****************
Chapter 29 - Surfacing

Dick set Lucy down, scanning the route she�d laid out for him. It was a path, sort of, which wound up through a cavern and into the gloom above. He couldn�t see any light, but Lucy assured him it would lead out to the surface. �You�re sure about this?� he asked her, looking down at the tiny girl. She nodded, clutching her stuff animal (a bear? he wondered) and looking up with him into the threatening darkness.

�It takes a while,� she said in a soft voice. �Janie took me up there once. You come out in a park. There�s swings and stuff.�

Grant Park, Dick theorized, wondering how far it was up that narrow path into the outside world. He looked behind him at the sea of the kids. The ones nearest the cave entrance were coughing. Smoke was beginning to billow in from the Court of Miracles as flames devoured the shelters. �Okay everybody, let�s go,� he ordered, picking up Lucy again and settling her on his back. Dick took the hands of two small children at his side, setting a quick pace up the steep pathway. The children followed one or two abreast and Dick began to pray.

********************

The singing continued, soft and faint. Batman looked above him, to the top of the cathedral where the bell tower would be found. She might be on the roof of the church, an act of madness given the decaying state of the cathedral. Bruce had guessed that when the earth had swallowed Our Lady of Sorrows, the church had slid into some underground pool of water that had drained away during the aftershocks following the great �quake. He was amazed at how complete the building was, but knew that the cathedral was unstable. The whole thing might collapse at any moment.

He weighed his choices and took the stairs, following Jessica�s voice. As he climbed, Bruce focused on steadying his breathing, working to preserve enough of a rhythm so that he wasn�t caught off-guard when he finally caught up to her. He had no idea what a fight with someone who knew the future would entail.

*********************

Selina hauled herself up out of the shaft, lying on her stomach somewhere in a back alley just off Cathedral Square. She breathed deeply of the cool, fresh air of the surface. Her arms had gone numb about an hour ago, her legs a little after that. She�d made it, however. Selina looked up, surprised by the moonlight. They�d been down there a little more than 24hrs. She got to her feet, willing some life back into her body. Bruce, Dick, Lucy�all those kids�they were counting on her. Selina began to run.

*********************

Batman reached the top of Our Lady of Sorrows, opening a small door which led into the bell tower. The great bronze bell had crashed out of its casing and down through the stairwell; he�d passed it on his way up, covered in dust, its voice silenced forever. He placed his foot on the tower flooring gently, surprised when the old stone didn�t give way.

The singing was louder here, echoing out into the caverns beyond the one housing the great cathedral. He paused, listening for the melody, trying to figure out what it was she was singing. After a moment, he realized that Jessica wasn�t singing at all. She was praying.

He crossed the roof, scanning for her. Finally, he found Jessica. She was standing near the edge of the roof, overlooking the entire huge church. Beside her, two stone angels stood sentry, their expressions remote and sad. The massive wings of the elaborately carved angels jutted out into thin air. The roof of the belltower hadn�t extended far, probably destroyed in the �quake. Batman kicked aside a clump of stone rubble with his boot, approaching her carefully.

�Jessica,� he said, keeping his voice low, �we have to get off this roof. It isn�t strong enough to-�

�The roof holds until you jump for me,� she informed him. �The ledge crumbles and you start to fall. You grab St. Bart,� she said, smacking the side of one of the stone angels, �and it gives way. Didn�t Lucy tell you to watch out for the crying statue?�

�I won�t jump for you,� he promised. �Just come away from the edge.�

�Life at all costs, huh?� Jessica asked him. He stepped forward to get a better angle on her. She held a rosary in her hands.

�Yes,� he replied softly. �I thought you agreed.�

�I think life is valuable,� she assured him. �But when you�ve seen what I�ve seen, the pain those children are going to cause when they grow up as rapists, murderers, thieves�� She sucked in a deep breath. �You should be thanking me. I just prevented a whole new batch of criminals from growing up.�

�You don�t know that,� he said, working his way closer. �You�re afraid of Selina, aren�t you? Because you can�t see what she�s going to do? Your visions aren�t infallible.�

�Do you know why I can�t see her future?� Jessica asked, turning to him. �I think you�d be surprised by the answer.�

�Tell me,� he said, still trying to keep her talking.

Jessica said another prayer before she spoke, slipping the bead through her fingers down the rosary chain. �She�s not supposed to be here.�

Batman shrugged off the revelation. Selina had survived quite a number of near-death experiences; he had begun to believe there was something to that old maxim about a cat having nine lives. �How does that effect your power?� he tried, hoping to distract Jessica long enough to get a line on her. He was not going to try to jump.

�You don�t understand,� Jessica sighed. �She was never supposed to be conceived at all. There are aberrations, Bruce. Fractures in time. I don�t completely understand what causes them but I�m sure your friend Wally West would have a few theories. Selina is an anomaly. The man who fathered her, Carmine Falcone, was supposed to die on your father�s operating table.�

Batman stared at her in shock. �Falcone was supposed to die?�

Jessica nodded. �His survival changed many things. For Gotham. For you. Your parents-�

�He had nothing to do with my parents� murder,� Batman said quickly. Jessica snorted.

�Of course not. But he did flood the city with crime as his mob syndicate gained power. Perhaps the man who shot your parents wouldn�t have come to Gotham if Falcone had died before taking control of the Twelve Families.�

Batman was silent, his heart and mind pounding with a single question that had haunted him for thirty years.

�Yes. I know,� Jessica said quietly. �I know who shot your parents. And he�s still alive, still out there, waiting for you.�

Bruce didn�t breathe. He was closer to the truth than he had ever been before. His life rushed past him at breakneck speed, all of it overshadowed by the sound of two fatal gunshots fired thirty years ago. Every decision he had made, everything he had ever felt or thought or believed, all of it overshadowed by his failure to find his parents� killer�

�Do you want to know his name?� Jessica asked softly, rising. The rosary slipped from her hands, caught on her wrist only by a thin strand of beads.

He stared at her, this pale, frightened woman with the crazy eyes, clutching her faith to her even as she betrayed its tenants, planning the murders of hundreds of children. He knew what her price was, knew what it would cost to learn the name of the man who had destroyed his life. He would have to acknowledge that she was right.

Batman blinked, the convictions he had set his life by taking hold, giving him strength and assurance again. �Life is precious, Jessica,� he said. �You know I will never agree to anything else.�

Jessica smiled, holding her hands out to him in a gesture of capitulation. �I know,� she said softly. �But I wanted you to know what you�re giving up.�

He grasped her hands to pull her closer and felt immediately his mistake. At the touch of her skin, images slammed into his mind, filling him with a pain so deep and consuming it burned like a fire.

He closed his eyes against the pictures, seeing before him his parents alive, watching him grow. Proud as he graduated high school. His father, displeased when Bruce chose law over medicine. His mother, eyes shining with joy as her son introduced her to the woman would become his wife. Thomas and Martha Wayne, attending his wedding. Cooing over grandchildren, his own chubby, contented babies. His life, filled with love as he had never known. Images he denied himself for thirty years since that night in the alley. What might have been.

�Le temps détruit tout,� she whispered to him.

Batman fell to his knees, unable to bear the mental images she was projecting. The whole of his painful, lonely life was laid open and bleeding in those few seconds as the telepath showed him exactly what he had lost.

�Now, don�t you want that man dead?� Jessica asked. �The man who stole that from you?�

�No!� Bruce roared, clutching at the sides of his head, wanting to tear the images from his brain.

�You�re lying,� she whispered in his ear. Bruce realized that, for a single moment, he had been. �That�s what the people I�ve killed have stolen from all those children down there,� her voice hissed. �Men like my father. Men like the one who killed your father.�

�No,� he managed weakly, the pictures in his head blurring and then fading into silence. He fell to his knees, his great weight cracking against the thin stone flooring. A strangled sob bubbled up out of his throat before he could stop it. Jessica crouched next to him, slipping the rosary over his head.

�I know you don�t believe in God,� she said softly, �but take it from someone who�s seen it all. Have faith, Bruce,� she whispered. �And value your innocence in what�s to come.� And then she was gone.

Batman opened his eyes, hearing only the echoing silence of the cave and his own ragged breathing. He stood, the rosary an unfamiliar presence around his neck, bumping against the Bat symbol emblazoned on his chest. He stood between the two statues of the crying angels, St. Bartholomew and St. Thomas. He looked down, closing his eyes against the sight of Jessica Bradshaw�s body lying broken and limp on the ground a hundred feet below.

Batman straightened, fingering the rosary necklace. Something carried towards him on the still air: the acrid smell of smoke. The children.

He raced down the endless stairwell of Our Lady of Sorrow, leaving the crumbling stone church and Jessica�s body to posterity. By the time he reached the Court of Miracles, flames had devoured all the small structures. Batman swayed with relief as he realized that no small bodies lay charred among the rubble. The children were safe, at least for now.

*********************

This was a bonehead move, Grayson, Dick thought to himself, trudging along up the path with three hundred children in tow. They were a quiet bunch, allowing only a few small cries of fear or pain to filter through the complete blackness of the cave.

�How much longer?� he whispered to Lucy. He felt the little girl shrug her shoulders.

�What�s gonna happen when we get out of the cave?� David, the little boy to Dick�s right, asked. Dick squeezed the kid�s hand in what he hoped was a comforting gesture.

�We�re going to get some help,� Dick told him. �People are going to look after you. You�re going to get clean clothes and a hot meal and maybe some toys to play with.�

�Video games?� David asked.

Dick nodded wisely. �Video games,� he agreed. The Wayne Foundation could chip in for a couple hundred Game Boys, he figured.

�What�s your favorite toy?� Susie, the nine-year old on Dick�s left, asked.

�He doesn�t play with toys, stupid,� the boy corrected. �He�s a superhero. He can fly and stuff. He doesn�t need toys,� he announced with an air of great superiority.

Susie looked up at Dick. �You don�t play with toys?�

�Sure I do!� Dick exclaimed. �Being a superhero means you just get to play with really big toys. Have you guys ever seen the Batmobile? That thing�s just a big Matchbox car.�

Susie nodded. David seemed less than convinced. Lucy squeezed Dick�s neck gently. �We�re going to have to stop.�

�Why-� Dick began to ask, just as he felt the earth directly before him begin to drop away. He came to a dead stop and extended his arms to stop Susie and David from going over the edge of the chasm opening in front of them. The pathway had crumbled directly ahead. There was no way out, except back though the fire to the shaft entrance.

Dick crouched to let Lucy slid off his back, feeling the other kids stop behind him in the darkness. He was glad the pathway was so narrow. If they had been walking more than two or three abreast, it would have take much longer to stop and they might have pushed the first kids in line off the path into the fissure.

�Everybody okay?� Dick called down the line, wishing his night vision lenses were more effective in the complete blackness of the cave. He could see only about thirty feet in any direction. All around him, the voices of the children filled the dark cavern with affirmation. They were okay, at least for now. Dick knew the little ones were already getting tired with the long climb and some of the teenagers were grumbling that there was no end to the path. They were all tough kids: most of them had grown up on the streets and all had escaped hellish domestic circumstances, but the march out of the earth was threatening to overwhelm them. Dick knew how they felt.

Dick surveyed the pathway in front of them, estimating the gaping hole in the ground to be ten feet across. Too far to jump, he decided. Lucy tugged on his arm.

�We can make it,� she told him. �There�s a walkway.�

�Where?� Dick asked, scanning the darkness again with his night vision. Nothing.

Lucy grabbed his hand and forced him to her level, onto his knees. She kept hold of his hand, crawling forward to the edge of the chasm nearer the wall of rock on one side. �Here,� she said, bringing his hand into contact with a thin ledge of stone set into the rock. Obviously this pathway had been used to get out of the caverns before. The ledge was man-made.

Dick checked the dimensions. It was narrow, much narrower than the path they�d been following. And in the complete blackness of the cave, it would be too easy to misstep and slip off into the ledge. This wouldn�t do.

�It�s too narrow,� Dick told Lucy.

She shook her head. �It�s okay. The littler kids will be scared and Jesus Ramirez will slip, but you�ll catch him. We�ll make it.�

�It�s too dark,� he tried again, still getting used to the idea that he had no choice. Lucy cocked her head to the side, then glanced down the long line of children.

�Call for Molly O�Neal,� she suggested. �Molly smokes, so she�ll have a lighter. And Patty K. has some tea candles.�

It took only a few minutes to get everything together. The tiny candles were placed a few feet apart on the narrow ledge, flickering in the darkness. Their light seemed to encompass the whole world. Dick crossed first, striding easily across the footbridge. He kept his back up against the wall, still wishing he could see better. His nightvision was having trouble compensating with the candlelight and for a long time, all he could see were the candles.

He started helping the kids across: Lucy, Susie and David first and then a long chain of children. It went exactly as Lucy had predicted: the smaller children were frightened but screwed up enough courage to cross and one boy (Jesus?) slipped. Dick caught him before he could go over the edge of the ledge into the yawning darkness below.

Dick had lost track of time, but he estimated the whole evacuation had already taken more than three hours. Where was Bruce? He doubted that Batman had been overpowered by Jessica Bradshaw, unless her telepathic gifts posed some kind of additional threat. Dick forced the mental image of Bruce�s body lying broken and bleeding in some forgotten cavern out of his mind and helped the last kids across. He had a feeling they still had a long way to go.

******************************

Selina pulled the bike to a stop outside of a ranch-style, split-level house in Tricorner, killing the engine. She�d hotwired the thing back near Cathedral Square and the little Honda had more than kept up with her. She decided to hang on to it.

Selina raced up the few steps to the door and banged loudly, wondering what time it was. The moon was high and full in the sky; she guessed it was sometime after 1am. She kept banging until the door finally opened. Jim Gordon stood before her, wearing a hastily-tied robe and plaid slippers, bleary-eyed, his silver hair hopelessly rumpled. �Catwoman? What-�

�We�re in trouble,� Selina told him, not wasting time. �We found three hundred children a mile below ground underneath Cathedral Square. And they�re going to die if we don�t get help to them.�

�What-� Gordon tried again, desperately attempting to clear the cobwebs of sleep from his mind. �Is Batman-�

�He�s still underground, trying to protect the kids. Nightwing�s there too.�

Barbara, Jim thought. Babs would be worried sick. �What do you need?� he asked her. Selina let out a sigh of relief. He wasn�t going to fight her, at least not on this. Her respect for the man grew marginally.

�Police, EMTs, the national guard, whatever you can swing,� she told him. �I have to contact Oracle.�

Jim started a little at the overt use of his daughter�s code name. �Babs� number is second down on speed dial.�

�Thanks,� Selina said, pushing past him into the house. She picked up the phone in the kitchen, hit �2�, and in an instant, Barbara Gordon answered, sounding wide awake.

�We found the Other,� Selina said quickly. �Jessica Bradshaw. Miss Misery. And she�s been keeping a bunch of kids buried down in the earth with her. Get anything with a siren to head into Cathedral Square on Adams St. There�s a little alleyway with a basement service entrance. Punch through that and you�ll find a mile-long shaft that�ll take you into a big cavern.�

�Are Blackbird and Blue Canary-�

�They�re okay,� she said quickly, hoping Barbara wasn�t given to hysterics. Selina doubted Bruce would want her on the team if she was, but you never knew with Bruce. �At least they were a few hours ago,� Selina amended honestly. �Can find me another way down into those caverns beneath Cathedral Square?�

She heard the click of keys and Barbara�s voice replied promptly, �there�s a Gotham U archeological dig in progress in Grant Park. They�ve partially excavated an old tunnel running southeast down towards Adams Street.�

�Good. Get some EMTs over there too,� Selina suggested. �If I know Bruce, he�ll find a back door somewhere and use it.�

�Where are you?� Barbara asked, her tone clipped and efficient as she tried to ignore the way Selina refused to use code over the secure channel.

�Your dad�s house,� Selina said. �He�s going to start calling the GCPD as soon as I�m done with you.�

�I�ll work on the medical response,� Barbara decided. �Thanks, Hedgehog.�

�That�s my codename?�

A city mile away, Barbara Gordon grinned into her headpiece. �Yeah. Like it?�

**********************

�Something�s wrong,� Lucy said quietly. Dick kept marching, but listened to her intently.

�What?� he asked.

�The fire,� she told him. �It went the wrong way.�

�What do you mean?�

�I dreamed that it would go north through the tunnels to the big church,� she said in a hushed whisper. �But someone blew air into the Court of Miracles. Now it�s coming behind us.�

�There�s nothing to burn in this cave, Lucy.�

The little girl thought about that. �Wires,� she said quietly. �We have lights. Miss Misery and Janie ran wires down here. The fire�s coming along them. We need to hurry, Dick,� Lucy said urgently, clasping his neck tightly.

�Okay everybody,� Dick said, knowing he was taking an enormous risk, �We need to pick up the pace a little. Who wants to show me they�re a good runner?�

He broke into a swift jog, dialing it down after a while for the little kids. Soon they were moving more quickly, a vast, overwhelming tremble of feet pounding through the caves beneath Gotham.

**********************

Selina waited, concealed among the trees in Grant Park, watching as some uniforms punched through the seals around the Gotham U dig site and entered into the excavated tunnels. She waited, pressing the GCPD communicator Gordon had given her more firmly into her ear. Still nothing.

With a shriek of electronic noise that made her wince, Selina heard the voices of the police working on the shaft on Adams Street. When they�d entered the tunnel, the additional air had fed the fire, creating a back draft. Two men had lost their lives.

�Doesn�t look good,� Oracle�s voice said in her ear, locking the frequency onto a secure channel. �They said the whole cave system is filled with fire. There�s some kind of electrical wiring suspended throughout the caverns. The fire�s feeding off that.�

�What about the Grant Park entrance?� Selina asked, keeping an eye on the EMTs setting up triage centers near the tennis courts across from her.

�We�re waiting. There�s no sign of the kids, or Batman and Nightwing.�

�I shouldn�t have left them,� she said quietly. �I know it�s always the girl who goes for help, but-�

�You did the right thing,� Barbara reassured her, double-checking her own motivations. She was actually reassuring Catwoman. Babs shrugged, pulling her chair closer to the Oracom station before her.

�Hang on, Hedgehog. I�m getting something.�

Selina waited, tuning her frequency back and forth between the EMT/police broadband and Oracle. Electronic silence cackled in her ear. She felt the tree around her stir and suddenly Robin was perched next to her on the branch.

�Oracle sent me over,� the kid told her. �Said Blackbird was in trouble.�

�I thought we only had to use those ridiculous codenames over the radio.�

Tim shrugged. �Can�t be too careful.�

�You sound like him,� Selina said softly. �Where�s Batgirl?�

�There was a triple homicide in Ottisburg,� Robin informed her. �Someone from the team needed to check it out. The victims had Smile-Ex grins plastered over their faces.�

�The Joker.�

�Yeah, maybe,� Robin agreed. �I�m thinking it�s a copycat thing. The Joker�s still at the Slab in Antarctica.�

�As far as you know,� Selina said glumly. She�d heard Bruce say often enough that the Joker could escape from anything.

�They�ve got something,� Robin said, leaning forward on the branch and training his binoculars onto the Grant Park entrance. Smoke was billowing out of the mouth of the tunnel. �Oh, no,� Tim said in a hushed voice.

***********************

Dick�s eyes burned and his lungs ached. The air was chocked with smoke and, far behind him, he heard children coughing and crying.

�Okay everybody, we�re going to start crawling!� he decided, his voice artificially cheerful. He tried to make crawling through smoky darkness over rough rock sound fun. �Get down as low as you can and crawl fast. It�ll get easier to breathe the closer we get to the surface.� If we�re even heading for the surface, Dick thought.

�It�s dark, Dick,� Lucy whispered to him. �I haven�t seen anything since the fire. Maybe I was wrong.�

�Don�t say that, kiddo,� he begged her. �Just hang on tight. It can�t be much further.�

The smoke continued to pour into the dark tunnel.

*****************

Bruce stumbled through the caverns, the world around him on fire. He smelled methane in the air and knew it was feeding the fire and canceling any breathable oxygen in the caverns. He�d found the path Dick had taken with the children: their footprints were all over the cave floor. He was making good time as he raced behind them, but the fire had now slowed his progress considerably.

He came to a wide gap in the pathway. It was ten feet across easily and with the magnification in his cowl he could see the children�s footprints resume on the other side. There was no way to cross, no small ledge or easy foothold. How had Dick done it? he marveled, proud of his adopted son. Rocks rained down upon him, and Bruce paused, listening. Drilling. Someone was drilling in the tunnel ahead.

There was a loud crash and before he could cover his head, the world went dark.

*****************

�What�s going on?� Robin asked an EMT standing and watching the progress at the Grant Park entrance. The man reacted swiftly, snapping to attention even as he eyed Batman�s junior partner with a mixture of awe and suspicion.

�They hit a block in the tunnel. It�s not too bad: they just have to drill a couple of feet through to the other side. There�s a fire down there, burning off methane. The smoke is getting pretty bad. We�re anticipating causalities if the kids made it this far.�

�Won�t the drilling destabilize the tunnel?� Robin asked him. The EMT shrugged but looked guiltily towards the excavation in progress. That obviously hadn�t been much a consideration.

�What?� Catwoman asked, appearing out of the smoke and confusion to stand at Robin�s side. The EMT stared at her, transfixed, then scurried away. Two masks were too much for the man.

�They�re drilling past a blockage in the tunnel,� Dick said. �It won�t take long but I�m worried that the tunnel�s structural integrity can�t handle it.�

Selina sighed. �You know how they say it gets worse before it gets better?� Tim nodded. �I really hate when they say that.�

********************

Dick flipped Lucy beneath the protection of his body, shielding her and the two other kids near him as rocks rained down. They were lucky they�d been crawling. It was an easier for the kids to curl into a ball and cover their heads as large rocks detached from the cavern ceiling and crashed down onto the pathway. The rumbling continued and Dick wondered desperately if it was another earthquake.

�What�s going on?� he asked Lucy. The little girl squeezed her eyes shut.

�Digging. Men are digging, trying to help. I didn�t see them before.�

Thank God, Dick thought, just as the rumbling ceased. He uncovered the children�s heads and resumed his crawling position. The smoke had decreased a little and Dick was finding it easier to breath.

�C�mon, guys. Keep going,� he encouraged, listening to the groans and complaints as the kids got to their feet and started marching forward again. Dick stared ahead in the darkness and thought he saw a pinprick of light. It wasn�t much, but he kept an eye on it. After a few minutes, the pinprick had grown. Strange voices began to echo off the walls of the cavern. Moments later, Dick�s nightvision picked out the figure of a heavily-armored GCPD officer approaching in the dark.

�Hi!� Dick called out, relief and exhaustion evident in his voice. �What kept you?�

The officer came to a dead stop, shinning a bright flashlight over the strange sight before him. A lithe, heavily-muscled man in a blue-and-black formfitting suit and a black mask was holding the hands of two small children. Another little girl was dangling from around his neck, some sort of unidentifiable animal in her grip. Behind them, scores of grubby little children, their faces streaked with dirt and tears, coughed and cried in the dissipating smoke of the tunnel.

The man said the only logical thing a Gothamite could say, under the circumstances: �You guys need help?�

****************

Catwoman and Robin watched the long exodus from the tunnel anxiously. Dick emerged first and beside her Selina felt Tim breathe a sigh of relief. She grinned beneath her mask as Nightwing lowered Lucy to the ground. Paramedics immediately swept up the little girl and took her to a waiting triage station. The same thing was repeated hundreds of times as the children were removed from the tunnel. Some of the teenagers were confrontational and, as soon as they were treated for smoke inhalation they melted into the darkness of the Gotham night. The younger children sobbed and clung to each other, terrified of the EMTs trying to assess their condition. Selina reminded herself how badly these kids had been hurt, and how difficult it was going to be for them to trust anyone again. She was still learning herself.

Lucy crossed the long, grassy field to the corpse of trees where Robin and Catwoman watched the proceedings, concealed within the branches of a great oak. The little girl looked up into the canopy of leaves for a while, then asked softly, �Can I come up?�

Selina and Tim dropped out of the tree and Lucy held up her arms. Selina picked the little girl up and cradled her gently. Lucy touched her face.

�You okay?� the small girl asked.

Selina nodded, surprised by the prick of tears in her eyes. She was a regular Niagara Falls lately.

Nightwing found them quickly, shaking hands with Tim in relief. �It went okay,� he said, unbelieving. �They all made it out.�

�Told you,� Lucy said from her contented position in Selina�s arms.

�Shouldn�t she be with the EMTs?� Dick asked Selina over Lucy�s head. Selina looked at the little girl, then back at Dick.

�She�ll have to go with them eventually,� Robin broke in. �Selina knows that. Let the kid stick around until this is over. Want something to eat?� he asked Lucy. She grinned.

�Sure!� she exclaimed. �Thanks, Tim!�

Tim blinked but didn�t point out the fact that a) he was dressed in the Robin costume and b) no one had told Lucy his name. He was sure there was an explanation but right now he was too relieved and happy to hear it.

�Where�s Bruce?� Selina asked suddenly. Robin and Nightwing looked at each other, then back at the still-proceeding evacuation. They half expected a black-clad creature of the night to emerge from the gaping tunnel, his cape swirling in the wind. Instead, only another twenty frightened, exhausted kids appeared.

�He went after Jessica,� Dick said. �I thought he might try for the other end of the tunnel. I couldn�t make it through with the kids, but he�s got his breathing apparatus and-�

�Oracle, this is Whippoorwill,� Robin said, pressing his earpiece. �Any news from the Adams St. shaft?�

�Negative,� Oracle said quickly. �They haven�t found anything. The fire�s burning too hot down there.�

Selina�s heart twisted inside her. �Could he be-�

�No,� Nightwing said quickly. �You know how he is. Just before they�re ready to declare an �all clear� and seal up the tunnel he�ll appear from thin air and glare at us for worrying about him.�

�All Clear!� one of the GCPD officers declared over a bullhorn. The three masked vigilantes and the tiny girl in Catwoman�s arms looked expectantly at the tunnel entrance.

Nothing.

�I think he�s hurt,� Lucy said. �He�s still down there.�

Catwoman looked at Dick anxiously. He looked back at the tunnel, narrowing his eyes. �Dammit Bruce,� he muttered under his breath.

�Where?� Selina asked Lucy. The little girl closed her eyes, stroking the slick leather of Selina�s costume unconsciously.

�Right before the big gap in the path,� she said. �Batman didn�t know about my trick. He was going to jump the gap before the roof caved in on him.�

�What trick, Lucy?� Dick asked suddenly. �The ledge we walked across?�

�I made it with my mind,� the little girl said simply. �You were so worried.�

Tim backed away a little from Lucy. So did Dick. Selina frowned at them, looking into Lucy�s face. �Lucy, is Batman still alive?�

The girl nodded. Selina set her down. �I�m going in,� she told them. Dick caught her elbow.

�It�s going to be hot down there. Dangerous,� he said. Selina opened her mouth to cut him off before Dick could tell her to wait or let him go instead. Dick simply handed her one of Tim�s spare breathers. �Good luck,� he said.

�I�ll go with her,� Tim declared.

Dick nodded, relieved. He knew he was too exhausted and had inhaled too much smoke to make a second trip into the tunnel without endangering everyone. �It�s about 15km down. Go slow and use flashlights.�

They were gone.

*********************

Selina and Tim sped through the darkness, keeping up a brisk pace despite Dick�s warning. They couldn�t see very far ahead due to the smoke still choking the cave but the flashlights amplified their starlight lenses considerably. It took nearly twenty minutes at full run to reach the gap Lucy had described. A line of fire burned into the cave wall along a previously-invisible power line, soft and orange in the smoky atmosphere.

�Bruce?� Selina asked hesitantly, hearing only the clatter of rocks as they tumbled into the deep gorge below. Tim touched her elbow, gesturing at a pile of shale near the edge of the gap. Some black material was caught it the rocks; it looked like the edge of a cape.

Selina leapt easily across the ten-foot gap. Tim made the same jump a second later although he wasn�t able to match Selina�s graceful landing. They set to work digging through the rocks, shifting the rubble to the side and sending the shale tumbling off into the gorge. Slowly, they uncovered a bloody limb and a badly bruised face. Bruce.

�He�s still breathing,� Tim announced with relief. �Let�s get him out of here.�

Batman stirred, opening his eyes. His head had been cut under the cowl and a thin trail of blood trickled down the side of his face. �Wha-� he mumbled, disoriented.

Selina paused in her careful redistribution of the rocks to touch his face tenderly. �You�re okay. Everyone�s fine. Dick made it out with the kids and now we�re going to hall your heavy ass up to the surface. Hang on.�

Bruce seemed satisfied with that and relaxed, letting Robin and Catwoman work. Finally, his bruised, mangled body was completely free of the rocks. Tim fixed a breather to his face and Bruce dragged air into his lungs, feeling pain shoot through his torso. He�d broken at least six ribs. After another, more shallow breath, he spoke quietly. �I don�t think I can stand.�

Selina drew Tim�s attention to Bruce�s left arm. The bone in his forearm had pierced the skin and gone through his thick Kevlar tunic, jutting out in flash of white against a gushing red wound. �I�m afraid it�s traction for you this time, m�dear,� Selina said lightly, closing her eyes against the gruesome injury.

�Let�s get him out of here,� Tim said.