The Edge

++Helena++

There was no way in hell I was going to just walk away from Barbara with all that happened. She would take this snafu personally, and drive herself to fix it until she was half-dead. None of us had been directly compromised, except for the tails, and there wasn’t a damn thing that could be done about the reporter now. It was a damn good thing I’d chosen tonight of all nights to finally wear a mask. There had been at least two halfway decent shots of each of our faces.

“Go get some sleep,” Barbara instructed again, her voice flat and unapproachable. Still, no one moved and my hackles were prickling up. Oh, I knew that tone too well, and hated it.

“As soon as you do,” said my voice with absolute calm and boy was I surprised! Barbara’s hands stilled and her head swung around so those dagger eyes could stab into me. This is why I hated it when she was like this. Obsessive, sharp, as unmovable as a thirty-ton boulder, that iron control glowered at me from under green ice. This was the part where she took this entire burden on herself and left me helpless to do anything but wait for her beck and call.

“Not this time, Barbara,” I spoke calmly, softly, suddenly absolutely certain that I was correct in what I was doing. “I’m not letting you work yourself until you’re half-dead and then picking up the pieces. I love you too much for that. There are eight people and Nightwing on this team now.” Something that might be barely-suppressed fear and rage boiled up in her eyes, tightened the muscles in her face. I had never faced her down on this before, too afraid of her pain and power and her past. In one, swift movement, I was literally in her face, noses so close together that I was nearly cross-eyed. “Not this time! I’ve sat back for nine years and never said a thing when you get like this! I will not let you drive yourself into the ground over some kind of absolution!” realizing that I was shouting, I reined in my feelings and was gentle now. “It’s not just you and me anymore.”

There was an insane moment that I really believed that she was going to knock me flat on my ass and tell me off. There was this hidden dark side to Barbara that made me cringe, because I saw it so rarely. It took a unique breed to don a mask and a suit of skin-tight armor to run across the rooftops and protect a city that feared you at worst, or was oblivious at best. It was a thankless, brutal task that was hard on the body and far harder on the soul. A lifetime of soul-scars glowered out of Barbara’s darkness and I forced myself to stare them down. I would be damned if I would let our pasts ruin our future.

Then something in Barbara’s eyes changed, some startled realization that loosened the grip of icy fear in my chest. Blinking, her beautiful eyes thawed and seemed to look at me for the first time. It was a sobering moment that made me at long last feel like her equal. Some lessons took a lifetime; some were like a lightning bolt. There would need to be long, painful talks about who we were and who we were becoming, but the first crucial steps had been made. Barbara reached up to cup my cheek and drew in a shaky breath. It was a long moment before she could clear her throat and speak around the glitter of tears in her eyes. “Okay.”

“Good,” I happily purred and gave her a quick kiss before taking her hand and straightening. If I was to be pride leader, than I needed to step up. My team looked back at me, including the now-arrived Alfred and a very wet and bedraggled Dick and Davie. “Okay, first of all, nobody screwed up tonight. Yeah, we were filmed, but we had no clue that Casey O’Connor was there and even if we did, there was nothing we could have done differently. Ro, if you give Barbara and Gabby a hand with Delphi, I’ll rope the rest of you into gear duty. We can get all this done in a few hours at worst and then get ready for tonight.”

And we were off and running. Stripping out of our various suits of armor, Alfred and Davie took them off to be examined and repaired as needed. The rest of us were on bike duty. The poor motorcycles looked like they had been put through meat grinders, but it became quickly apparent that the damage was mostly superficial. “Thank the Saints for armor,” Shan chuckled as she unbolted one of the mangled panels and yanked it loose. We’d already replaced the armor on Batgirl’s old bike and replaced the few damaged pieces that needed it. Fixing the well-loved old machine had felt like a rebirth of sorts. Staring Barbara down had done exactly what I’d hoped for, keeping her in the mindset that she had a big team now and needed to delegate accordingly. Gabby and Ro orbited around her, doing all that complicated computer shit that confused the hell out of me. I was so damn glad for the two of them making my woman’s job easier, that I kept having to fight off tears. God, I was an emotional wreck this morning. By the look on Dinah’s face, it wasn’t just me.

“Hey,” I finally said softly when we were relatively alone for a moment and Dinah blinked into focus on my face. “You were amazing.” I wanted to kick myself at how surprised she looked. Since the day she’d arrived, I’d been too hard on the kid. “You were. That save with the kids is the kind of thing that should be in the superhero textbooks.”

Flushed lightly, but grinning, Dinah did that nervous, tuck-the-hair-behind-the-ear that was classic of her and finally seemed to accept that she had truly lived up to her calling as superhero. We’d been working like dogs for a couple hours and we were all starting to feel our various strains and bruises. As though reading my mind, Shan stretched and winced nearby. “After being your wall pillow Huntress, and subsequently being knocked unconscious briefly, I think I need to sleep it off. I’ll be back down in about four hours to relieve whoever’s still up. C’mon Di.”

I was grateful to the woman. Dinah’s limping was making me hurt just to watch, but I hadn’t wanted to pressure her and start up the old trend again. The last thing Dinah needed was to be treated the way I had done early on. She wasn’t the useless junior supergirl I had once thought her to be, but an accomplished fighter in her own right. At the moment I was feeling like anything but a superhero and reluctant leader. Right now, I was feeling like the morning after, tired, wasted and hung-over. Poison Ivy had beat the hell out of me, and smoke inhalation still made my lungs and throat ache. Shan scooped Dinah up into her arms as they stepped into the elevator and I wanted to do that to my sexy redhead.

A touch on my arm startled me awake and I blinked back to the present. Concerned green eyes greeted me and I smiled. “Hi.”

“Hi yourself cutie. Rather than doze here in the corner, how about some real sleep? Ro and Davie are taking first watch.”

“Sure,” I yawned and blearily climbed to my feet to follow her to the elevator. The whole night was a blur of imagines and impressions. Barbara leaned into my side on the ride up and was snuggled into the covers when I returned from a brief, but necessary shower. “I’m sorry,” she whispered as I climbed in beside her naked body and tugged her close. “I never meant to push either of us so hard.”

Oh right, my confrontation earlier, now I remembered. Kissing her head and squeezing her close, I nuzzled her lovingly. “I know. It’s weird having so many bodies around, but we need to get used to it. I’m sorry if I was too pushy.”

“You were, but I needed it. Sleep now, we’ll have time later to talk.”

“Hmm…”

++Dinah++

It was a great dream… but was it supposed to hurt? Her hands were everything I wanted them to be, strong, bold and persistent. Pressing deep into my aching muscles and stroking over my skin hard enough to push my breath out, those hands were amazing. They massaged into my hair, kneaded my neck, molded my back like clay, and embarrassed the hell out of me by flexing firmly into my aching ass muscles and down my legs. Still half convinced I was dreaming the whole thing, I growled at my tormentress and she just chuckled and grabbed my shins to flip me over.

Startled and half-asleep, I tried to blow the errant strands of hair out of my eyes and focus. Especially since Shan was working her way back up my legs and I wasn’t exactly sure how I felt about the rubdown. My ankles sure felt better now… but my hormones were waking up quick. I was so weird about this kind of touching; it had taken Helena and Barbara months to get me used to it. But the battering and bruising was part of the job and I’d grown resigned to it. Not that it didn’t feel really good, even the pain, but that was the problem. With my poor hormones peaking and my companions anything but hard on the eyes, the rubdowns had been torture.

That thought stopped me in my tracks and I was suddenly wide-awake. Shan froze, both hands wrapped around my right knee as I raked my hair back with a trembling hand. God, how could I have been so dense? I’d been salivating over my teammates for months and had never acknowledged it until this gorgeous new woman had finally set me off. I could imagine how humiliated I would have been if I’d realized my crushes on Helena and Barbara. It made me groan just thinking about it.

The bed shifted as Shan moved to lie beside me and tug away the hands I’d used to cover my flaming face. “Sorry,” she whispered softly. “Your legs were twitching like they were cramping and I wanted to take away your pain.” Instantly, I wrapped my arms around her and squeezed until she squeaked for mercy.

“Thank you. I wasn’t groaning at you, but some stuff I just realized.”

“Oh?” Her tone was questioning, but it was also pleased. “Something I can help you with?”

My hug gentled and I stroked her back and head. “You already have.” I was ready to doze off again when a twinge ran up my thigh, reminding me of the impact with that wall.

“I felt that,” Shan commented softly and I groaned.

“Yeah, I think I pulled something.”

“Lie still,” was purred softly into the side of my neck and I shivered in awareness as she kissed me there, where my jugular beat close to my skin. Wriggling teasingly down my body, damn her, Shan sat up and wrapped both hands around my right knee. This was going to be exquisite… and utterly suck. Her gentle, but firm touch pressed deep into my leg, creeping higher and higher, until I was ready to hyperventilate. I couldn’t watch, it was hard enough to try and ride out the sensuous feel of her hands on me, without adding in the look on her face

I’d felt the throb of arousal, the tickle of interest towards boys at school, been curious as hell what to do with the sensations in my body as I grew older. I’d ignored the feel of Helena’s hands deep in my thigh muscles, or Barbara’s low on my back or ass if I’d managed to pull something. Well, I’d tried anyway. But I knew I was wet and swollen with lust at Shan’s dexterous hands close enough to my crotch that I swear I could feel her knuckles brushing…

“Ouch!” Pain radiated out from my groin and I jerked away. Shan snatched her hands back and flushed pink.

“Sorry, sorry. I’ll be more gentle, I swear.”

Almost hesitantly, Shan returned her fingers to that very sensitive tendon in that very sensitive spot and I tried to relax. This was hell and heaven all rolled up into one as her fingers soothed and aroused, causing relief and pain all in the same movements. In time, I was wired for sound, and limp with relaxation as Shan coaxed all the tension out of my sorer leg. Then she transferred her hands to my left leg and repeated the whole process.

She was killin’ me… but what a way to go.

++Casey O’Connor++

God, but I was tired.

Tired, but exhilarated.

A decade of persistence and dedication was finally, finally ripening up nicely. As a rookie, I’d been fascinated by the Batman, keeping track of scraps of information scattered over a lifetime of his protecting Gotham. After the earthquake, twenty-two years ago, his appearances had become more and more sporadic, until seven years ago, when he’d vanished completely. That was when the woman had first appeared. If the info on Batman was scarce, then Huntress was like the proverbial Holy Grail. Only mentioned three times on paper by thugs and scum found trussed up like thanksgiving turkeys, and grumbled about by two others, she was a classic enigma. Inhumanly fast, able to scale buildings like a gecko on glass and stronger than a tank, she was described as dark-haired, young and gorgeous. There were no pictures of her in action, any footage taken by external sources like ATM cameras all mysteriously crashed. Quite the guardian angel she had.

Inside my apartment, Tom meowed plaintively at me and I dropped my gear and scooped him up for some love. “Hey handsome. Mom finally scored, how about a celebration, huh?”

Ten minutes later, Tom and I were comfortably sprawled in the overstuffed couch with microwaved leftovers and hot coffee for me. Plugging my laptop into the home theater suite, I pulled up my favorite stills from my prized piece of film. The tailed figure scrambling away from the van after crashing into it, the woman rappelling from the burning apartment building, the close-up of the dark figure exiting the smoke-filled lobby with ally and enemy alike dangling from her fists. Who were they? And why did they do what they did? For that matter… how did they do it?

With a few keystrokes, I brought up my best pictures of Batman, Robin and Batgirl from the archives. Nothing in the collection was a great shot, as the Bat-crew wasn’t the stand and pose kind of folks. There were a half-dozen photo manipulations that showed tantalizing hints as to the masked vigilante’s identities.

The cell phone rang and I jumped.

A glance at the clock confirmed that it was after midnight. There were few people that had the number and I wasn’t up to dealing with the potential drama that could be on the other end. Once, twice, three times it rang before I pressed the ‘talk’ button and raised it to my ear.

“Open the door,” was all the strange male voice said and I caught my breath. I involuntarily twisted around on the couch to stare at the front door, suddenly shadowy and menacing in the darkness. There were a few unsavory characters that had this number because they were street contacts. The fact that I didn’t know the voice was unnerving. Suddenly the man chuckled almost warmly. “C’mon Casey, if I was here for something bad, I wouldn’t be calling politely. You’ve stumbled into something and you’re going to need our help.”

Our? There was more than one of them?

“Why should I trust you?”

“Ah, she speaks. Why should you trust me? I know them, your mysterious vigilantes. My companion knows the old guard.”

It was that damn curiosity again, creeping up and down my spine, like fear or arousal. I was a good judge of character, even with just a voice, and this guy didn’t set off my hink meter at all. “Okay, since you asked so nicely.”

At my door was a good-looking man with swarthy skin and a level gaze. Behind him was another man, hunched into a coat and hat. Grinning winningly, the dark man offered a hand. He looked very familiar and I cursed the exhaustion that was inhibiting my usual impeccable memory. “Detective Jesse Reese. I’m here to be a diplomat for the Huntress and her teammates. I believe you know my companion.”

Know him? My jaw almost fell off my head in shock. Beneath the brim of the black fedora was none other than retired police commissioner Jim Gordon. “We need to talk,” the familiar voice was a cross between gentle and uncompromising.

“Come inside both of you.”

Strange things had been the norm of my existence for the better part of my life, but this was a first. Thankfully, my Navy-brat upbringing kept my place in decent working order so that I wasn’t embarrassed for my company. Gordon stripped off his hat and coat before facing me squarely. He was still an imposing figure, despite his advancing age. “I’m glad it was you that finally caught them on tape,” he spoke clearly and candidly. “With your reputation, I can speak bluntly.” There was a curious trill of Tom asking to be introduced and we both looked down. Without missing a beat, Gordon stooped to gather my cat into burly arms and pet the ginger head gently. “Hello pretty cat, what do I call you?”

“That’s Tom.”

I received the usual wry look for the unoriginal name and I was struck by the warmth of the seemingly cold man. “I’m a father Miss O’Connor, don’t forget that. I may be a cop and a politician and a thousand other things, but first and foremost, I’m a man and a father.”

It was an odd statement and my response was slow. “Casey, please. Is there something I can do for you?”

“The story on your computer screen there.” Sure enough, there were the pictures of Gotham’s vigilante protectors. “I knew Batman and Robin and Batgirl. I need your help, and the help of others like you, to help protect the heroes of New Gotham.” There was no mistaking the hitch in the man’s strong voice, the tiny falter in his speech.

Batgirl.

That wild grin, the flaming red hair, the gymnast’s build…

Oh… wow…

++Helena++

Sweeps had been started up with no fanfare, our moods sober and no nonsense.

Only to find that New Gotham was having the slowest, most boring night ever. It was as though everyone in the city had decided to stay in for the night, and Harley was squirreled away in some dark corner where we couldn’t find her. The long hours we’d scoured the streets had left me kinda queasy with unburned adrenaline.

By three AM, we’d pretty much given up and were just waiting for the sun to come up. Hell, if it were any slower, I could watch mold grow on my boots. “This adrenaline-laced life sucks sometimes,” I mused at the barely-seen stars overhead. Damn light pollution. Shan and I had been bantering back and forth all night, trying to get a response out of Oracle. It had actually worked a few times. Two giggles, a groan from a particularly stinky pun I couldn’t even remember now, and four sighs that meant we were treading into dangerous verbal territory. It was the threat of water balloons off the side of the New Gotham Bank building that finally got us smacked down and told to behave ourselves. So, here we were, perched atop that that same bank building, staring up at the stars. What we could see of them. Which reminded me… “Shaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan,” I said in a singsong voice, watching the corner of her mouth turn up. “You look like you’re a million miles away.”

“Not quite so far.”

Something told me to hold my tongue and maybe, just maybe, I’d get a few more tidbits from my new pridemates. The faint expression on Shan’s face was bittersweet as she stared out over the forest to the north where the manor was.

“We’d never seen the sky,” Shan murmured softly and I heard the faint sounds of Barbara in my ears abruptly cease. “I still don’t know how we teleported that first time. The image of the sky overhead was so real from staring at pictures and peeking into the security booth when we would flirt with the guards, who all thought we were adorable and dangerous… We wanted out so bad; it was like trying to breathe in a vacuum. I wanted to see stars. I wanted to see them more than anything. I wanted to know what made the people that came in from the outside smell so neat.” Shan’s voice had grown soft and childlike, her mind a decade and thousands of miles away. Slinky was twisting and coiling like a hunting cobra, the movements torn between stress and relaxation. “Then one day, me and Boo looked into each other’s eyes and just knew we could get away. I dunno how we knew, but we did. It was so close…” Her hand reached out, as though grasping at that distant forest, and I swore that she really was gonna teleport. Then her fist clenched up and she grinned. “So we stole the fleas and the hard-drive, and tried to find the Bug, but couldn’t and had to go, because they were coming for us… And we were gone, just like that.” Pausing, she tilted her head back and smiled in absolute pleasure at the faint stars. “The first time I saw them twinkle at me, I cried. They were the most beautiful things I had ever seen, winking like they were alive. We were cold, and exhausted and freaked by what we had done. Luckily, the observation equipment was on the next island over, so we got a chance to get our bearings and see the next island out in the daylight without the guards all over us. It was kinda fun, ‘porting from island to island until we saw a great big coastline that stretched as far as we could see in both directions. And we knew we were safe. It wasn’t easy, we had to steal and hunt and occasionally terrorize some lonely homesteader just to eat. And people were so afraid of us, and we were growing so damn fast. We were hungry all the time, hungry and cold. We’d been living in the barn for a while, because we had plenty to eat, before Miss Honey found us. Boo’s right, I didn’t trust her at first, because humans always spazzed when they saw us. But I learned to love her almost as much as Boo. She gave us the Rowan and Killashandra names, after characters from her favorite author.”

“Anne McCaffrey,” Barbara said quietly and Shan nodded.

“We’d read anything Miss Honey gave us, we were insatiable. I haven’t had time to read in a long time.”

The wistful sadness in her tone made my heart ache and I gave her a friendly kitty head-butt. Without seeming to think about it, Shan nosed at my hair for a moment and then took a deep, fortifying breath. “Oracle, we’re bored.”

“I noticed.”

“We’re gonna go do something, holler if you need something. Hel? Do you know where we can get me some kind of decent food this time of night? All this reminiscing has got me starving. Meet you at the bottom.”

And vanished before my eyes.

++Shan++

The abrupt ‘port gave me a few moments to collect my bearings after the confession to these new women in my life. I dropped the jacket over the handlebars and stripped off the armored vest. “Oracle, is there any storage on this thing?”

“Under the seat,” she murmured and the deep, wide cushion suddenly popped up.

“Thanks. Pretty cool that you can control this thing from afar.”

“It comes in handy.”

As scruffy as my jacket had become, it was still decent enough for clubbing or wandering around like some misplaced goth punk in the night. All that was needed was the accessory that any girl with furry, pointed ears needed. A lightweight hood of faintly shimmery material that looked like something Cher would wear. The clack of heavy, heeled boots signaled the arrival of my partner. “You could have warned me,” Helena complained mildly and I shrugged.

“I figured you missed the thrill of defying gravity.”

She just sighed and I relented with a weary breath of my own.

“I just needed a minute to regroup, y’know? You guys are only the third and fourth people I’ve ever told that story to.”

“’Kay,” Helena relented. “So what are we doing?”

“You tell me, o native of the city, but first, give me your mask, we’re off the clock for now.”

“Oh, right. Here.” The material peeled away from her face like a second skin and was tossed in next to my vest to be stored away until needed. “Nice hood.”

“This material is some wild stuff that never wrinkles. It’s cool.” Yanking the jacket and helmet back on, I straddled the machine that used to belong to Robin and it roared to life. In a moment, Helena’s body settled in behind me and we were away. Eventually, the tugs at my waistband directed me to a little hole in the wall place where a variety of punks, club kids and druggies had gathered like hungry rats at the curb. They scattered like cockroaches when I gunned the engine and put the bike right over the curb and nearly right up to the door of the Mexican food place.

“Shan!” Barbara gasped in shock and Helena swallowed a chuckle. I knew these kinds of scavengers and a show of strength now would pretty much insure that they would leave us alone. Not to mention the valuable bulk of the motorcycle.

“Ladies first,” I offered gallantly as Helena got a grip on her giggles and dramatically swung her leg over the seat and posed for the now-restless crowd. I merely stayed put and watched her in action. Like an alleycat at the top of her food chain, she was the number one predator and they all knew it. Then I stood up and yanked off the helmet to add my impressive bulk to the unspoken threat. Humans thought themselves so above the animalistic posturing and posing. They were so very wrong. Dinner was quick, savory and plentiful: burritos and chips and salsa and nachos with all the fixings. I was impressed that Helena could pack it away as well as I could and said as much. “You got a hollow leg, Raf?”

“Bite me, Mikey. I burn through calories so damn fast in turbo mode it’s a wonder I’m not constantly craving protein.”

“Yeah, I know how that is.”

We finished off enough food for four hungry people in record time and were left with where to go next. Lazing back on the dirty picnic table, we watched the much thinner crowd deliberately avoid the bike.

“You like my sister?”

Okay, that was blunt, even for me. Helena rolled her head over on her supporting hand only far enough to flash me a wry, warm look. “Yep. It’s not just anybody that I let bite the hell out of me.” The supporting hand unfurled an index finger to tap the shell of her ear where the nasty bite was already only an angry red mark.

“You love April.”

“And Leo loves Miss Honey. Your point? Doesn’t make me adore her any less and doesn’t change that I’m insane kinds of hormonal for her. If you weren’t so much like me, you’d probably trigger off the same kinks.”

“Yeah, Leo’s always had that broody, intense thing goin’ for her.”

“And you got that fun lovin’, melancholy thing goin’ for you.” A truly wicked grin spread across her face and she teased in proper tormenting-older-sister fashion. “And don’t think I haven’t noticed that you get Don’s motor runnin’.” I tried, but couldn’t stop the heat that washed over my skin from about the chest up. Helena cackled in delight and twisted her body to lean over the table. “She a good kisser? You like havin’ that pretty little sunshine flower be all yours?” Embarrassed as hell, I lashed out and smacked her across the shoulder. It only earned me louder peels of laughter.

“Huntress,” Barbara warned half-heartedly and I started in surprise. I kept forgetting she was there. Abruptly, my wrist was captured in a titanium grip and I jerked my eyes around to meet the Huntress-red gaze of my partner.

“Just don’t hurt her,” Helena warned softly, with a deadly serious undertone beneath the teasing tone of her voice. And just like that, the threat was gone and Helena was climbing to her feet to stretch luxuriously.

 “Yeah, wouldn’t dream of it,” I breathed and rubbed my aching wrist. Damn, she had a grip on her like a trash compactor. And not those wussy kitchen model either, but the big, industrial beasts.

“Hey!” Helena suddenly exclaimed, rubbing her belly lazily like Ro did. “I haven’t taken you or Leo to No Man’s Land. Duh! C’mon.”

“What’s that?”

“I’ll tell you on the trip.”

++Gibson Kafka++

The elevator drew my attention over and my night became much brighter. “Huntress! My sweet angel of the night, how I’ve missed you.” A small smile graced her perfect features and I was ready to throw myself on her mercy yet again when the tall figure behind her registered.

A stranger.

The crowd shifted, wary and ready for ugliness. Sure, Huntress was with the tall stranger, but we had become even more wary after what Harley Quinn had done to our safe place.

Then the stranger reached up and drew off the dark hood and the place collectively drew in a startled breath.

We were all metahumans here. It was an invite only kind of place for the safety of those shunned by the normal world above. There was no mistaking that this woman was anything but normal and average. Painfully attractive in a cool, ghostly way, she was dusted with white fur and a black-sheathed tail danced in the air behind her as though in response to a light breeze. Restlessly, she raked a hand through her pure white hair and warily eyed the crowd. Then Huntress sighed and grabbed her by the lapel to drag her over to me. I was too caught up in the new woman to parry with my dark goddess.

“Shan meet Gibson Kafka, keeper of the best place in town to hang if you’re meta. Gibson, meet my new partner, Killashandra Jones.”

“Killashandra Ree, heroine of Anne McCaffrey books, Crystal Singer, Killashandra and Crystal Line,” I rattled off from my flawless memory and she grinned in delight. “Wonderful books.”

“Call me Shan,” she purred and offered a hand. Really purred, like a gigantic housecat and I knew that I was doomed to adore yet another special woman from a distance. Her ears stood nearly the height of the crown of her head, sharply pointed and softly furred. I remembered my name, but was having trouble trying to make my mouth work. Huntress finally chuckled and broke the moment.

“Gibson, you’re drooling. I think I’m jealous. Can I bother you for a drink?”

I finally shook off my new infatuation and returned to business. “What can I get you lovely ladies tonight?”

“Just that great microbrew you get from Michigan.”

“Coming right up. And you, Crystal Singer?”

Shan chuckled throatily and my heart skipped a beat. “Do you have any beers with a fruity tone? My sense of taste is really sensitive.”

“I have just the thing.”

Once they were settled in with drinks, it was time for me to start asking questions. “So what’s become of the Canary?”

“I traded in for an over twenty-one model,” Huntress deadpanned and Shan sputtered into her beer.

“God, you’re a smartass.”

“Takes one to know one.”

For a moment they glared at one another in fond annoyance before giggling. I was startled to see the tail reach up and coil around Huntress’ shoulder to cuff her lightly. “Wow,” I couldn’t help but whisper and Shan smiled at me.

“Prehensile,” was the needless explanation and I nodded. “Can I have another of these? They’re really good.”

“Hey Shan, do you play pool?” Huntress suddenly spoke up as a table opened up.

“Yep, and I’m good too. Ready to get the pants beat off you?”

“You think it’s that easy to get my pants off?”

“Slut.”

“You’re just jealous because your girlfriend’s jailbait.”

“Oh yeah, because I always follow the rules. To break a law, I have to legally exist, don’t I?”

They continued to banter as they moved over the pool table with studied nonchalance, all banter and smooth moves. It was a feast for the eyes and I was certainly not the only one staring.

++Dinah++

Keeping up with Ro was nearly as difficult as keeping up with Huntress. As much as gorilla as monkey as cat, Ro was blessed with an awareness of her surroundings that bordered on the mystic. Every nook and cranny of every rooftop and the empty drops in between seemed familiar to her, like she’d been there a thousand times. By watching carefully where she put her hands and feet, I was almost able to keep up.

I finally had to call for a break. “Ro! Leo, gimmie a sec.” Winded, my muscles growing sore again, I remained hunched over, hands on my knees, sucking deep lungfulls of air. “You’re killin’ me here.”

“Age over youth,” Ro teased lightly and Barbara chuckled in my ear.

“Oh sure old lady,” I sassed and straightened up with a sigh. “You’ve got what, less than four years on me?”

“Something like that.”

Ro settled at the sheer edge of the building, perched splay-legged on the balls of her feet with her hands braced by her boots. I was limber, but not that limber, and flopped down next to her in a regular old sitting position. “So how old are you?”

The helmet titled slightly in my direction for a moment and I could picture her small smirk. There was a long pause where I heard only the sounds of breathing in my com. “Twenty-two on October twenty-third,” Ro admitted quietly. “That was the first day Squeakers and me breathed on our own. You?”

“Wha…? Oh right. I’ll be eighteen on September twenty-first.”

“Well, at least you’re close,” she purr-chuckled and I flushed. There was no mystery about Shan and I flirting and I had expected to take shit for it. At least Ro was kinder than Helena with the teasing. “We should start getting back to the bike, but I’ll slow down for you.”

If I’d been less sore from the fight yesterday, I would have been insulted. Instead, I just followed her slower pace back across the seedy section of the city we were patrolling. When Ro jerked to a halt so suddenly that I almost tripped over her, I spluttered, “hey!”

“Shhhh,” Ro hissed softly and I froze as her head swung to one side and then the other. Finally, she reached up to yank the helmet loose and her expression was oddly sad. “Aww man, that sucks.”

“What?”

“Some dogs got to a litter of kittens down there in that trash. I can smell it.”

Eeewww, overshare, I whined internally, but managed to not say it out loud. Then Ro’s head came up again and she sniffed carefully at the light breeze.

“Stay here,” she instructed and shoved the helmet into my hands before making a graceful leap at the opposite wall of the filthy alley, bouncing carefully off and landing in a perfect crouch two stories down. It was no wonder I felt so physically outclassed most of the time. Carefully, she sniffed around the alley and I couldn’t imagine how she tolerated the stench I could smell up here. Then she froze suddenly and I could hear her purr motor kick in through the com on her ear. “There’s a kitten still alive.”

That was how slow our night was, we were reduced to rescuing orphaned kittens. Not that I didn’t like kittens, but it seemed somehow… anticlimactic after the likes of Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy. “A kitten?” Barbara asked skeptically and I had to smile. She never struck me as the type to have pets and I was kind of perversely hoping that Ro might want to keep the orphan. If nothing else to see the look on Barbara’s face. Ro ignored the question and crouched next to a heavy drainpipe that slowly dripped onto the pavement. Resting her head almost against the pipe, her purring rumbled over the com. It was such a soothing and oddly sexy noise, coming from someone so human like Ro and Shan. It was different from a regular kitty, deeper and throatier, like a bass speaker pulsing.

It was just too comforting and I sprawled out on the rooftop, knowing that my partner was within earshot.

++Harley++

“Ma’am?”

At Charmander’s voice, I spun in my cushy chair and witnessed the skuzzy little man dangling from her Amazon fist. “A present my dear? How lovely!”

“He says he has some information of interest for you.”

The rat ‘whuffed’ as he was dropped and I wrinkled up my nose in distaste at the smell of him. “Charmander, love, do hose off scum like this next time, won’t you?”

“Of course ma’am.”

While I was tempted to toy with both my girl and the scruffy rat on the floor, I was too annoyed tonight. Damn that Helena! Turning the force of my glower on the man, I growled, “start talking, I’m not in the mood for games.”

“That… that reporter. The one that filmed the ‘splosion downtown.”

“What about her?”

“Commissioner Gordon is at her place right now. I saw it with me own eyes and thought it might be valuable to you… ma’am.”

Okay, that stopped me in my tracks. Commissioner Jim Gordon, the very man who had locked up my puddin’ and father to that hated Batwench, who was at this very moment helping Helena to try and stop me. The mind boggled at the possibilities.

“Take me there. I’ll make it worth your while.”

In a reclaimed old industrial section of the city, I handed the little man a wad of cash that made his jaw drop and growled at him to get lost. Even if he alerted the police, we would be long gone. This was almost going to be better than having that Alfred Pennyworth under my thumb!

My sweet, irreplaceable Raichu fried the electrical system of the building, slumping to the ground in exhaustion as the whole building erupted into chaos. It was wonderful! Good thing no one lived nearby, or the police would be all over this. Not to mention my hated rivals. I stood back to listen to the sweet sounds of battle, shots firing out, screams of pain. Oops, it sounded like I was going to need a few more minions. Ah well, no loss there. With my hypnosis, minions were like potato chips. Crunch all you want!

“Come pets!” I yelled. “I’ll open my presents back at the warehouse.” I was surprised when my collection of metahumans and streetscum dragged out a third body, muscular and male. “A third prize?” Tilting back the shaved head, I felt the perverse delight bubble up, hot and sticky like boiling honey. Oh, it really didn’t get better than this. I let out the pressure with a ringing laugh that echoed around the dark apartment. The reporter, the father and the ex-boyfriend. There were days I loved my job. “Charmander sweetie, if you’ll find the nice reporter’s kitty and bring it with you, that would be great. I’ve been wanting a pet that purrs and I doubt that Doctor B will want me keeping one of the twins. Oh, and make sure that you leave the place the way it looks now, no fireworks. I want a proper reception for Helena and the others. No sense in ruining the surprise by having them track us down to early!”

“Yes ma’am.”

And back to the lair to see what mischief I could cook up with these new pawns.

To Be Continued…

The Edge

By Eiffel 65

I’ve been to the Edge

And I’ve been to the edge

Yes I’ve been to the edge

I’ve been to the edge

And God knows if I look down,

Look down

(Repeat)

I like the imagery of looking over ‘the edge’. It calls up danger and bravery.

 

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