Barbara cursed under her breath as Two-Face's minions rounded up everyone in the event and herded them into the middle of the banquet hall's floor. Neither she or Dick had been able to slip away without someone drawing attention to them, which meant they hadn't been able to send a call for help.

The only silver lining was that Barbara hadn't seen Gwen get dragged in like some of the others so there was hope that she was working on a plan to help them out…if she hadn't just left the event early after she stormed out that is.

All either of them could do for now without putting everyone here at risk was to keep their heads down and wait for an opportunity to slip away or call Tim for help. Luckily, Two-Face's henchmen weren't the best at stopping people from slipping away. As long as she and Dick kept their heads down…

"Well, well, if it isn't little Barbara Gordon." Barbara's hopes of quietly slipping away died a quiet death as Two-Face picked her out of the crowd. "Haven't seen you since you were running around behind your daddy's back terrorizing the department. How is your old man doing?"

Barbara felt something inside her twist at the question.

Unlike several of the villains that she and the Batfamily regularly put in Arkham, Two-Face didn't really have a motivation for crime besides being genuinely insane. He didn't have the OCD compulsion of the Riddler to prove himself mentally superior to anyone, the Obsession in Scarecrow to experiment on people, or the Madness that was the Joker.

He just lost all rationality regarding the morality of his thoughts and actions after the incident that scarred his face and the following murder of his wife. To the point that shaking someone's hand or brutally punching them in the face as a greeting were about the same thing to him, and he relied almost entirely on the flip of a coin to break the deadlock between the two.

Which meant occasionally you got moments like this, where Barbara could look past the scarred left side and remember the family friend they had in Harvey Dent, the man that was almost a surrogate uncle to her–

"He's doing well. Really excited about taking in the head of the Falcone."

"Yeah, Jim always was one of the good ones." Two-Face said while casually flipping a coin. "Too bad I can't let you go," He said after checking the result. "It'd be a shame if you had to die."

–and then there were moments where it was really obvious that man wasn't the same as the one in front of her anymore.

"Die? What do you mean?"

"You see, most of the people here couldn't give two shakes about charity or whatever. They'll throw money around, go to parties, and talk a bunch but at the end of the day? Couldn't care less about the poor and unfortunate. So I decided that they should have a taste of what it's like to lose everything." He held up his signature coin so the shiny head side was facing Barbara. "They either get shaken down for everything on them and then we'll let them go…"

While he was talking another one of his henchmen rolled in a cart with an easily identifiable bomb on it, the electronic timer already counting down.

Two-Face rotated the coin so the scarred side of the double headed coin was visible. "...or they get to know exactly what it's like to see your life go up in smoke."

-o-

Gwen was still fuming mad when she stepped out onto the balcony after being chased off by Dick.

Once again the original Boy Wonder had done a wonderful job of sticking his foot in mouth and Gwen wasn't sure what was worse; the fact Dick kept pushing her away and seemed intent on doing so no matter how many times she gave him another chance, or that now he was using the JL as cover just so he could send her off without sounding like a complete jackass.

At least Barbara seemed to be just as done with his attitude as she was, even though she didn't say anything to support her either.

"This would be so much easier if I didn't care about them." Gwen muttered.

It was actually something that really bothered her. Sure, Dick was being a really crappy friend and they definitely didn't have the best relationship at the moment. But he was also one of the three people in her life that was more than a passing acquaintance.

She didn't want to keep doing the same circle of suspicion again and again, but she couldn't think of a way to put the matter to rest for good.

"Maybe I should get out of Gotham for a bit? Take a vacation somewhere sunny and just relax for a few days?" After they sorted out the labrat situation, obviously. But the more she thought about it, the more Gwen liked the idea of a vacation.

Of course she had to get through tonight first.

Or did she? She had only come as a favor to Barbara and she'd done that. There was nothing stopping her from just going home and doing anything else.

And now that she calmed down a bit, that sounded like a much better use of her time. If Barbara didn't like it, well…Gwen didn't really care about that at the moment.

"Right, tell Barbara I'm leaving and then swing on home." She muttered, moving back to the door. Only to stop and duck back when a man with a gun stalked past shoving the partygoers into the middle of the room. "Is that Two-Face?!"

Now Gwen had a problem. Dick and Barbara obviously hadn't been able to slip away since the blonde could see them right next to the villain and she wasn't in a position to get the drop on any of the minions. In fact most of them would be shooting through the crowd of hostages if Gwen just burst through the door.

She was going to need some help with this one.

Luckily, she did have her phone on her, so calling the police was on the table. Two-Face probably had someone watching for activity but that would get his men moving back towards the main entrances. Gwen could suit up and sneak in while they were rushing to reposition–

"Whoops, can't have you doing that." An unexpected voice startled her as some kind of thick orange goop covered both her hands and her phone. "This is a private event, invite only, you see?"

"Who–?" Gwen looked up where the goop came from and saw a man in a dark close fitting uniform with goggles covering his eyes clinging to a wall. She almost wanted to yell at him for copyright infringement, but that would definitely give away her secret identity.

"Just your friendly neighborhood assassin, Black Spider at your service." the dark parody of Spider-man replied with a bow.

Gwen knew the name. A 'low' level assassin/thief that worked for the League of Shadows. But from what she knew he should have only been a normal human with some kind of grappling hooks in the wrists of his suit. Was her memory wrong? An alternate version she didn't know of? Either one was possible, she supposed, but what was he doing here?!

"Now then, you might be asking yourself what someone like me is doing covering for some two-bit mob boss's mistakes, right? It's pretty simple. I've got a copycat to deal with and she's been ignoring my calls. Thought she would be better tied into underworld gossip, or maybe she just doesn't care about gangsters biting it. But I figure a cute little college girl making the news during something like this? That'll bring her out."

Gwen slowly backed away. "You're talking about Ghost Spider aren't you. Why stop me making a call then? Seems like the kinda thing a hero would show up for."

"Ah, but then I have to deal with her, the cops, and maybe the Bat's kids all at the same time." Black Spider shrugged. "I'm looking for something a little…more one on one."

"Besides, I want her coming to me pissed off and at a location I chose." He continued.

"Don't really see how kidnapping me helps with that." Gwen said as her back hit the railing behind her. "I don't exactly know her or have her on speed dial."

"Well yeah, kidnapping you wouldn't help with that." Black Spider said and Gwen got a bad feeling. "But ruining her 'heroic' image by letting a hostage die because she failed to save someone? The media won't let her live it down!" The assassin swapped out something on his wrist and aimed it at her. "So help a guy out and make sure a lot of people see the webs when you get to the ground floor, would ya? The color was a pain to match."

More of Black Spider's knock off web fluid hit Gwen in a few places – her chest, a leg, and her hands so that it covered up the orange stuff – and with a quick leap, Black Spider was in front of her shoving her over the railing.

"Son of a–!" Gwen cursed before the wind stole her voice and she found herself plummeting from a skyscraper.

-o-

As she fell through the air, Gwen didn't know whether to curse her luck that an assassin wanted to kill her as a way to draw out her own alter ego or bless it because if this happened to almost anyone else, they surely would have died.

Heck, when a few quick tugs failed to tear the stuff covering her hands even Gwen would have been in trouble if her webs absolutely had to come out of her hands. Thankfully for her, she thought as the Klyntar suit spread to cover her body, she wasn't limited to just her hands.

A webline shot from her foot and Ghost Spider was able to pull herself close enough to the building that she could slide to a stop, even if she bounced a few times on the way down thanks to the awkwardness of her hands being tied up.

"Okay, dragged out to some stupid rich person charity dinner, practically thrown out of the group of people I actually know there, and then literally thrown out by an assassin with a grudge. That's it, I'm definitely taking that vacation." She muttered to herself as she worked to get her hands free. "But first, I've got some payback to extract, some friends to rescue, and a mob boss to take down."