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Bats Or Bugs

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Bats or Bugs is a crossover between Worm and the The DCU (primarily Batman) by Jevran.

In Europe, the Tinker known as Cranial, who specializes in brain surgeries, has just realized he has created a monster. An ambitious sportsman named David Cain has repeatedly approached him asking for Olympic-level proficiency in every sport, which Cranial abliged, until Cain became "the world's first non-Parahuman Cape", known as Sportsmaster. Some time later, Cain roped Cranial into conducting human experimentation to create a superhuman martial artist... at the cost of one's literacy and ability to talk.

Their test subject was one Taylor Hebert, an American tourist who won a vacation to Europe in the Lottery.

One daring escape later, and Taylor returns to Brockton to pick up the pieces of her life. And with Cranial's help, she decides to start doing some Vigilantism, and ends up becoming Batgirl...

This fic last updated in July 2018.


This fanfic contains examples of the following:

  • 13 Is Unlucky: Taylor's first major setback, aside from when she was initially kidnapped and experimented on, happens in Chapter 13, when she is seriously injured in a fight with the Archer's Bridge Merchants.
  • Adaptational Superpower Change: Taylor didn't have a Trigger Event in this fic, so she's instead a Badass Normal enhanced by Tinkertech.
  • The Atoner: Cranial spends most of the fic as one, helping Taylor after all of the things he was forced to do to her.
  • Badass Normal: Taylor is technically this, as while she was Tinkered on she doesn't have any Parahuman powers of her own. When equipped with Tinkertech, she's badass enough to take on four Empire capes (Alabaster, Rune, Krieg, and Othalla) all at once.
  • The Cavalry: In Chapter 13, Browbeat and Glory Girl end up being this for Batgirl, who up until that point was losing badly against the Merchants and had been seriously injured.
  • Clothes Make the Superman: While Taylor was already enhanced to near-Parahuman levels, her Batgirl costume (and complementary equipment, up to and including the signature Utility Belt) further enhances her combat performance.
  • Composite Character: David Cain in this fic is a composite of his canon self and Crusher Crock, taking the latter's "Sportsmaster" persona while having motives not unlike the former.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: Taylor single-handedly delivers one to the Empire 88, beating up Alabaster, Rune, Krieg, and Othalla.
    • She does it again to the Undersiders in Chapter 17.
  • Expy: This fic's Taylor is made into one of Cassandra Cain, via Tinkertech brain surgery. David Cain is even directly responsible.
  • From Bad to Worse:
    • Taylor's vacation to Europe was supposed to be an escape from the Trio's bullying. It only resulted in her getting kidnapped by David Cain and experimented on by him and Cranial.
    • In Chapter 14, while recovering from her Merchant-inflicted injuries from the previous chapter, Taylor finds out that all of the Villains she has previously captured have escaped custody. And on top of that, the vacuum the Merchants left behind has started a gang war.
  • Groin Attack: Taylor kicks Cranial in the groin when he reunites with her in Brockton.
  • Heroic BSoD: Taylor ends up having one in chapters 14 and 15, when the villains she's captured have escaped and she feels like what she did was All for Nothing. Cranial pulls her out of it by asking her to rescue Dinah Alcott.
  • High-Altitude Interrogation: Batgirl's preferred method of interrogation is to take her mark, hang him by the waist over the top of a tall building, and then start slowly cutting the rope until he tells her what she wants to know- then leaves him there for the PRT to find.
    • Played with during Batgirl's interrogation of Tattletale. While the Villain is hanging from a flagpole off the top of a building, she knows that Batgirl wouldn't really let her fall. It's Batgirl's threatening to have Cranial wipe her memory that scare her into talking.
  • Lock-and-Load Montage: Chapter 8 has Taylor donning the Batgirl costume for the first time. First she puts on a bodysuit, then a Tinkertech cowl (with a visor that has "night vision, infrared, telescoping sight, x ray vision, the full works", and a built-in rebreather that can work in smoke or underwater), then is equipped with various grenades (including smoke grenades, sonic grenades, flashbangs, and EMP grenades), Batarangs, a grappling hook gun, and finally she is given a parachute cape and a Batbike.
  • Mook Horror Show: Taylor's vigilantism is often depicted from the point-of-view of the gangsters she's fighting, resulting in this trope.
  • Mythology Gag: In the PHO interlude, Greg mentions Batman's canon origin story (being orphaned by Villains, and thus becoming a costumed vigilante) as Batgirl's motivation.
  • Not-So-Harmless Villain: The Archer's Bridge Merchants are normally a Starter Villain for Taylor in fanfics, with Taylor usually making short work of them with her powers. Here, with Taylor being a Badass Normal, In Chapter 13 the Merchants are able to injure Taylor badly enough that she would have required hospitalization if not for Panacea, and thus provide Taylor's first major setback during her career as Batgirl.
  • Oh, Crap!:
    • Cranial's first instance is when David Cain kidnaps him to do human experimentation.
    • Taylor briefly has one when David Cain points a gun at her.
    • Danny had one after finding out his daughter was kidnapped. And then another one when she came home mute.
    • Taylor has one when she raids an Empire Safehouse, only to be confronted by Alabaster, Rune, Krieg, and Othalla.
    Taylor: "Fuck!"
    • Alabaster in that same fight, when Taylor suddenly turns what seemed to be a Curb-Stomp Battle in the Empire's favor into a Mook Horror Show.
    • Taylor in a subsequent raid on the Empire, when she finds herself fighting Hookwolf one-on-one.
    • Uber and Leet when they're suddenly apprehended by Batgirl.
    • Browbeat has one when seeing the severity of Taylor's injuries in chapter 13.
    • Taylor when Every Villain she's captured manages to break out of PRT jail in chapter 14.
    • The Undersiders have on in chapter 16, when Batgirl sneaks into their loft, looking for Dinah Alcott.
    • Tattletale has it again in chapter 17, when Batgirl subjects her to a High-Altitude Interrogation and then casually threatens to have her subjected to Cranial's brain surgery. She even has several Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap! moments during the interrogation, such as when she realizes that Batgirl is a Badass Normal who doesn't really care about the Unwritten Rules.
  • Precision F-Strike: Taylor drops one when confronted by Alabaster, Rune, Krieg, and Othalla.
  • Product Placement: In-Universe, Batgirl's Tinkertech is used in Toybox advertisements.
  • Pyrrhic Victory: the fight between the Merchants in chapter 13. While the Merchants are arrested and thrown in jail, Batgirl was seriously injured and technically lost the fight, and could have died if not for Browbeat and Glory Girl's intervention.
  • Sacrificed Basic Skill for Awesome Training: a variant where Taylor had her ability to talk replaced by superhuman martial arts skills, via brain surgery.
  • A Taste of Defeat: In Chapter 13, Taylor's first loss in a fight happens at the hands of the Merchants, who manage to break her arm, her leg, and her ribs. It was only because of Browbeat and Glory Girl's intervention that this fight was a "win" for the good guys .
  • Terror Hero: Taylor embraces this after she becomes Batgirl.

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