Author's Note: I was cleaning up my files when I came across this story from years ago. I think I'd posted it under the pen name Delphi Gordon way back in the day. Started rereading it, did a little editing, and thought I'd post it here with the rest of my stories. Hope you enjoy this little blast from the past.
~Reese
A warm breeze blew across Gotham's rooftops as the black leather and Kevlar clad, dark haired, smoky eyed Huntress sailed from rooftop to rooftop with a natural, almost cat like grace. As she patrolled through their city she kept an eye out for trouble and an ear open for Oracle. Since he left that is just what Gotham had become, their city. It was up to them, Oracle and herself and their young charge Dinah to protect Gotham from the danger that lingered in the shadows. It was their responsible to clean up the mess he'd made and left behind. A part of her loved it. She'd been born for this especially given who her parents were, but there were times when she would growl deep in the back of her throat and curse them both for leaving them with such a heavy burden to bare. Well, maybe more him than her mother.
The night had been slow. Slow nights had become an increasingly rare thing in Gotham these days, which is why Oracle's voice breaking through the quiet night wasn't surprising.
"Huntress." Barbara Gordon's voice called out over the comm. "We got an alarm at the New Gotham Children's Museum."
Helena Kyle sighed, but managed to hold back a moan as she landed with a soft thud on the rooftop she was aiming for. "Another one?"
"Looks that way." Barbara replied. "I've already sent Canary. She'll meet you there."
Helena changed directions so she could head over to the museum. Over the last couple of months there had been a string of break-ins all over the city. Normally this wouldn't be something unusual, it was Gotham after all, but all of the places being hit in this case had one thing in common. They all had something to do with children.
Normally they would have left these cases to the police, what did they care if a bunch of punks were getting their kicks with a load of smash and grabs, but Reese had given her something found at the first scene that had drawn them in. A harlequin doll with a gift tag with Barbara's name on it had been left at the bat exhibit at the New Gotham Zoo. At every scene since then something was left behind that had either a jester on it or a bat. As Helena landed beside Dinah on the roof of the museum she wondered what they'd find this time.
"We're in." Helena reported over the comm. link built into her necklace as she and Dinah dropped into the museum.
"Be careful." Came their leader's concerned voice. They both new Barbara trusted them, believed in them, but she was to much of a mother hen not to remind them almost all the time to be cautious.
"Aren't we always?" Helena asked as she and Dinah walked through the darkened building. They wandered around carefully taking everything in. Nothing looked trashed, just played with. "I really don't get this." She said as they entered the part of the museum that had small models of famous places around the world. "What's the missing link here? Every place that's been broken into has something to do with kids and every item left behind has something to do with the old bats."
"Did you just call me an old bat?" Barbara asked, cutting Helena off, but before either could say anything else Dinah pointed to a replica of the temple at Delphi. "Look." She and Helena walked over and she picked up what they were obviously meant to find. "Oracle, they're gone."
"What did you find?" Barbara asked.
Helena took the object from Dinah and sighed, Barbara wasn't going to like this. "It's a beanie baby."
"A what?" The redhead's voice replied with the soft clack of computer keys as background noise.
The Huntress turn the toy over in her hands giving it a good once over as she said, "A beanie baby, you know the toys…"
"I know what they are, Huntress." The pair in the museum could almost hear Barbara rolling her eyes through their earpieces. "What kind of beanie baby?"
Dinah gave Helena the 'Barbara's grumpy' look before replying. "It's a bat and it's really kind of ugly. It's this really weird green with black diamonds."
"Bring it back with you." Barbara ordered. "Scan the area, but do it fast, the police are about three minutes out. Come straight back here when you're finished."
"Yes Mom." The two women replied together with matching smirks. Over the comm. they could hear Barbara groan and that made them laugh. After scanning the area with one of Barbara's gadgets the two of them headed back to the Clocktower as ordered. When they got there Barbara was sitting in front of Delphi, her super powerful and super expensive computer rig, looking intently at something on one of her many screens.
"Find something?" Helena asked as she walked over and dropped the beanie baby down on the desk.
Barbara didn't say anything for a moment and then sat back and sighed. "Nothing. The security system was shut down so there's no camera footage inside, and nothing outside either because the CCTV cameras were disable, just like all the other break-ins." Taking her glasses off, Barbara pinched the bridge of her nose. This case was really starting to get to her, and not just because she couldn't seem to find a solid lead. This seemed to be personal but she had no idea why.
"Ok now this is really getting weird." Dinah said as she looked over the growing collection of found items. "Someone's breaking into kid places and leaving behind markers that are clearly meant to get our attention. Why?"
"It's a message." Barbara replied.
"It's clearly a message, Barbara." Dinah replied with a slight roll of her eyes. "But what does it mean?"
"A bat left on a model of the temple of Delphi, a marionette dressed in a bat suit, the doll left at the zoo, the message is for me, that's clear enough." Barbara replied. "The doll was a harlequin doll and the pattern on this beanie is a harlequin pattern. I know who's sending the message, I just don't know what the message is yet."
With that the redhead backed away from her desk and maneuvered her wheelchair down the ramp and away from Delphi's dais. Helena and Dinah just stood there and watched as their friend, sister, mentor, mother figure, moved across the room and out onto the terrace to be alone again.
"She's been doing that a lot lately." Dinah said softly, her voice laced with the concern she felt for Barbara.
The older of the two nodded. "You know how anniversaries are around here."
"Depressing." Dinah sighed. "Should we go out there with her?"
Helena watched Barbara though the window for a few seconds and then shook her head. "Not yet." She watched a moment longer then nudged the younger woman. "Come on, kid. Lets see what Alfred left us to eat."
"Do you think Barbara's right?" Dinah asked as they made their way to the upper level landing. "Do you think it could be her?"
"I don't know." Helena admitted. "But when is Babs ever wrong about these things?"
The early morning sun was coming through the clock face window but Barbara didn't notice. She was once again at her computers, lost in thought and a world of binary codes and data streams. She'd been able to tap into several security cameras in the area around the museum that had actually been working but there was nothing, not a single thing that would give her a place to start. Pulling off her glasses she rubbed her tired eyes and sighed.
"You need to sleep." Alfred said as he set a cup of tea next to his young charge.
Barbara smiled tiredly. "I know, but I can't. Not yet."
"He's right ya know." Dinah said from the upper level kitchenette. "You're not gonna be much help if you fall asleep on your keyboards."
"Yeah," Helena added as her head appeared over the railing too. "Don't make me put you to bed myself, Barbara, because you know damn well I'll do it."
"Do you two ever go home anymore?" Barbara asked as she looked up at the pair.
Both women smiled. "We are home." Helena replied. "This is where the food is. Now go to bed."
"Alright fine." Barbara held up her hands as she backed away from the computers. "I'll get a few hours sleep." She looked up at two women. "If anything happens…"
"We'll wake you and not touch anything." The youngest of them replied. "You'd think after ten years you'd at least let me check my email from there."
Barbara smiled a little. "That's what your laptop is for."
Dinah leaned against the railing and sighed as she watched Barbara roll into the elevator that would take her down to the penthouse. The closer they got to the anniversary of Wade's death and Quinn's attack, the more obsessed Barbara got. It had only gotten worse after Quinn's escape, and now with this new case and all the clues pointing to her. "I wish there was more we could do."
Alfred looked up at the young women. "You are all doing what you can, Miss Dinah. None of you can ask more of yourselves then that."
That night every monitor hooked up to Delphi was showing some kind of data or video feed. Barbara hadn't slept much, only three hours or so, but at least she no longer felt as if she were going to drop. Every time she closed her eyes she could see that night, the way Quinn bragged about killing Wade, about nearly crossing a line she'd never have forgiven herself for crossing. If Helena hadn't stopped her, she would have killed Harley Quinn.
A beeping sound coming from one of her surveillance scans brought Barbara out of her memories. Looking over at one of the overhead screens she narrowed her eyes. It looked like a security feed from the New Gotham Mall. She watched for a few moments and then switched the feed to the screen right in front of her. Hacking into the camera's systems she zoomed in on the figures. "What the…"
"Huntress, Canary, get to the New Gotham Mall." Barbara ordered after a moment of staring while she processed what she was seeing. "Now."
"Kind of late for a shopping spree isn't it?" Helena asked as she and Dinah finished off the would-be muggers they'd been taking care of.
"Not the time Huntress." Barbara replied. "Just get over there as quickly as you can."
"Ok, ok." Helena replied as she knocked out her mugger, than watched as her young partner did the same to hers. They zip tied the muggers to lamp posts and then Helena took to the rooftops while Dinah zipped through the streets on the bike Barbara and Helena had given her when she'd become a full fledged member of the team and not just the kid sidekick. When she got there she found the front doors smashed in. "Ok, so they weren't trying to be careful about breaking in this time."
"I think they wanted to be seen this time." Barbara responded. "Be careful. They've changed their tactics for a reason."
"Well that's never a good thing." Dinah said as she headed inside. When Helena landed next to her she didn't even blink. She'd gotten use to her friend's way of coming and going years ago.
Helena sensed something almost immediately. Her eyes shifted to a more feline appearance, her senses becoming super heightened, a genetic gift given to her by her late mother. She could hear someone close by. Every muscle in her body tensed as she prepared for an attack. She gave Dinah a silent single and they moved further inside.
"Oooo!" Came a voice that made both women stop. "Someone to play with!"
"Whoa!" Dinah replied as the owner of the voice appeared. It was just a little girl.
"Be carefully there's two of them." Barbara warned.
"Careful?" Helena asked as she kept her eyes on the child. The girl was dressed up like some kind of jester in black and red, with white make up on her face, and a mask covering her eyes. Her hair was in pigtails and colored to match her outfit. What was this some kind of joke? "She's just a kid."
The girl smiled and titled her head to the side. "What game should we play?"
"Look kid, I don't know what you're up to but breaking into the mall wasn't a good idea." Helena replied. "What are you doing here?"
"We're playing." Came a second voice. "Mother said we could."
Helena and Dinah looked up and blinked. "Are you seeing what I'm seeing?" Helena asked the blonde in black leather beside her.
"I think so." Dinah replied.
Standing on the ledge of the level above them was another girl who looked to be around the same age as the jester kid. Normally both Helena and Dinah would be more concerned with the kid falling, but they were both to busy staring because the girl was dressed just like Batgirl.
The first girl looked at the other and giggled. "Lets play tag." She then rushed towards Dinah. "We're it!"
"I like tag." The girl dressed as the mini Batgirl replied as she jumped off the ledge.
Helena watched in disbelief as the girl landed a few feet away from her. The girl had landed in what looked like a battle crouch after using a store sign and kiosk to break up her fall. Then the girl charged towards her, and Helena had to snap out of it in order to quickly get out of the girl's way. At some point during her little parkour stunt the kid had pulled batons from somewhere and was all set to slam once into Helena's gut. Helena sid stepped the kid, and then watched as the bat kid wannabe jumped into a flip that nailed Dinah in the back before landing once again on her feet.
"Hey!" The jester kid huffed. "She's mine! Play with your own!"
The Batgirl kid giggled. "Sorry."
The girl turned towards Helena again. She had long red hair flowing from under her cowl, she held two batons in each hand, and she stood in a way that really reminded Helena of the old days. The kid reminded her of Barbara. This was just getting to damn freaky. "I'm not fighting a kid."
The Batgirl kid frowned. "You don't wanna play with me?"
Dinah found herself avoiding punches and kicks that no kid this age should know. For a moment her mind flashed back to Guy and she wondered if they were dealing with the same kind of kids. "Back off little girl. I don't want to hurt you."
"Aww," The jester kid whined. "She won't play either."
"We'll just have to make them play." The Batgirl kid said in a low voice. She smirked and then charged at Helena, weapons raised.
"This is nuts." Helena said as she tried to side step the kid again, but the kid was clearly trained to fight and actually nailed her with the baton, slamming it hard into her hip. "Little brat!"
"Subdue them but don't hurt them." Barbara ordered. She was watching on the computer monitors and was just as stunned and disbelieving as her operatives. It was surreal to say the least. Especially watching the tiny version of who she use to be.
"We're not the ones throwing the punches!" Dinah replied as she blocked another flurry of attacks from the little jester.
"Oracle, these kids are trained." Helena added as she ducked down then swept out her leg to knock the kid off her feet. The girl jumped over the kick and then slammed the baton down on her shoulder, then started laughing. "Ok this one needs a spanking or something."
The Batgirl kid pouted. "Oh now that's mean. I'm telling Mother you're being mean to me."
"Who's your mother?" Helena asked as she circled the girl. "I'll tell her myself."
"Wouldn't you like to know?" The Batgirl kid replied as she moved closer to the jester kid. "These old people are so boring."
The jester girl nodded. "Lets make it more fun."
"Ok!" The Batgirl kid replied, but before either could do anything several small silver balls fell from the upper levels and once they hit the ground they began to release clouds of colored smoke. "Aww, Mother's calling us." The Batgirl pouted. "We have to go now."
"Maybe we'll get to play some more later." The jester girl replied.
Helena and Dinah couldn't see a thing as the cloudy smoke rolled around them. They coughed and waved at the smoke until it began to clear. When it did they were alone, the girls were gone.
"What the hell was that?" Helena demanded as she looked around.
"The start of something bad." Barbara told them as she leaned back in her chair. "Something very bad."