Second Chances: Batwoman - Rough Draft

Chapter 23

"Wait, Dad knows you're Batwoman?" Mary asked after Kate had told her, Luke and Bruce about her talk with her dad.

"Yeah, believe me, I was just as surprised as you are. Especially since he's actually proud of me for it. Maybe you should consider telling him about your clinic." Kate said, since Mary had shown her her clinic a few weeks ago.

"Yeah, I don't think so. Dad might somehow be okay with you being Batwoman, but something tells me he wouldn't respond very well to finding out that I'm running an illegal, unlicensed clinic, simply because he doesn't think I'm qualified." Mary said.

"She's not wrong. At least Kate has years of military training from Point Rock to help solidify her qualifications to be Batwoman, plus I've been training her too." Bruce said, even though he knew Kate didn't need it.

"Not to mention five years of combat training on Coryana, which is the same island that the desert rose comes from and is also where I was those five years I was gone. Long story, I'll tell you later." Kate said to Mary, who nodded.

"Anyways, how are we going to work out this deal with Alice? And more importantly, how do we make sure she keeps up her end of the deal?" Luke asked, getting them back on topic.

"I actually have a thought about that, but it really depends on Mary." Kate said.

"What do you mean it depends on me?" Mary asked.

"I know that you can control plant life like Poison Ivy, but do you have any of her other powers? Specifically, her pheromone powers?" Kate asked.

"Actually, yeah I do. And I have a feeling I will be using that particular power on Ryan a lot to make sure she actually does her rehab and physical therapy once she's released from the hospital, since she likely will not go willingly. But why do you ask?" Mary asked.

"Because I'm thinking that's how we get Alice to keep her word. You pheromone her and make her not only agree to the deal, but also make sure she keeps her end of it." Kate said.

"Yeah, except for one glaring flaw in that plan, which is in order to pheromone Alice, I'd need to actually face her and we don't know where she is." Mary said, though Kate could tell that her sister was hesitant.

"Dad's working on rooting out any moles Alice might have in Crows that we can use to help find her. But Mary, can we talk? Privately?" Kate asked and Mary nodded as she let her sister pull her to the side.

"Okay, what's going on with you? You've been out for Alice's blood since what happened to Ryan, but now that we've got an actual plan to try and take her out, you don't seem fully committed to it?" Kate asked, concerned for her sister.

"I still want to take Alice down and save your mom, but Kate, what you're asking me to do, I'm not sure if that's a line I want to cross." Mary said.

"What?" Kate asked, confused.

"Controlling plants, that's one thing, but actually controlling people's minds like this, even if it's Alice, that's the kind of thing that Poison Ivy was doing and we know what happened to her. So far I've been able to keep myself balanced out, just controlling plants, but if I start doing all this other crazy stuff, how do I know that I won't go the way of Pam Isley?" Mary asked as Kate sighed and placed her hand on Mary's shoulder.

"Because for starters, you got your powers in a completely different way than how Pam Isley got hers and also, because you have a team here, me, Bruce, and Luke and we won't let you go that way, just like how I know that you guys will pull me back if it looks like I might go too far. And besides, you've gone this long having powers without going evil, I don't think you'll go evil now and I promise, this is just a one off thing. Once we get my mom back, I will never ask you to pheromone anyone ever again." Kate said and Mary could tell by the look in Kate's eyes that she meant it.

"Okay, as long as you promise me that you'll never make me do this again unless it's absolutely necessary." Mary said.

"I give you my word." Kate swore, since she hated having to ask Mary to do this at all, but she also knew that this was their best chance to get her mom back.

"Everything okay?" Luke asked as Kate and Mary rejoined him and Bruce.

"Yeah. Just had to help Mary overcome a few things. But in the meantime, we need to find a way to get a message to Alice to let her know about this plan." Kate said.

"Would her current whereabouts help?" Talia al Ghul asked as she appeared out of nowhere.

"Uh who is that and how did she get in here?" Mary asked as Kate rolled her eyes.

"Mary, meet Bruce's on/off enemy/girlfriend, Talia al Ghul." Kate said.

"Thank you for that Kate." Bruce said.

"I'm not even going to ask. But you said you know where Alice is?" Mary asked and Talia nodded.

"However, before you ask, Gabi Kane is not there, I had my students search every inch of the building but there was no trace of her." Talia said.

"I would've been surprised if Alice kept her at the same place she was using as her base of operations. She's insane, not stupid." Kate said.

"Still, if we know where she is, then we can get this plan in motion." Luke said and Kate nodded.

"Time to suit up." Kate said as she activated her watch, causing her suit to form around her.

"Okay, I'm getting one of those right?" Mary asked and Luke rolled his eyes at her.

"She is right about needing a suit if she's going out there." Kate said as her cowl finished forming around her face.

"Good thing after examining the tech in your suit, I was able to make this for Mary." Luke said as he handed Mary a green watch, which she then took and placed on her wrist and after Luke showed her how to activate it, the screen glowed green as the nanites began to form around Mary, but unlike Kate's suit, where the nanites took the form of red and black bats as they formed the suit, the nanites in Mary's suit took the form of bright green vines that wrapped around Mary until she was wearing a bright green bodysuit, including a bright red wig and a green floral patterned domino mask on her face.

"Okay, this is awesome and I am never taking this thing off." Mary said and Kate chuckled.

"Trust me, I was the same way when I first got my suit. Especially since these are upgrades over Bruce's old suit. But come on, we need to get moving." Batwoman said as she led Mary over to where the Batmobile was parked and she could tell that her sister was resisting the urge to ask if she could drive.

"No you can't drive the Batmobile Mary. But at least you get to ride in it." Batwoman said as they got in the car and headed out to the location Talia had given them.