He's not really all that...

It was finally over.

Cassandra had defeated her mother for the second and last time in the perfect showdown to end her saga. Truly beautiful...

So- unaware of the fact, of course- this beautiful comic book character was about to walk away from the scene of this epic fight bow out for good...





Well... not if the Author had anything to say about it...

Cassandra had just exited the castle of the League of Assassins when he stepped out of the portal right in front of her. Being well aware of Cassandra's ability to read body language the Author made sure to appear as non-threatening as he could. One never knows how somebody would react to him stepping out of a portal out of thin air after all...

"Hello, Cassandra..." the Author spoke to a speechless Batgirl.

"Who..." she began to ask, but found herself unable to finish her question.

"Well..." the Author shrugged. "The simplest part of explaining who I am is that I am your biggest fan."

Cassandra relaxed from her initially guarded attitude and smiled awkwardly. "O...kay...? So... I have fans...?" 

"You certainly do..." the Author confirmed with a simple nod. He was sort of in a hurry to get to the point of why he had come to see her, but then he realised. In this reality he had all the time in the world.

Telling her that he had come to ask her to stop Bane from breaking Batman's back 22 years in the past could wait. The two of them could spend a lot of time chatting...

So... chatting is what the two did there in the middle of nowhere on any known map of the world.

When Cass said it was time for her to go, the Author offered her a shortcut to her home in Blüdhaven. By now she knew the story behind the portals and gladly walked through one into her room with him.

It was in this comfortable setting, over a cup of tea, that the Author had finally came to explain the purpose of his visit.

Well... if you think that the Author was the type of man who would take a tired Batgirl who had just finished the fight of her life to the darkest day in Batman's history you are mistaken.

The two left that point in space and time late that morning after Batgirl had finished her morning training, had a good breakfast and cleaned up and dressed for the occasion.

Sure- she did not need to save Bruce, but her training was getting a bit monotonous and she got bored with the holographic simulations on her cave's computer.

A fight against Bane might just be the challenge she needed.


Alfred was about to answer the door when the portal opened up behind him in the Foyer. The Author did not bother with introductions and simply said "Not to worry, Alfred. She'll get it..."

Alfred- whose employer has a teleportation device in his cave below the mansion- was no stranger to unusual people with unusual abilities. This was most likely one of those "boom-tube" things that he had heard Master Bruce talk about and the man stepping out of it was most likely Orion or that "Mister Miracle" fellow...

The Batgirl, however, was not Barbara...

Aside from walking, this girl appeared a lot scarier than Barbara had ever been in her days as the Batgirl and the excitement with which she rushed towards the door set his nerves on edge.

Batgirl opened the front door ans Bane and his 3 henchmen were just finishing their walk up the stairs to the front door.

Under his luchador mask Bane's face fell. Having the door open like this was a real letdown if you were looking forward to smashing it open and scaring the hell out of everyone outside.

The tiny figure in the bat costume did not seem scared at all.

"I am here for your master." Bane said in a soft, but earnest voice. "You need not get hurt."

Batgirl stared at him in silence. She could see the surprise wearing off as their body language changed. Trogg was the first to come at her. He was still thinking about grabbing her by the arm to throw her aside when he felt the sing of a rib snapping. He did not have time to completely adjust to the pain when the next thing he felt was the sickening pain of his nose bone being crushed with quick hard strike to his nose. Somehow- the girl had driven her elbow into his ribs and before he could react she broke his nose with a back fist strike.

He felt his sternum give when a fist exploded into his chest soon afterward. Then he was flying...

Zombie and Bird looked in horror as Trogg's body hit the ground at the bottom of the stairs.

Bane, however, kept his eyes on the girl.

He touched the switch at his wrist...

During the time it took him to do that Batgirl had already closed the gap between them. Bane instinctively swiped at her with a monstrous forearm. It seemed to have hit her, but something felt out of place when Batgirl grabbed hold of the arm and rode it. She swung around and when Bane swung his arm back to his front to throw her off he suddenly felt the sharp pain at the back of his head that told him the fight was over...

Batgirl had managed to get her leg caught in the tubes at his back and he had actually ripped them out himself when he threw her...

Instead of hitting the ground hard and rolling limply as he had expected her to do Batgirl tounched the ground with her hand and deftly cartwheeled onto her feet.

"You..." Bane hissed through gritted teeth... "will... SCREAM!!!"

He charged like a bull, making the most of the little bit of Venom that did get into his bloodstream.

His teeth, however, got crushed against each other inside his mouth as a palm heel strike out of nowhere hit his jaw from below.

Then all went black...

Bird found himself trying to get a clear shot while Zombie's gun arm got broken just as he got his gun out. He pulled the trigger in a panic. The deafening sound of the shot must have confounded him, because he never saw the punch come when his lights got put out as well...

"What's...?" Bruce Wayne asked as he came out from the opening behind the clock in the wall.

"It's nothing, Bruce." the Author said. "Go to bed..."

That night three limp bodies were rolled of a cliff that was originally destined for a battered Porsche in a hastily contrived cover story.


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A week later Batman, back to his old self, dropped through a skylight into a warehouse that was being used as a meth lab.

While everyone in the building surrendered one of the armed thugs, a large man with a swollen black right eye, lip swollen on the left and wearing a neck brace greeted him like an old friend-

"Hey, Bats! Man am I glad youse are back! Dat girl you had standing in for youse just aint human..."