Note: I had to steal a great line from Retzcat, I just couldn’t help myself. It was: Well spank my hiney and call me gobsmacked. I laughed my butt off when I read it in email.

Affirmation

++Harley++

Oh, there would be hell to pay.

All my wonderful toys, all of my wonderful minions, all my carefully arranged pawns in a tower of wealth and power that would have been a sight to behold! Scattered to the winds like a house of cards. This was the third hidey-hole we’d hit to see what was left and it was just as Mother Hubbard bare as the rest. Damn that flying rodent and her pets… I should have killed the cardboard cutout boyfriend much more slowly, really twisted the knife and made her listen to him scream. I really, really hoped that she still woke with nightmares, sweaty and agonized in the night. The thought made me feel just a little bit better.

“Now what?”

The cool voice cut through my train-out-of-control thoughts and I wasn’t certain if I was grateful or angry at the distraction. It was the lab-coated woman who had somehow released me from my clear-walled prison. Her name was Doctor B and she was a scientist, hell-bent on retrieving some lost experiments. When I queried about said experiments, she’d only smiled coldly and said, “Oh, we’re only ever a few steps apart. They will be here, if they aren’t already.” So far I’d determined that she would be more valuable with her freedom of thought intact and was holding my stolen Meta-power in reserve. I might be insane, but I was hardly stupid. She probably knew about it anyway, from the Oracle-meticulous records at Arkham.

Grumbling in frustration, I sank to the cold concrete floor to hug my knees and stare across the room. “There are two more places. And I can re-gather my rats again. I recruited the scum once to my cause and I can do it again,” I vowed heatedly and my new partner shifted beside me to look around the bare room.

“It seems your ‘rats’ have already cleared out your storehouses. Now, I would certainly regret the original terms of agreement to be nullified.” She spoke like she always did, cold and aloof.

“Oh, have no fear, Doctor B,” I sneered and ignored her light glare. “I’ll bring you your precious little experiments. I just need to think for a minute. There’s got to be some loose ends I can exploit, there are always loose ends. Just like people don’t think about what a stalker can learn by prowling through their trash, I’ll find the loose ends… and destroy them all.”

Ah, no problem that a little motivational speech couldn’t solve. Leaping to my feet, I grinned wildly and stalked to the exit.

“It’s time I visited some old ‘friends’. I have a party to set up that New Gotham won’t soon forget, and I have a guest list to prepare.”

++Barbara++

I knew I’d been dreaming, and by the lingering tension in my muscles, nothing good. Yet, I actually felt pretty great. Someone was holding me, cradling my broken body gently; another pressed so close to my back that I was glad not to be claustrophobic. I knew who it was, I just knew.

And part of me was so humiliated I thought I would die. This intimacy was a threat to my solidarity, my sense of self, my need to rely on myself and myself only. And it was a load of bullshit. No one could rely on just themselves, it was impossible. We all relied on a thousand strangers a day for our food and power and entertainment and a million other things. We relied on thousands, maybe millions of years of our ancestors learning every skill we took for granted now. The long-winded and expansive rationalizing perversely made me feel better, bringing the craziness into focus.

I was certain that I needed them, this wild and erratic bunch of women. Straining my human senses, I reached out to get a feel of who was in the room. The smell of Neosporin under my nose confirmed Ro’s bullet wound, so she was indeed the one underneath me. Only Helena would cling to me like a leech, so that must be her on my back, clinging so tight it was hard to believe she had a busted clavicle. There was others breathing nearby, the faint snorey wheeze of Dinah’s breath, since she fell asleep into her homework on a regular basis, I knew the sound well. There was another at the crown of my head that must be against Ro’s other side, one big hand cupped around my skull. Shan. Davie might be nearby as well, but I couldn’t make her out.

When I opened my eyes, I could see that I was indeed held happy prisoner of Helena’s body and it was Ro that was pinned beneath our upper bodies. It felt impossibly good to be held like this.

There were parts of myself I rarely brought to the light of acknowledgement. The dark parts that my biological father beat into me, turned twisted and bitter. Thank God for my uncle who became father to me, not the monster who we both shared blood with. The darkness and danger that had driven Batman to a kind of utter destruction again and again and again. So many of us had gone along for the ride, Dick, me, Jason, Alfred, Selena… My gaze was drawn to the strong, slim arms holding me so possessively. It was impossible to deny anymore how damn bad I had wanted her like this. From the day I had met Helena as a child, I knew she was special. The kind of special that could save the world. As a broken-spirited, angry and borderline homicidal teenager, she had saved my sanity and humanity. Together we were stronger than anything life could throw at us, no matter how horrible. Not Selena’s death, not my deadened legs, not an innocent bystander’s murder, not a madwoman invading our sanctuary. I knew that I had always loved her, but only recently had acknowledged what a sexy and magnificent woman she had grown into.

And now she had a thing going on with Ro. Who been such a huge help to me recently, teaching me wonderful new puzzles for my overactive brain, and giving my pain a safe sanctuary. Damn…

My growing melancholy was stopped short by something that made me snerk in repressed laughter. Dinah had kindly brought my chair into the room and obviously sat down to watch over our sleeping bodies. Only to pass out herself, feet propped up on the bed, still in her costume. The sound broke up the sleepy quiet and as the bodies about me stirred into wakefulness, I was torn between feeling bold and sheepish. So I pressed my face into Ro’s throat, careful to not press against the wound. “Thank you,” I murmured softly and tugged at Helena’s arm until she made an annoyed noise.

“Don’t pull.” The collection of bodies was more active now, thrilling and terrifying me by focusing on me with hugs and touches. Both twins were nuzzling my skull, Helena shifting to do the same, her face brushing over my neck. It earned a shudder that I tried to repress. “Hey,” she breathed softly. “G’mornin’. Sorry to be a jackass last night and bail out. I kinda freaked. Ro here take good care of you?”

“Yes,” I answered simply and forced myself to relax, as Shan rubbed up like a friendly kitty to me, then Helena and then her sister.

“If everything’s cool, I’ll do breakfast today. C’mon Donatello,” she sassed Dinah as she jumped from the bed and hauled the teen out behind her. We were alone now and I felt and heard Ro yawn hugely. Glancing up, I marveled at the wicked, straight canines, thick and nearly an inch long.

“Man, you got a mouthful of teeth on you like a dog,” Helena teased and stuck her finger into the yawn. She yelped as she was bitten playfully and I had to grin.

“Gorilla,” I tossed out and they both paused.

“What?”

“Gorilla. The teeth.”

Ro just grinned and rubbed her eyes with the hand behind me before scratching tenderly at my scalp. “Yeah, exactly. They show off when I yawn. The great ape DNA is actually the most prevalent, because it was the easiest to integrate. Little bit of monkey to help the little brain with the tail and to help keep our bodies from getting too bulky. The canine and feline is mostly wolf and cougar in addition to the plain ole mutts and house cats we see all the time. There’s bits and pieces of a few other species, but it’s negligible, and I’m gonna shut up now.” Ro lectured and her voice turned self-mocking. “Leave it to me to have two gorgeous women in bed and start talking about science and whatever.”

“Hey,” Helena chuckled and resettled her grip on me, while I could sympathize with the white woman’s words. “I like smart girls.” The soft purr in my ear sent shivers screaming across my nerves. Too chicken to take the invitation in Helena’s tone, I traced a hand down Ro’s damaged arm, where it lay flung straight away from her body.

“How do you feel, smart girl?”

I couldn’t meet their eyes, and there was a subtle rejection in Helena’s body at my deliberate avoidance of her compliment. “Stiff enough that I don’t dare move, smart girl,” Ro mocked me lightly and I hid my face against her body again.

++Helena++

Yeah, there was a part of me that was annoyed at Barbara’s continued avoidance of her feelings. Mostly, I was just resigned to it. She didn’t have the same animal-brain triggers that I did: like the smell and stance of a stranger that could turn me into such a cat in heat. And my furry friend had that primitive dance with my senses goin’ on in spades. I knew I loved Barbara, I had loved her from the time I was too young to have a clue. Watching her do gymnastics made the physical almost spiritual to me, and years later I used those memories to teach myself how to move and how to rein myself in. It worked like a charm, Barb’s example to live up to and improve on with my Metahuman gifts. I was salivating to have Ro push me too hard. The idea of squaring off with her and Shan was the proverbial carrot dangled in front of me. Dinah was a decent opponent, but I needed someone who I could let loose with. The very thought of it brought on the change I knew as intimately as my own heartbeat. It rushed over me, the ultimate high, the intoxicating power that had made me take on the name of Huntress.

“Down girl,” Ro hummed soft and coaxing, killing the high off with the memory of hurting her. I was relieved to be calmed, scootching half over Barb to apologetically nuzzle Ro’s face.

“Sorry,” I whispered mournfully and yipped in surprise when she abruptly grabbed the hair at the back of my neck and wrenched my head back. There were lips on my throat, the thrilling and terrifying pressure of those wicked teeth pressing into my windpipe.

“You’re forgiven,” Ro growled and was instantly all tenderness and caresses. My head was spinning from the stimuli. “Now stop beating yourself up about it.” The rough and tender of her was what enthralled me, because no one had ever simply accepted my wild side with no questions asked. Even now she licked at that soft spot back at the point of my jawbone, her nose petting my pounding jugular. There was the faintest roughness to her tongue and I giggle-groaned. We kissed again, and I got nipped at when I played my new favorite game of hooking the tongue piercing around her canines. My one whole arm was weary from propping me up and I snuggled back into my companions, Barbara cuddled against my body. I had felt the fire of those green eyes watching the kisses. “Good thing I don’t have much of a gag reflex,” Ro teased and stroked my head and back. “You’re gonna do me in with those kisses.”

I chuckled as I watched Ro painstakingly curl up her wounded arm and Barbara immediately moved her hands to help. In these moments, I wanted so badly to know what was going on behind those mercurial green eyes. Ro’s hisses of pain distracted me as I watched Barbara’s competent hands help get the damaged shoulder moving just enough to get circulation flowing freely again.

“Thank you, Barbara,” Ro murmured, flexing her hand open and closed for long moments.

“You’re welcome. I’ve been there myself.”

Ducking in as best as she could, Ro Eskimo-kissed the shy redhead, and I was shocked when she raised her head up and kissed back for real. It was quick, and tentative, but there was no doubt that Barbara too-serious-for-her-own-boots Gordon had just lip locked with the wild-looking stranger in her bed. Somehow I restrained my snort of amusement and just stayed in the cuddle. Since we were all so relaxed and friendly-like, I knew it couldn’t last.

“Barbara!” Dinah yelled suddenly. “Guys! We have a problem!”

In a flurry of motion, the three of us were out of the bed and scrambling for the Delphi. “C’mon, you studs,” Barbara taunted as she was in the chair and ready to go before Ro and I dragged our wounded butts from the bed.

“Pain in my ass,” I grumbled and followed her chuckles from the bedroom. Both Dinah and Shan were ticking away at a monitor or two, the former firing us a positively freaked look.

“There’s been a jailbreak.”

There was a nasty feeling in my gut at the fear in Dinah’s voice.

“It was Harley… two days ago, except that she went back and freed Clayface too.

Oh shit…

++Jane++

It was work. Good, solid honest work. It didn’t make me hate it any less. Mopping up dirty bars and cleaning up after the waves of humanity was a thankless and necessary function. Lucky me. But with no past and no future, I could only live in the now. Dumping the dirty water in the stockroom sink, I looked around the trendy bar and was satisfied that it looked good. Thankfully, this place was easy to clean, with its sparse furnishings and relatively conscientious employees. I was lucky to have work at all, not to mention the group home downtown to sleep at. Anything past just a few months ago was a complete blank. The doctors had told me that the odds of my kind of amnesia were incredibly high. My memories were a blank, but I retained the basic functions and a lifetime worth of body-memory. Found buried alive in a fire-gutted warehouse with no ID, the New Gotham police had taken me to the hospital where they had managed to save my life. I had the reports memorized. The burns had been so bad that they had sent me to a specialist in New York. With no template as to what I was supposed to look like, the complete strangers had guessed as best as they could according to my bone structure, musculature and the few remaining wisps of hair. It was a miracle really, how normal I looked now, even if the woman gazing out of the mirror behind the bar was a complete stranger.

I had been sent back to New Gotham in hopes that the city I had been rescued in would jog some memories loose. With my reconstructed face, it was doubtful that anyone that might know me would recognize me now.

The roar of a motorcycle outside warned me that my ride was here and I had better hurry the hell up. The tough-as-nails redhead had been my keeper for nearly a week now, and I actually felt very safe with her around. A transient with a teenage daughter, Kelly Snyder was a remarkable woman. She was a bear of a figure that was all iron will and intimidation tempered with a sweet, loving protectiveness that was breathtaking. “C’mon Jane,” her heavily accented voice growled at me and I scrambled to straddle the battered but lovingly maintained motorcycle idling at the curb. “How’s your day?”

“Okay. What’s for dinner?”

“Carrie managed to score some hamburger and is making something for us.”

It wasn’t a luxurious existence, but I wasn’t alone in the empty desert of my nonexistent memories. I was rapidly growing very fond of my new family and the way they had taken me in.

++Kelly++

Carrie and I had spent half the day talking about my decision to take this incomplete woman into our confidence. It wasn’t like me and we both knew it. Some of the local toughs had been pressuring the poor woman and I just couldn’t stand it anymore. They had backed down, and I was left with this disjointed and scarred creature who didn’t even have her own name. But I knew she was a metahuman, I could feel her tickle my power awake any time she was near me. No metahuman power could work within my immediate proximity, unless I consciously lessened the effect. Jane could be almost anything, and I only hoped it wasn’t dangerous to Carrie or myself.

Her strong arms around me made me wish desperately for a touch that was more than just comforting or protective. It had been far too long since I had managed to find companionship and I was achin’ for it. That Carrie was getting to the age to be curious about her sexuality was driving me nuts. I couldn’t keep my eye on her all the time, nor did I really want to stop her exploring… exactly. It was just unnerving as a mother to see that my baby was growin’ up so fast. Pretty soon she wasn’t gonna need her old lady and then what would I do? At the shelter, Jane slid off the bike and handed over the helmet, raking her fingers through her short light brown hair. In this light, there was no way of knowing that she was covered in well-repaired burn scars. We climbed the stairs past all the other inhabitants up to the tiny apartment I had finagled because I had a kid. The savory smell of beef and onions greeted us.

“Hi mom! Hi Jane, come eat.”

That was my baby, sweet and affectionate and such a good girl. “Hey Tigger, it smells great. How’d your day go?”

“Fine. Some suit gave me twenty bucks for batting my eyelashes,” Carrie waved the tip off with a chuckle and I tried to not go ‘overprotective mom’ on her. “How about you, Jane?”

“Wednesdays are my easiest day. The Dark Horse is always fairly clean.”

I saw something flit across her face, something vaguely disturbed and confused. Gentling my voice to my ‘mom’ tone, I touched her arm. “Does it seem familiar?”

“I… I don’t know. It’s almost as though it should be, but it’s not.”

Much to the woman’s shock, I swept her into a crushing hug, her feet well up off the floor. “It’ll come back. And if it doesn’t, you have us now.”

The touch of her hands on my back was thanks enough.

++Gabby++

Ah ha! There was my quarry. About damn time.

“Redmond!”

Ignoring the scattered snickers in the hall, I pounced on my pal, yanking her around to meet my eyes. The bitching out I had been planning for the better part of a week died a quick death when I got a good look at her.

“God, Di, you look like hell. C’mere.” Cringing like she was afraid of me, Dinah let me drag her over to a quiet corner and press her into a wall. Dark circles under her eyes were clearly visible and no matter how carefully she had applied foundation and blush, her skin was gray with fatigue. “Oh Dinah,” I breathed and tugged her into a loose hug. “What’s going on with you? You looked wrecked.”

“Yeah,” she murmured hoarsely and tentatively set her hands on my hips. Now, I had always admitted to myself that my bud was a cutie, but I had always gotten no vibes from her. But… but there was something in the way her hands lay against my body that raised inappropriate questions at this time. “Gabby, you know I’d tell you if I could right? ‘Cause I swear if I could I would.”

Okay, Di had always been the overenthusiastic yet painfully shy type, but right now she sounded positively desperate that I believe her.

“Yeah, I know. I just hate seeing you suffer, y’know? Every time you come to school looking like this… I worry. We all worry.”

There was a harsh sound that was tears being choked back and her hands clenched into me almost painfully. Damn she was strong. I had known Dinah for almost a year and a half now and these bouts of pain and depression were agonizing because she wouldn’t talk to anyone about it. In our little group of buds, she was an enigma that was equal parts fascinating and maddening. More than once I had wanted to ditch her because of the aggravating mystery, and every time the easiness of the relationship drew me back. I was pretty gregarious and all, but there was something in the darkness and light of Dinah’s personality that drew me in.

“C’mon, class is starting soon. You ready for that chemistry test?”

Her groan was answer enough.

A few hours of having our brains pounded into submission and we were finally allowed to go eat. Being seniors we were allowed to leave campus and Dinah usually had access to Miss Gordon’s Hummer. As the coolest and most expensive wheels in the bunch, we rallied around Dinah for lunch. But our gang noticed the quiet and exhaustion and left her to me. It was habit now, because I seemed to be the only one who could coax her out of it. The weirdest thing was that she seemed to really want to talk to me, but really couldn’t.

Made a girl wonder what the hell she could possibly be hiding.

Dinah stepped into the sunshine and jingled the keys at me. “C’mon bottomless pit, I can hear your stomach growling from here. Barbara’s good for lunch. Taco Bell cool with you?”

The forced normalcy almost worked, but I wasn’t buying it. In the coolness of the big car, I eyed my pal as we waited in lunch traffic. She was pensive and withdrawn, confusion and tiredness swirling through her. When at last we made it out onto the main strip, the big SUV pulled out into the flow of all the other cars. “Y’know,” I finally sighed. “If you’re not going to talk to me then why am I here?”

Okay, it was harsh, but I was desperate for a reaction. The near-sideswipe of the mini van to the left of the car wasn’t at all what I had in mind. Jerking the big SUV over the shoulder with enough violence to put both right side tires onto the curb, Dinah clung to the wheel and nearly hyperventilated with stress.

“Whoa, D, I didn’t mean it. Shit, you’re the best friend I’ve ever had. I just feel like a failure that I can’t help you when you get like this.”

Tears had pooled up no matter how hard she was trying to fight them off. Her fingers were white on the wheel, every strong muscle in her arms standing out in relief. I had wondered about the muscles. They were the real deal, the kind of strength that a person got from hard physical labor, not just working out. But Dinah seemed so… normal.

Except when she got like this.

I had never been to her place, the excuse being how weird it would be for Miss Gordon to have a student hanging around. For the millionth time I had to wonder what it was like there. Screwing up my courage, ‘cause Dinah was a little scary like this; I reached out and put a soft hand on her arm. After a moment the rock-hard muscle started to relax. “I’m not going anywhere, D, I’m not. Okay?”

Nodding jerkily, Dinah grabbed the bottom edge of her shirt and mopped her wet face off. Not that I minded the view, but I figured I had better look away. Best friends were not supposed to ogle, at least in our case. “You’re the best,” she whispered and I grinned. “You know that, right?”

“Yeah,” I sassed her affectionately. “But feel free to flatter me anytime.”

++Dinah++

The effort to not spill my guts to Gabby had been always physically painful. I had cheated a couple of times when playing the underage drinking game, I had had the hell beat out of me by thugs and mentors alike and this pain seemed a thousand times worse. Gabby had been a steadfast friend since my first day at New Gotham High and I hated not being able to be honest with her. It had always been hard to explain away my periodic absences when I was hurt, and my depression when horrible things happened to me or my teammates. When my mother died was the worst. I was so stunned by the near-stranger that had stepped into my life and called to my heart. Watching the warehouse go up in flames had destroyed a part of me that had belonged to her, the mother I never had chance to really know.

After school, Barbara had dropped the two of us off at the mall to hang out. Like any seventeen year olds, this was normally a favored pastime, making us feel grown up and free from the parental units. This time, nothing would drag me from the emotional fog surrounding me, no matter how hard Gabby tried.

When the bad guys caught me completely flat-footed, I figured then and there that it was a good reason to let Gabby in on the big secret. At least then she would know why there was a complete stranger manhandling her into submission. They were big men, but the usual stupid hired thug archetypes. It would be easy to beat them senseless… except that they weren’t alone.

“Well hi there,” a terrifyingly familiar voice chortled from the shadows and she stepped out of the dark alley behind her thugs. “Miss me, pretty girl?”

“Shit! Gabby! Don’t look at her!” I screamed and felt the terror turn to power as I gather my resources. “Whatever you do, don’t meet her eyes!”

It crashed through me like a wave of fire, a blast of heat fueled by fear and anger. The thug grappling with me from the front was smashed back by the force of my Metahuman power and I allowed the telekinesis to kick me back as though fired by a gun. The guy behind me let out a wet grunt as our combined weights smashed into a nearby wall like a car wreck. Then something streamed out of the darkness behind Harley, whistling down the alley like cables fired from a launcher. Whatever they were, they were thick and appeared to be… thorny?

Adrenaline poured into me like liquid heat and my body moved to the dance that the Huntress had so painstakingly taught me. Everything began to slow, my body and senses becoming almost more than human to keep me alive and whole. Gabby was still struggling with her captor, and I admired her spunk. There was no way that I could hide my other self from her now and with that realization, I completely let loose. The vines screamed past my head as I desperately twisted away and rolled to my feet. One of the two batarangs I always carried was flickering out before I was even upright again.

Harley was expecting it and flinched out of its flight path.

Which is exactly what I wanted her to do. Someone back in the darkness grunted in pain and I feinted left, using a woozy thug to do a flying somersault and plant both feet into Gabby’s captor. We all went down in a tangle as I once again twisted to my feet just in time to see a flash of silver in Harley’s hand.

It was sheer, stupid chance that the projectile missed me, then Gabby, and pegged the thug right in one beefy arm. His screaming sent my adrenaline up another notch as the need to survive took on a whole new level. Then the damnest thing happened.

A figure materialized in midair about Harley’s head. Literally materialized from nothingness. My gasp must have made Harley look up with only a split second warning. It was too late to dodge, but she did manage to throw her arms up and brace for the impact. I saw a flash of movement in the darkness, focused on it even as the vines began to animate again. Headlights flashed blinding across the fight and reminded me of the last time I had done this.

There were four of them illuminated by the headlights, one flattened under Shan’s crouched body. I was so glad to see her that I was almost faint. The emotions roared through me and again the fire roared up to smash down the alley like the ocean does to the shore. Shan flung herself recklessly aside, but still went tumbling from the force of my anger. Not half as bad as the baddies though.

“Shan! C’mon!”

In the glare of the approaching headlights, I watched something play out. At that moment in time, I didn’t really understand what I was seeing. A tall, pale woman woozily sat up as Shan rolled to her feet and they both froze. It was eerie. Yanking at a stunned Gabby, I leapt out of the way of the approaching car, the roar of its straining engine letting me know that the driver wasn’t fooling around. The ‘kinesis pushed us girls out of the way just enough that only the wind of its passing hurt us, tossing up dirt and trash into our eyes. Gabby was screaming something as I squinted down the alley.

Shan was down there.

My sweet and funny pal that had been so damn good to me. The strange woman who I was hopelessly attracted too and probably half in love with… was in the path of that damn car.

Something inside me snapped.

Not again…

They had gotten my mother, and they had gotten Wade. They would get Shan over my cold, dead body.

The power rushed through me in a way that was… transcendental. I reached out in terror and desperation for my companion and the ache of losing those me and my family loved.

The car lifted right off the ground.

In the flash of the moving headlights, everybody gaped in astonishment as the big muscle car launched itself as though hitting a ramp and smashed into the brick building to the north of us.

Almost three stories off the ground.

It was beautiful.

++Shan++

I was hard pressed to figure out which was the bigger shock, seeing my demon mistress in the flesh once more, or the flying car. Doctor B still scared the hell out of me, terror swirling with hate. Perhaps I would have pursued it if not for Dinah’s presence so close, but now wasn’t the time and I rabbited. I hated it, but I grabbed Dinah and the shock-frozen girl with her and ran like the hounds of hell were on our heels.

Of course, this took us right into traffic. I was getting really sick of headlights bearing down on me; the damn bright lights were murder on my poor eyes. If not for animal instinct, we would have all been road pizza. My leg muscles coiled and launched without my brain consciously assisting and I gripped the girls painfully tight against me to shield them. Tires squealed; the windshield smashed across my back, Dinah cried out in pain, and her friend in terror. Dammit, the impact had knocked the wind out of me and now inertia was gonna have me kissing pavement. Somehow I got my feet underneath me, lungs heaving as too-bright lights swung insanely around me. There was a struggling weight in my arms… What the hell was I doing here? What was going on? Darkness was dancing the polka with my battered brain when someone grabbed my arm and quite nearly bodily dragged me away from the chaos.

With the safe darkness came the very real pain and shock radiating from my poor body. Collapsing, I was dimly aware of her voice yelling incoherently at me. What the hell was she saying? Hands slid gently under my head and I looked up curiously at the strange girl who loomed over me. She grinned kinda hesitantly and it suddenly really registered that I didn’t know her. Crap…

Then Dinah entered my vision, her head almost touching the other girl’s. “Oh God, Shan, are you okay?”

“I was… just jealous of all the TLC that Ro’s been getting,” I wheezed without thinking and Dinah looked torn between humor, fear and annoyance.

“You are such a pain in my ass, Mikey,” she growled around the tears in her eyes. “Don’t scare me like that! What is it with you and cars?! My heart’s gonna explode.”

“Dinah,” the strange girl tried to distract the impending hysteria while I watched with morbid fascination. “Dinah!” Okay, the shout worked. “I’m not gonna even fake that I have a clue what’s going on, but shouldn’t we get away from whatever the hell just happened in that alley?”

“Good call, Curly,” I coughed and let them pull me to my feet. “I feel like crap.” Slinky hurt like hell, but I forced the tail to wrap around my waist and tried not to let my screwed up balance panic the hell out of me. Fear and fascination poured off of Di’s pal, but she stuck close to me as we three scuttled down the street fast as our legs could carry us.

“I lost my earrings,” Dinah commented in a voice that would have been almost normal if I hadn’t been able to hear the undercurrent of hysteria to it. “Oracle, if you can still hear me, we’re at the corner of Jefferson and Gruder. Better send someone quick before Harley finds us or somebody stops for a good look.”

A long tense eternity passed while we waited for someone to find us. We were in no condition to fight and had a civilian to watch out for.

Crap.

++Gabby++

I had always been one of those kids that believed in vampires and Santa Clause and the monsters in my closet. But there’s a time in a kid’s life when they stop believing in fairy tales and knights fighting dragons. There was a part of me that had never wanted to stop believing. I knew it was stupid and weird, but I wanted to believe. Looking up into the furry grimace on my knight in black leather, and my wild-eyed school pal’s pale face, I knew that something very important had happened. While my logical brain refused to comprehend exactly what I thought I’d seen, I somehow knew that I was going to be unable to deny any of it either.

Abruptly, a familiar big black SUV screeched to a sloppy halt only inches away from the three of us. “Does the manic driving run in the household?” I queried saucily of Dinah, who blinked owlishly as the door slid open and a voice barked out from within.

“Get in! This isn’t a social call!” Reluctantly, a shy smile tugged at Dinah’s mouth as we dragged our sorry butts into the H2. The dark woman behind the wheel looked familiar… Miss Gordon’s business partner with the funky name. It wasn’t like me to forget gorgeous women. “Been awhile, Gabby,” she said smoothly as the H2 slid back into traffic and away from the weirdness.

A groan brought my attention back to the stranger who had dropped out of the sky. The owner of that voice had her white head buried in Dinah’s lap and my pal was gently petting the white hair. In the flickering light of passing traffic, I could make that the ear I thought I had noticed earlier was exactly what my mind thought it was, pointed and nearly as long as my hand. “Shhh… it’ll be okay,” Dinah was crooning softly, tears tracking down her cheeks. “Thank you for coming to rescue me. Both of you.”

The dark woman, for my attention was abruptly jerked back to her, gave a soft snort. “From what we could hear, all you needed was a quick getaway. Damn nice job back there.” There was no mistaking the tension in her voice and her eyes flickered over to me periodically. “So,” she began in that mild, conversational way that set my nerves on edge. “I really hope you’re a great as Di thinks you are, because your life is about to get very weird. You up to it?”

What the hell was I supposed to say? Something long and sinuous had slipped out from beneath the white woman’s coat to coil loosely on the ground, the tip curling in lazy agitation. Dinah had sent out blue waves of… energy and made a car fly. I kinda doubted that the woman driving was any more normal, if that was the right word. But they had saved my life.

They had saved my life.

It was a revelation.

And then I realized something… this is what Dinah had been hiding all this time. This wasn’t a new thing for her. This kind of weird shit happened all of the time. A thousand missing bits and pieces clicked into place. All of the hidden trauma, the wanting to tell me everything, but being unable to, all of it suddenly made sense. She was protecting herself… and protecting others. A crushing weight of responsibility pressed down on me and I swallowed hard before meeting the driver’s eyes again.

“Yes. I’m up to it.”

We pulled up the delivery ramp and right inside the New Gotham clocktower before the SUV even slowed down. “Okay troops,” the driver sighed and relaxed into her seat for a minute. “We’re home.”

“What if they follow us?” There was a scowl in response to Dinah’s quiet question.

“It’s not like she doesn’t know where the hell we are,” she snarled angrily and painfully climbed out of the SUV. I had noticed how she had been favoring her left side and wondered why. Then again, if tonight’s excitement was typical…

“Damn,” Dinah sighed, the tears still heavy in her voice. “Gabby, I’m so sorry about this.”

I climbed back to kneel next to her exotic pal and patted both of them. “Hey, it’s not like you guys pulled this on purpose. Gabrielle Anderson, but call me Gabby,” I abruptly introduced myself to the strange albino dog woman half-sprawled on Dinah. Smiling thinly, she reached out a hand and grasped mine.

“Killashandra Jones, call me Shan. Pleased to meet you. You and the Pretty Bird here are buddies?”

Painfully, Shan sat up with our help and eyed me oddly.

“Yeah, ever since she came to New Gotham. She’s the best.”

Okay, that was a loaded glance. Some suspicions were brewing as I watched Dinah shyly duck the piercing look. “Yeah, she’s that,” Shan mused softly and I blinked as Dinah smiled in a way I’d never really seen before and leaned against the tall woman’s back.

“Flatterer,” she sassed lightly and ruffled her fingers through the ivory hair. Shan leaned back into Dinah’s body again, the embrace easy and quite welcome from both parties by the looks of it.

Well spank my hiney and call me gobsmacked… Dinah had a thing goin’ on! With a girl! Sure, kind of an odd one, what with the ears and tail and… oh wow, she was furry too, but a girl nonetheless. I was so proud.

++Barbara++

For the moment, I was alone in the tower except for Davie playing silent sentinel in the living niche. Her dark gaze was both soothing and irritating.

“I could take her memories away,” she abruptly volunteered and I blinked at her in astonishment.

“What?”

“It’s part of my abilities as a telepath. I can… remove parts of a psyche. I hate it and it’s not very exact, but I can do it.” It bothered me on a very deep level that I actually considered it for a long moment. “But Dinah’s happy to be able to be honest with her friend.”

How many shocks could I weather before I snapped? There had been an awful lot of them lately. Hell, there had been an awful lot of them over the course of my whole damn life. Steeling my courage, I flashed Davie a wry look. “Remind me to smack that girl for bringing strays home.”

Davie chuckled in appreciation and we waited for the younger women in an easy quiet.

First out of lift was a scowling Helena, who took one look at me and threw her good arm up in exasperation. “Aw, don’t tell me you’re not mad at her! Not even a little? Man, I never got away with this kinda shit,” she grumbled and stalked over to flop down next to a snickering Davie. Next was Shan, draped between her sister and Dinah.

“Dammit, Boo, I’m gonna be fine. I feel like I had the hell kicked out of me, but I’ve been hurt way worse than this. So have you! Stop pouting at me for God sake,” Shan was grumbling in the same basic tone as Helena’s rant and I felt the humor pulling at my nerves. “Hel, can you get the hover twins over here off my case?”

“Don’t look at me, I’m still one of the hoverees, remember? Welcome to the gimp squad, Fuzzy.”

“You’re no help.”

“You’re welcome.”

I couldn’t stand it anymore and felt it bubble up from deep inside to erupt like a long-dormant volcano. Helena had always been a riot, but the twins really brought out that quality in her. I laughed and laughed until my sides ached and there were tears blinding me. It was cathartic. Just as I was winding down, I heard Gabby’s voice smirk, “I see where you get it from.”

Exploding into laughter again, I knew that she would fit in just fine.

I was still giggling and hiccupping when I saw one of the twins, Ro I guessed, lean over me to place both hands on the chair arms. It brought her well into my personal space and set me off all a-flustered again. Especially when she did the nose and cheek rub with me, after delicately licking at the salty tracks on my skin. It was both sensual and comforting. Obviously, I had a fetish for the animalistic types if my responses to both her and Helena were any indication. Not that I was really surprised. They called to my wild side, the part of me that had survived all manner of trials, the part of me that had driven Batgirl. The part of me that drove me beyond mere endurance and sometimes to sheer madness. There was sympathy and gentle humor on the beautiful, furry face. “Dinah is pouring her guts out and Shan is sleeping. I like Gabby, she seems intelligent and down-to-earth.”

“I agree. This is going to be so strange.”

“Because she’s a student?”

“In part,” my voice trailed away as my ever-present guilt surged up again, effectively killing the humor. “We’ve never told you what happened here, have we?”

“No,” she encouraged softly and again sat carefully between two of the Delphi monitors. Once again, the tail snaked out to wrap around my ankle and I found it to be oddly comforting. It came in fits and starts, the tale of what had happened inside these walls. I had to go back and remember meeting Wade, remember holding back from his gentle wooing. I’d given in simply because I had no reason not to. He’d been so undemanding and… normal. He was everything that I could never be, and that I could never really have. He was a pipe dream that died because of the darkness that I fought with every fiber of my being.

I remembered the feel of Harley’s battered body pinned against the railing, the batons at her throat. I had been so ready to kill her… it would have been so damn easy. The spinal coupler had burned along my nerves like acid and Wade’s blood torched my soul.

He died because of me, because I had wanted the normalcy of what he offered me so damn bad. I hadn’t loved him, but the ideal of him. It was perhaps the greatest weakness of the shadowy life of the vigilante. The balance of the shadow and the light, between the normal and the harsh realities of the Life.

In time, the pain ran its course like water freed from behind a dam. It left behind a scoured soul, raw and painful, but cleaner and calmer. I had moved at some point, my face buried in Ro’s stomach, my arms crushingly tight around her waist. Helena was draped over the back of my chair, head on my shoulder, hands gentle on my waist.

“Some things make more sense now,” Ro purred softly as she pet my hair in long, sensuous strokes. “You all have been through so much. Thank you for trusting me with your pain, I won’t betray you, not willingly.”

Something about the words unlocked a tension in Helena I hadn’t even noticed. It had been her hypnotized brain that had provided Harley with the means to nearly destroy us. Harley’s stolen Metahuman power to hypnotize had put the Huntress utterly under her sway. Helena had come to kill me, had spilled every scrap of information asked of her. Harley had invaded our sanctuary, taken over my Delphi, threatened Alfred and killed Wade.

“Never willingly,” Ro hummed almost soundlessly, stroking us both with calm, loving hands. I had to move an arm to grasp Helena’s skull so tight to mine that I felt the pain of it wash through me in a healing wave.

“Never willingly,” Helena whispered in a choked voice and at long last… I forgave her completely.

To Be Continued…

The choice of this song should be obvious by the lyrics. As the growing family of New Gotham’s superheroes begins to gel further, the sentiment of this song is very illustrating. When I listen to this tune, there seems to be something almost defiant about it, as though the singers are determined to stand by their ideals no matter what people might think of them. This is also the chapter where I finally got to use Gabby! Loved that character, and she’s been a delight. By giving the reader her POV of being the ‘normal’ one in the bunch, it grounds the wildness of the tale.

Affirmation

By Savage Garden

I believe the sun should never set upon an argument

I believe we place our happiness in other people’s hands

I believe that junk food tastes so good because it’s bad for you

I believe your parents did the best job they knew how to do

I believe that beauty magazines promote low self-esteem

I believe I’m loved when I’m completely by myself alone

(Chorus)

I believe in Karma what you give is what you get returned

I believe you can’t appreciate real love until you’ve been burned

I believe the grass is no more greener on the other side

I believe you don’t know what you’ve got until you say goodbye

I believe you can’t control or choose your sexuality

I believe that trust is more important than monogamy

I believe your most attractive features are your heart and soul

I believe that family is worth more than money or gold

I believe the struggle for financial freedom is unfair

I believe the only ones who disagree are millionaires

(Chorus)

I believe forgiveness is the key to your unhappiness

I believe that wedded bliss negates the need to be undressed

I believe that God does not endorse TV evangelists

I believe in love surviving death into eternity

(Chorus)

 

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