Brave and Crazy

++Shan++

Lazily, I breathed in a deep, luxurious lungful of the warm scent surrounding me. We smelled good together. The purr rumbled up without conscious thought and I burrowed past the tangle of blonde hair. There was a sleepy moan as our twined bodies began to stir and I tightened my grip around her. A faint giggle made me grin and Dinah twisted her head around to smile at me. There were times her youth clung to her like scent, and times that she decades older than her nearly eighteen years. With a sinuous twist of her body, Dinah had one arm over her head, and was pressed closely to me. “What are you thinking?”

For the moment, I only set one hand on her belly, where her shirt had ridden up and Dinah sucked in a shaky breath. Her skin was silky and almost hot and she jumped and squeaked when I caressed over her navel and mid drift.

“Stop,” she gasped and grabbed my wrist, bringing my eyes back to her face, which was flushed now.

“Ticklish?”

“Kind of,” she whispered and I abruptly realized that I was being dense. Again, I twitched my hand into the tense muscles and Dinah’s eyes nearly rolled back in her head. Oh, I liked that. On the spur of the moment, I twisted to pin her down with my body and attacked her torso with stubby claws. In seconds, Dinah was shrieking for mercy and laughing with me. Then the mood shifted again, as I watched her writhe and toss her head on the pillows. A moment of mercy resulted in something soft and firm smacking me in the back of the head, the pillow falling to my side after being telekinetically thrown. Face to face with this amazing young woman I was falling so hard for, with her curvy body pressed solidly to mine, I couldn’t resist her mouth. She made some indistinct noise and threw both arms around my neck.

Neither of us was a neat kisser, but I liked the slobbery interaction that was just…so…us. Growling, I traced my tongue back behind her teeth to gather up her taste and yipped and jerked away when she bit playfully at me. “Tease,” I chuckled breathlessly, still pressed tightly to her.

“Yeah, well, you’re a good teacher,” Dinah whispered back and I felt her stroking the back of my neck and ears. Then her left hand stroked the cup of my long-cat-like ear and I knew exactly what she had spotted. “What’s this?”

Unbidden, the memories crashed through me and I heard Dinah catch her breath. The bar code and the hated ‘17B’ had been tattooed onto the sensitive inside curve of my ear long before I could remember. Probably right out of the damn tank that had nurtured our fetal selves, knowing Doctor B. Every time me and Boo were poked and prodded at, every time she was put through yet another test or experiment, every time they took another sample of blood or hair… they would scan the small barcode tattooed in our ears. I had spent the first half of my life being Seventeen B; the unexpected spawn off of Sevarius Smith’s perfect little genetic package.

“You’re not second best,” Dinah was growling heatedly into my ear, her grip like iron around my neck. “You’re not. You’re perfect exactly the way you are.”

That old wound didn’t come up very often, the childish resentment from a young life of neglect and mental abuse. Even if Ro had been forced to take the worst of it, I still bore scars on my heart and soul. Grumbling and purring, I took solace in this wonderful young woman I knew was underestimated far too much. We kissed again, soft and gentle now, the only way I could get ‘thank you’ past the lump in my throat. Dinah kept stroking the tattoo with her thumb while drawing me deeper and deeper into our combined arousal. Only her startled squeak and a handful of warm softness jerked our attention back to the present. Snatching my hand away from her breast, I hastily apologized. “S… sorry.”

“That’s okay, I like your touch,” Dinah admitted shyly and gestured downward. “Check out Slinky.”

Sure enough, my damn tail had coiled between us, pulling her thigh up high between mine so that our pelvises were practically fused. Hormones and frustration and high emotions made us giggle. At least as good as the making out, was the cuddling like this, the arousal between us now a low simmer. Eventually, the room slid into almost total darkness and I knew it was time to go patrol good ole New Gotham. Dinah only just beat me to it. “I guess… I guess we should get down there, huh?”

“Yeah,” I answered absently, lost in her night-darkened eyes. There was definitely something building here, something that was amazing and a little scary. Scary in a good way, like leaping from building to building in the dead of night was scary, or hunting for prey that could fight back. “Will I see you in the morning? Here?”

“Count on it.”

I laughed at the pillow that she had telekinetically thumped me with and headed downstairs while she showered. The thought of her wet and naked had me distracted enough to walk right into Alfred. “Sorry,” I fussed and tried to right him.

“That’s quite all right Miss Shan. The others have gathered in the cave if you would care to join them.”

Which of course translated into, ‘get your butt down there.’

Ro was already suited up, but I could tell that the familiar armor had been modified. Looked like Splinter had been playing again. I rubbed cheeks with my sister, then Davie and then Helena as she yawned at me like a cat. “You ready partner?”

Helena grumbled something unintelligible and licked my cheek so that I chuckled.

“C’mere,” Davie ‘pathed me as Barbara started to speak.

“The school called this morning to ask why I wasn’t in.” Her dirty look at Boo and Raf made me laugh. “So I gave them a line of BS about a family emergency of Dinah’s and a car accident out of state. Hopefully it’ll hold up and the girls can make up their finals once this is done. I feel bad for my students, but…” Shrugging it off, she stared up at the big screen and her tone became businesslike again. “The bikes should stick fairly close together so that if there are any surprises, you can all regroup quickly.”

Davie had a surprise for me in the form of nicely patched armor. <You didn’t sleep, > I nagged her and she smiled wearily. So I gathered her into a suffocating hug that left her feet dangling well above the floor, remembering the first time I had done just this. She was so startled at my boldness with her, and self-conscious that me and Boo towered over her so bad. Now she only patted my head fondly and hugged me back.

<No, but I wanted to make sure that you and Leo are as safe as possible. The new lining is lighter and thinner and more flexible. Later, I bet I can even get rid of all the plates. The armory here is like something out of a movie and that Alfred knows his stuff. >

<Sweet! >

The shirt had been replaced completely with something that looked like rubber club fetish gear and a bulky vest that was better then the one I’d been wearing for years. The pants moved more freely and were silk lined so that they didn’t tug at my skin and fur. The boots were the same, for which I was grateful, as it had taken me years to get used to the damn things in the first place. When I shrugged into the long, armored coat, I was astonished at the reduction in weight. The whole suit had dropped at least a third of its mass.

“Cowabunga!” I crowed and everyone laughed.

++Helena++

Stroked kitty happy, Shan preened in her modified armor and I chuckled along with the others. I knew exactly how she felt. In fact, Shan suddenly noticed my new suit and came over to give the once over. “This is great! Davie didn’t have time to put this together, I mean shit, the stitching would put a quilter to shame.” Curiously, I concentrated on the feel of her hands caressing over my sides and hip. There was a spark; I was a live wire after all, but not as much as her sister started up my motor. Good, Barbara’s idea of separating the hormones was a good one.

“Nope. Alfred,” I purred as I stretched luxuriously to give Shan the full effect of the suit.

“Really? Shit, remind me to hit him up once this is over.”

“He might like that. We ready?”

“Yeppers. You know how to handle a bike that size?”

It was tempting to drive the big motorcycle on bravado and very limited skills and Huntress reflexes. Glancing at the members of my family and pride, I swallowed the egotistical reactions and shrugged nonchalantly. Shan gave me a subtle, understanding smile and pretended that the silent conversation had never happened. A sweat pants and tank top clad Dinah barreled in and went for the alcove where her suit had been placed in the glass-walled unit that had once held Robin’s costume. I wasn’t ready to make a decision about the one that once held my father’s suit, I could practically see the shadowy impressions of the cowl and cape in the cabinet. The ghost of Batman in this place was more than a little unnerving and I was suddenly very thankful that Shan was driving. Brother Dick looked good in his dark Nightwing costume, and Davie looked almost scruffy next to him. As did Ro when Dinah flounced out and came over to be inspected by her new partner. At first Ro seemed slightly confused by the girl’s puppy-looking-for-approval routine, but it had become habit between Dinah and I. The Batgirl suit had taken so many trail runs before it fit, that the before-sweeps inspection had become habit. Ro ran her hands over the armored curves, tugging at it here and there. It was strange to watch her touch somebody else, the movements sensual, yet not sexual. Dinah craned her neck to keep her gaze on Ro, where the larger woman crouched behind her and flipped the cape aside.

“It’s too tight across your hips back here, can’t you feel it constricting your movements?”

“Yeah,” Dinah admitted reluctantly, seemingly embarrassed by Ro’s hands on her ass. “It’s digging into my crotch too, but there hasn’t been time to alter it any more.”

It was then that I realized that my sidekick had put on a growth spurt and the growing space left in the recycled Batgirl costume had been filled up and then some. Ro gave Dinah a friendly smack on the ass that earned a squeak and set Shan and I to laughing. Then we were all business, turning our attention to the old bikes that had once patrolled Gotham nearly a decade ago.

“What the hell?” Barbara suddenly muttered loud enough that we all paused and turned. “How did this get in here?” The tone was intrigued and fearful, never a good combo when in reference to the Delphi. We moved over as one entity to follow Barbara’s gaze up to the big plasma screen. There was an email on it.

“So?” I asked with a shrug and Barbara made a sound that was almost a growl. It was a turn on despite the obvious-to-some seriousness of the situation.

“There are only a handful of people that even know about this account, much less actually use it. Not to mention that I rarely check the account and it’s not supposed to automatically be checked by the Delphi. This message is a near-hack.”

While not the entirety of her explanation made sense to me, I had caught one important thing. “Waitaminute… someone hacked the Delphi?”

Again Barbara growled and I saw Binky start to flick agitatedly. Yeah, I knew how Ro felt. That noise comin’ out of Babs was… was…

Needed to stop that train of thought before it got any further out of the station.

“Not hacked… exactly,” Barbara muttered irritably and her fingers flew over the keyboard. “It’s just… this information is supposed to be very, very confidential. How did this ‘Fai’ get it?”

It was some kind of invoice and a newspaper clipping of a trashy section of waterfront. I didn’t get it. Then Ro suddenly spoke up in a musing tone.

“Y’know, if those chemicals were mixed up, that would be one amazing party drug.”

“Party drug?” Dinah beat me to the question.

“Yeah, some kind of hallucinogen if my memory of those substances serve correctly. It’s a medical supply company that made this stuff too, means that the concentrations will be really high. Few barrelfuls of this stuff and the whole city…”

Her voice trailed off as her eyes widened. I grimly picked up the train of thought. “They whole damn city will be high as a rave full of junkies. Great, it’ll be Christmas all over again.”

Harley was going to try to finish what she started in the dead of winter last year. Since we stopped her the first time, this was her second salvo. Man, when I got my hands on her, I was gonna put her and the Joker both in a very deep hole where they could never get out.

++Harley++

Oh happiness! Oh beatific joy! How the masses would dance and writhe to my tune! It would be my own personal Dante’s Inferno, because I loved that old classic. While they suffered, my Puddin’ would once again be free. All I needed was a special collection of girlie cats and a black bird. There hadn’t seemed any benefit to hypnoing the cold Doctor B, like I had done to most of my hardworking staff of thugs, miscreants and street trash. All she wanted was equipment, a place to work and her precious twins on a platter. In return, she’d been loyal, helpful and ruthless to the underlings. Her style reminded me of my sweetie and a warm feeling spread though me. One of two things would happen in this warehouse. Either the Birdlings would get rumor of this place and show up to be captured, or the city would go down in chaos and then the Birdlings would show up to be captured. When they did, I had some sinfully naughty presents waiting for them. The bulky collars that would repress their metahuman powers was a lousy fashion accessory, but it certainly did the job. That’s why the butch redhead stuck close to me. Once my pet Arcanine had demonstrated her power to me, I knew that she was going to be my special lap cat. Her daughter would come in handy too, since she was able to blend in perfectly with any background, no matter how wild. The scarred, mousy thing with them was of no interest to me, but Arcanine insisted that she was a metahuman and Doctor B had taken her away to her lab. That was fine with me, for I had lovely Raichu, so full of electricity that it arced off of her unless she was near Arcanine. Her slightly less frightening electric companion had been dressed like a socialite and had electricity in her hands, so I called her Pikachu. And the tall blonde that made my butch Arcanine look girlie could throw fireballs from her hands, so I kept her watching over the minions. She was now Charmander to stick with the Pocket Monsters theme.

Heavy footfalls announced the arrival of Tiny, one of Doctor B’s pets. He was a hulking brute of a man with the demeanor of a loyal child. “Miss Harley?” He asked quietly and I looked up. Only from up close could his Rotweiler heritage be seen, in the stubby whiskers, heavy jaw and the slightly lighter patches over his inky eyes. “Doctor B asked me to bring this to you.” In his massive, cupped hands was a small vial he was holding oh-so-very-carefully.

“Why Tiny!” I squealed in delight and he flinched away. “You’ve brought me a present!”

Holding the vial up to the bright light, I basked in the filtered gold tones of the liquid within. Soon New Gotham would be mine.

++Dinah++

Clinging to Ro’s strong body while we roared down the stone tunnel was exhilarating and terrifying. Especially when the big door at the end opened with barely enough space to let us by. Barbara had given a bulkier version of the com units to the twins that barely managed not to interfere with their helmets and Ro chuckled at my harsh breathing. “Relax Canary,” she purred and I could just feel the rumble through her armor. “Enjoy the night air. Oracle? Any luck on a location of that picture?”

“Not yet,” Barbara’s business-like tone came to my ears. “There aren’t a lot of cameras on the waterfront. Especially not in that neighborhood.”

“No aspiring Spielbergs?” Helena crowed and I had to smile. She had been laughing like a maniac a minute ago where she hung onto Shan on the back of the other bike. Part of me wished it was Shan that I could cling so tight to… but I knew we’d never get anything done. Already, I was distracted by memories of Shan’s hands and mouth, how much Ro was like her in stature and the vibration of the big machine between my legs. It was gonna be a long night…

Sensing my agitation, Ro merely pulled over and gestured me to take on the first round of our night. It was a pair of burglars emptying out a run-down convenience store, and boy were they surprised to see me. “What the hell?”

“Naughty, naughty boys,” I scolded condescendingly, hands on my hips. Instantly, they stopped in shock that rapidly turned into leering, exactly the MO I was used to.

“Shit, Chuck, looks like the sweet thing in the Halloween getup wants to play.”

“You scumbags are all the same,” I sighed and didn’t move my stance as Chuck’s gaze grew predatory and he began to circle around to my left. They lunged at the same time, and I tossed Chuck’s weight into Mouthy with ease. Now they were mad, picking themselves up from the floor and growing warier.

“Don’t get cocky,” Barbara warned and I snorted. Mouthy was fairly quick on his feet and Chick was a typical brawn-not-brains. So I pulled out the batons from their sheaths in the small of my back. Not to scary-looking at merely eight and half inches… until I cracked the butt across Chuck’s head and the telescoping length shot out to give me something to reach out and touch someone with. That made Mouthy howl in pain and the adrenaline tsunamied through my bloodstream. Chuck yanked at the cape and I grunted and let the tug spin me around and ducked down. I was done toying with these thugs and punched Chuckles right in that spot that rendered most people unconscious. Half-crouched, I saw the glint of metal, held in just that way…

Reflex kicked in.

Months and months of being trounced by Helena’s superior physical abilities and a lifetime of experience from Barbara once again saved my life. The batarang was out and whistling across the room before I was consciously moving. Mouthy screamed in agony as the gun went flying to the sound of crunching bone.

Ro casually sauntered in, as I was zip-tying Mouthy to a post by his unbroken hand. Chuckles was already hogtied nearby. “You ready to move on?”

“Nice job, Canary,” Oracle butted in over the com. “I think I’ve narrowed down where the photo was taken from. Head north to the 900 block of Marigold Street.”

“Got it,” Ro said quietly and the featureless helmet swung to the tied men and back to me. “You ready?”

There was a wealth of meaning in her tone and I tried to settle my nerves. It was still too easy to let aggression take over and Ro had obviously noticed my conflict. “Yeah.” My semi-affirmative grunt didn’t move Ro, and the helmet remained facing me, unmoving. One of the problems with the costume was the fact that it restricted nervous body language. I couldn’t fiddle with my hair and there were no pockets.

“Canary?”

Dammit, now Barbara sounded concerned and I swallowed down my adrenaline and blew out a deep breath. Suddenly, Ro nodded and gave me a gentle, kitty head-butt before striding silently out. “We’re headed out,” I told our esteemed leader and followed my partner back to the bike.

When we pulled up to the decrepit warehouse, the other bike was parked right out in front and Shan was leaning negligently against it. That was a weird sign. Especially when the engine died, the sound of a Huntress-style hissy fit crashed out of the big building. “We probably just missed them,” Shan informed us calmly, arms crossed over her chest and Slinky twitching in half calm and half agitation. “Huntress is a little pissed off.”

“Can’t say I blame her,” Barbara added quietly. “I wonder if both teams shouldn’t be in contact directly, instead of just through me.”

“I don’t think I want to hear what she’s saying right about now,” Ro mused and went over to bump shoulders with her sister.

“It’s pretty damn pissed off. Ouch. Hel, baby-doll, careful,” Shan said with a wince in her tone, her voice muffled by the helmet. On cue, the big double door was kicked open from inside and a familiar, slender figure strode out of the darkness within. Fists clenched and body stiff, Helena was every inch the thwarted predator. Ro reached up to yank her helmet off and hand it to Shan before going to Helena. Purring and making small animal sounds, Ro placed her hands of Hel’s hips and rubbed her white head under Hel’s chin. Growling, Helena started to relax and pet Ro’s silky hair until she was calm again. They grumbled and nuzzled one another’s faces, cumulating in a couple of soft kisses.

“We’re going to stop her,” Ro whispered softly, her voice barely picked up by the com unit around her neck.

“Helena?” Barbara sounded stressed and worried and I marveled again at the bond they had developed. Watching the physical bonding and hearing Barbara’s tone was a lesson in sensuality, love and tenderness. Helena wrapped her arms around Ro’s neck to rub her face hard into the white mane for a moment before getting back to business.

“We must have just missed them, probably by only a few hours. There were a couple of lame traps in there, but they were more to taunt than hurt. There was a note hanging from a noose in the middle of the warehouse. All it said was ‘strike one.’”

“Charming,” I grumbled and Barbara made some sound of agreement. “Do we have any guesses where they went?”

“No,” Helena growled. “There were tire tracks of something really big and heavy, but not a semi-truck. I’m guessing some kind of military-type transport. That’s what the pictures I uploaded were, Oracle.”

I was flustered yet again between the easiness between Ro and Helena, which of course, drew my eyes to where Shan leaned up against the bike, deliberately ignoring everybody in favor of studying the warehouse. She was so gorgeous…

Before I could give into the urge to go nuzzle her, Shan suddenly stiffened and her head whipped around to her right. Growing up around animals, who were attuned to different things than humans, I had learned to pay attention their body language. Like my adopted dad’s hunting dogs, Shan had heard something. Even as she leapt to her feet, Ro was reacting, with Helena only a beat behind.

“Engines,” I heard Shan growl and her body was frozen in indecision.

The decision was made for her.

++Ro++

With a roar of diesel power that had my poor ears wishing they could lay completely flat, the entire corrugated metal wall nearby crumpled as though struck from inside. Headlights flooded into the night and we scattered like rats. It roared like a pissed off elephant and surged out of the ruined warehouse. Shan vanished as the enormous vehicle rammed into the bike she’d been leaning against and Dinah vanished into the shadows on the far side of the chaos. Helena had gone straight up a wall and I was straining for a nearby alleyway. There was a shriek of another engine or three, much closer but no less deadly to my vulnerable body. Headlights flashed over me and I knew I was being chased. No was the time to trim down the herd and I shifted direction. My instincts and adrenaline fought the move, as it took me away from escape, but I had a precious few seconds to eliminate at least one of the vehicles.

Straining, nearly leaping along on all fours, I barreled at the wall with everything I had, boots thumping against the pavement. With the front grill of the vehicle nearly touching my tail, I leapt at the wall, crouching against the vertical surface for an instant as the killer truck impacted right underneath me.

And teleported clean away.

There was a fire escape on a building on the other side of the parking lot where I appeared, now horizontal again and barely paused before leaping back to the ground. The biggest truck, some paramilitary beast with tank treads instead of tires on the back half, was already well on its way to escape. One of the smaller three trucks had smashed into my new bike, and it was still throwing sparks as it slid to a halt. The impact had slowed the truck down and once again gave me the pleasure of watching the Huntress in action.

Like an inky ghost, she landed on the hood and smoothly shifted the landing to swing around and smash both feet through the windshield. The truck lurched to a near-halt as she booted the driver unconscious, yanking a second thug through the broken glass with a single leg. As fascinating as she was… where was my partner?

The last of the trucks was screeching into a tight turn, looking for a victim. It’s lights flashed over exactly the person I was looking for, standing solemnly, the cape billowing out behind her. What the hell was she doing? “Canary!”

Ignoring my fearful cry, Dinah blurred into action as the truck drew dangerously close. Something flashed silver from her flung hand even as she tossed the other hand straight up. Cape whipping in the hurricane of the passing pickup truck, Dinah was whisked straight up beneath my astonished gaze. Smoke and steam billowed out from the truck and I realized that she had flung something that had pierced the entire engine block.

“We stopped the smaller vehicles,” Dinah announced calmly over the com and Barbara was answering right on the heels of her words.

“Go after that big one, it’s headed for downtown.”

“The bikes…” I started to say and she cut me off.

“Try them, they were meant to take this kind of abuse.”

“Right.” Dinah rappelled back down to the ground and only then did my sensitive eyes note the cable trailing from her belt. “That was amazing.”

“I was trained by the best,” she said simply and ran for the bikes. Shan was back and I paused for a second to ensure that she was okay. A swift, silent, sniffing communication assured me that she was freaked, but unharmed. Helena finished taking her aggressions out on the thug she’d pulled from the truck and we all dragged the bikes upright.

< That thing is nearly to downtown and I have no idea how much damage a vehicle that big can do. > Davie hurried me along as there was a burst of sound and a bat-shaped shadow flashed overhead.

<We’re on our way. >

The bike roared to life the second it was upright and I heard Shan’s do the same. “Nightwing has it in sights and may have a crippling shot in a few minutes. Did they start?”

“Yep,” I growled and threw my body over the bike, gunning it even as Dinah followed suit. Tires screaming, we were on the chase.

“Take the next left and the alleyway just beyond it on the right.”

“Got it.”

Dinah made some animal sound as the bike leaned perilously low to the pavement as I took the corner at a near-dangerous speed. There was a flash of headlights nearby as well as Shan right behind me. My heart was pounding and my body was sweaty and nervous in the confines of my armor. Dinah’s grip on my waist was punishing and I could hear her panting into the com unit. Headlights flashed again as I wrenched the bike into the alleyway and trusted Oracle that it was safe. It took a couple quick dodges around trashcans and a chain link fence, but we exploded out the other end even as Oracle’s voice spoke again. “Left at the end and… Nightwing!”

Muscling the bike back onto the main strip, I watched two things happen simultaneously. With a hissing shriek of power, a plume of smoke burst from the Batwing’s belly to slam into the truck with a deafening explosion. Unfortunately, the backwash threw the little fighter plane ass over teakettle and it vanished into the darkness above.

“Davie!” I screamed in horror, hearing nothing from her telepathically.

“They’re ejecting!” Oracle yelled. “Stop the truck!”

Angry and a little crazed from my family being in danger, I put the bike nearly right into the slowing hulk of the truck. “Get off,” I growled at Dinah, slowing only long enough to let her do so before gunning the machine at the first body I saw stumble from the smoking wreckage. I knocked her down with the bike and dropped the machine in favor of pounding the next thug with my hands and tail.

“Come on!” Helena bellowed and jumped right over me to actually get on the truck itself. Pouring smoke, the monster reared up over a line of parked cars at the curb and it’s headlights flashed wildly over the windows of the skyscraper it was headed right for. It was still moving too fast, smashing back down flat with a splintering crash and plowing into the lobby of the building.

It was like a movie set as people started to collect at the outskirts of the chaos and I knew we were running out of time.

++Shan++

“Huntress!” I bellowed, desperately scanning the chaotic scene.

“In the lobby,” she grunted back over the com and I heard the distinctive sounds of a fight. “I could use a hand here.” Gunning the bike towards the burning wreckage of the truck buried in the building, I swerved between parked cars and wrenched the bike into a wheelie that smashed out one of the few remaining big windows. “Dammit! Why are you doing this? Harley’s not gonna give you what you want!”

The awkward move of taking out the windows was too much for my forward momentum and I leapt free of the off-balance motorcycle. Skittering with inertia over the debris-strewn floor, I finally righted myself and looked around. Flames were licking up from the truck to the two-story ceiling of the lobby.

“Dammit Oracle, how do I stop Ivy? Those damn vines are fast! Ivy! Give it up! We outnumber you and the damn room is on fire!”

Two figures flickered in the smoke, lit only by erratic fire. I knew Helena by the way she moved, leaping away from the tentacles that I remembered from that fight in the alleyway days ago. Ivy hadn’t seen me yet and I seized the opportunity to attack her from behind. Grunting from the full impact of my weight, she went down in a tangle of arms and legs. For the moment, she was still.

“Oracle!” I yelled. “The sprinkler system hasn’t started yet and the flames are getting worse! Is Prophet and Nightwing okay?”

“Yes, she’s currently cursing in a blue streak of Greek that’s making my ears burn and I don’t even speak the language and he’s laughing. Is Ivy down?”

“For now. And the others?”

“Still on the street.”

And then something exploded.

The force of the blast threw me as though I weighed nothing. I knew the feel of terror, and this was very, very familiar. Something flat and hard caught my entire body and I started to slide to the floor. Then another body impacted with mine, knocking the wind out of me. In a breathless pile on the floor, I sent a silent thank you to Davie once again for having the foresight of the solid titanium plates of armor around my torso. The air was getting thin and I blacked out.

++Dinah++

The explosion knocked me back, rolling and tumbling until I smacked into a van and tried to clear my head. “Canary! Leo! Huntress and Mikey were in there!” Oracle was yelling frantically. “I’m sending Alfred to retrieve Prophet and Nightwing from the bay.” Forcing myself to stand, I staggered back to the ruined lobby of the tall building and preyed that its superstructure was still intact. Halfway across the street, still out of breath, I saw a shadowy figure dragging something with them frame herself in one of the smashed out windows.

“Huntress!” I whimpered, never so glad to see her. Stumbling, Helena dragged the two limp bodies in her fists over the tall edge of the windows and collapsed in a messy pile, just out of reach of the billowing smoke. In a moment I was crouched by her. “Are you okay?”

“I’ll live,” she coughed and hooked her hand over the hand I wrapped around the back of her neck. “There’s fire in the elevator shafts, and the sprinklers still haven’t kicked in. The FD’s should be here any second, but…”

I knew what she wanted to say, but was doubled over with coughing. What if there were people trapped above the flames? In a flash, I was in the lobby and looking for the fire exits. Sure enough, there were sleepy and scared people pouring into the lobby, looking for a way out. No going up that way then, now what? Back out the window with barely a glance at Helena, Shan and who I assumed was Poison Ivy, I looked up the face of the skyscraper. Now to find out if I was as good with all this equipment as I thought I was. With a flick, the jumpline was arching into the smoke to hook over one of the parapets that hung out over the street nearly four stories up. The second it tugged solid; I hit the winch and shot up. The jumplines were an amazing invention, straight from the vaults of Batman himself. He’d created them years ago to take the pressure of swinging from the pencil thin lines like Tarzan. They could take incredible amounts of weight as the g’s started stacking up. At floor two, I stopped the winch and put a foot through the nearest window. Thankfully, this was an older building and the safety glass gave in easily enough. “I’m in,” I informed Oracle. “Now what?”

“You’ve only got a few minutes, but check the apartments on that floor. There are six units, and stay away from the elevators!”

“Right.”

The smoke wasn’t too bad up here and the lowlight goggles made short work of the first four apartments. One poor older fellow nearly jumped clean out of his skin when I shook him awake and told him to get out. It was too easy to forget what the costume looked like to others. “Get out! The lobby’s on fire and the fire department isn’t here yet!” Seeing that he was on his feet and moving easily, I raced for the fifth unit and found exactly what I barely knew how to handle.

Two small children, alone and terrified.

“Come on!” I yelled and scooped up the smaller kid, maybe three years old and he clung to me. The slightly older girl paused and something down the hallway exploded with a roar. “That was the elevator shaft, Oracle! I’ve got two small kids here and no way out.”

“So do it our way then.”

“Please honey,” my voiced was cajoling to the little girl. “This place isn’t safe.” Fire belched past the open entryway of the small apartment and the air was suddenly hot and thin. I scooped up the rigid child and she clung to me as tightly as her brother. Once more there was the hellish belch of explosions and the heat at my back grew volcanic. Time seemed to slow as my brain and body kicked into that gear that was supersonic. It was like I could do anything in this place, nothing could stop me. A flying leap at the window, one arm up to protect my head and the two innocent kids clinging to me. It shattered spectacularly as the flames roared over and around us. The air gun that fired the really long, strong jumplines seemed to materialize in my raised hand and the heavy, barbed tip arched into the fire-lit darkness to punch into the neighboring building. Over the alleyway we flew like birds, the jumpline controlling the trajectory and slowing the decent. The kids were screaming, but I didn’t let that affect the way I positioned my body to accept the impact of the arch terminating abruptly against the face of the neighboring building. It smashed up my legs like I’d been hit by a car and we tumbled towards the sidewalk.

Winded, pained and exhausted, I could only lie there and listen to the ringing in my ears.

++Ro++

I’d run to my twin, terrified by her limp body, fussing over her and my battered lover. After only a minute, Shan had roused with a moan and I shooed the two of them off to make a getaway. I was running for the far end of the building when I caught the tail end of Dinah’s dramatic escape and changed directions to get the bike. Yanking it out from where it was half under a white van with words on it, I muscled it upright and gunned it at Dinah’s landing spot.

“Canary’s out,” Oracle was worrying in my ear. “But she’s not responding.”

“I’m on it.” The crowd gathering from the surrounding buildings scattered as I came between cars and narrowly missed some of them. “Move it!” I bellowed and managed to make it to my fallen partner. She was blearily stirring beneath two kids and the line was retracting back into her costume. “Come on!” I half dragged her onto the bike, not caring that people saw the tail, only desperate to get away before the approaching authorities could grab us.

“Down that alley!” Obeying Oracle’s order, I screeched the back tire against the sidewalk so that people got the hint and got the hell out of my way. “Huntress and Mikey are on their way and Alfred’s nearly to Davie and Dick in the bay. How are you two holding up?”

Adrenaline and fear were still pumping in my blood and Dinah only moaned softly and clung to me with the last of her strength. I knew I was going to need the adrenaline to get us safely home and concentrated on the feeling, hunching over the bike as though I were a part of it. Three near collisions and a brief, intense chase with a pair of black and whites kept me amped up. It wasn’t easy to ditch the helicopter, but Oracle confused its sensors until the pilot was forced to put it down in a park.

It was still early enough in the morning that the bridge was nearly empty and I opened the big engine up until our speed was starting to scare me. Dinah remained pressed tightly to my body, Binky tight around her waist, cape snapping in the wind. I slowed only enough to get off the highway and to the hidden road to the Batcave. The ocean flickered with the moon’s filtered light as we tore up the road and ducked under the metal door. Fatigue was making my arms shake and my vision blur. Dinah was trembling uncontrollably and I could only hold her in a tail-hug. Screeching to a halt near the Delphi, I yanked my body and Dinah’s the opposite direction that the bank crashed onto its side and wrapped Helena and Shan into a group hug.

Silently, we four clung together and just sorta felt our breathing.

“Barbara,” Helena breathed out hoarsely and I blindly reached out in her direction. There was a long moment before the wheelchair whirred over. Without missing a beat, Shan and I moved with that shared-brain thing that only identical twins seemed capable of, yanking off our helmets and scooping Barbara’s body up into the huddle.

“That was wild,” Shan finally breathed into Barbara’s hair while I nosed at the redhead’s other ear. Helena and Dinah remained pressed to our chests and I reached up to pull Dinah’s cowl loose so I could transfer my nuzzling to her blonde mane.

“I was so scared,” Barbara admitted softly and I think we all nodded. “It got out of control so fast.” The Delphi let out an alert sound and we all looked over despite our exhaustion. Barbara was settled back into the wheelchair and we all migrated wearily to the big machine. With the touch of a button, the Delphi showed us what it had flagged and started showing something that had a News13 in the corner. A violently shaking video recording was all that could be seen as a woman’s voice began to speak from an obviously different source.

“…And now, from the street outside of channel 13’s corporate offices in downtown New Gotham, we have Casey O’Connor. Casey? Can you hear me?”

The shaking picture stabilized… sort of, and my heart clutched in time to a chorus of gasps. “Yes Samantha, a large vehicle appears to have been struck by some kind of explosive and has rammed into the Graywood Apartment tower directly across the street from the Channel 13 building. Holy sh…” The camera caught a motorcycle rider thump into a staggering thug hard enough to send them tumbling before gunning the motor enough to take a flying leap from the machine. Then it wobbled drunkenly and swerved around towards the camera, before dropping on to its side in a shower of sparks and plowing into the news van. I had just witnessed myself join in the fight over the paramilitary vehicle full of God-knows-what in downtown New Gotham.

As we stared in horror, the woman reporter, Casey, recorded the entire the entire incident with Harley Quinn’s forces. The explosions in the lobby, Helena staggering from the smoke with two limp bodies in hand, Dinah’s impressive escape from the second floor.

It was terrifying and perversely thrilling to see exactly what the hell had happened. And through it all, Casey O’Connor remained fixed on the mysterious figures in black. At first, she wasn’t certain what our role was, but Dinah’s incredible rescue of those kids had her cheering along with the people in her van. More than once, I saw the distinct banner of waving prehensile tails.

At last the public record of our fight wound down with my retrieving Dinah and roaring off down that alleyway. That left the camera to go dark for a moment and then restart to show a tired, but excited woman in her late thirties, an Irish-decent handsome brunette that was almost red. Now the icon in the corner read ‘live’. “Good morning New Gotham. What you have just witnessed was a catastrophe the likes of which we haven’t seen in this city in a decade. An out-of-control paramilitary vehicle partially engulfed in flames collided with a downtown apartment building just minutes ago. Four mysterious figures in black appeared to be involved and…” There was a burst of activity nearby and Casey was nearly knocked over by a crowd of policemen. One older fellow, grizzled with a lifetime patrolling the streets had found the crumpled figure of our opponent. There was no mistaking his shouted words, “Good God Almighty! It’s Poison Ivy! Call Arkham!”

The volume dropped off with a few keystrokes and Barbara reached up to rub the bridge of her nose. “Good thing there’s still a few of the old guard left. It’s been almost nine years since Batman and the Joker left the streets and we turned back into a fairly normal city. People have forgotten what Gotham used to be like.” Unsure if she was talking to us or just musing out loud, no one moved. “This is going to get complicated, and Harley and Doctor B know we’re getting closer. All of you get some sleep. Things will heat up fast and we all need to be at our best.”

There seemed little to say to that.

To Be Continued…

Brave and Crazy

By Melissa Etheridge

If I could have my way

I’d be sleeping in the alley

On a couch with a friend and a bottle of gin

If I could have my way

I'd be runnin’ with the circus

I would be taming all the lions

There’d be no denying I was… brave and crazy

If I could have my way

I wouldn't be dreaming, scheming, screaming

Oooh, what am I gonna do

About you?

I wishes were horses

This beggar would ride

I’d have my cake and eat it

With a little on the side

I’d never want for money

I’d never want for friends

I wouldn't have to make excuses for the shape that I’m in

Shaking and crazy

Before I saw your eyes

I was in control of my soul on the whole

Oooh, what am I gonna do

About you?

Cool as a rule

I wouldn’t play nobody’s fool

But I keep on talking

Made in the shade

I had a perfect cue to fade

But I keep on walking

If I could have my way

I’d check out right now

I’d say out to lunch honey thanks a bunch

It wouldn’t work out anyhow

But this desire’s too much

It’s rented out my brain

It’s showing previews of your body

Driving me insane

And that’s crazy

So all that I can do

Is to beg, plead, won’t you tell me please

What am I gonna do

About you?

I’ve always loved this song; it’s evocative and can carry a multitude of messages. Aside from the obvious sexual/romantic overtones of the lyrics, it indicates strength and learning to me. As the chapter above shows, the Birds and their new pals are going through a period of learning where they will go through huge learning changes. And they’ve barely begun.

 

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