Second Times The Charm

Barbara Gordon/Batgirl, Chief O'Hara, Batman, Robin, Commissioner Gordon, The Penguin and Mr. Freeze are the copyright property of DC comics. This story is not a challenge to the legal copyright of the owners. All other characters not expressly owned by DC comics or Time/Warner are the creation of the author.

This story is created/adapted/modified without permission, either implied or expressed. This story is a work of fiction. No money was paid for the creation of this story. It is a fan fiction and not for resale or to be used on a website for pay.

This is a work of fiction. No characters in this story are based on real people. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is coincidental. All characters are over the legal age of consent. The author does not support or promote such acts in reality.

This is an adult story. Children should not read this material.

Second Time's The Charm

by Max Hass

Batgirl sped down the nearly abandoned city streets in the darkest hour of the night. For this fact, she was very grateful. Despite the change in her uniform, her hair and body reeked of the various substances that she fought through earlier in the evening. The Penguin had almost done her in with his army of Emperor and King penguins and their amorous attacks on her. Unlike the more savage assaults she had suffered from in the prior months, this event had less of an impact than the others. It was almost as if she were becoming immune to the violence being practiced on her.

She had been only moderately effective as of late. In fact, she had been losing far too often. Her redoubled efforts did have some positive effects on the crime in Gotham City. This night, her sacrifice had ended Penguin's plans to use his army for whatever other evil he had on his mind. Batgirl satisfied herself with this thought.

Despite the situation she just escaped from, Batgirl believed as long as she could stop the evil of crime from spreading, her private problems were insignificant by comparison. After all, she had succeeded in saving her own butt every time she got into trouble. Batman and Robin had each other to back up. Batgirl had always felt an outsider to their gender biased teamwork anyway.

As that last thought passed through her mind and she approached the quiet, secret entrance to the spot where she hid her motorcycle, Batgirl was considering what she should tell Batman about tonight. After all, she was not as badly injured as in previous encounters and with a quick decontamination from the compounds on her body, she would be back in action in under a half hour.

Just as Batgirl arrived at her apartment, Mr. Freeze and his secret partner Sandra were leaving the city and making their way to his own headquarters. "Penguin should have not placed all his pets in that building. Moving their nests will be next to impossible. He's on his own now." spoke Mr. Freeze through the metallic sounding speaker on his chest, the only way he had left to interact with the world around him. "Whatever happens to him now is his own doing. I don't think he was too happy when he saw all his penguins passed out on Batgirl's body. We'll have to send him a copy of the edited video when we finish it." replied Sandra. "Now we must ready the next trap for our little winged rodent. She'll be out for revenge after that savage little rape she suffered at the last meeting."

Not knowing how true those words were, Batgirl had undressed from her second uniform and began her long, hot shower. Working as fast as her body and mind would allow, she soaped and lathered her body in an effort to remove every last vestige of the enzymes that covered her body. With a stiff brush, she scrubbed at every inch of skin on her body. It took three applications of shampoo to clean her hair. With that done, she took one last special shower to apply a special solvent to cleanse every last speck of grime from her body. She would not be betrayed by the odor of penguin spunk anywhere on her person.

Avoiding the pile of cloth that was her uniform for later disposal, she moved to the closet and grabbed another full uniform to replace the one that got her home. A new fully equipped utility belt was also pulled for her new planed pursuit of Mr. Freeze. She paused briefly to examine her body to find no wounds that required first aid. Taking a couple of aspirin to deal with the dull pain that she felt, Batgirl finished dressing.

With a sense of purpose and a desire to finish what she had started that night, Batgirl once again made her way to her motorcycle, topping off the tank with gasoline for a long ride after the one that got away.

"You had better check this, Mr. Freeze." a voice over a loudspeaker announced. "We've found a transmitter on the truck!" With this, the villain moved forward to to the cab where the driver was looking at a frequency scanner. Pointing at the screen, a brief blip appeared once every three seconds. While the blip was constant, it was repeated on different channels alternating every three times. "Well, we should arrive at the set just in time to set up for your next scenes, dear lady." Turning to face his partner seated in the back of the vehicle, Sandra just sat and smiled at the thought of seeing Batgirl having to face this next encounter.

In the time that the villains were arriving and setting up for their scheme, Batgirl was on the streets of the city, sweeping for signs of the transmitter she placed on the escaping truck. It took her three stops to triangulate a direction and range for the current location of the escape truck. As she made her final stop near the outskirts of the city, she found that the truck had not moved since the second check point was scanned. Picking the quickest route out of Gotham, she sped off into the night to find the persons who defiled her this night.

"We're ready for her, Mr. Freeze. All the cameras and recorders are up and running. When Batgirl gets here, she'll be fully covered." The news made Sandra happy as well. Mr. Freeze's men were working out perfectly. He provided quality workers for her project as well as to maintain his special requirements in order for him to survive in a world hostile to his physical condition. As Sandra understood it, his body was so conditioned that any exposure to temperatures above zero degrees farenheight would be fatal in minutes. It is no wonder that he favored polar bears for physical companionship. They would be among the few animals that could share his need for a frozen ecology.

Thanks to the winding nature of the highway she rode on, Batgirl was able to take several more quick scans to confirm where the truck was parked now. Pulling a digital map and overlaying it with the signal scan, she found that the vehicle was parked at a large industrial dairy farm. A likely place for someone who needed refrigeration and food for polar bears. Forgoing any attempt to be stealthy, Batgirl simply rode her motorcycle directly into the heart of the compound. Large buildings surrounded her, the scale required for handling thousands of cows every day.

Looking for a likely place to start, Batgirl pulled up at the large open door of one building. Seeing the back of the armored truck she had seen an hour before, she dismounted her bike and strode towards it. The building floor was well lit. Seeing no signs of movement and hearing no sounds, she approached the truck, then squat to examine the underside of the vehicle for the transmitter.

Cameras had been following the entrance of Batgirl to the dairy farm. Sandra had taken personal command of the video controls for this shoot. Her ulterior motive was to see her 'friend' taken down into the depths of physical and sexual depravation while the cameras captured every delicious moment. Every chapter would make her wealthy and bring her one step closer to making Batgirl her own private sex slave.

While Batgirl squat and looked for the tracer she had planted on the armored truck, she heard the sound of footsteps approaching her. Leaping to the back bumper of the truck, she quickly found hand holds and spun her body up and onto the roof of the vehicle. Laying prone on the roof, she looked in the direction where the sounds came from. Seeing a group of men walking, Batgirl felt that she had the advantage. They were in no hurry, so they didn't know that she was in the building. She would work that advantage.

Watching from the monitors, Sandra avoided warning the group of men that their guest had arrived. "Let's see if she can handle this pack of men. If not, they'll make for an interesting segment." And with that, she sat back and awaited Batgirl's next move.

Voices could now be heard. No signs of stress or alarm in any of the conversations that reached Batgirl's ears. Great! She would take them by surprise and extract any information they might have. But with her past defeats fresh in her mind, Batgirl adjusted her tactics. Reaching for a stun grenade from her belt, she calculated the best time to drop it on the group of men walking by. She didn't want to hurt the innocent, just render them helpless until she could find one that would give her what she needed.

Moving with a swift toss, the stun grenade flew from her hand to a point just behind the group. The men were blown forward in the shockwave of the blast that did the job Batgirl had hoped for. Dropping back to the floor, she dashed quickly to the prone bodies of the men she had disabled for the moment. Looking for any signs that one or more might still be conscious, she saw that one larger man was trying to push himself up on his elbows. With the flick of a well aimed batarang, she made sure he didn't finish his plan.

Standing above the group of bodies now, she watched and waited for a smaller, intelligent looking man to show some sign of coming to. As if to validate her trust in the plan, one bookish looking man began to move his head side to side. Stepping over the still knocked out bodies, Batgirl grabbed the shirt and pulled the man up to a sitting position. "All right, let's talk" said Batgirl to the rather small man. "Where is Mr. Freeze?"

The man, dazed by the shock of the explosion that knocked him to the floor, looked up at the form of the person who had done this to him and said nothing. Not in the mood to wait or play with this person, she used her strength to pull his shirt collar into a makeshift noose. "One last time, where is he?" The shock and fear finally brought this flunky to his senses. "He's with his bears down at the end of this warehouse. He's in the freezer." With a swift stroke, Batgirl struck a blow to the side of his head, knocking him back out. "Thank you very much."

"Well, that's a new side of Batgirl I've not seen before" thought Sandra as she witnessed the short and effective assault on the crew that her partner had hired. Not that she had any care for the hired help. They were just the cogs in the machine that made her little project go. "She's heading your way, Mr. Freeze. Don't underestimate her. She took out your men in three minutes flat." "Thank you for the warning, but I have the advantage now. Sit back and watch as my pets work our guest over."

Batgirl was feeling hot for several reasons. The extra insulation she wore in anticipation of meeting Mr. Freeze in a cold environment was doing too good a job at the temperature she was active in at the moment. She was also still shaking off the bruises of the fight just over an hour earlier. The aspirin had done little to cope with the aches of the many blows to her crotch and chest by Penguin's little bird army. She was out for her pride now. Batgirl could deal with criminals without having Batman or Robin bailing her out. The results of that last little encounter proved to her that she could give as well as take.

Sandra watched as Batgirl moved towards the refrigerated chamber at the end of the industrial building. Safe in a remote office, she wondered at what was going on in the mind of this woman. How much longer would she go on? Does she believe that she could really take on every challenge thrown at her? Regardless, no matter the end result, Batgirl was a gold mine for the time being. Her editing skills had turned each fight video into a blockbuster in the criminal world. She had standing requests for guest appearances and even more demanding tasks for Batgirl to face.

Visions of Batgirl's future formed in Sandra's mind as Batgirl arrived at the large set of double doors built into a large enclosure within the warehouse. Pulling on the large handle, the right door slid open, cold and frosty air flowing out along the floor. With the drop in temperature, Batgirl's uniform began to convert the humid sweat into humidity against her clothed skin. The room was not lit at the entrance, so Batgirl reached for her starlight goggles for visual assistance.

Before her lay a landscape of snow, moguls of hard powder. Some small light source in the distance flared, leaving a blank glare in the lenses. Quickly pushing the goggles from her eyes, she saw a low glow at the far end of the snow filled chamber. Figures moved through the moguls towards her. Rather than waiting, Batgirl charged, determined to make the first contact on her terms, not her opponents. Moving up and down the small valleys, the figures came and went from view, shadows in a blue-white landscape.

Her feet crunched as Batgirl strode over the hard packed snow. Wary of any icy patches, she spent more time watching where she was walking, pausing only to glimpse the shapes she had seen when she first entered this cavern. As she came to the top of a rise, Batgirl finally caught a clear view of the person she had come for. "Dr. Fries! Stop where you are." Standing perfectly still, Mr. Freeze looked more like a statue than a man in a exoskeletal environmental suit. His body held in a state that made him a prisoner to his suit. However, that prison was also a powerful weapon, making his body ten times stronger than Batgirl.

"Your arrogance surprises me, Batgirl. You think you can walk in here and make demands where you have no authority." The two lenses of the goggles he wore shone red as he fixed his gaze on her. The synthetic sound of his voice continued to drone forth from the speaker on the front of his suit. "You have delivered yourself to me, Batgirl. Surrender now or the punishment I have in mind for you will break you once and for all."

As Mr. Freeze spoke, his fingers manipulated a remote control integrated into his gloved hand. The lights began to fade. With the decrease of light, the four bears began to move away from him and around to confront Batgirl. They sauntered on all four legs, fanning out in a wide wall. Batgirl, seeing that the bears were on the move and the lights were going down, pulled the light amplification goggles back over her mask and began to scan for movement against the mounds of white snow. Taking advantage of their knowledge of the landscape in the warehouse snow, the polar bears would favor the low spots between the moguls, avoiding being seen by their prey. Stealth was a natural response to the hunt. Don't give the prey a chance to fight or run.

Barbara, catching glimpses of thermal blurs moving between the hilly mounds, stood her ground. No longer seeing Mr. Freeze, she gave her attention to the task of stopping four one thousand pound animals with the ability to make jerk pulled meat out of her body in moments. Pulling the remaining concussion grenades from her utility belt, she continued her scan of the frozen landscape ahead of her.

With her free hand, she pulled her grappling gun from its holster and fired at the ceiling. Feeling the hook having secured itself, she pulled the second trigger and started the winch that lifted her from the mound. Rising above the floor, she could now see the four heat signatures that were the bears. With a swift pull of her free arm, one of the grenades flew from her hand towards the polar bear furthest from her. The goal was two fold; to knock out the animal as well as pull their attention from her.

The grenade struck the snow feet away from the bear, exploding in a burst of light and energy. The concussion of the blast had the desired effect of crippling the large animal. As Batgirl swung from the cable after she threw the grenade, she could see the result and success. Planning her second target, she steadied herself and prepared to throw at her second target. In that heartbeat of time, a blue/white beam arched from the distance at the space over Batgirl's dangling body. The beam hit the cable, snapping it into chards of frozen matter.

Batgirl fell about 15 feet back to the snowy floor of the freezer, striking the mound she had launched from. Using the slope of the mound to break the impact, she slid down into the depression at the foot of the mogul. As she slid, she tried to hold onto her gun and grenades. Her grip on the gun was not as strong as the impact, and she lost that weapon to the fall.

Adjusting the goggles on her face, Batgirl looked down at her hand with the grenades. In the moments between her fall and impact, she had lost one of the remaining stun weapons as well, leaving her two to use against the bears. "Great!" she muttered under her frozen breath. Reaching now for a batarang to use as a secondary weapon, she stood and scanned tops of the adjacent moguls for signs of movement.

Sandra was able to view the action in the frozen locker through the best available low light lenses and cameras her suppliers could provide. And they provided a fine documentary style video. Seeing how easy it was for Mr. Freeze to keep Batgirl in check as she tried to avoid hand to paw combat, Sandra felt confidant that this fight would be one of the best films she had made up to this point.

Mr. Freeze had dropped Batgirl, but he was taking a more passive role in the attack. Knowing that he could crush her at a moment's notice, he gave the three remaining bears the chance to have their way with this prey. Walking across the landscape, he stopped to check the status of the bear Batgirl had knocked out. Seeing that this bear was quite unlikely to revive soon, he turned his attention back to her and how she was faring against the remaining animals.

Constantly scanning the horizon and listening past the constant breeze the refrigeration units produced to hold the snow at the temperature needed to maintain the cold Mr. Freeze needed, Batgirl considered her options. Hearing the sound of crunching snow to her left, she tried to move up one of the snow mounds to gain a better view. As her head and shoulders crested the peak of the mound she climbed, a blur of fur came close to striking her face. The second polar bear had made his way to the crest and was waiting for his victim. Missing with his first stroke, the bear roared, then stood on his rear feet.

In the moment that Batgirl had to react to the first attempt, she took a gamble and gave the bear a flying kick to the nose while the bear's mouth was closed. Using every ounce of energy she could lever, she managed to not only strike the bear's head, but knock it backwards, sliding back down the hummock. Upon landing on her feet, she reached for her utility belt and pulled a needle and slid down after the bear. Without a second to spare, she jammed the tip of the needle into the neck of the bear, injecting a strong sedative and muscle relaxant into the area where she thought a vein would be.

Jumping back away from the animal, Batgirl watched as the second bear clawed at his neck, to no avail. The drugs conspired to do their work. With one last effort, the bear tried to right itself and stand on all legs, but stumbled and fell nose first back into the snow. While the polar bear struggled to fight off the drugs, Batgirl wasted no time and bounded up a different snow mound to try and spot Mr. Freeze and the other bears.

Reaching the top of the hummock, Batgirl made the mistake of exposing herself fully to the watching eyes of her opponents. Sandra had been watching and selecting the camera angles and zoom for the best possible images for her next video. This was to be a more violent production than the prior videos, but Batgirl had managed to thwart two of the four bears. Seeing that this production could be in jeopardy, she picked up the microphone and spoke to her partner.

Mr. Freeze was watching Batgirl's combat as well. Playing the bears like pawns on a chessboard, he had forced her to take a position that would expose her strengths early in the game. Taking his freeze ray pistol in hand, he aimed at Batgirl's waist and the utility belt that had given her the advantage so far. Batgirl felt a sharp pain on her hips as the ray struck her belt. The intense cold was almost electric, jolting her body. The ray had been focused carefully to avoid doing any damage to her flesh, but the utility belt that was exposed to the beam was shattered in seconds, the remaining part of it falling from her hips to the snow. Compartments had survived the exposure, but the battle had just taken a dramatic turn.

Sandra was impressed with this event. She captured the full impact of this situation as Batgirl recovered her wits and looked down to find her uniform had been frozen behind the place where her belt had been. Despite the improved insulation, the cloth had crystallized and was little more than a black patch of frost. Trying to relive the pain, she poked at the patch with her gloved hand. As she prodded, the cloth cracked and fell away, exposing the skin underneath. Thankfully, her skin had not frozen, but the exposed flesh now felt numb.

Turning her head back to scan, she listened for any signs of crunching snow. Not hearing anything, Batgirl stooped to pick up the remaining section of her belt from the snow. Grasping it in her left hand, her unused batarang in her right hand, she quickly slid down the small hill and moved in the direction that she thought Mr. Freeze was in.

However, Mr. Freeze had taken advantage of Batgirl's strategic pause and had moved in behind one of the two bears. Obeying their master's commands like dogs, the two bears moved out in front of him, spreading out for a two pronged attack. The artificial winds that cooled the room increased, blowing the ice and light snow into the air. Visibility began to dim ever lower. The lack of lights in the large room contributed to the twilight.

While the snow began to make video taping the fight difficult, Sandra heard a knock at the door to the office she was working in. Pushing a button and looking at a monitor, she saw that three young women were waiting at the door. "Give me a moment" said Sandra as she stood and walked to open the bolted door. "You are a bit early, but better that than sorry." Motioning the women inside, Sandra began to brief the three on what she expected from them in the time they had to finish this job.

A thermal signature appeared in the eyepieces of Batgirl's goggles. Against the snow flurries she was able to see the shape of Mr. Freeze's armored suit. Taking aim with the batarang in her right hand, she flung it at the space behind his helmet. As she had hoped, the weapon flew past and around behind him. Spinning and turning back, the steel edged flying blade flew into the intended target.

Batgirl's heart sank as she saw that the batarang had not fractured the helmet. Mr. Freeze stood as if a statue. Drawing her hope and attention to him, Batgirl failed to see the greater danger approach. Standing on his hind legs, one of the two bears had stood behind her. With a careful swat of one paw, the bear knocked her flat into the bottom of a small valley where the second bear was waiting.

The blow left her half dazed. Feeling the remaining section of the utility belt in her left hand, Batgirl tried to think of what she could do. A giant paw lifted her prone body by her right shoulder. Her body flexed as the standing bear pulled on the cloth of her uniform. Her knees buckled under her leaving her unable to stand. Both bears stood over her, facing each other. They began to play a game that bears play.

To the untrained eye, the bears appeared to be fighting each other over her kneeling form. What was happening was something different. Using what would be backhanded blows if the arms were human, both bears were flailing at the body between them. Batgirl was helpless to move. The bear behind her had pinned her feet with his back feet, placing painful stress on her legs. It was all she could do to dodge and try to avoid having her head pummeled while holding on to her last hope; the tattered remains of her belt.

Mr. Freeze moved forward as his pets pummeled Batgirl. A motion from his arm brought the beating to a quick halt. "Do you wish to ask for my surrender again, Batgirl?" were the words that emanated from the speaker of his suit. The heavy duty air conditioning units had come to rest. Light began to fall on the scene, allowing the cameras to capture the vision of their prisoner pinned between the two bears. Moving out of the way, the camera lenses could now clearly see the damage the bears had done to Batgirl. The top of her uniform and her cape were tattered from the vicious clawing. Even her cowl was torn on the back and top. Only the mask remained intact. The cold had kept the deep scratch marks from bleeding but the scratches were stained red.

The cameras continued to record as Sandra gave instructions to the three young women who had arrived. They were busy gathering up the hard drives arrays that were already full with video to edit later. Sandra paused only briefly to check on how Mr. Freeze was doing with Batgirl. After all, she didn't want him to finish her off now. "Let's see how Batgirl gets out of this situation."

Zooming over Mr. Freeze's helmet, Sandra noted a flaw in the otherwise clear material that his helmet was composed of. A quick examination showed a crack was forming. "Should I warn Mr. Freeze?" Sandra asked herself quietly. She thought quickly and chose not to give him fair warning. "He can take care of himself should Batgirl get the better of him and that will also give me time to clear out. He'll get his cut either way."

"I've only got one chance at this" thought Batgirl through the shock and pain of the cold and the beating she just suffered. Twice in one night her body had been struck down in freezing cold. She would not go out like this. The pain and the ever present cold had weakened her body but all she wanted was one moment to execute her hope of a plan. Mr. Freeze continued to look down on her as the two polar bears backed slowly away and dropped to their front paws to walk and watch.

Seeing and hearing the bears walking and feeling that the weight was now removed from her lower legs, Batgirl pressed a button on one of the compartments of her belt. "Please work!" she thought as the button snapped back under her finger. Mr. Freeze began to speak again but a shrill sound burst forth from the speaker this time. A constant vibration had been triggered from a generator in the compartment of Batgirl's belt. The crack in his helmet began to grow and spread behind his head. Unable to see the damage to his life support system, Mr. Freeze drew his weapon with the intent to finish his opponent once and for all.

As his hand pointed the gun at Batgirl's head, the crack in his helmet finally spread at a ever rapid pace. Seeing the material beginning to shatter, he paused to consider the immediate problem he was about to face. Killing Batgirl was not as important as saving his own life. The bears had scattered almost from the moment the sound generator activated. Under these conditions a breach of the gases needed to keep his head from exposure to the temperature in the warehouse refrigerator room would be nearly fatal.

Walking past Batgirl in the direction of the safety of his armored truck, he left Batgirl to the cold that could kill her but not save him from exposure to temperature far too warm for his body now. Not pausing to finish the job was not an option. He had no desire to allow his life to end while he had any hope of raising the money he needed to try and save his wife.

Alone at last, Batgirl managed to stagger to her feet and make for the door that her enemy had made for. She left the sonic amplifier running to insure her relative safety. Every footfall was painful for her body. There was no option though. Falling to sleep in this frozen hell would be sure death. So she pushed her body as hard as her mind could to generate heat and motion.

Minutes passed. Each felt as they lasted a year. Batgirl paused only once to try and inventory what was left of her belt. What would work. The cold and her grave condition conspired to prevent her from making use of any of the weapons or materials in her hand to save her. The bears had knocked the goggles from her head in the one sided fight. She was following the large footprints that Mr. Freeze's suit made as he made his escape.

Sandra had returned to find the cameras no longer tracking the fight. Using deft skills with the video console, she swiftly reviewed the events that had transpired while she plotted her own exit from this set. Finding the moment when Batgirl walked off after Freeze, she grabbed the controls of the cameras and retraced the path. Finding her prey on the march, Sandra made use of her other cameras to find her partner. He had already left the freezer and was moving as quickly as he could to his vehicle.

"Mr. Freeze, do you need any help?" asked Sandra through her radio connection to his helmet. Quietly, he spoke the single word "No" and continued his march to the back door of his truck. "Ladies, we should make ready to leave. Batgirl is beaten and wounded. However she is a survivor. I plan to let her go for now so you can have fun with her after she recovers." The three shadowy figures picked up the remaining equipment and made for the door. Having seen the previous episodes of this project, they smiled to themselves. They would not make the same mistakes that this freak of nature made with her. They would dominate her body and enslave her will once and for all for the cameras.

End Notes.

This was not the easiest part of the project for me to create. I had to figure out some means to keep the bears and Freeze from pounding the lead character to death.

The next installment will be a break of sorts and hopefully a change of writing style. The last two sections tended to overlap too much.

As a brief teaser, I'll tell you that Barbara is going on a trip with a friend who has her own ideas about what's going on with Batgirl. Bad news travels in this universe and some of her friends have seen the videos circulating of her fights and near misses. Let's see if her "friend" will help her or not.

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