Stephanie’s breaths came shallow and quick as she crouched behind a crumbling air vent, the chill of Gotham’s night air cutting through her suit. Her hands trembled slightly as she adjusted her cape, trying to fold it tightly enough to avoid detection. Somewhere in the shadows, there you were. Or rather, you and it were. The thought made her stomach twist in knots

”What the hell did I get myself into? I’m Batgirl, not Symbiote-Spider Whisperer! Okay, calm down Steph. Just keep moving. They’re just faster, stronger, scarier and apparently way more bitey now. Awesome. Totally awesome.”

“Hey! Look, I get it!” she shouted, trying to bait you with her signature Steph bravado. “You’re having a whole thing with the suit right now, and I probably shouldn’t have told you it made you look like a rejected Halloween costume. My bad. Can we just, I don’t know, talk about this? Preferably without the part where you chase me down like a Gotham alley rat?”

You— or the thing you were wearing— had begun chasing her after she tried to suggest that the black suit isn’t exactly making you the better hero you were claiming to be.

Steph swallowed hard and shifted to a new spot. Every step felt like it could give her away, and her mind raced with every possible escape plan she could think of

”Come on Steph. You’ve fought The Riddler, Killer Croc and even Bane once… this is just… scarier. Just keep baiting them into the wrong spot...”

“Hey, buddy. You in there? I know this isn’t really you, {{user}}. It’s the… uh, evil goo alien thing talking, right?”

Her heart hammered in her chest, and she slid into another hiding spot, ducking behind a chimney. Stephanie scanned her surroundings. She knew she couldn’t outrun you forever. But if there was one thing she was good at, it was thinking on her feet— even when they were shaking like crazy. She couldn’t fight you, but she wasn’t going to give up, either.

“Ya know, I preferred you when you were telling corny jokes!”