Eight Count
is an Alternate Universe Batman fic written by AmberZ10 and hosted on Archive of Our Own.
Dr. Pamela Isley is a former USADA scientist now working as a drug testing technician for the East Coast's largest governing body for boxing, headquartered in Gotham City and owned by Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle. When a new underground fighter, Harleen Quinzel, joins the league, Pamela finds herself falling for her.
This fanfic contains examples of the following tropes:
- The Ace:
- Kate Kane is the league's reigning super-lightweight champion, and has won five titles at the start of the story, more than any other female boxer in the league ever has. She's also a major audience draw.
- Bruce Wayne was also a multiple champion when he still boxed.
- Adaptational Jerkass: A number of characters are far less good-natured than their canon counterparts.
- Bruce and Selina run a less-than-above-board boxing league, which includes fight-fixing and even an underground component.
- Kate Kane is a serial adulteress, cheating on her wife Renee Montoya, with Pam as her latest partner.
- Dinah Lance is a more classic sort of Jerkass, being simply rude and unpleasant.
- Years before the story begins, Victor Stone loaded his boxing gloves with metal before a fight, causing his opponent, Slade Wilson, to lose an eye.
- Adaptational Mundanity: Characters who normally have superpowers, such as Pam and Dinah, are regular humans here.
- Adaptational Wimp: Barbara Gordon is Pam's secretary here, without any combat skills.
- Anti-Villain: Kate. She's morally questionable in a few ways, namely her infidelity and her willingness to engage in really ugly pre-fight drama, but her goals are not evil and her conduct within the ring is sportsmanlike.
- Artistic License – Sports: The story takes many liberties with boxing, even accounting for the general shadiness of the main league featured.
- The league has a defined season (unlike actual pro boxing) with story arcs for their various fighters, and is generally conducted more like Professional Wrestling (complete with fighter gimmicks and predetermined fight outcomes in some cases, as well as the management willing to overlook a limited number of rule infractions per match if they turn out to be entertaining). The season ends with title fights, which in reality can occur at any time.
- The seasonal nature of the league means that all the fights in the story take place within a few months at most. However, some boxers have multiple matches within that time frame; Harley herself has six, and that's after suffering at least one concussion during a fight. Such a thing would never happen in real life.
- Boxers only put on their gloves after entering the ring, rather than wearing them during their walkouts.
- The super-lightweight division is an MMA weight class rather than a boxing one.
- Battle Discretion Shot: Harley's match against Tatsu Yamashiro isn't shown at all.
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Averted. Fights are bloody and bruising, whether they be Harley's underground matches or the league's official ones. In the championship bout, Kate gets beaten up so badly that she requires plastic surgery to repair the damage.
- Betrayal by Offspring: Damian Wayne spars with Harley during her training for her fight against Talia al Ghul. Talia is not happy when she finds out.
- Combat by Champion: Played with. The championship fight has shades of this, with Harley acting as Pam's champion and Kate as the league's, both literally and figuratively; a victory from Harley would stick it to both Kate and the league as a whole.
- Copycat Mockery: Harley mimics Kate's look and mannerisms during her walkout for their title fight, down to cutting her hair in the same style. Unfazed, Kate then mocks Harley's typical feral walkout style on her way to the ring.
- Crack Defeat: Stephanie Brown, who up until this point was depicted as a tomato-can rookie, manages to knock out Dinah Lance, a superior boxer who was expected to beat her and face Kate Kane for the super-lightweight title. Dinah's defeat puts Harley in contention for the championship.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Harley goes into both fights against Kate Kane with a severe skill disparity. Kate has been a pro for at least five years, while Harley has had only a few months of professional-level training at most come the time of their championship bout, has been fighting for only about two years in total, and hasn't actually won any of her pro fights fairly. It should come as no surprise that, though Harley has plenty of heart and even gives Kate a drubbing in their second match, Kate knocks her out both times.
- David vs. Goliath: Harley, the new rookie, takes on Kate, the defending five-time champ. At the press conference for the title fight, one reporter even explicitly mentions the match is one of these.
- Dreadlock Warrior: Talia styles her hair into tight braids for her fight with Harley.
- Evil vs. Evil: Talia and Harley, both Heels, have a match about midway through.
- Face: Boxing versions, anyway. Kate Kane, Stephanie Brown, and Dinah Lance are all Faces. Tatsu Yamashiro likely is.
- Final Battle: Kate Kane vs Harleen Quinzel for the super-lightweight championship.
- Heel: Like Faces, the league also has boxing versions of these. Talia al Ghul is one when the story starts, and Selina intends to make Harley a new one.
- Good Versus Good:
- Before Harley derailed the plans, the original finale of the current boxing season was going to be a title fight between Kate and Dinah, both Faces. As that fight would've been a rematch, it's implied that Kate beat Dinah for the championship the previous year.
- Dinah Lance vs Stephanie Brown, which only happened due to the aforementioned derailing.
- Heel–Face Turn: In the epilogue, it's revealed that Bruce and Selina's league has become legitimate, since the cheating going on became too expensive to maintain.
- Heroic Second Wind: Inverted. In the championship bout, Harley breaks Kate's jaw and otherwise beats her up for a few rounds, only for Kate to flip things in round 5 and quickly knock her out.
- Made of Iron: In the championship, Kate Kane fights for over three rounds with a broken jaw and for more than two with a broken nose. And still wins by KO.
- Mythology Gag:
- In the main DCU canon, Kate Kane was also a champion boxer, though as a West Point cadet instead of as a professional.
- Kate's walkout song for her first fight against Harley is "Danger" by Jucee Froot, which appeared on the Birds of Prey (2020) soundtrack.
- On the Rebound: Pam began her affair with Kate after her relationship with Dr. Barbara Ann Minerva ended, though both Pam and Kate were only interested in the physical aspect.
- Ordered to Cheat: Boxers in the league often get such instruction from Selina and Bruce in order to create storylines for the season, in conjunction with Throwing the Fight. Most go along with it. Before her title fight against Kate, Harley is given the choice of whether she wants to win the championship but stop seeing Pam, or lose and still be with her. Harley flatly rejects both options, stating that she'll win fair and square.
- Promoted to Love Interest: Barbara Ann Minerva is a former one for Pam and a current one for Diana Prince.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Harley (red) is a wild, undisciplined, barely professional rookie, while Kate (blue) is a calm and confident ring veteran.
- The Reveal: Before Harley's championship fight, she learns that all of her previous league wins were illegitimate.
- Sex Is Violence: Pam and Harley have sex for the first time after Harley gets a knockout victory in her third fight.
- Third Act Stupidity: Both Harley and Kate have some of this during the championship.
- Despite having faced Harley before and knowing how aggressive she is, Kate neglects her usual heavily-defensive style and fights relatively loose. This allows Harley to break her jaw in the very first round and puts Kate in a lot of trouble for the rest of the fight. It's ultimately not such a big deal since she ends up winning, but it's a silly mistake that she makes for no apparent reason.
- Harley has a chance to finish things in the very first round after breaking Kate's jaw, but her game plan is to wear Kate out over time. Thus, she doesn't capitalize on that opening, which ends up costing her the fight.
- Throwing the Fight: The league engages in this, though not for every fight. Barring two exceptions (her debut match which she was expected to lose anyway, and her fight against Dinah), every single one of Harley's matches up to her championship bout was rigged for her to win.
- Unstoppable Rage: Harley gets utterly pissed during her bout against Dinah, and ends up giving her a brutal and very illegal No-Holds-Barred Beatdown, which disqualifies her. Harley was intended to lose that match anyway, but not like that.
- Unwitting Pawn: Harley doesn't realize that none of her league wins have been real until it's spelled out for her right as she's preparing for her title fight.
- Vengeance Denied: The original storyline for the boxing season had it culminate in a championship rematch between Kate and Dinah, with Dinah set to "get her revenge". Harley and Steph derailed that, however.
- Victory by Endurance: This is Harley's strategy for the championship bout. She plans to outlast Kate by being highly aggressive early to deal Kate significant injures, then wear her out over the rest of the fight. It doesn't work.
- Weighted Gloves: Slade Wilson lost his eye in a match when his opponent, Victor Stone, put metal in his gloves.
- Win-Win Ending: Kate successfully defends her title and returns to Renee, while Pam and Harley get to be together without the league hanging over their heads. In the epilogue, Kate has retired after her championship against Harley and is on at least amiable terms with both her and Pam, who she's in a business partnership with. Pam and Harley have married, and Harley has become the defending two-time champ (once legitimately, according to
Word of God). - Worked Shoot: The league's fixed fights are these. Though the outcome might be predetermined, such matches are still between pro boxers who actually know how to fight and who can and will legitimately beat up or otherwise injure their opponents. Selina even specifically instructs some fights to go long to "give fans what they're paying for."
- Worthy Opponent: Kate seems to consider Harley one after their title fight. She doesn't gloat about her win despite their tension and prior trash talk, instead choosing to give Harley some personal encouragement afterward.
