- It's true. Holy night, she's a vampire.
- — Batgirl
Batgirl (Volume 4) #29 is an issue of the series Batgirl (Volume 4) with a cover date of May, 2014. It was published on March 12, 2014.
Synopsis for "A Conspiracy of Bats"
After trailing Batgirl and Strix to the home of a girl he kidnapped, thinking she was queen of a group of vampires, Silver and his assistant, Miss Targa, have been surrounded by the police alongside their quarry - and the police want all of them.
Barbara herself is uncomfortable, given that she has been surrounded without her mask on, alongside Strix, who could easily take everyone down on her own, but Barbara hopes she won't have to, once the cops realize that she's the commissioner's daughter. To her surprise, though, the strange man who attacked them before the police arrived calls on the police to lower their weapons, as he places a straight-razor to his own throat. To everyone's surprise, he actually slits his own throat, and then does a backflip onto the hood of his own car, claiming that he is coming for their masters, as his throat bleeds profusely from the gash. Suddenly, a machine gun emerges from within the car's machinery and begins riddling the police cruisers with bullets - a distraction as Ms. Targa helps Silver into the back of the car. Barbara hammers on the window as they drive away, but Strix holds her back. Fortunately, the machine gun was ample distraction from the ladies' presence on the scene, and they sneak off.
Needing more information, Barbara is forced to call up Charise Carnes again. Though the woman promises her services are on the house, Barbara feels dirty having to ask a violent vigilante for help. Charise manages to dig up the address associated with the car. With that information, Strix warns via her notepad that if Silver has harmed the girl Cissy Chastain, she will kill him. Barbara tries to make her friend promise that there will be no killing - or she won't be helping. Holding up a folded piece of paper, Strix promises, but sneakily has hidden, "to kill" behind the fold.
At Silver's mansion, Ms. Targa bandages his throat, warning him not to cut so deeply, next time. She urges him to drink his fluids, and raises concerns about the child's cries, but he warns her that it is not a child. That is just what it wants her to think. As far as he is concerned, Cissy Chastain is a demon lord and a bloodsucking killer. He recalls aloud how he had found his mother when he was fifteen, dead and drained of blood in the bathroom. Surely, the vampires had come for her, and he would destroy their kind as a consequence. In the meantime, though, he is already aware that Batgirl and Strix have arrived.
Outside the mansion, Barbara notices she's ignored yet another four messages from her ostensible boyfriend Ricky. As she and Strix approach, they are surprised and suspicious to find the front door open. They step inside, and are greeted by Silver, who warns that they shall take no more innocents like his mother. Almost instantly, Strix attacks, but he is so fast with his straight razors that he manages to tag her with one - unheard of. Angrily, Batgirl tosses a sharp Batarang into his shoulder, and warns him to leave Strix alone, and to give over Cissy - or there will be plenty more pain. He is too fast for her, too, though, and he knocks her down the stairs, leaving her woozy as she witnesses Strix sneak up behind him with sword raised. Realizing that she intends to kill him no matter what she promised, Barbara punches her in the face.
Confused, Silver wonders why they spared him, after what they did to his mother. Barbara responds that she read the GCPD's files on him. His mother had committed suicide in the bathtub. There was no blood because it had all run down the drain. Thee are no vampires. From behind her, Barbara hears Cissy's voice, begging to be let go home. At first, Barbara promises to take her to her mother, and then she remembers that Cissy is supposed to be mute. Unexpectedly, the girl leaps at Silver with sharpened teeth bared, and Barbara has to concede, with some confusion, that the girl is a vampire.
Barbara pins the girl to the floor with Strix's help as another voice calls for everyone to stop from the doorway. It is Andrew Bennett, who explains that the real Cissy has been dead for a while, and promises that he will take this vampire girl, commending Silver on his good work as a Vampire slayer. Silver points out that she can't go with Andrew, as she bit him. All he drinks, day and night, is holy water. Instantly, the girl's body goes up in flames. Stunned, Andrew proclaims that this whole scenario is rather novel, and takes his leave.
Unsure of exactly what to tell Cissy's mother, Batgirl barely notices as Silver and Targa escape as well, leaving she and Strix alone in the mansion. Utterly bewildered, Barbara proclaims that she will never fight with the undead again.
Appearing in "A Conspiracy of Bats"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Silver
- Miss Targa
- Cissy Chastain (Dies)
Other Characters:
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles: