"Come in Huntress, what is your progress?" Batman had just finished his yet another battle with Two Face, who by now was lying unconscious on the ground.
"Relax dad, I am fine. I took down Poison Ivy and am now heading home" Helena Bertellini had just recently discovered that her real father was Gotham's billionaire Bruce Wayne. She was born after a one-night stand of Batman and Catwoman in her dad's firs few years of work. The girl was shocked when she learned about her true parentage but to some extent she was glad as she already considered the Batman as her mentor and surrogate father.
As she arrived in the cave, she saw that her father was already there. "You are loosing your touch Helena. Hit the showers and then come to the training room" Helena complied and went to take the shower. While taking the shower, she though of how intense Batman had been now on her training, as he did not want to loose any more partners. Helena learned that her friends Dick Grayson, Barbara Gordon Grayson and Damian Wayne were killed in a line of duty, Tim Drake Wayne and Stephanie Brown had disappeared and were now was presumed dead; and Cassandra Cain Wayne was now the head of the League of Assassins, as she wanted to control them so that they would be helpful to humanity instead of assassinations.
The deaths and split of his family hit Bruce hard, Helena understood and that made him train his last partner even more intensely as he did not want any repeats of Jason or Dick. After the girl took the shower, she dressed up in workout clothing and came to the training room.
"You are late," said Bruce. Helena looked at her father and mentor and sighed. That kind of training was too intense even for her and she wanted to take a number of breaks but Bruce was pushing her to her limits, as he did not want to loose his daughter.
"Is something on your mind?" asked the Batman. He looked at his daughter intensely, showing that he was kind of disappointed in her workout performance that time although Helena could see that his eyes betrayed him and were showing that he cared deeply about his daughter.
"Nothing Bruce, its just I was thinking about our friends Barbara, Dick and the rest"
"I understand but you need to think about them later when you go to bed. As of now you need to put more effort in your training as if your life depends on it."
"Yes father" The two started sparring once again and the Huntress did not appreciate being humiliated by her father as she was constantly defeated and dropped on her back. She was a good fighter, she knew that, and she could defeat almost any person in hand-to-hand combat but Batman was like a force of nature, which was almost impossible to defeat.
After some intense sparring Huntress was sweating. "You have done enough for today. Now leave and enjoy your evening." The young woman went to take another shower. Before retiring to her room, she checked how her little nephew was doing and saw that little James Grayson was quietly sleeping in his bed. Helen felt sad for the baby, as the two year old would never know his parents, only from pictures and memories of others. After the checking of the baby she retired to her room. As she dropped on her bed she heard a knock on her door.
"You can enter Alfred" said Helena and lay on the bed.
"Mistress Helena, do you require anything right now?"
"No thank you, I am not hungry. I will tell you if my appetite will grow" Alfred left and the woman closed her eyes. Finally she could relax after her nightly patrol as well as brutal training her father gave to her.
Next night, Helena returned to the Batcave and saw her father sitting at the Batcomputer. "Find anything"
"Yes, one woman named Selina Kyle had finished her sentence today in Blackgate and was released. My sources tell me that she was kidnapped by this man" Bruce Wayne showed the picture of a very fat man with albino skin and cruel eyes.
"No" said Huntress. She could not believe that her mortal enemy had kidnapped her biological mother. She knew that he killed her adoptive parents but now he endangered the life of her real mother too!
"Suit up" The father and daughter put the costumes on and sat in the Batmobile. Bruce pressed the gas pedal and the car accelerated as it exited the cave. The duo was looking for Mandragora's hideout, which was located on Batmobile navigational system.
As the car approached the building, it exploded and the crime-fighting duo ejected form their seats to save themselves. As they landed on the ground, they saw the Joker.
"Hello Batsy, I see that you brought another of your sidekicks. I see you are not afraid of loosing her as you lost the one in the chair. I remember how she screamed and begged me to spare her but I killed her and put a smile on her face. How funny it was to finally finish her off as the first time proved to be not enough"
"Shut up Joker" Batman jumped at his enemy and fought him with rage. Even Joker was not expecting such anger from Batman and got a bit scared. "So what will you do Bats, tear my heart away? Throw your grenade? Or maybe simple kill me with your punches?"
Batman hit the Joker a couple more times before he dropped him. "I see, you are still weak and cannot take your life. Well in this case I have to kill another of your children" With that Joker pointed his gun at Huntress and was ready to shoot her but then accidently stepped on a wire swinging from the Batmobile and dropped down. The duo of father and daughter then saw that he got impaled and died.
Batman and Huntress destroyed the door from the building and saw Mandragora standing inside. "I knew the clown would not be sucsessful, so for that instance I decided to show you this." Beside Mandragora lay Catwoman, who was tied up and bleeding.
"Say to her goodbye, Batman" Before Batman's Batarang could hit his arm, Mandragora shot Selina Kyle and the former Catwoman dropped dead on the floor.
"That was nice. I think this is not a new experience for you, right Huntress or should I say Ms. Bertellini Wayne? You already lost two parents before, you could deal with loss of one more"
Before the gangster could finish his monologue, he saw three arrows hitting his chest and blood going down his body. Now he was scared and with a frightened looked he died. The duo of crime fighters looked at the body but before they could exit the scene, the police force arrived.
"Surrender Huntress, you are under arrest for first degree murder" The woman did not care at that moment and wanted to escape but was shocked by what she heard next.
"Jim, she did not kill him, I did. Mandragora killed the woman I loved and I killed him in retaliation" James Gordon looked suspiciously at Batman but did not act on his suspicions.
"Alright, arrest the bat, the girl goes free. " The police put handcuffs on Batman and Helena Wayne saw how her father was taken into police custody. After police left, she quietly returned to her house where Alfred wondered on what happened to Batman.
"He is gone, they put him in prison" With that she dropped in Alfred's arms and started crying. Alfred tried to comfort the girl.
"I vow that I will revenge my father's fate and will be even better crime fighter! As she shouted it with tears in her eyes, a group of bats noisily flew in the sky.
Ten years later the new Batwoman Helena Wayne together with her sidekick Robin patrolled Gotham. The two swung on their ropes and looked if there was any trouble in the city. Gotham still felt safe as the Bat protected it.