The Carusoe Inc. building was dark and quiet amid the light spring mist covering Gotham and its surrounding bay.

Pantherette felt that she might get a sudden case of claustrophobia, but tried to ignore her cramped position as she formed a plan of attack in her head. From her perch inside the ventilation shaft, she watched Jackie the Rip as he paced the length of a lush office. A single briefcase lay on a table near him, huge armed thugs watching over it solemnly. Rubbing her nose avidly to keep from a disastrous sneeze, she waited as anxiously as everyone else in the room for Jackie’s guest to arrive.

Suddenly, the door of the office burst open, startling Pantherette and Jackie equally. The teen crimefighter’s jaw dropped as she saw her own father standing in the doorway, flanked by men of his own. Stunned frozen, she watched uncomprehendingly as Richard approached the other mob boss and they greeted each other formally, business-like. Within seconds the exchange was made, but Pantherette still couldn’t push herself to act. When she finally moved, she noisily fumbled around in her belt for a Catarang, instead causing smoke balls to roll out of the vent into the office. The gangsters were already on guard by the time the smoke balls exploded, filling the room with a thick grey mist.

Bursting out of the ventilation shaft, Pantherette threw on a gas mask and went after the coughing gangsters at full throttle, punching and kicking everyone and everything she came in contact with. Moments of eternity passed, but she couldn’t find Richard among the chaos. Thug after thug went down in her violent assault, even Jackie the Rip, but somehow Richard seemed to have slipped away and disappeared from the scene.

The windows shattered, and finally the room began to clear as the smoke was sucked outside. Pantherette looked to the source of the broken glass, and out of the fading mists appeared the silhouettes of the Dynamic Duo. Pantherette flung her gas mask harshly to the ground in frustration, not wanting to meet the white voids of Batman’s eyes with her own.

“I thought I told you to stop fooling around and stay home,” his deep voice growled at her. As she slowly looked up at him, he continued, “You just let the notorious Richard Johnson get away.”

The truth of Batman’s words rang in Pantherette’s head, and yet it angered more than hurt her. “Look, Batman, it’s none of your business whether I stick with crimefighting or not. We’re going to need to help each other if we’re going to catch Richard, because, believe me, I want to see him behind bars more than anyone else in this city.”

“And how could you possibly help me, other than by getting in the way?” he roughly remarked.

Glaring, she answered, “I have an inside track for information on Richard. In fact, I have some info about him right now that you might like to hear. Of course, I won’t tell you unless you agree to let me help you put him away.”

Batman steamed a moment, reluctant to give in to what he felt was rash child’s play.

“Fine, but you mess up once more like this and you must promise to stay home.”

Pantherette shrugged. “Sure. I can’t tell you exactly what Richard got from Jackie tonight, but that should be easy enough to convince out of Jackie himself. I can tell you, though, that you should look for things connected to the big trial this Thursday. Plus, Richard put a hit out on his daughter, Lennon, this evening.” Robin’s eyes grew wide just for a split second, but Pantherette caught the slight movement, her curiosity piqued.

Batman gave a slight nod of approval, then he tossed something at her. “Here.”

“What’s this?”

“It’s a homing device. Use it if you have any more info for me and I’ll find you.”

Pantherette glanced at the object curiously a few seconds, but by the time she looked up again, Batman and Robin had already disappeared from the office. She looked at the mass of unconscious thugs surrounding her as she put the homing device away in her belt. Sure, she thought, leave me to clean up my own mess. She sighed deeply to herself as she set to work, tying up the thugs to leave them for the Gotham Police.

P A N T H E R E T T E