The first time Batgirl encountered Supergirl, it hadn't been under the best circumstances. Batman didn't introduce her. There wasn't some big vigilante party. The elements of their first encounter left a lot to be desired; they met in a haze of destruction by a madman.
The sky was dark, and the streets dimly lit. There was a distinct tension in the air. Tension, Gotham was nothing but a conglomeration of tension—Political, economical, criminal, police brutality, and etc. Gotham was like a giant tumor. A cancerous tumor.
On this night, a black matronly figure leaped from rooftop to rooftop. The top portion of her face was covered by a cowl. With pointy ears on top, the mask curved around her face evenly. On her cheeks the mask's circular curve divulged into narrow triangles, one on each cheek, before it detoured back into the curvature of her face. The triangles were reminiscent of vampiric fangs. Tufts of auburn hair flowed from the back of the half-cowl.
The woman's eyes were adorned with large goggles, and a distinct strap could be seen sown into the masks leather fabric. The lenses of the goggles were an apricot orange in color, matching the orange of an engraved bat on her leather top. Sown into to each shoulder was an end of her cape. The top of the cape was black, and beneath the fabric was dark yellow. On her feet she wore black combat-style boots. The boots were brocaded with a stripe of yellow and orange. Resting on her hips was a dark yellow utility belt, and her hands were adorned with wrist length yellow gloves with orange trim. Plated to her knuckles was steel. This figure? Well, she was Batgirl. Not her predecessors Barbara Gordon or Stephenie Brown, but beneath the half-cowl was Alex Danvers.
Batgirl slowed to stop as she approached her desired location. Calculating the distance, Alex leaped through a ceiling window shaft of a neighboring warehouse. With a soft rattle, she landed unto the grating lining the upper level. The moon casted an eerie glow on the support beams. They glistened with a white gleam contrasting with the previous darkness of the night sky. Inside the warehouse, the air was saturated with a horrible reek. Burnt flesh. The scent was poignant and choking, it was stultifying.
The concrete floor of the warehouse was marred with scorch marks. Ash and soot were gathered in neat piles and clumps, outline by a halo circle of jagged blackened marks. On the north wall an image of a body contour was etched into the metal by blackened burns. Alex grabbed a flashlight from her utility belt and descended the layers of support beams. As she made it to floor, the flashlight revealed graffiti defacing every inch of wall space. She pulled a vial from her belt and gently brushed some ash from one of the piles into the container. Screwing on the cap, she placed it back into her belt.
The caped vigilante was investigating a new drug that had hit the streets called Flare. She suspected the examination of the soot she had collected would yield traces of human remains. Bone, teeth, and whatever else that was not completely disintegrated.
When Flare was combined with alcohol the user would suddenly combust into flames. For whatever reason, warehouses were popping up all over the city with the ashen remains. Strangely, Flare had been on the streets for a few months now, and the human remains should have stopped once the users figured out it didn't mix well with alcohol. The remains weren't stopping though, and it was an issue the Gotham CIty Police Department was ignoring, brushing under the rug.
Alex had learned early on the GCPD could not be trusted. They were owned by people high up in the crime food chain. In the past, she would anonymously tip off police with forensic and scientific information, but it was to no avail. Very few cops in the department had clean hands. The department was populated by dirty cops left and right. She later found out from Bruce even the police commissioner was in on the drug scandals, murders, and money laundering.
Alex's gut told her all the ash piles she has recorded were in fact murder victims. There was foul play involved. It had to be. No one in their right mind would light themselves on fire, especially when the effect of the high diminished when alcohol was mixed with the drug. Tomorrow, she planned on tracking down another dealer to see if they could lead her to the bigger fish. The past few she has "interrogated" were simpletons who only led to a maze of more small fish.
The night, however, proved to be more than ordinary for her investigation. Back at the Batcave, she reviewed her logs regarding her investigation. She previously had obtained the names of numerous suppliers, or low-level dealers, via her past "interrogations." The next name on her list was Red Juice, the dealers street name, along with a full name, Ricky Redell. She would have to start her search for Ricky tomorrow, hit up some contacts and stake out the popular dealing spots in Gotham—
—-"Where is it?" a voice precipitously, and angrily, bellowed. The question echoed off the walls of the Batcave. The voice was not Bruce.
Noting the unfamiliarity of the voice, Alex prowled to the foyer and up a set of stairs to the second floor. On the second floor, the cave darkness provided asylum for many hiding spots. She climbed a metal beam and looked down at her targets on the first floor. To her surprise, her target was none other than Superman.
The Man of Steel had stormed into the Batcave and was aggressively making his way up to Batman. The Kryptonian's red cape swished at his heels, and his feet thudded angrily with his gait. His expression was one of visible anger—his dark brows furrowed over his eyes. His hands balled into fists. Fists shaking with ire.
Using the skills that Batman had taught her, Alex shrouded herself in the shadows of the upper floor. With self-assurance, Alex knew Bruce was unaware she was watching the confrontation with their alien "guest." Bruce even admitted, on occasion, stealth was a skill she had surpassed him in. Alex edged closer to the scene, dashing behind another steel beam to try and obtain more insight into the situation. With her back pressed to the vertical shaft, legs squatted on the horizontal beam, she focused her sense of hearing on the two men. If she couldn't see them, then they couldn't see her.
"Where is the Kryptonite?" Superman angrily yelled.
Batgirl, taking her opportunity, quietly traversed the horizontal steel beam, and pounced down toward a wall on the first floor. She landed nimbly, the material of her combat boots soaking up most of the sound-induced by the impact. She slid gracefully behind a wall. Her ears still attuned to the two men.
"Someplace you'll never be able to go," she heard Batman answer. Alex knew a smirk was playing at Bruce's lips and he was trying not to resist it. She didn't need her sight to know that, the hubris lining his reply was more than enough evidence.
"Do you understand, that green rock is a piece of my home world," Superman snarled. There was shuffling of feet as Superman edged closer toward Batman, the alien hero having stopped right in front of Bruce when Alex was securing a better listening position.
Batgirl slipped her half-cowl back over her face, and pulled her orange goggles over her eyes, painting her vision a dark orange. She tapped a pattern on her wrist, activating the heat sensor function of her suit. She turned facing the wall she had sought cover behind. Seeing through the wall, the two men were painted in yellows, reds, and oranges. Though, Superman was brighter compared to her mentor.
"Your point being?" Batman replied unaffected by Superman's approach and posturing.
"It could kill me…" Superman growled, his thumb gesturing toward his chest, and his eyes glowing hot momentarily with his anger. "It could kill Kara…"
"As if you care about Supergirl," Bruce offhandedly shot off, "drop the boy-scout act. You're here for yourself."
Alex watched as Superman froze intimidated by Batman's jab at him. She swore she could see the Man of Steel grit his teeth in frustration. Whatever his expression may have been though, Alex, through her special goggles, saw Superman's fists shaking.
"The Joker is after Kryptonite. I confiscated what I could." Batman Commanded. He reached down to his utility belt and opened up a pouch lined with lead. He pulled out a plastic bag containing a sample of Element G, the sample Alex had run tests on a week and a half ago.
The moment Element G hit the air, Superman's arms stretched out in an attempt to protect himself from the radiation. He backed away from Elem—the Kryptonite—slowly, shuffling backward in a sort of panic.
"It doesn't take much of it to bring you down," Batman stated appraising Superman's reactions.
"Ughhh," Alex heard Superman's voice sound out, echoing along the walls of the cave.
"I thought you should know that the Joker has his sights set on you. As for my stock of Kryptonite, you won't be able to come anywhere near it without dying from radiation. I keep it as a safety switch for if you ever lose it." Batman said and put the rock back into his belt.
"I knew you were crazy, but this is a new level."
Earth's finest heroes traded insults and jabs; then there was a bout of silence. The alien regarded the billionaire with intensity before he turned on his heels and walked out. His steps blared against the floor, and his knuckles blanched white on his fists.
"How much did you hear," Bruce asked, turning around in his chair, as Alex walked into the Batcave toward the city monitors.
Alex's brows creased in confusion, lips pressing together in puzzlement.
"You didn't think I would give you that suit without a tracker built-in, did you?" He replied rhetorically.
"I heard enough," Alex answered back nervously rubbing her fingers together apprehensively, hands by her side, as Batman stared at her. His white lensed eyes narrowed as they stared at her, reading her. "Wouldn't it have been more to our advantage to have Superman as an ally on this case?"
"It's not that I don't trust him, he wouldn't be allowed in the Batcave if I didn't… These rocks come in many forms of various radiation. An informant told me some can alter Kryptonians mentally, affect their mind and judgment." Batman rattled off knowing the questions Alex was internally asking herself. He turned back around toward the monitors scanning the city for crime. "I had you examine a sample to see if it was one of that sort and your findings were different than what I was expecting."
"My findings wouldn't have shown any of those properties…," Alex paused as it dawned on her, "You lured him here on purpose to see if the stash the Joker has been collecting would mentally alter Superman!" Alex stated filling in the blanks. Her head tilted slightly as she saw the whole picture from her mentor's eyes. She turned her gaze to the monitors, a red blip on the screen catching her eyes.
"Yes, but right now we need to head to downtown. I located a radiation signature similar to Kryptonite." Batman commanded turning to look at her, "I need you to inform Superman and Supergirl. They are both still in town right now. The green dot here," Batman pointed to the screen, "is Superman."
"I'm more than your mailman," replied Alex irritably, turning around to stalk out the Batcave. She was sick of being given menial tasks. She could hold her own and almost bring Batman to his knees. She was skilled in combat, and yet he wanted to use her a messenger. Heck, this was why she was pursuing her own investigations.
"Alexandra," Bruce called out as she walked away, "I'm sending you because I overstepped a line with Superman. If I inform him, I doubt I would be received well. You, on the other hand, might be received on better terms."
"Alright," turning around to face him, Alex grumbled and crossed her arms defiantly. "You really need to work on your social skills. You make enemies everywhere you go."
Kara zoomed through the sky, trying to stave off the boredom of waiting for Kal-El to get done meeting Batman. She hovered in the night, high above the clouds. The sight of clouds beneath her gave her a unique thrill. To look at the summit of the clouds from an aerial perspective, it was something she would never take for granted. The remarkable view was even more so in daylight. She loved to watch the clouds far below cast shadows down on the land as they blocked the sunlight for a moment. To gaze at such an ordinary event but from an aerial view was heart-stirring. Her heart always swelled with awe.
Tonight, the sky was drafty with a breeze. Kara's cape swirled around her violently as the wind picked up an updraft. The noise of the city rang in her ears like a buzzing insect. She listened hard for theone person that mattered to her in this whole world, her cousin. She hoped, when he got returned, he would be less annoyed about her tagging along. Though, she had a feeling she was hoping in vain.
Abruptly, a unique sound caught Kara's ear, it was sound of a scuffle, and yet it was different. She wasn't sure exactly what made her key in on the sound. She heard two heartbeats; then she heard another join the sound of the altercation. A sound of a small explosion suffocated her ears, and before Kara knew it, she diving toward the sound.
Kara leaped into action, almost unaware of what she was doing. She flew through a burning window of a brick and mortar apartment building, shooting straight for a firefighter and a little boy. Kara tackled them to the ground and laid over them as if she was a protective shell of a turtle. Her hands splayed out her cape for more breadth around the two figures—deflecting the incoming explosion racking the building.
From the explosion, loud sounds roared around her. The feel of heat leaped at her skin. Her eyes glazed over as a swirl of flames danced around her. Swirls of red, yellow, and orange danced in her vision. Nothing else. Swirls of the fiery mixture engulfed her.
Red.
Yellow.
Orange.
Tongues licking at her skin.
Heat pressing on her back.
No pain. No pain.
No searing. No burning.
Swirling. Curling.
Expanding.
"Supergirl, Supergirl," cried a voice. The blonde heroine blinked being roused by a voice so close her ears. "We need to go. The building isn't stable," said the firefighter.
Releasing them from her protective custody, and turning towards the dancing tongues of fire, Supergirl inhaled and focused her attention at the base of her throat. Pursing her lips, Kara pushed out cold air from her lungs, freezing the dancing colors of red and orange, freezing every inch of the meager apartment.
"I'm going to fly us out through the window," Kara said wrapping her arms around the fireman and the little boy. "Hold on tight," Kara chimed.
Briefly, Supergirl noted the young boy's face was smudged with ash. His eyes were red and puffy from the smoke, but the moment they passed the threshold into the night sky, and fresh air, the boy's face was glowing with awe and wonder.
When her passengers' feet were safely on the ground, Kara sped back into the building, wedging herself between the collapsing second floor and first floor. The bundle of concrete, brick, and mortar of the old apartment complex was a heavy load. Though, her super strength was nothing in comparison to the weight. She held the building up as she heard firefighters, on the floors above, racing to find more people located in the burning building.
The complex quivered in her hands. Using her heat vision, she melted the support beams around her back in place. Nonetheless, it was useless; they were too crumpled and bent from the previous explosive force exercised upon them. In their condition, even with being melted back into the structure, they were barely providing support to the building. And, Supergirl could not straighten the beams without letting go of the building. And, letting go meant immediate collapse.
The complex continued to vibrate under her palms. Every movement felt like a quake was running through the building, and Kara could feel each quiver run through her skin and down into her bones. The structure was too unstable.
"Evacuate now," Kara screamed. She desperately hoped the fire chief and firefighters on the scene could hear her. "Evacuate the building."
Not even a minute later, her ears rang and then went silent. Deafening silence. Nothing. An all-encompassing ring, but nothing else—a disorienting experience. ...There had been another explosion.
In horror looking up, cracks rapidly dispersed along the ceiling. The cement crumbled and cracked around Supergirl's hands, breaking into pieces. She could easily hold up a building, but not a building shattering into pieces. She could only do so much with only two hands. The structure began to collapse around her, pieces breaking and colliding with her impervious frame.
The first sound Kara ascertained, after the silence and ringing, was the thud of the last building chunk falling to the ground. The collapse extinguished the fire, the debris depriving it of oxygen. Amongst the debris of the cave in, in an air pocket, stood Kara, her arms raised as if she was still holding up the structure, only she was holding a sole concrete slab. Construction dust collected in her hair, her suit was covered in a grey sheen, and her face was smeared with grey smudges. In the air pocket, created by her frame, there was stifling stench. Rancid and suffocating.
To her right, the charred corpse of a firefighter stared up at her. The flesh was black like that of charred marshmallow. In certain areas, the skin had turned into paper-like flakes. The coloration, in certain spots, varied from red, pink, brown, and black. The eyeshield of the fireman's helmet was reclined back, revealing his face to be to a gruesome, and bloody, meatball. The upper and lower eyelids were seared off, and staring up at her, like giant moist orbs, were his eyes resting in the eye sockets. Fixed up at her, his amber eyes were permanently painted with fright. Bile surged up Kara's throat, and she launched up, through the debris, out of the tiny space, and into the night sky.
She rose high above the scene of where the fire once was, trying to escape the image of she had seen. Heaving fresh air into her lungs, she attempted to push the picture of the corpse into the far recesses of her mind. Kara pivoted—
"Stop," an unnatural, and gravelly, voice caught Supergirl's ears, her eyes automatically tracking down the origin of the sound. Buildings away from the scene of the fire, a man was racing, and leaping, from one rooftop to another, followed by a figure in black. The dark figure's orange symbol stood out brazenly in the night, an orange bat. The bat was unmistakable for Kara's optic abilities.
An ally.
The running man was dressed in red. The clothes he wore were raggedy as if he was trying the blend in with the ragamuffins. It was a ruse though, revealed by his face being clean shaven and his eyebrows well trimmed. He was out of place.
Kara tore through the air at breakneck speed, coming to a halt to float in the path of the suspicious man.
"Jump, and I'll catch you like a dodgeball," Kara said menacingly. Her eyes burrowed into the man.
The man turned attempting to run back the way he came.
Batgirl landed on the rooftop, cornering the man in red, blocking the way. He was like a trapped mouse. He was too slow compared to Supergirl to even attempt an escape on the adjacent ledges. He knew it too.
"Supergirl, thanks for the assist, " Batgirl said. Her voice sounded mechanical and unnaturally pitched, a feature Bruce had installed into the neck of her cowl. Edging closer to the man, Batgirl counted her luck. It figures, finding trouble would lead her right to the Supers.
Alex pulls out a Zip-tie to apprehend the man in red, "I'd say it's not much of a coincidence you fled the scene once that last explosion went off."
The man chuckled in reply. It was full laugh almost as if he had heard the most hilarious joke. His face was hidden from the lamp light, covered in the darkness. Alex needed a better look at his face to figure out who she was taking in.
Abruptly, pops sounded in the distance. Batgirl turned her head sharply following the sound. Buildings on the far side of the city shot up in flames. Tongues of fire licked the sky, reaching eagerly toward the clouds. Smoke billowed out blanketing the air.
He wasn't working alone… he wasn't a lone firebug.
Attempting to use the distraction to his advantage, the man threw his weight into Batgirl knocking her to the floor of the roof. He took off in the direction he came, only for Supergirl to swoop in and grab the back of his jacket, hoisting him up in the air. His feet dangled helplessly as she floated aloft with her new human cargo. His arms swinging wildly as he stared at alleyway ground below.
"Have mercy! Don't let me go! Don't let me go," he cried panicked. His heart hammering in his chest, his frightened green eyes meeting Supergirl's.
Underneath her mask, Alex wore an incredulous expression. Still sat where she had fallen, she gazed up at the soot-covered alien, the image of the flying girl beginning to sink in. It was unnerving how unnatural the sight appeared. Something that looked so Human shouldn't be floating, not bound by the laws of gravity. Alex felt like she had been transported into a Salvador Dali painting where the scientific laws didn't make sense. She knew Supergirl was Kryptonian, however, the information didn't detract from the surrealness of the sight before her.
This was the first encounter. Though, It was short-lived as Superman and Batman soon arrived on the scene, but that's how Batgirl first met Supergirl, and it wouldn't be the last they met either. Being heroes of separate cities didn't seem to matter as they would cross paths again numerous times.
With a sigh of dissatisfaction, Alex logged her findings. The man in red they had captured was named Thomas-Floyd Willis. He was a childhood friend of Firefly, and had concocted the formula for Flare. He confessed, with some "inspiration," that the warehouses were where he and his boss tested out the formula. Adjusting the formula with every new test subject, or drug user, who would combust without their activation.
The goal had been to create a living, and controllable, bombs, be them Human or animal. The intention of the project was destroying numerous buildings around Gotham. The destruction was so someone higher up the crime food chain could buy up the land and use it to their advantage. Namely, and the most likely scenario, gain more control over the crime hub in Gotham. Whoever hired Thomas-Floyd was still out there. Not just the person where the money leads, but his Willis' boss for the project as well.
It's not the result Alex wanted from her investigation, and it felt overtly like a failure. Internally, she chastised herself on her need for improvement at obtaining evidence. If she had been more apt she could have gotten ahead of the plan. Instead, she was caught by surprise. No clue whatsoever of the bigger plot at hand with the drug distribution. It was only by coincidence that she had apprehended Thomas. Till he confessed, she only had a gut feeling Flare was connected to the burning buildings.
In the end, Superman put out the fires of other establishments, while Supergirl and Batgirl detained Thomas-Floyd. Thanks to Superman's efforts there were no casualties, except for the initial person or animal who had been the bomb. Batgirl was unsure of the male alien. She was uncertain of his character despite him being a hero. For whatever reason, he gave her a bad feeling. (Not to mention, with Batgirl as an audience, Superman scolded by Supergirl for the lack of thought in using her freeze breath to create support beams for the building she had tried to prevent from collapsing.)
What about the Kryptonite you ask? Well, that story still needs to play out. Whatever activated the kryptonite signature on the monitor wasn't there when Batman went to investigate. It begs the question if the bombs had been a distraction.
In any case, Superman and Supergirl returned home to Metropolis and National City. They have their eye out for anything that might lead to Joker activity. Batman, and Batgirl, have their eyes out around Gotham. Though, the joker had been unusually quiet.
And, if Alex was honest, a part of her was glad she had yet to meet the Joker… though, on the other hand, she had great anticipation to put him back in Arkham Asylum finally.