Batgirl and Killer Moth in:  Chaos at the Charity Fundraiser!

"You guys nervous?"  Barbara asked the couple sitting on the couch, sharing a mirror as they put on their makeup.  "I know it's kind of a lot to ask."

"No, no," replied Jo, "let's do this!"

"Don't let her lie to you, she is so nervous she couldn't eat dinner," retorted Alysia, "it is a little scary, not gonna lie, but it'll be safe, right?

"We're just going to be doing some, strictly speaking, illegal things at a charity hobnob, not getting into a punch up with supervillains."

Jo looked up at her, still clinging to her false bravado, "So why does the great Batgirl need our help anyways?"

"Because," intoned Frankie from the kitchen as she made the final adjustments to the listening devices, "these bugs aren't very powerful so we're going to need to plant a lot of them in order to get good coverage."

"And one person planting thirty of them is much more difficult and obvious than five people planting six," finished Barbara.

Alysia looked confused for a moment, "Wait, five people?"

"Didn't she tell you," Frankie smiled as she continued working, "Babs roped her mystery man into this."

"No way!" chimed Jo, "we're finally going to meet the older man who has seduced our pure and virtuous Barbara?"

"I don't get why you've been so intent on hiding him from us," added Alysia, "Is he fat or something?"

"NO!"  Barbara turned beet red for a moment, "Dru's just...one of those things I wasn't sure about."  And just like the devil, upon his name being uttered Bab's phone lit up with him calling.  "I'll buzz you in, you remember my apartment number, right?"  She turned and swept her gaze across her friends, "You guys built him up in your heads too much; please don't embarrass me."

"No promises," replied Frankie.

The room was silent for a minute until there came a knock on the door; before Babs could react, Jo leapt from the couch and flung the door open wide, "Hi," she purred, "I'm Jo."

Before her stood a slightly confused man in his mid-thirties wearing circle glasses, suit bag slung over his shoulder, "Hi, Jo, I'm...ight have the wrong apartment?"

"Come in," yelled Babs from the kitchen, "and you're running late."  Jo moved to the side and motioned him in as Babs got up to greet him, "you were supposed to be here to get ready an hour ago."

"I'm a dude, I only need five minutes to get ready if I'm taking my time."

"You're insufferable."  Babs leaned up to kiss him, only to get hit with a sudden wave of nervousness as she realized all her friends were staring, resulting in an awkward shift to a kiss on the cheek.  "Everyone, this is Dru.  Dru, you met Jo."

Jo wiggled her fingers at him.

"And this is her wife Alysia on the couch.

"Hi, Dru, nice to meet you."

"And Frankie is in the kitchen."

"Hello," she waved from the table, returning immediately to her work.

"Now go get dressed," Babs pushed him to the hallway and through the door of the bathroom, planting a solid kiss on him now that they were away from gawking eyes.  Returning to the kitchen, she sat down and continued helping Frankie as Jo and Alysia whispered and giggled in the living room.  "You're awfully chill about this.  I figured you'd be a bit more..."

"Them?"  Frankie twisted her head in the direction of the living room, "I figured you might need someone to play it cool if for no other reason than your blood pressure.  I'm just curious."

"About what?"

"It's nothing."

"It's not."

"I trust you."

"I'm sensing a 'but...'"

"But you don't just get some boytoy to sign up for what we're doing.  The three of us might not be superheroes but we're in the know, is he?"

Babs bit her lip, she hated lying to her friends but she couldn't be sure of how they'd respond to her supervillain paramour, and it wasn't her place to reveal Dru's secret either, so convenience won out over scruples.  "He thinks it's some college activism, 'fight the power' sort of deal.  I don't want to speak bad about him, but I think he's down for it because it's some exciting thing he thought he'd never get to do out in the suburbs."

Frankie reached over and put her hand on Babs' shoulder, "You are totally his mid-life crisis."

"Quarter-life crisis, thank you very much," retorted Babs as she gave her the stink eye.

Dru stepped into the living room, his t-shirt and jeans replaced with a fitted, dark grape colored suit, shirt open revealing the top of his muscled, hairy chest, a paisley draped over his shoulders, "What do you think, ladies?"

Alysia clapped her hands over her mouth and laughed, "You look like the kind of guy who thinks offering a discount on an eight-ball counts as flirting."

"Alysia!" shouted Babs and Jo simultaneously.

"Aww," responded Dru, "I'm glad at least one person gets my style.  But my coke guy is doing a nickel at state for possession with intent; I can get you some benzos but it'd take a couple of phone calls."

"You look great," said Babs, "but please tell me that's not how you're going to wear the tie."

"No need to tie the business noose before we get there."

"Alright, we just need a few more minutes to finish up."

And as she sat there working, she couldn't help but overhear the conversation between Alysia, Jo, and Dru, and was a bit taken aback by how quick and deft his lies about his personal life flowed.  Sure, she knew that he had to have something prepared, can't exactly go around talking about robbing banks at the neighborhood picnic, but she was shocked at the sheer depth and verisimilitude.  A full fictitious career as a private security consultant complete with full explanations to whatever question they threw at him, down to amusing anecdotes and even a run-in with Batman.  It made her own evasions and deflections seem like a child's fibbing and she was struck with the understanding of how Frankie must feel.  She shoulders slumped as guilt started creeping in, only to be broken out of her funk by Frankie nudging her.

"I've got to admit, you're right about his voice."

And a slow smile crept across Bab's face.

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

"Alright," Babs addressed the gathered crew, "does everyone remember their cover identity?"

The small assembly nodded.  "I'm not sure why we need them," replied Alysia.

"Same reason we arrived in a rental car with fake plates," retorted Dru as he adjusted his tie, "the more you cover you tracks the better.  Is this thing straight?"

Frankie gave him the thumbs up.  "And remember, don't just head to where you need to plant the bugs, mingle around a bit and slowly work your way into position.  This thing is going to last for a few hours so we don't need to rush too much."

The quintet headed inside, passing through the lobby of the convention center, one of the latest projects to revitalize Gotham's abandoned warehouse district, and silently headed down the hallway to the exhibition room until Dru piped up, "Okay, why exactly are we planting listening bugs at some low-end charity bash?"

"Fraud and money laundering," replied Jo with an angry edge to her voice, "it's endemic to charities and activist circles.  Set up a non-profit, put yourself in charge, pay yourself a fat salary with amenities and perks, and if you do it right it'll be years before anyone notices most of the money is going to you.  And that's not even getting into the actual illegal stuff that goes on behind the scenes."

The group stopped in front of the doors and readied themselves.  "If any of you are having second thoughts, it's okay to back out; I don't want you doing this if you're uncomfortable, no one will think less of you and we'll all understand."  Frankie steeled herself on her crutches, Dru offered a small smile, Alysia nodded, and Jo fidgeted with her jacket having riled herself up.

"Here we go."  Babs opened the door, and the motley crew began to glide and sway among the crowd, offering polite conversation as little recording devices found themselves stuck underneath tables and tucked into window sills.  They avoided looking at each other as they worked in fear of drawing attention, occasionally pairing up when they needed attention drawn elsewhere to make their move.  As her allotment of the bugs deplenished Babs slipped from the room and pulled up the building's schematics on her microtablet to guide her to the electrical panel needed to power the clandestine transmitter remaining in her clutch.  After a few close calls with building staff, she successfully installed it in the most unused looking of panels on the wall of the basement access corridor and slipped back to the gala once the transmitter tested successfully.  She spied Jo and Dru standing next to the hors d'oeuvres buffet chatting amicably and headed over.

"..eave I'm gonna swipe a tray of these.  What is it, just puff pastry and ceviche?

"I think it's a phyllo dough shell with herbed cream cheese and...West Indies salad?  Definitely crab."

"Hey, you two, all finished?"  Babs asked, grabbing a few nibbles off the table herself.

"Yeah, Frankie's in the restroom and Alysia is heading over right now.  No problems and no one is the wiser," replied Jo, "You?"

"Transmitter working perfectly and we're good to duck out fashionably early."

After a moment Frankie joined them with Alysia following a few minutes later.  "Sorry about that," apologized Alysia, "got caught up in a competition between the performatively woke."

"No big," dismissed Babs with a wave of her hand, "everything's good to go so we can chill for a little while then ease on out of here in ones or twos.  Maybe 20 minutes and you and Jo head to the parking garage first, then Dru, and...Dru?  You paying attention?"

Dru was looking past Babs and eyeballing a heavily muscled man in a suit and cowboy hat across the room.  "Steroid cowboy on the left wall.  I know him.  Can't remember who exactly but he's one of the Bludhaven guys.  I know it."

"Stop staring," Babs ordered, and angled her phone to take a surreptitious picture.  After looking at it for a moment, she wrinkled her face, "Stallion.  And if he's here that means..."  Everyone in the room turned and stared as a behemoth of a man walked through the door.  Eight feet tall and solid muscle that bulged under the sharply tailored suit covering him, a pair of penetrating, pitiless eyes peeked out under a jutting, Frankenstein-esque forehead, and at his side a well-heeled blonde scanned the room with practiced disdain.

"...Blockbuster."

"Who?" queried Frankie.

"Major crime boss out of Bludhaven.  THE major crime boss out of Bludhaven."

"Looks like we found the fraud and money laundering," added Jo bitterly.

As they spoke, Blockbuster, Stallion, and the blond woman accompanied a small group of people out of the room and down the side hall.  The lights of the small boardwalk separating the building from the river the only illumination down the glass walled hallway painted them in high-contrast shadows .  As they approached the smaller conference rooms, Stallion leaned over to his boss, "We were gettin' eyeballed by some group at the buffet line."

"I usually make people stare."

"Nah, they were starin' at me and kept eyes on as we left.  I think they might have been expectin' us."

The group reached a conference room setup for them and Blockbuster motioned everyone inside, before turning back to his two underlings.  "This town has a tendency to provide one with trouble.  Mr. Hanrahan, hang out in the hallway and dissuade anyone who comes by; Ms. Marsh-Morton, head back and keep an eye on this group.  And please, be discreet."  With than he walked into the conference and closed the door behind him.

"Five people, four women, one black in crutches, one Asian, two redheads, dude looks like Harry Potter's midlife crisis."  He smiled a shit-eating grin, "and be discreet."

The blonde rolled her eyes at Stallion and replied to his drawl in a posh, English accent, "That is entirely on them, now isn't it?"

Back in the exhibition hall, the quintet sat around a table and planned, not noticing the blonde slipping back in.

"We still have a few spare bugs left, but it's going to be hard to get them in place," started Frankie.

Babs was busy on her microtablet, pouring over the building's blueprints, "the conference rooms share an AC duct so if we know which room they're in we can approach from the opposite and slip it through the vents.  We're going to need another one by the door for full coverage, but they're small enough that we should be able to just slip it under the door and stick it on the bottom.  It'd be unlikely to be noticed down there."

"We might also need to deal with them trying to block access," added Dru.

Jo and Alysia sat next to each other and held hands, feeling incredibly useless and scared.

"Alright," said Babs, "here's what we do, Frankie and I will put two in the AC vents, Dru will put it under the door, Jo and Alysia will recon to find what room they're in, act like you're trying to find a place to make out or have sex and you should be fine.  If you get made and think they're not buying it, bail.  Run as fast as you can and call me to let me know.  You're more important than any kind of eavesdropping."

Nodding silently, Jo and Alysia headed out the doors hand and into the maze of hallways, carefully turning corners, ready to start giggling and unbuttoning blouses if anyone caught them.  Finally they spied Stallion sitting on the floor in front of a set of double doors, crisscrossed by the shadows of the window sills, playing on his phone.  Ducking back quickly, they pressed their bodies together and waited a few minutes to see if he noticed them, then messaged Babs.  "Room 104."

Babs, Frankie, and Dru got up and casually sauntered into the hallways, splitting up as Dru headed towards Alysia and Jo while Frankie and Babs headed down to the rooms that shared the same back wall.  Unbeknownst to them, Elaine Marsh-Morton, aka Lady Vic, followed the pair.

Meeting up with Alysia and Jo, Dru peeked around the corner and frowned.  "Change of plans," he said, handing Jo the listening device.  "I'm going to distract Stallion, you run up and slip it under the door."

"How are you going to get him away from the door so he can't see me?"

"I've got a pretty terrible idea of how.  Once he's distracted, start sprinting and keep going forward once you plant it, and just head out the building.  Alysia, you're gonna need to leave too once things go down.  Ready?"

"I...yes?"  Jo answered while Alysia nervously nodded.

Dru steadied himself and began stumbling down the hallway, off-key singing to himself, prompting Stallion to stand up and block the way.  "Hey buddy," he slurred, "where's the pisser?"

"Not this way, pal."  Stallion stared down coolly, crossing his arms for emphasis.

"Who are you, the toilet police?"

"Can't go this way, so turn it around."

"Screw you!  I'll piss wherever I want!"  Dru grabbed his fly and started unzipping, waiting for Stallion to shove him out the side door leading to the riverwalk, only instead for a massive, muscled hand to grab him by the throat.

"The only booze they got at his shindig is some weak-ass champagne; take a lot to get a man pissin' drunk like you, but you don't smell like you've had a drop."

"Fuck."  Dru managed to spit out as he threw a jab in Stallion's face.  Grabbing Dru's wrist, Stallion slammed him into the side door and dragged him to the fence at the eight foot drop to the waters edge, Dru continuously pummeling him with jabs with his off-hand that seemed to barely affect the 'roided Texan.  With a heave he slung Dru over the fence and onto the rocky breakwater below.

Alysia had to cover her mouth to stop from yelling out as she saw Dru get choked and slammed into the door.  "What do we-" she started to ask Jo, only for her wife to take off at top speed without a moment's hesitation.  Jo reached the door and quickly knelt down, slipping the listening device under the door and affixing it near the hinge.  Just as she began to stand up she was yanked to her feet by her and thrown out the building, clattering painfully to cobblestone riverwalk, slowly regaining her wits as Stallion loomed over her.

"Well I just don't know what to think about this.  Look's like Gothamites just can't respect some people wanting a little privacy.  Now you just sit there when he's finished with business my boss is gonna have a talkin' to yoUURK!"

Alysia held tight as Stallion spun wildly attempting to throw her off, her purse straps wrapped tight around his neck.  Despite her best efforts he began working his fingers under the leather straps, giving himself enough room to breath as he so that could focus and grab her.  Pulling herself to her feet, Jo yelled and lifted her leg high, driving the low spike of her heels into villainous cowboy's thigh.  Grunting with pain, Stallion reared back and with a mighty backhand sent her back to sprawling on the cobblestones.  His hand finally finding Alysia's head, he threw himself forward, flipping her over and slamming her down on the ground.  Just as Stallion caught a second to breathe, Dru effortless vaulted himself over the wrought-iron fence and ran towards him, launching himself off a decorative planter into a flying tackle, knocking both of them down.  Rolling away, he scrambled to his feet and began pulling Alysia up as Jo wobbled over.  "Get out of here!" he screamed and pushed them away as Stallion rushed him, grabbing his face and slamming the back of head into a lightpost.  Discombobulated, Dru could only flail and stamp as Stallion grabbed his tie and yanked.

"Forgot your business noose," the cowboy sneered as he choked the life out of Dru.  Regaining his wits, Dru reached up and triumphantly grabbed Stallion's tie, only for the clip-on to come off in his hand.  His efforts rewarded with a sadistic smile leering through the black dots swirling his vision.  Flicking his thumb, Dru opened the spring clip and jammed it into Stallion's eye.  Dropping Dru, he covered his while swearing, giving Dru enough time to pull his tie off and take a gasp of air.

"You sonuvabitch!"  Stallion swung wild, only to yell out in pain as Dru ducked the punch and let him hit the light post full force.  Quickly Dru kicked the side of Stallion's knee, sending him off balance and gaining distance to put up a proper fighting form.  With his guard up, Dru wove his head through Stallion's punches, rolling his body until opportunity presented a clear shot and he whipped his arm with all his might, driving his fist into Stallion's jaw with a satisfying POW!  Momentum on his side Dru continued his pummeling, left hook, right jab, block and counter, overhand, left cross, as Stallion could do little but give ground.  Despite that, the cowboy remained on his feet, weathering the flurry of blows even as they slowly wore him down.  Knowing that if Stallion regained his footing he'd be at a disadvantage, Dru threw himself forward towards his waist.  Quickly he unhooked the overly large and garish belt, and yanked down Stallion's trousers.  Doing his best to ignore the genitals dangling in his face, Dru sprung forward and knocked Stallion off balance.  With his legs bound, the could do little but windmill as he fell flat on his back.  Standing up, Dru turned quickly to fight the figure he saw approaching from the corner of his eye, but stopped when he saw it was Jo running towards him.

"I told you to get out of here!"

Jo ignored him and ran up to Stallion, a can of pepper spray in her hand, and doused the half naked man with him.  Yelling, Stallion tried to cover his eyes, flailing helpless as he screamed obscenities.

"Spray his balls!"

"What?"

"SPRAY HIS DICK!"

Understanding, Jo emptied the can on Stallion's unprotected groin, leaving the villain a screaming, gibbering mess crying helplessly on the ground.  Together they ran back to where Alysia was hiding behind a tree, and sprinted towards the lot containing their car.