-
-ing an earlier message she had received from Batman. Something about Superman and the League
being MIA and them having to pick up the slack. That was fine with her, to be honest. She loved the
challenge.
She gazed down at the streets, wondering how long until the city began clawing itself apart
from sheer terror. What did Metropolis look like right now? Or Central City? She made a silent promise
to herself that she do everything in her power to prevent that from happening to Gotham. This was her
city. And she would die to defend it.
A sudden jarring in the building made her come alert. A gentle rhythmic pulse that seemed to
dissipate and return. Like in that movie Tim had made her watch about dinosaurs in a theme park. What
was it called? Oh, well, she didn’t exactly “watch” it, per se. Just simply stared and waited for it to end.
But she did notice that scene where the dinosaur was approaching in the pouring rain. How it made the
earth shake, heralding its arrival. What was the movie called?! Oh, well.
She stood now, as the pulses came closer. Everything was shaking, releasing grime off windows
and making them rattle. Dust seemed to float away into the wind every time she felt it. Something was
coming. Something big.
She pulled a batarang off of her belt, and braced herself – fully prepared to use it. Then she
saw it.
Now, Cassandra Cain had seen a lot in her day. A LOT. Aliens, Amazonians, inter-dimensional
tyrants and psychotic clowns, not to mention the other scum that polluted her fair city. But she
allowed surprise as she raised an eyebrow beneath her black cowl. From the outside she was
emotionless, but inside the cowl, she was perplexed.
What was it? It looked like construction equipment, but, it was a robot. Man, was it BIG. At
least six stories in height. It was yellowish-green and looked like a bunch of construction vehicles
stuck together in a massive nightmare of metal. The ground jarred each time it took a step down
the street. Then it raised its mammoth green and purple arms.
“Devastator smash!” it yelled as it slammed its arms downward.
A building imploded and she got bad 9/11 flashbacks. She had to do something. But what?
Almost on instinct, she dove, using her grappling hook and swinging in an arc above the thing’s head.
In a perfectly executed acrobatic feat of prowess, she did a flip, twist and landed on top of Devastator’s
head. Then, she unleashed the flash bombs.
Devastator roared as it shook its large, blocky head. Its sensors were momentarily stunned.
In micro seconds, alien computers compensated and corrected the problem. Then the machine began
searching for the source of its previous distress. It spotted a black figure landing on a rooftop just above
its head. With a roar of anger, it unleashed another punch, sending the building crumbling.
Batgirl had to move quick. She jumped as the building disintegrated beneath her feet. As she
glided through the air, she hurled another flash bomb at the thing’s face. But Devastator deflected it and
sent it back at the annoying humanoid. His yellow eyes were filled with rage.
She covered herself with her cape as blinding white light, a present from her predecessor,
flashed all around her. As she looked up after the initial onslaught of blinding light and flashes, she
saw Devastator poised to kill her. She was doomed. Just another day on the job for Batgirl.
In a flash, the large arm moved for her position. She dodged the machine’s blow as the
building disintegrated. She used her momentum to launch herself onto its arm and she ran for
its face. She had no idea what she would do when she got there. Oh, well. Something would come
to her. Something always did. Batman didn’t choose her to be his protégé for nothing.
The machine bellowed in fury as this small, black clad humanoid upset the most effective
killing machine in the entire universe. Her nerve was rock steady. Heck, fighting nauseating freaks
like Killer Croc and the Joker kind of makes you not notice the odds anymore. Just the ability to move
on to the next obstacle.
“Prepare for extermination!” Devastator bellowed.
Cassandra leapt on the machinations’ broad chest and tossed her spare incendiary grenade
(always knew she’d need it for something) into a crack in its armor. Just then, she noticed its mighty
fist heading right for her. She leapt and dodged just as Devastator’s mighty punch hit mighty Devastator.
He stumbled backwards, cars crunching beneath its huge, green feet. A cry of frustration made
windows shudder and car alarms go off.
“I am going to destroy you!” threatened the machine.
He loomed in the street as Batgirl landed nimbly on another rooftop. She looked up at the
monstrosity as he neared. Certain doom for any normal person. A “normal” person. The thought
always made her smile.
Just as he attempted another slap, Cas saluted him. The gesture confounded the machine.
“Wha-?” spouted the Decepticon.
Just then, the incendiary bomb detonated beneath Devastator’s armor. The beast known
as Devastator suddenly separated into his six components. Six massive construction vehicles slammed
into the street. The beast was gone.
Batgirl saluted again as she turned and readied her grappling hook. She was going to Gotham
clock tower to inform Oracle of her debacle with the beast. She had to hurry. Then, she heard
something from behind her - the thumping sound of a helicopter. It was coming closer.
At once, she was in a blinding spotlight.
“Don’t move, human.” it growled.
Human? Were these things driving themselves? Batgirl readied herself as she produced her
extending, metal pole. She was a warrior once more. What happened next actually gave her a moment’s
pause.
The spotlight shifted off of her, and she saw the blue, military helicopter hovering overhead. Her
cape wafted in the cold breeze. It had started snowing again. All at once, the helicopter seemed to
explode into a mass of shifting metal. Fuselage became legs, rotors stopped spinning, yet it remained in
the air. Within moments, the Decepticon Vortex was all that was before her. Now Batgirl had seen it
all.
“Surrender human!” threatened Vortex. His large, red blaster was pointed at her head. She
allowed a moment’s boredom after that. She had just mentally brought this horrifying alien robot
down to size. New toys, same tricks. He may have been an imposing sight, but to her, he was just
another thug with a gun. Her lip curled in utter disgust and she slowly shook her head in disap-
-pointment.
“Put your hands up!” he commanded. “You are a Decepticon prisoner, little girl!”
She leapt into the air, swinging as hard as she could with her pole. Her muscles tightened as
metal met metal, jarring the robot’s head.
“You gotta be-!” was all he got out. Cas sent him spinning as he hit the roof. In a flash, she
was bounding over rooftops. She could hear him converting again. Chack-chack-CHACK-CHACK-THUP-
THUP-THUP!!! The spot light was on her again and she was dodging laser fire. Just a typical Friday
night for Batgirl.
She led Vortex down through the city in the driving snow. He continued firing at her and yelling
in rage.
“You just messed with a Decepticon you little wench!” Bellowed the Decepticon helicopter.
“Prepare to be annihilated!”
Right. Like she hadn’t heard that one before.
She tossed another flash grenade over her shoulder, blinding Vortex as he screamed. His world
became snow, just as Devastator’s had minutes earlier. He crashed into a roof top, howling in pain.
It felt like a slaggin’ megaclick before they corrected again. He slowly converted and stood up. His
sensors could no longer detect the human. She was gone, disappeared into the snow-driven night.
That was the second time they had been evaded by a flesh-and-blood humanoid in one night!
“What is WITH the humans in this city?!” He cried out in frustration. As the sirens wailed in
the distance, Vortex knew what he had to do. And he didn’t want to.
“This is Vortex…” he transmitted. “The human has escaped.” The last part almost hurt.
“Inform Megatron.”